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Nikki Giovanni

I Just Had To Mention...

World-renowned poet Nikki Giovanni inspires during visit to Drury

"Tell the ones who you love that you love them...Live every day like you're about to meet your maker."

Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni held her Drury audience rapt during a talk on Thursday, Nov. 7 in Clara Thompson Hall. While protesting that she "came to read poetry," Giovanni veered into sharply funny asides about everything from civil rights to personal relationships to abortion and capital punishment, punctuated by what quickly became a signature phrase, "I just had to mention that." Her audience responded with enthusiastic laugher, shouts and applause.

Giovanni's visit to Drury is part of the "Gender and Sexuality" Convocation series.

One of the world’s great poets, an advocate for the power of each person regardless of race or gender.

Choices
if i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do
it's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do
if i can't have
what i want . . . then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want
since i can't go
where i need
to go . . . then i must . . . go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral
when i can't express
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
i know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry

It has been more than thirty years since Nikki Giovanni roared out of the Black Arts Movement to become one of the most widely read of our living poets. Since 1968, she has inspired readers and critics and has established herself as a best-selling poet, author and essayist. In her lectures, she speaks with great humor on her life and on the creativity in everything we do. Her focus is on the individual - specifically, on the power one has to make a difference in oneself, and thus, in the lives of others. "Do something with your life!" Nikki once told an M.I.T. audience.

Several of her books have sold more than a hundred thousand copies. These books of poetry and essays include The Women and the Men, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, Those Who Ride the Night Winds and Sacred Cows and Other Edibles. One of her recent books, Racism 101, includes bold, controversial essays about the situation of Americans on all sides of the racism issue. The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection on audio cassette will be published in December 2002.

Nikki Giovanni has received a host of honorary doctorates and awards, including being named "Woman of the Year" by three different magazines. Beginning in 1987, under the Commonwealth Visiting Professor Program, she has been teaching writing, poetry and literature at Virginia Tech. She expresses her opinions about the African-American community and the value of education, and the essentiality of writing.

Image and bio information courtesy of Program Corporation of America.

Back to Gender & Sexuality top page

Related Links:
Other poems by Nikki Giovanni

An interview with Nikki Giovanni

English department at Virginia Tech

The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection at Amazon.com

Spin a Soft Black Song at Amazon.com

Racism 101 at Amazon.com