Giovanni
Evokes Railmen, Tupac and the Taste of Seduction
by Liz White
Nikki
Giovanni spoke before a packed Finney Chapel last Thursday, Feb.
21. Her talk was advertised as A Night With Nikki Giovanni
and in a medley of personal anecdotes, historical story-telling
and poetry, the highly charged poet, professor, and political activist
opened herself to the crowd. Its so much fun to be alive,
Giovanni crooned before a fascinated audience.
Nikki Giovanni is an incredible and dynamic speaker who says
things other people are afraid to say. Shes a bad-ass, really,
senior Sara Lucas said.
Ride me, poem, I think Ive got the blues, spilled
the final line of one of the many poems that were intertwined in
Giovannis talk. As she described her own journeys of historical
discovery, from visiting the bridge in Selma, Ala. to following
Emmit Tills train ride down to Money, Miss., Giovanni showed
how inextricable the past is from the present. Giovanni paid tribute
to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., and called special attention
to the Pullman Porters, black men who worked on Pullman railroad
cars, passing money and newspapers from north to south and looking
after the black passengers as best they could.
Nikki Giovanni is one of the foremost flagbearers of our consciousness
and our conscience on racial issues. She is an astonishing reader
so energetic, so expressive. Not only a poet but a riveting
storyteller, as anyone who was in Finney that night knows. Her stories
blended into her poems, gave them a setting; sometimes it was hard
to tell where one stopped and the other started, because her presence
shines through them both, Creative Writing Professor Pamela
Alexander said.
[Nikki Giovanni] was a rockin story teller. Another
bonus was that she was the first speaker Ive heard in Finney
who encouraged us all to have sex, sophomore Page Neal said.
During the question and answer portion of the talk, a student asked
Giovanni if she had any advice for aspiring writers. Always
do something that scares you
the truth will lead you to strange
places, Giovanni offered, expounding on a prominent theme
in her talk, the importance of keeping true to oneself. When
you find yourself alone, you have to know why youre [here],
Giovanni soberly told the audience.
The enormity of the material encompassed by Giovannis talk
awed the crowd but did not silence it. The interactive performance,
in which the crowd laughed in agreement, was markedly different
from traditionally one-sided poetry readings. Did you hear
the audience in Finney calling out some of her lines as she read
them? You cant get a better audience than that and
she did such a good job of reaching out, of being there heart and
soul, so everyone there knew she was talking to them, Alexander
said.
Giovanni has written nearly 20 books of poetry and essays. Her newest
book, Blues: For All the Changes, recently made the Los Angeles
Times Bestseller List. No poet had ever made this list before. She
has been teaching literature and creative writing since 1989 at
Virginia Tech. The poems Giovanni read last Thursday were from an
upcoming book, a compilation of tributes to Martin Luther King,
Jr. by various artists. Giovanni ended her talk in barely visible
tears over the death of artist Tupac Shakur, for whom she tattoed
Thug Life on her arm.
The Hewlett Committee was able to bring Nikki Giovanni to Oberlin
through the William and Flora Hewlett Foundations Common Ground
Grant. The grant is designed to bring students from different ethnic,
racial, religious, gender and sexual orientation groups together.
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