Remembering Nikki Giovanni, poet and icon of the Black Arts Movement

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day: Remembering Nikki Giovanni, Poet and Icon of the Black Arts Movement

Host: NPR
Episode Release Date: December 11, 2024
Guest: Nikki Giovanni, Award-Winning Poet and Author

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Introduction

In this poignant episode of NPR's Book of the Day, host Michelle Martin pays tribute to the late Nikki Giovanni, a towering figure in American poetry and a defining voice of the Black Arts Movement. Known for her prolific output and deeply personal work, Giovanni's legacy is explored through discussions of her latest book, her creative process, and her reflections on life and loss.

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Nikki Giovanni's New Release: Chasing Utopia

Giovanni introduces her newest work, Chasing Utopia, a blend of essays and poetry that delves into themes of hope, resilience, and the quest for an ideal society. She shares insights into the inspiration behind the book, revealing it as a vessel for processing personal grief and societal challenges.

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Personal Loss and the Healing Power of Writing

Giovanni candidly discusses the profound losses she endured, including the deaths of her mother in 2005, her sister Gary Ann in August, her Aunt Ann in October, and notable figures like Rosa Parks and Mrs. King. These losses spurred her to channel grief into her writing, culminating in her book Acolytes. She reflects on how writing became a necessary outlet for navigating through sorrow:

“Acolytes helped me get through a really bad period” ([02:37]).

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Truth-Telling in Poetry and Personal Narrative

Exploring her reputation as a "truth teller," Giovanni emphasizes the importance of authenticity in her work. She distinguishes between personal and shared stories, asserting that poetry allows her to confront and articulate her experiences without shame:

“I think I am a truth teller... it's not my shame” ([06:25]).

Giovanni shares her approach to sensitive topics, particularly addressing familial issues such as her father's alcoholism and the resulting domestic violence. She underscores the universal nature of such experiences, fostering a sense of shared understanding and healing.

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Poetic Expression and Creativity

The conversation delves into Giovanni's views on poetry as a medium for truth and emotional expression. She reads excerpts from her poems, including "Werewolf Avoidance," highlighting her belief that poetry should evoke strong emotions and convey clear messages:

“I think our job is to tell the truth as we see it... they never get caught by werewolves” ([07:39]).

Her poetic style is characterized by accessibility and vivid descriptions, making profound themes relatable to a broad audience.

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Reflections on Age, Life, and Resilience

Giovanni shares her optimistic outlook on aging, appreciating the wisdom and strength that come with it. She reminisces about her upbringing in the Baptist church, emphasizing resilience and the grace to overcome life's challenges:

“I'm just really lucky to be a part of that generation and to have come through... it is well with my soul” ([09:12]).

Her positive perspective underscores a fundamental belief in life's goodness and the importance of creating and cherishing meaningful experiences.

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Community Healing and the Virginia Tech Tragedy

Addressing the trauma experienced by the Virginia Tech community, where she taught, Giovanni speaks passionately about the pervasive issue of gun violence. She advocates for creativity and understanding as antidotes to killing, promoting a vision of a more compassionate and imaginative society:

“Killing is a lack of imagination... Life is an interesting and a good idea” ([11:04]).

Her commitment to healing extends beyond personal loss, encompassing a broader societal healing through empathy and artistic expression.

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Motivation and Continued Creativity

Despite the hardships and losses, Giovanni remains driven by her love for life and the joys of creativity. She humorously reflects on aging and maintaining a vibrant personal life, which fuels her ongoing productivity and literary contributions:

“Life is such a good idea... what’s the downside of 70? I'm not seeing it” ([12:03]).

Her enduring passion for writing and connection with others ensures that her voice continues to inspire and resonate.

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Conclusion

Nikki Giovanni's enduring legacy as a poet and educator is a testament to her unwavering dedication to truth, creativity, and community. Through Chasing Utopia and her heartfelt interviews, Giovanni leaves behind a rich tapestry of work that continues to inspire future generations. Her reflections on loss, resilience, and the power of poetry offer profound insights into navigating the complexities of the human experience.

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Notable Quotes:

• Nikki Giovanni on Poetry and Truth-Telling:
  “I think our job is to tell the truth as we see it... they never get caught by werewolves” ([07:39]).

• Giovanni on Resilience:
  “I think I am a truth teller... it's not my shame” ([06:25]).

• On Aging and Life:
  “Life is such a good idea... what’s the downside of 70? I'm not seeing it” ([12:03]).

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Nikki Giovanni's contributions to literature and her role as a voice of resilience and truth remain unparalleled. This episode serves as a fitting homage to her life's work and the indelible mark she leaves on the world of poetry and beyond.

Transcript

[Andrew Limbong]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. We lost a big one this week, the poet Nikki Giovanni. She was a defining voice of the Black arts movement and easily one of the most prolific. Her first poetry collection came out in 1968, and she pretty much never stopped writing. She published more than two dozen poetry collections, with one on the way next year. The since she died, I've been thinking a lot about this interview she did with NPR in 2013. In it, she talks a lot about writing as a way of getting through grief, which she had her fair share of. See. She also taught at Virginia Tech. And if you're doing the math, this interview would have taken place just a handful of years after a student shot and killed 32 people on campus there. NPR's Michelle Martin asks her how she's been doing since then. And Giovanni says this really powerful thing about killing being the antithesis of imagination. That's ahead.

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[Michelle Martin]

We have a treat for your ears, especially if you are a poetry lover. Award winning writer Nikki Giovanni is one of the best known and most celebrated poets of our time. Known for her accessible yet beautifully descriptive writing about home, family, friends, politics and even food. Giovanni currently serves as University Distinguished professor of English at Virginia Tech. She's the author of 28 books. Her latest, chasing Utopia, is a combination of essays and poetry. It is out today and she's with us now to tell us more. Thank you so much for joining us.

[Nikki Giovanni]

I'm delighted to be here.

[Michelle Martin]

The title of this new book, chasing Utopia, it sounds existential, but I'm trying to figure out how to talk about what it really is?

[Nikki Giovanni]

Well, it really is that my mom died now in 2005. And so it's been a while. But, you know, losing your mother, even though it's the right order of things, it's sad. I was a mother's child, and I stayed very, very sad. And I finally said, you know, Nick, you have to get out of this. And Mommy. Every day we knew that mommy was dying. When she said, no, she didn't want a beer, because every day of her life, she drank a beer. And so I said to myself, well, I'm missing Mommy. Why don't I have a beer? But I really. I hate to say it, Michelle, I just don't like beer. And so it was like, okay, if you're going to drink a beer, then you ought to drink the number one beer in the. So I went and looked it up. Well, it turns out it's Utopia, which is actually a beer by Sam Adams. So I called my local store, Keith. He said, nikki, we never get Utopia. You know, we're a small market. They never sell us any Utopia. Well, I started to do what I do when things don't go well. I just started to complain. You know, everybody said, why can't I find a Utopia? And I happened to be on an npr, actually, and the guy who makes Utopia heard it, and he actually sent it to me. But in the meantime, I had been to a government agency. I've been every. And everybody was like, oh, you'll find Utopia. And I'm like, no, it's a beard, for Christ's sake. So it's been really fun learning about beards. And it makes me smile because I think of my mother and I know that she's sitting in heaven, you know, kicking back. She's a Bud Light person. She's a Bud Light.

[Michelle Martin]

Not even a Utopia.

[Nikki Giovanni]

What?

[Michelle Martin]

No, she's making her teach in heaven. Would your mom have enjoyed Utopia, or would that be too rich for her blood?

[Nikki Giovanni]

Oh, no, Mommy. Mommy would have enjoyed it. Mommy enjoyed anything. But, you know, I could take my mother a glass of water and she would. And that's what I loved about it. She was like, oh, I've never had water this good. What did you do to the water? You know, my mother always made me feel incredibly competent, and I don't think anybody else has taken that place in my life, actually.

[Michelle Martin]

So is that what got you started, or is it only after you started writing it that you realized that is what it was about is kind of your sadness about losing your mom and working your way through it.

[Nikki Giovanni]

Well, I mourned my mother in a book called Acolytes, because Mommy died in June. My sister Gary Ann died in August, and my Aunt Ann died in October, and my good friend Rosa Parks died. And I didn't know her that well, but Mrs. King died. So I lost a lot of support all at once. I realized I had written the book, and I sent it to my editor, Don Davis, and the note was either taken or not. I don't want to discuss it. And I didn't. And we did. Acolytes. So Acolytes helped me get through a really bad period. But Mommy was a storyteller. And so, yeah, Mommy would have enjoyed this book. And one of the things about this book, and I realized I'm also working towards some of the darker side of my growing up, because when Mommy was here, there were things that I didn't think I had any right to talk about because they were her story, not mine. But now that she is not here, I think that some of my story can come out in a different way.

[Michelle Martin]

You have an interesting thing about that whole question of telling people's stories right at the beginning, when you talk about the whole question of asking people personal questions. Can I ask you about that? Because you're known as a truth teller. I mean, you're known as a person who'll say, you know, whatever, if you feel it needs to be said. So talk to me about that kind of reticence around telling stories.

[Nikki Giovanni]

Well, with friends, mostly, I think that if they want me to know something, they'll tell me. And so I'm not the. I'm not the friend that will ask, and I still not. And if I want you to know something, I tell it. I think I am a truth teller. But then the truth is, it's out there in another kind of way. If I knew that you picked your nose, I wouldn't say, you know, I know you pick your nose, Michelle, you know, because that's really none of my business. You see what I'm saying? But my father had a bad habit of. Well, he was an alcoholic. And so that meant that there would be times that he would actually hit my mother. And that was just something that I wouldn't have said while Mommy was alive, because that's not my story. That's Mommy's story. But I watched it. And having watched it, it now has become something that I can deal with because I know I'm not the only little girl in the world that ever saw her father hit her mother. And so I'm beginning to go into a part of, I guess, my life, Michelle, that I can share with other people because it's not my shame.

[Michelle Martin]

Can you pick a poem to read that speaks to some of what we're talking about here? I think I could.

[Nikki Giovanni]

Well, one of the poems that somebody mentioned, and I'm going to read it right now. If you know mine, it's called Werewolf avoidance, which is sort of different, but I love that poem.

[Michelle Martin]

Okay. Yeah, let's do it.

[Nikki Giovanni]

I've never blocked before, so this is new territory for me. I do poet, though, and that is always somewhere in the netherland. I think poetry is employed by truth. I think our job is to tell the truth as we see it. Don't you just hate a namby pamby poem that goes all over the place saying nothing? Poets should be strong in our emotions and our words. That might make us difficult to live with, but I do believe easier to love poet is garlic. Not for everyone. But those who take it never get caught by werewolves.

[Michelle Martin]

That is great. Thank you.

[Nikki Giovanni]

Thank you. The whole family is foodies, by the way.

[Michelle Martin]

Oh, I know. I love the one about biscuits dropped or baked.

[Nikki Giovanni]

Oh, my goodness.

[Michelle Martin]

Do you like that one?

[Nikki Giovanni]

I do. And again, my grandmother and my mother, we all had sort of specialties. And one of the things that I've learned to dislike, not seriously, but just kind of dislike, is holidays. Because now there's nobody but me and it's just no fun, you know, you don't want to make a turkey by yourself. You know what I'm saying? And so I've just gotten in the habit of going someplace, you know, where somebody else will do and I'll eat crab. And what I need is more friends. I think poets spend too much time alone. But then if we didn't do that, we wouldn't write. We'd end up laughing with our friends all the time.

[Michelle Martin]

Well, about that. There was another poem that I wondered about poets. It's a little. Not sad, but it's a little intense. I don't know how you feel about that.

[Nikki Giovanni]

Oh, sure. Poets shouldn't commit suicide. That would leave the world to those without imaginations or hearts. That would bequeath to the world a mangled syntax and no love of champagne. Poets must live in misery and ecstasy to sing a song with the katydids. Poets should be ashamed to die before they kiss the sun.

[Michelle Martin]

You know, I love it because it's hopeful, it's turned toward the sun. But it does make you sad because it does make you wonder Whether you've entered a phase of life, there have been so many losses and sadnesses. Are you starting to feel like the world has gotten smaller?

[Nikki Giovanni]

Well, the world gets smaller. But, you know, one of the advantages of people my age, I really love my age. I so recommend old age. It's such a wonderful thing. And I grew up in the Baptist church, and so you didn't ask the Lord to solve a problem. You ask the Lord to give you the strength to handle it, to find some comfort in it. You never said, you know, lord, pay my rent or give me my car payment or something. You said, lord, let me understand. Walking is good. And so when you deal with the old people, you know, if you deal with people my age and people my grandparents age, all we asked for was the grace to come through it. And I think that I'm just really lucky to be a part of that generation and to have come through the generation that says, we can handle it. It is well with my soul. No matter what else it is, it is well with my soul. And that's what that's about. Life is good. You can take it away.

[Michelle Martin]

It's life. Good. I know you've also been through some. It's not so much a personal trauma, but your university has been through a trauma. It's been how many years now since that terrible shooting? And I know that you love Virginia Tech, and I know that you cared very deeply about how much people were hurting and wanted to help them heal. Do you feel that you're healing and do you feel that the community is healing from.

[Nikki Giovanni]

I think Tech is, because, you know, we are a university, so we turn over and turn over and turn over. I think that we'll always remember this, but, you know, I hate to say it, but you pick up the paper every day and there's some level of tragedy, of gun violence. I don't know what it takes to make people understand. Guns are not a good idea. This is not the frontier anymore. We're not, you know, riding on our ponies across the Wild west, you know, shooting coyotes or something crazy. This is a modern world, and we have to get along with each other. We have to stop this killing. It's just. It's just not a good idea. Killing isn't a creation. Killing is a lack of creation. It's a lack of imagination. It's a lack of understanding who you are and your place in the world. Life is an interesting and a good idea. Making love is a good idea. Good food is a good idea. Good wine is a good idea. And so these are the things we participate in and these are the things that we create. But you know, your regular killing and stuff, that's ridiculous.

[Michelle Martin]

What is keeping you productive and motivated at this stage of your career?

[Nikki Giovanni]

First of all, you know, life is such a good idea. I really just don't understand why people don't enjoy it. I mean, here it is getting ready to be fall and we are in the mountains here. You know, it's changing and you get to watch the burdens. What's the downside of that? And then at my age, everybody is married, so I can fall in love with anybody I want to because who's single? Nobody. So you fall in love with a lovely married man. If it's good enough for Scandal, it's good enough for me. I love it. And you know, then you get to write these love poems and that's a lot of fun. And of course, you don't have any idea what you actually look like. So you really think you look like you're about 30 and you know, you go and get your wardrobe together and life is just fun. What is the downside of 70? I'm not seeing it.

[Michelle Martin]

Nikki Giovanni is an award winning poet, professor and author. Her latest collection, Chasing Utopia is out today and she was kind enough to join us from Roanoke, Virginia. Nikki Giovanni, thank you so much for speaking with us.

[Nikki Giovanni]

Oh, thanks, Michelle.

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