Nikki-Rosa

10/11/23 Generative Workshop Invocation Poet, Nikki Giovanni

Nikki-Rosa

By Nikki Giovanni

childhood remembrances are always a drag

if you’re Black

you always remember things like living in Woodlawn

with no inside toilet

and if you become famous or something

they never talk about how happy you were to have

your mother

all to yourself and

how good the water felt when you got your bath

from one of those

big tubs that folk in chicago barbecue in

and somehow when you talk about home

it never gets across how much you

understood their feelings

as the whole family attended meetings about Hollydale

and even though you remember

your biographers never understand

your father’s pain as he sells his stock

and another dream goes

And though you’re poor it isn’t poverty that

concerns you

and though they fought a lot

it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference

but only that everybody is together and you

and your sister have happy birthdays and very good

Christmases

and I really hope no white person ever has cause

to write about me

because they never understand

Black love is Black wealth and they’ll

probably talk about my hard childhood

and never understand that

all the while I was quite happy

Nikki Giovanni

“I always loved English because whatever human beings are, we are storytellers. It is our stories that give a light to the future.

When I went to college I became a history major because history is such a wonderful story of who we think we are. English is much more a story of who we really are.”

Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with a degree in history from Fisk University. A world-renowned poet and one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement.

Giovanni’s work explores race, gender, sexuality, and the African American family. Her poetry was political and worked to uplift the black experience in the arts and as part of the Black Arts Movement. Giovanni also dedicated herself to uplifting other Black writers, especially Black women writers, such as by editing and publishing Night Comes Softly (1970), an anthology of poetry written by Black women. She also advocates for the right to vote worldwide and supports the right of incarcerated people to vote. She continues to write poetry and recently made headlines for penning a poem titled “Vote” on the importance of voting.

*Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org

https://nikki-giovanni.com