The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni
1968-1998
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From one of America's most cherished and celebrated poets, a landmark collection of Nikki Giovanni's early work!
“Nikki Giovanni is one of our national treasures.”—Gloria Naylor
When Nikki Giovanni’s poems first emerged during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and controversial artists of our time. More than 50 years later, Giovanni still stands as one of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America’s political and poetic landscape. This timeless classic brings readers Nikki Giovanni's poems from 1967 to 1983, from her books Black Feeling Black Talk; Black Judgement; Re: Creation; My House; The Women and the Men; Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day; and Those Who Ride the Night Winds.
Stirring, provocative, and resonant, these poems heralded the arrival of an indelible literary voice that resounds to this day.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you’re a lover of poetry, you’ll be blown away by this stunning collection of works by Nikki Giovanni. This collection offers all six of the books Giovanni published between 1967 and 1998, and you’ll notice that her signature bite and attitude are both there right from the beginning in bold early works like “Knoxville, Tennessee.” It’s also fascinating to discover how Giovanni’s political anger shifts and changes into other emotions as the collection rolls forward through time—something she reflects upon directly in her 1975 poem “Revolutionary Dreams.” This collection also includes a comprehensive introduction to Giovanni by Virginia C. Fowler, as well as an extensive notes section at the end explaining the references within each poem. So even if you’re a total newcomer to her work and to those eras, The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni has all the context you need to become an appreciator of this deeply important literary voice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With the initially self-published Black Feeling Black Talk (1968) and the same year's Black Judgment, the then 25-year-old Giovanni helped take the Black Arts Movement to national prominence, including TV appearances, a top-selling spoken-word LP, and nine books (counting interviews and anthologies) in the next six years. Giovanni's fiery yet personal early voice struck many listeners as the authentic sound of black militancy: "This is a crazy country," one poem explained, "But we can't be Black/ And not be crazy"; "White degrees do not qualify negroes to run/ The Black Revolution." The '70s saw Giovanni move toward more personal or private concerns: "touching was and still is and will always be the true/ revolution," she concluded in 1972, suggesting a few years later "We gulp when we realize/ There are few choices in life/ That are clear." This volume compiles not all Giovanni's poems but those of her first seven volumes, from Black Feeling to Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), which introduced her later "lineless" style ("This is not a poem... this is hot chocolate at the beginning of spring"). Her outspoken advocacy, her consciousness of roots in oral traditions, and her charismatic delivery place her among the forebearers of present-day slam and spoken-word scenes. Virginia C. Fowler provides an ample and diligent introduction, chronology and notes to individual works. Giovanni's planned reading tour for 2003 2004 includes the Javits Center in Manhattan and convention centers in D.C., Philadelphia and Miami one sign of her unusually large fan base.
