She embraces her own poetic license

Award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni doesn't hesitate to speak out against war or to tell you why hip-hop matters.

By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 24, 2003

[Publicity photo] Poet Nikki Giovanni will read from her book, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems, at 7 tonight at the Clearwater East Library, 2251 Drew St., Clearwater. Admission is free. For information, call (727) 462-6800, ext. 245.

Award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni is simply keeping it real when she says she doesn't care for war.

But let's not stop there. She doesn't agree with killing possums for the heck of it or with racism or with Tiger Woods refusing to speak out about women kept out of the Masters golf tournament.

Giovanni, 59, won't be apologizing for what she says or how she feels when she reads her poetry to a Clearwater audience today. To do that, says the recipient of one of this year's prestigious NAACP Image Awards, would be the death of poetry.

"War was a bad idea 1,500 years ago, and it's a worse idea now that it's an old idea," said Giovanni, a professor at Virginia Tech. "Humiliating people is not a good idea. . . . It's not about 'will these people retaliate?' It's about 'what has (war) done to you?' That's the question. What kind of monster does it make you?"

Giovanni's unfettered way of looking at situations has turned her into an icon for today's hip-hop generation. Yet, she still attracts more mature fans who understand her political views.

That broad appeal -- and the quality of Giovanni's work -- explain why the Clearwater library asked Giovanni to help celebrate National Poetry Month by reading from her latest book: Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems.

"She is well-known everywhere, color is no boundary with Nikki Giovanni," said Jana Fine, youth services manager for the Clearwater Library. Fine invited the poet to the Tampa Bay area. "She speaks to the heart, she speaks to the human soul."

Giovanni's book, released last November, earned her a third NAACP Image Award. Modern poetry is about modern issues, and Giovanni's book is full of them.

One poem is about animals, another talks of traveling to Mars and another serenades the father of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams.

Giovanni also covers 9/11 and the state of the United States with the poems Desperate Acts and 9:11:01 (He Blew It.), which criticizes President Bush for just about everything he did after the attacks.

In conversation, Giovanni talks plainly about the evils of lynching (she's now reading a book about picture postcards showing public lynchings) and what she sees as the erosion of First Amendment rights since the war on Iraq began.

She's not afraid to voice her opinion, and poetry is an opportunity to do so.

"It's lyrical, but it's also lyrical realism," Giovanni said.

Giovanni was recently featured in the popular HBO show Def Poetry and shared the stage with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and rapper Mos Def. She also performed on a Tupac Shakur album featuring the slain rapper's poems read over heavy beats.

Giovanni's been putting her words on vinyl since the 1970s. That's why many modern hip-hop enthusiasts consider her the godmother of today's spoken-word and hip-hop movement.

"I think it's quite an honor and I have a lot of respect for the hip-hop nation, so it's nice to know that it's being reciprocated," Giovanni said. "It's important for us as an older generation to be open to their art. Rap is to poetry as spiritual is to music."

Hip-hop is powerful, she said. The rhythm makes people remember.

"It's one reason right now in public schools that kids know all of the words that Tupac Shakur ever said and don't remember what the teacher said," said Giovanni. "He didn't rhyme, but he did have a rhythm; it was not dry and boring."

Giovanni also refuses to criticize rappers' preoccupation with bling-bling: high-end cars, platinum necklaces and diamond rings.

"I don't want a Bentley but Puffy does and he can afford it," said Giovanni. "What's the difference between his Bentley and (Michael) Jackson's Rolls-Royce and the numbers runner's Cadillac and the preacher's Ford? Everybody tries to show that they're prosperous. Everybody in America is ostentatious. Why do you think Bush has that spread in Crawford, Texas?"

Giovanni, who has 20 honorary doctorates, said she's not working on another book right now. She's focusing on her Harlem Renaissance class at Virginia Tech. And she's waiting to see how poetry will continue to evolve.

"I've done Def Jam and it was so wonderful to be again on stage in a room with these young people because I was the legacy," said Giovanni, who views Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar as the true godfathers of modern poetry. "It was like, 'Wow, look at the talent.' Poetry has come a long way."

-- Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at (727) 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com .

At a glance

Poet Nikki Giovanni will read from her book, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems, at 7 tonight at the Clearwater East Library, 2251 Drew St., Clearwater. Admission is free. For more information, please call (727) 462-6800, ext. 245.

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