The writier is the revolution just by being a woman

Orlando Sentinel ^ | 2/23/06 | Tammy L. Carter

[Cicero]

How many black female poets were there when she started her career? She filled an essential niche for the politically correct. Never mind that she can't write. Neither could Andy Warhol paint, but they both came along at the right moment and knew how to play on the cultural energies.

[netmilsmom]

Here is one of her poems....

"childhood rememberances 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 barbeque 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 your'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
Christmasses
and I really hope no white person everhas 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"

Well golly gee whiz, I guess every white child in this country was brought up with silver spoons. Not a single white person could ever understand that love is the blessing in a household, not money.

Here I thought that Loretta Lynn story was fact (or my mother's for that matter) Little did I know.

[subterfuge]

There are lots of black Americans that are worthy role models, but people like this author waste their time practically worshipping wacky poets, rappers, and race baitors.

I don't see too many slobering, worship type articles about Condy Rice, Justice Thomas or George Washington Carver.

[subterfuge]

Black love is Black wealth and they'll probably talk about my hard childhood

Well when are YOU going to stop talking about it NIKKIta?

[newgeezer]

You left out the first half of the article...

i used to dream militant
dreams of taking
over america to show
these white folks how it should be
done

i used to dream radical dreams
of blowing everyone away with
my perceptive powers
of correct analysis

i even used to think I'd be the one
to stop the riot and negotiate the
peace

then i awoke and dug that if i
dreamed natural
dreams of being a natural
woman doing what a woman
does when she's natural

i would have a revolution

The words of this melodious poet inspire me.

She's funny.

She's frank.

She's real.

Since I've seen longtime FReepers banned for less than what I'm thinking, I'll keep such thoughts to myself.

[subterfuge]

Her plaid flannel. Her Bierkenstocks...

Ha! Hilarious. Really brings the whole picture into focus.

[IronJack]

Here's a thought for you, Giovanni: the simplistic life you're describing isn't profound; it's just childish. And you have no monopoly on alcoholic fathers or "poverty" that requires daddy to sell his stock. In fact, true poverty probably doesn't know much about stock.

Oh, and by the way, poetry rhymes. This word goulash doesn't.

Why don't you and Maya Angelou get a couple of waterproof pens and hit the hot tub? That much genius in one place could probably spawn an anthology that would sell upwards of 20 copies!

[Rummyfan]

From www.poets.org:

Yolanda Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and raised in Ohio. In 1960, she entered Fisk University, where she worked with the school's Writer's Workshop and edited the literary magazine. After receiving her bachelor of arts degree, she organized the Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati and then entered graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. In her first two collections, Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968) and Black Judgement (1969), Giovanni reflects on the African-American identity. Recently, she has published The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (William Morrow & Co., 2003), Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not-Quite Poems (2002) Blues For All the Changes: New Poems (1999), Love Poems (1997) and Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (1996). Her honors include the NAACP Image Award for Literature in 1998, and the Langston Hughes award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters in 1996. Several magazines have named Giovanni Woman of the Year, including Essence, Mademoiselle, and Ladies Home Journal. She is currently Professor of English and Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies at Virginia Tech.

My opinion of Va Tech just went down! She entered grad school, but no mention of graduating from same, nor of any advanced degrees.

[subterfuge]

then i awoke and dug that if i

My favorite part. Pretty revealing poem too. I had to excerpt the Sentinel.

[Tzimisce]

Revolutionary in what way? She's in the media and the messages she gives are all media messages. She's not saying anything new. She's not saying anything insightful. She's not even presenting a new perspective on her ideas.

Of course this woman is in a nice, cooshie University job. The private sector would want more results.

[zip]

... As I watch Giovanni with the young poets, I wonder if they realize how blessed they are to receive such sage advice and encouragement from one of our national treasures.

/what crap. Blessed to receive hatred and bigotry from an America hater?

[SAJ]

Really? So, in the case of poetry, you'd put the kibosh on the goulash, right?

;^)

[hdstmf]

She should be sure to take an electrical appliance plugged in) into the hot tub.

[L98Fiero]

Reminds me of a Chris Rock comedy skit. He is being tortured and refuses to give up the info. Each torture is more painful that the last but Chris won't give up the info. Then they bring out the "soul poet" and he screams bloody-murder and cracks, begging them to make the poet shut up. It was hilarious.

You know how when you hear somone singing really poorly or see a band that is really bad, you kind of feel uneasy and embarrased? That how I feel when I see these "poets". They are SO bad, it's embarrasing to watch.

[Pontiac]

How does one manage to get 22 honorary doctorates?

She is a privileged minority, she is a leftist, she is educated, she is literate (after a fashion) and as is traditional for poets she found a (maybe a few) Patron.

[Erasmus]

Giovanni, you Tammy, and the Orlando Sentinel are whats really wrong with America.

Just a little correction: it's the Orlando Senile.

[pankot]

One sentence reply: This woman(?) has a paper a--hole.

[Old Professer]

When I was ten we had just moved to another house closer to where my parents both worked and it, like the one we had just left, had no bathroom.

We worked, my dad and I and three brothers from the area who were the subject of great local ridicule because of their slow-wittedness and took such a great liking to my dad because he employed them alongside himself and me and fed them at our table when we broke for lunch, with determined effort all through one summer to dig the earth and install a complete septic system, lay all the piping including the lead and jute jointed cast iron waste lines, and lay the linoleum, install the commode, build a closet with the bathtub finishing off that wall and wire the entire room.

I learned a lot that year; one of the brothers drilled a hole in the bottom of a glass bottle after I told him it couldn't be done with but a hand brace and a nail for a bit.

A half a cup of vinegar and about and hour of diligent labor later, the hole was there and the bottle still whole.

I later learned that vinegar is a good lubricant for working glass.

We used the outhouse for target practice for a while until one day when my dad modified the barrel of an old long tom by chamfering it with a tool he had machined at work and almost tore his shoulder off when he tore a milk bottle cap to shreds.

I wasn't poor either.

[Cecily]

No, Maya and Nikki need to take lessons from America's greatest African-American poet, Tyrone Greene:


Images by Tyrone Greene ...
Dark and lonely on the summer night.
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
Watchdog barking - Do he bite?
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
Slip in his window,
Break his neck!
Then his house
I start to wreck!
Got no reason --
What the heck!
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
C-I-L-L ...
My land - lord ...
Def!

[Billthedrill]

Wow - all you have to do to be a revolutionary is to write, if you're a woman? Setting the bar a little low, isn't it?

That's the problem with the chronically aggrieved - no sense of history because it's simply inconvenient. You can pretend that you're a brave standard-bearer being ruthlessly kept down by Da Man if you don't know who Lady Murasaki was or how long ago the barrier really was broken.