Nikki Giovanni's Speech at VA Tech Convocation

WSLS NewsChannel 10 ^ | 17 April 2007 | WSLS NewsChannel 10

[Lurking in Kansas]

The audience warmly embraced her because they don’t know any better; they are cowed into thinking she is deep because someone always trots out the litany of awards that are supposed to stand in for her obvious lack of talent. They are also held in the spell of white guilt and it occludes both their discernment and their taste.

Ding..ding.. ding. We have a winner. You nailed it. Thank you.

[betsyross1776]

I just found out he was a she. I thought she was a male . The elephant thing went over my head and the baby with the bolder also. The only thing I got out of it was we are Vt.But I guess God knows how to cheer people so they can go on. Tthe only thing I got out of it was let’s go Hookies.isn’t it amazing that with a speech like that the students actually got something out of it. I guess God works His wonders in many mysterious ways.

[betsyross1776]

With the opportunities she has had to educate herself in her life, you would more if a positive speech . If I had the educational opportunity she had I would have never gone commie negative. I would have said this is a horrible time for Vt and for America but we will survive. The Virgina mining companies and the elephant hunting made no sense to me other then she was spuming an agenda at that moment. I did not think the army remark was necessary either. The only thing good coming out of the speech was as I said before was let’s go hookies and we are VT.

[SQUID]

Nikki, with all due respect my dear, stick to math because writer/poet you are not.

Personal agenda can be set aside for at least this moment. Also, examples should have some reasonable parallel.

[Burkean]

It could have been worse—instead of baby elephants unhappy about the ivory trade she could have mentioned baby polar bears bemoaning the loss of their habitat due to global warming.

[kabar]

But you weren't the one selected to make the address to the students. You can second-guess what she said, but the audience's reaction was certainly one of approval. "Commie negative?" Nonsense. Here is how one FReeper, AppyPappy, a student at VA Tech, reacted to Nikki Giovanni's Speech

Post #51--"Nikki is irreverant, naughty and a trouble maker. In short, a Hokie. I think she is a lefty, civil rights wannabe. But she is Hokie through and through." My comment: Even a broken clock gets it right twice a day, and in this case, Nikki struck just the right chord.

The WP reported it this way:

"Less than an hour later, after tears and citations of Scripture, the spirit people here call Hokie Nation surfaced in an unexpected and moving fashion. A familiar sound rose from a lower section in the basketball arena of this sports-crazed school:

"Let's go, Hokies!"

Clap-clap-clapclapclap!

"Let's go, Hokies!"

Clap-clap-clapclapclap!"

My comment: The Hokie nation remains united and strong, bloodied but unbowed. That was the message to one another and the world.

[newfreep]

“BTW, what is a “Hokie”?

It (Hokies) was changed back from Goblers. It seems Hokies came from the person who created a new dance way back when. But alas, he couldn't decide if he should start with his left foot in or his left foot out.

[rollo tomasi]

Maybe this chick should lobby for the right of elephants to carry.

A senseless tragedy is a coward shooting up a room full of innocent people because his feelings were hurt and wanted to be an “outsider”.

A baby elephant watches ivory hunters rampage “it’s”village because ivory is a valuable commodity to certain people.

This chick thinks, like all collectivist, that we are a bunch of preschoolers and she is the only one with wisdom.

[MinuteGal]

As a long-time FR laureate-ette
I have both the rhyme and reason to vet
Throw Maya and Nikki in a trashcan
And bring back a bard like Ogden Nashman

Leni

[betsyross1776]

Your right I wasn’t the one to speak to the students. I did not understand what the elephants have to do with that speech. But then again I am not as intelligent as her I guess. I thought elephants and armies had nothing to do with how anyone felt other then spuming an agenda during a very sorrowful event. It is my opinion and from the posts in here a lot of people agree with me. My opinion, maybe she got cheers but then again I do not understand the rest of the speech. A lot of people in here think it was shades of the Well stone agenda, read their posts also./

[kabar]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the convocation was held for the students, their families and the faculty. Here is the reaction from Frank Beamer, the Hokie's famous football coach.

"As the service was winding down, English professor Nikki Giovanni led the crowd in a chant of "Let's go Hokies," the crowd's volume increasing with each verse.

"I think what took place at the end of the ceremony, people wanted to let it out and say, `Hey, this one guy's not going to beat us,"' Beamer said. "We're hurt, but this one guy's not going to dictate how we're going to act."

"The service ended on an upbeat tone, as professor and poet Nikki Giovanni stirred her listeners' spirits with a poem. "

"We are sad today and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on. We are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to stand tall fearlessly, we are brave enough to bend and cry, and sad enough to know we must laugh again," Giovanni told the audience.

"We will prevail! We will prevail! We will prevail! We are Virginia Tech!" Giovanni said, to thunderous applause.

At the football stadium, her words inspired a standing ovation. Students cheered and clapped, then started a football chant from better days. Fists rose into the air. In time the chant sounded in both the basketball arena and the stadium: "Let's go, Hokies! Let's go!"

I will let the folks at VA Tech decide on what was and was not proper.

[MinuteGal]

I heard, I listened, I barfed.

Yes, I HAVE decided....the political part of her moment in the sun WASN'T proper. I decided this the moment I heard it.

Is your screen name spelled backwards "Nikki"?

Leni

[CharlesWayneCT]

Well, I don’t mean that, but I guess that’s what she means. The poor little elephants have nowhere to go for free and reduced price lunches. Then the crack dealers move in, and the gangs, and the illegal immigrant rhinos take all the good jobs.

Soon your poor baby elephant is running numbers for the local bookie.

[kabar]

I heard, I listened, I barfed.

LOL. Does a tree falling in the forest with no one around make a noise? Your opinion is irrelevant to the folks at VA Tech. Barf all you want--it is cathartic.

Yes, I HAVE decided....the political part of her moment in the sun WASN'T proper. I decided this the moment I heard it.

Does your decision carry any weight in the real world or just in the fantasy world you have created for yourself where your "decisions" have earth-shattering significance? "Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity."

Is your screen name spelled backwards "Nikki"?

I gather you have a hard time figuring that one out. "Nikki" spelled backwards is "ikkiN." I will let you figure out the rest by yourself.

[Flightdeck]

Is that crap supposed to be some kind of Maya Angelouesque poetry slop?

[MinuteGal]

If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts.

If you have an analysis on your side, pound your analysis.

If you have neither, pound a freeper.

My, you are an arrogant one, Nikita. Put your shoe back on.

Leni

[aculeus]

Maya and Nikki
Make aculeus sickie.

[MinuteGal]

LOL, Aculeus.

Leni

[Front 242]

Could anyone here post a link for the entire video feed of the Virginia Tech Convocation that was held yesterday? I am curious to review it in its entirety. Thank you in advance.

Take care,

Front 242

[kabar]

That sounds like your response to me. You have neither the facts nor the analysis, so it is ad hominen attacks. Don’t start what you can’t finish.