The selected poems of Nikki Giovanni.

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Where to find it

Davis Library (8th floor)

Call Number
PS3557.I55 A6 1996
Status
Available
Call Number
PS3557.I55 A6 1996 c. 3
Status
Available

Stone Center Library

Call Number
PS3557.I55 A6 1996 c. 4
Status
Available

Undergrad Library

Call Number
PS3557.I55 A6 1996 c. 2
Status
Available

Authors, etc.

Names:

Summary

When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged from the Black Rights Movement in the late 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and controversial poets of the era. Finally, here is the first compilation of Nikki Giovanni's poetry. It is the testimony of a life's work from one of the commanding voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape at the end of the twentieth century.

From the revolutionary "The Great Pax Whitie" and "Poem for Aretha" to the sublime "Ego Tripping" and the tender "My House," these 150 mind-speaking, truth-telling poems are at once powerful yet sensual, angry yet affirming. Arranged chronologically, they reflect the changes Giovanni has endured as a Black woman, lover, mother, teacher, and poet. Here is the evocation of a nation's past and present -- intensely personal and fiercely political -- from one of our most compassionate, outspoken observers.

Contents

Partial contents: Black feeling black talk/black judgement -- Re: creation -- Broadside: poem of Angela Yvonne Davis -- My house -- The women and the men -- Cotton candy on a rainy day -- Those who ride the night winds -- Occasional poem: a poem for langston hughes -- Occasional poem: but since you finally asked.

Sample chapter

The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni On Hearing "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" He has a girl who has flaxen hair My woman has hair of gray I have a woman who wakes up at dawn His girl can sleep through the day His girl has hands soothed with perfumes sweet She has lips soft and pink My woman's lips burn in midday sun My woman's hands black like ink He can make music to please his girl Night comes I'm tired and beat He can make notes, make her heart beat fast Night comes I want off my feet Maybe if I don't pick cotton so fast Maybe I'd sing pretty too Sing to my woman with hair of gray Croon softly, Baby it's you Copyright ) 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1995, 1996 by Nikki Giovanni The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni . Copyright © by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni by Nikki Giovanni All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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