"I’m a big fan of Black women because in our blood is space travel. We’ve come from a known, through an unknown to an unknown."
-Nikki Giovanni in Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Nikki Giovanni. Image credit © Nikki Giovanni
On December 9th, the poet, author, activist, intellectual, and one of the world's great iconoclasts, Nikki Giovanni, became an ancestor. When she was starting out as a writer, she formed her own company and self-published her first book of poetry.
"My dream was not to publish or to even be a writer: my dream was to discover something no one else had thought of. I guess that’s why I’m a poet. We put things together in ways no one else does."
Shortly after, she asked the owner of The Birdland Jazz Club in New York if she could hold a poetry reading in their space. She proposed hosting it on a Sunday night when Birdland was typically closed. He told her she could only do it if she could bring in at least 100 guests; if there were only 99, he'd close the doors. Ms. Giovanni delivered, a line forming out the door and down the block of fans eager to witness her creative magic. She went on to become a candid and empathetic voice, writing about everything from race, politics, equality, love, Black life, and space exploration. She penned over thirty books, including children's books and books of poetry, holds the keys to more than a dozen cities, won seven NAACP Awards, was a Grammy Award and National Book Award nominee, got "Thug Life" tatted on her forearm, and even had a species of bat named in her honor (Micronycteris giovanniae). She liked to cook, travel, and dream. She was a writer. She was happy.
Thank you for your gifts, Ms. Giovanni.
"Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)"
Nikki Giovanni, 1968
I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can’t catch me
For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever on
My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
across three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended
except by my permission
I mean . . . I . . . can fly
like a bird in the sky . . .
REST IN POWER, NIKKI GIOVANNI. Image credit © Nikki Giovanni
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