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Nikki Giovanni
Photograph: Mari Evans
NIKKI GIOVANNI is
the author of thirteen books of poetry including
Love Poems,
for which she recieved an NAACP Image Award, and The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni.
Giovanni holds the
Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding
Poetry and has been names woman of the year by Mademoiselle, Ladies' Home Journal,
and Essence. A gardener and consummate lover of the blues, Giovanni is a
professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic.
(Bio. excerpted form inside back cover of Blues for All The Changes)

Amazon.com's Significant Seven
Nikki Giovanni graciously agreed to answer the questions
we like to ask every author: the Amazon.com Significant
Seven.
Q: What book has had the most
significant impact on your life?
A: No single book. The poetry of Paul Laurence
Dunbar, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks was an impact,
however.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one
book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: Sula by Toni Morrison, Great American
Spirituals, and The Godfather.
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: "You're the best."
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: A cup of coffee, my rocking chair, the sun just
rising through my left window.
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it
say?
A: "I tried."
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you
would like to have dinner with?
A: Lorraine Hansberry
Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it
be?
A: I would fly.
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On My Journey
Now: Looking at African-American History Through the Spirituals
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Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Candlewick; Reprint edition (September 8, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0763643807
ISBN-13: 978-0763643805
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
Read an Excerpt
"The intimate, unpretentious talk about familiar
songs will grab readers, who will want to find out more about
the inspiring history." — BOOKLIST (starred review)
Ever since she was a little girl attending three different
churches, poet Nikki Giovanni has loved the spirituals. Now,
with the passion of a poet and the knowledge of a historian, she
paints compelling portraits of the lives of her ancestors
through the words of songs such as "Go Down, Moses" and "Ain’t
Got Time to Die," celebrating a people who overcame enslavement
and found a way to survive, to worship, and to build.
Hip Hop Speaks
to Children with CD: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat
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Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 80 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky; Har/Com edition (October 1,
2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1402210485
ISBN-13: 978-1402210488
Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 9.7 x 0.6 inches
NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND INCLUDED IN THE BOOKLIST
TOP 10 ART BOOKS FOR YOUTH!
Our consensus is Hip Hop Speaks to Children is the most
essential poetry purchase to make this year.
The poetry is enough.
The illustrations are enough.
The CD is enough.
Together, this book is a treasure of which you cannot get
enough.
We shall accomplish much this year. Children will be encouraged
to put their words to poetry and beats. Teachers will be
encouraged to allow the artists to speak to children.
—Diane Chen, School Library Journal blog "Practically Paradise"
Hip Hop Speaks to Children is a celebration of poetry with a
beat.
Poetry can have both a rhyme and a rhythm. Sometimes it is
obvious; sometimes it is hidden. But either way, make no
mistake, poetry is as vibrant and exciting as it gets. And when
you find yourself clapping your hands or tapping your feet, you
know you've found poetry with a beat!
Like Poetry Speaks to Children, the New York Times Bestselling
classic poetry book and CD that started it all, Hip Hop Speaks
to Children is meant to be the beginning of a journey of
discovery.
READ more than 50 remarkable poems and songs!
HEAR poetry's rhymes and rhythms from
Queen Latifah to
Gwendolyn Brooks,
Langston Hughes to A Tribe Called Quest and more! * Also
hear part of Martin Luther Kind's original "I Have a Dream"
speech, followed by the remarkable live performance of the
speech by Nikki Giovanni, Oni Lasana and Val Gray Ward. * The
Hip Hop Speaks to Children CD contains more than 30
performances, either by the artists who created them, or as
unique interpretations by admiring poets and artists.
DISCOVER Langston Hughes's elegant gospel "The Negro Speaks of
Rivers," A Tribe Called Quest's playful "Ham 'N' Eggs," Sterling
A. Brown's hard-luck "Long Track Blues," Gwendolyn Brooks's
wake-up call "We Real Cool," Kanye West's lovely "Hey Mama," and
Martin Luther King Jr.'s awe-inspiring "I Have a Dream."
This is a collection of rhymes and rhythms unlike any other
poetry book!
Celebrate with remarkable poets, including: Eloise Greenfield,
Mos Def, Lucille Clifton, Oscar Brown Jr.,
Tupac Shakur,
Maya Angelou,
Queen Latifah,
Nikki Grimes,
Walter Dean, Myers,
Common, and, of course, Nikki Giovanni
Acolytes:
Poems
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Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (January 23, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061231312
A collection of eighty all new poems, ACOLYTES is distinctly Nikki
Giovanni, but different. Not softened, but more inspired by love,
celebration, memories and even nostalgia. She aims her intimate and
sparing words at family and friends, the deaths of heroes and friends,
favorite meals and candy, nature, libraries, and theatre. But in
between, the deep and edgy conscience that has defined her for decades
shines through when she writes about Rosa Parks, hurricane Katrina, and
Emmett Till's disappearance, leaving no doubt that Nikki has not traded
one approach for another, but simply made room for both.
Rosa
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by
Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (September 15, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0439898838
Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books
Rosa Parks's personal story moves quickly into a summary of the Civil
Rights movement in this striking picture book. Parks is introduced in
idealized terms. She cares for her ill mother and is married to one of
the best barbers in the county. Sewing in an alterations department,
Rosa Parks was the best seamstress. Her needle and thread flew through
her hands like the gold spinning from Rumpelstiltskin's loom. Soon the
story moves to her famous refusal to give up her seat on the bus, but
readers lose sight of her as she waits to be arrested. Giovanni turns to
explaining the response of the Women's Political Caucus, which led to
the bus boycott in Montgomery. A few events of the movement are
interjected–the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education,
the aftermath and reactions to the murder of Emmett Till, the role of
Martin Luther King, Jr., as spokesperson. Collier's watercolor and
collage scenes are deeply hued and luminous, incorporating abstract and
surreal elements along with the realistic figures. Set on colored pages,
these illustrations include an effective double foldout page with the
crowd of successful walkers facing a courthouse representing the 1956
Supreme Court verdict against segregation on the buses. Many readers
will wonder how it all went for Parks after her arrest, and there are no
added notes. Purposeful in its telling, this is a handsome and
thought-provoking introduction to these watershed acts of civil
disobedience.–Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved.
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni
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ISBN: 0060541334
Format: Hardcover, 496pp
Pub. Date: November 2003
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Read an AALBC.com Review
The first of its kind, this omnibus collection covers Nikki Giovanni's complete
work of poetry from three decades, 1968-1998. The Collected Poetry of Nikki
Giovanni contains Giovanni's first seven volumes of poetry: Black Feeling Black
Talk, Black Judgment, Re: Creation, My House, The Women and the Men, Cotton
Candy on a Rainy Day, and Those Who Ride the Night Winds. Arranged
chronologically with a biographical timeline and introduction, a new afterword
from the author, title and first-line indexes, and extensive notes to the poems,
this collection is the testimony of a life's work - from one of America's most
beloved daughters and powerful poets.
Quilting
the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems
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Amazon ISBN: 0060099526
Format: Hardcover, 128pp
Pub. Date: October 2002
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Edition Description: 1ST
Read an AALBC.com Review
When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged during the Civil Rights and
Black Arts Movements of the 1960s, she immediately took a place among the
most celebrated and influential poets of the era. Now, Giovanni continues to
stand as one of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America's
political and poetic landscape.
In a career spanning over thirty years, Giovanni has created a body of work
that's become vital and essential to our American consciousness. This collection
of new poems is a masterpiece that explores the ecstatic union between self and
community. Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea is an extraordinarily intimate
collection. Each poem bears our revered cultural icon's trademark of the
unfalteringly political and the intensely personal: The elegant "What We Miss"
exalts the might and grace of women, while "Swinging on a Rainbow" rejoices
about the spaces in which we read; Giovanni commemorates Africa and her family
legacy in the majestic "Symphony of the Sphinx" and contemplates our America in
the heartbreaking "Desperate Acts" and "9:11:01 He Blew It." And in the dreamy
"Making James Baldwin" and dazzling "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea," Giovanni
gives us reason to comfort, to share, to love, to change and to be human.
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea is Nikki Giovanni's meditation on humanity
and soul. It's her revelatory gaze at the world in which we live -- and her
confession on the world she dreams we will one day call home. Nikki
Giovanni is a national treasure as she once again confirms her place as one of
America's most powerful truth tellers and beloved daughters.
The African American Audio Experience
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Format: Compact Disc - Abridged, 5 CDs
ISBN: 006053527X
Pub. Date: January 2003
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers The leading voices of
African-American letters come together in this essential collection of poems,
prose and theater performance.
One of the most significant occurrences in America during the 20th century
was the rise of African-American writers to the forefront of literature.
Documenting their views on American culture and its tragic and glorious history,
African-American writers' contributions reflected their struggle for equality
and paved the way into a brighter future for their country. This collection
includes selections of some of the best of those works, with an original
introduction by Nikki Giovanni:
Black Boy by Richard
Wright. A classic of American autobiography, this subtly crafted
narrative chronicles one man's coming of age in the Jim Crow South. Performed by
Brock Peters.
A Raisin in the Sun by
Lorraine Hansberry. An
emotionally lacerating landmark of American theater, Lorraine Hansberry's A
Raisin in the Sun is presented here with a full cast performance starring
Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.
Excerpts from The Nikki
Giovanni Poetry Collection. A collection of poems from one of the
most commanding voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape. Read
by the author.
Excerpts from the "Tall Tales" Chapter of Every Tounge Got to Confess
by Zora Neale Hurston.
Collected in the 1920s, these stories pay tribute to the richness of Black
vernacular and reflect -- with wit, wisdom, compassion, and style -- the sorrows
and joys of the African-American heritage. Performed by Ruby Dee and Ossie
Davis.
Excerpts from Langston
Hughes Reads. Arare and exceptional recording on one of the greatest
American poets of the 20th century.
Three poems by Gwendolyn Brooks. "We Real Cool," "Malcolm X," and "The
Sermon on the Warpland." Performed by
Ruby Dee.
Blues:
For All the Changes: New Poems
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ISBN: 0688156983
Format: Hardcover, 100pp
Pub. Date: April 1999
Publisher: Morrow,William & Co
Intimate, edgy, and unapologetic,
Blues: For All the Changes bears the mark of Nikki Giovanni's unmistakable voice. In a
career that has spanned three decades, Giovanni has created an indispensable body of work
and earned a place among the nation's most celebrated and controversial poets. From the
environment to our reliance on manners, from sex and politics to love among Black folk,
Blues is a master-work with poems for every soul and every mood: The poignant
"Stealing Home" pays tribute to Jackie Robinson, while "Road Rage
Blues" jams on time and space: Giovanni celebrates love's absolute power in
"Train Rides" and laments life's transience in "Me and Mrs. Robin."
With the tenderness that has made her one of our most accessible and beloved poets,
Giovanni evokes a world that is not only just but also happy.
Love
Poems
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ISBN: 0688149898
Format: Hardcover, 96pp
Pub. Date: January 1997
Publisher: Morrow,William & Co
Giovanni
received an NAACP Image Award for this title!
In a career that has spanned more than a quarter century, Nikki Giovanni has
earned the reputation as one of America's most celebrated and contoversial
writers. Now, she presents a stunning collection of love poems that includes
more than twenty new works.
From the revolutionary "Seduction" to the tender new poem, "Just a Simple
Declaration of Love," from the whimsical "I Wrote a Good Omelet" to the elegiac
"All Eyez on U," written for Tupac Shakur, these poems embody the fearless
passion and spirited wit for which Nikki Giovanni is beloved and revered.
Romantic, bold, and erotic, Love Poems expresses notions of love in
ways that are delightfully unexpected. Articulating in sensuous verse what we
know only instinctively, Nikki Giovanni once again confirms her place as one of
our nations's most distinguished poets and powerful truth-tellers.In a career
that has spanned more than a quarter century, starting with her explosive early
years in the Black Rights Movement, Nikki Giovanni has earned a reputation as
one of America's most celebrated and controversial writers. Her mind-speaking
work has made her a universal favorite and a number-one best-seller.The love
poems-the revolutionary "Seduction," the whimsical "I Wrote a Good Omelet," and
the tender "My House" to name just a few-are among the most beloved of all Nikki
Giovanni's works. Now, Love Poems brings together these and other
favorites with over twenty new poems. Romantic, bold, and erotic, Love Poems
will once again confirm Nikki Giovanni's place among the country's most renowned
poets and truth tellers.
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore
Midlife
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Carleen Brice Editor &
Pearl Cleage Contributor
ISBN: 0807028231
Number Of Pages: 252
Publication Date: May 15, 2003
Publisher: Beacon Press
"Age Ain't Nothing but a Number is my roadmap."—Iyanla
Vanzant
Forty-five black women writers—known and new—discuss midlife in the
first anthology of its kind.
Finally, a collection that celebrates, considers, contemplates, even
criticizes "midlife" from a black woman's point of view. Age Ain't
Nothing but a Number ranges over every aspect of black women's lives:
personal growth, family and friendship, love and sexuality, health,
beauty, illness, spirituality, creativity, financial independence, work,
and scores of other topics.
Midlife today isn't your grandmother's "change of life." Today, black
women call hot flashes "power surges," and menopause, the "pause that
refreshes." These days, middle-aged women may be newlyweds or new
mothers, as well as grandmothers or widows. They may experience the
empty-nest syndrome and then the "return-to-the-nest syndrome" as adult
children move back home. They may navigate the field of Internet dating,
travel the world, teach homeless women, take up pottery, or study
international business.
This anthology captures all of these aspects of midlife as
experienced by some of the finest voices in African-American writing
today. Featuring
the work of Maya Angelou, J. California Cooper, Pearl Cleage, Nikki
Giovanni, Susan L. Taylor, Alice Walker, and dozens of others, Age Ain't
Nothing but a Number will make readers think, laugh, and cry and will be
the perfect giftbook for spring.
Grand Mothers: Poems,
Reminiscences, and Short Stories about the Keepers of Our Traditions
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Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 168 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (September 15, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805049037
Such women as Gwendolyn Brooks, Mary Elizabeth King, Gloria Naylor, and Kyoko Mori celebrate the unique roles of
grandmothers.
Review from BookList :
This anthology brings together writings about grandmothers. As Giovanni notes in her
exceptionally readable introduction, "This is not a balanced book. We are mostly
Southern, pan Asian, and black." All but one of the writers are women. Still, the
diversity of ages, experiences, sentiments, and voices gives the book variety of style and
viewpoint within its 27 stories, memories, and poems. Though the topic of grandmothers
might be expected to bring out a certain sentimentality, the writers cut through the
cliches to the basic human needs that grandmothers fill and the fundamental questions
their lives and their memories raise in those who know them, remember them, or pass down
their stories. Varied in quality, but still a unique collection of writings. -Carolyn Phelan
The Genie in
the Jar
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Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (December 16, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805060766
Nikki Giovanni's evocative, lyrical poem spins words of freedom, but warns against the
pain it can bring. She weaves a glowing fabric on the black loom of language, colored with
hopes and dreams. With hints of jazz and folktales and nursery rhymes, The Genie in the Jar is also a simple story of love. With
illustrations by Chris Raschka, this poetic evocation of love and pride is as deep as the
human heart. Full color.
Review or The Genie in the Jar from
Kirkus :
A poem by Giovanni (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1994, etc.) for the singer Nina Simone becomes a
luscious illustrated work with Raschka's watercolor, ink, and oil stick figures. Readers
don't need to know anything about Simone to hear this book sing. ``Take a note and spin it
around . . . don't prick your finger . . . take a note and spin it around on the Black
loom . . . Take a genie and put her in a jar, wrap the sky around her.'' The vocabulary is
simple, and fairly dances with images as Giovanni weaves her story of music and heart. The
figures--a small girl, her mother, and a circle of women--swoop and curve like musical
notes. The textured Fabriano paper backgrounds make the art seem to pop off the page; the
colors are rich and warm, in shades of tea, chocolate, malt, cappucino, and butter, with a
vibrant azure cloud. As is true of good poetry, this piece begs to be read aloud; as is
true of fine art, it repays repeated examination. In the comforting rhythm of these pages,
children will absorb a message of faith in the power of art leavened by love.
Ego-Tripping
& Other Poems for Young People
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Paperback: 76 pages
Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books; Revised edition (November 1, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1556521898
ISBN-13: 978-1556521898
Twenty years after the release of the first edition of this
bestseller, poet Nikki Giovanni has added 10 new poems to the 22 that made up the original
collection. Powerfully illustrated by George Ford, Ego-Tripping
captures the essence of the African-American experience in ways that have special
relevance and appeal for adolescents.
Review of Ego-Tripping
from BookList :
younger for reading aloud. Giovanni has added 10 new poems to her acclaimed 1973
collection of 23 poems for young people. Ford's illustrations in sepia shades are bold and
full of character and dreaming. As Virginia Hamilton says in her foreword, Giovanni's
voice is personal and warm, she "celebrates ordinary folks" and writes of
struggle and liberation. She's upbeat and celebratory without minimizing hard times. The
publisher doesn't indicate which are the new poems, but, certainly, any library that
doesn't have the original title will want to buy this one. These are poems that sing.
Giovanni says, "if i were a poet / i'd kidnap you," and that's what she does. -Hazel Rochman
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