Everybody has one…

…a memory of Nikki Giovanni. Mine is from 1973 in an Oral Interpretation class at the University of AL. Randy Marsh was my professor, and I was Slick Vick, the Chicago Chick introducing my class to revolutionary poetry. I interpreted several of Giovanni’s poems, but I remember one most: Dreams.

It invoked a dream I once had to be a singer, except Giovanni coveted the Raelets’ “”dr o wn d in my youn tears.” Unlike Langston Hughes’ Dream Deferred, Giovanni’s poem was a call to conjure up the vital badass powerful Black woman, the “baaaaaby nightandday
baaaaaby nightandday.” And so, I did.

That assignment found me belting like the Raeletts. ( I had practiced my intonations with the Black students at UA.) And I ended my performance, as she did, with the understanding that I could be just as powerful as a “sweet inspiration.”

Years later, I would stir up Shoals, AL, with Giovanni’s Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why):

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

And this was only the first verse!

But how many Giovanni verses did my daughter, Camille Bennett, interpret as she won a National Championship in Poetry in Oral Interpretation for the University of Alabama. She became Nikki-Rosa, just as we all became purveyors of Giovanni’s masterful poetry illustrating Black folks – our secrets and power.

Cool, explosive, curious, introspective, whimsical, and profound, Nikki Giovanni interpreted our angst, soul, and splendor through her words. And I am grateful to have finally met her right here in Alabama and to tell her what she meant to the Black community and to me.