The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni

by Nikki Giovanni

  Stanza 8: “embraced…Medusa”: In Greek mythology, Medusa was a beautiful young woman whose hair was her most remarkable asset. When she made the mistake of competing in beauty with Athena, the goddess transformed Medusa’s hair into hissing serpents. Medusa became a monster so frightening to gaze upon that anyone who did was turned into stone.

  “Linkage (for Phillis Wheatley)”

  Phillis Wheatley (1753?–84) was born in the Gambia, West Africa. Because she was the first African American to publish a book, she is generally regarded as the founder of the African American literary tradition. A victim of the slave trade, she was brought from Africa to Boston, Massachusetts, when she was about seven years old. She was bought by John and Susanna Wheatley, who named her for the ship on which she had been transported. Although she was originally purchased to be a domestic worker, the Wheatleys recognized her aptitude for learning and allowed their daughter to tutor her.

  Stanza 1: “leaving Senegal”: During the transatlantic slave trade, the Senegambia region was an important source of slaves. It was subsequently colonized by the French and the British and evolved into two countries, modern-day Senegal and Gambia.

  Stanza 2: “the children of Hester Prynne”: Hester Prynne is the heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter (1850).

  Stanza 2: “The block…stood upon”: The auction block.

  Stanza 3: “Hagar…Abraham”: Hagar, an Egyptian servant, was given to Abraham by his wife, Sarah, to be his concubine because Sarah was unable to have children. Hagar had a son, Ishmael, but when Sarah miraculously became pregnant and herself had a son, Isaac, she expelled Hagar and Ishmael from the household. See Genesis 16:1–6 and Genesis 21:8–21.

  Stanza 5: “clitorectomies…infibulations”: Female circumcision is still practiced in a number of African countries.

  Stanza 6: “How could she…in this Land”: Wheatley has sometimes been criticized for seeming to fail to express outrage at the institution of slavery; the specific poem suggested here is “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” The recovery of her letters has made clear that Wheatley did in fact denounce and decry slavery but that her poetry was written with an understanding of the prejudices and power of the white audience who would read it. Giovanni, of course, is offering a different perspective altogether.

  Stanza 6: “cheer George Washington his victory”: In her poem “To His Excellency General Washington.”

  Stanza 6: “Harriet Tubman”: Harriet Tubman (c. 1820–1913) was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.

  Stanza 6: “Sojourner Truth”: Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) escaped from slavery and became an important preacher, abolitionist, and activist for women’s rights.

  “Charles White”

  The work of African American artist Charles White (1918–79) celebrates Black Americans.

  L. 31: “Johnetta”: Johnetta Fletcher, niece of the family friend Flora Alexander and a childhood friend of Giovanni.

  “The Drum (for Martin Luther King, Jr.)”

  Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68). See also the earlier poems “Reflections on April 4, 1968” and “The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.”.

  Stanza 1: “The Pied Piper”: The legend of the Pied Piper of Hameln comes to us from the Grimm Brothers as well as from “The Pied Piper of Hamlin” by the poet Robert Browning (1812–89), where Hameln is anglicized to Hamlin.

  Stanza 3: “Kunta Kinte”: The central character in Alex Haley’s Roots (1976). Haley (1921–92) learned as a child that his family history included an African ancestor named Kunta Kinte.

  Stanza 3: “Thoreau listened”: Henry David Thoreau (1817–62), American writer and activist. In his most famous work, Walden (1854), Thoreau wrote, “Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”

  Stanza 3: “King said just say”: King preached a sermon entitled “The Drum Major Instinct” on February 4, 1968, just two months before he was assassinated. Excerpts from it were played during his funeral service. The famous section from which Giovanni is quoting reads as follows: “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.” (From The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. James Melvin Washington [San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1986], p. 267.

  “A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy”

  U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68), a presidential candidate, was shot in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, and died the next day. See also the earlier poem “Records”.

  In an interview with me, Giovanni stated that her poem had been influenced by a poem by the Nigerian poet J.P. Clark (1935–). Quite probably this is the title poem from his collection Casualties: Poems 1966–68, which focuses on the Nigerian-Biafran War.

  “Eagles (a poem for Lisa)”

  The poem is for the daughter of Giovanni’s good friend Lillian Pierce Benbow, fifteenth national president (1971–75) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Giovanni was inducted into the organization as an honorary member during Benbow’s presidency.

  “Flying Underground (for the children of Atlanta)”

  This poem was occasioned by the Atlanta child murders of 1979–81.

  Stanza 3: “if I was Tom…Sawyer”: Title character of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, first novel by Mark Twain (1835–1910). In the second chapter, Tom is facing the chore of whitewashing the picket fence around his yard.

  Beginning in the summer of 1979, when the bodies of two African American boys were found, fear spread through the black community in Atlanta. Not until two years and twenty murders later was the Atlanta Child Murder case officially closed with the arrest of twenty-three-year-old Wayne Williams, also an African American.

  “Her Cruising Car: A Portrait of Two Small Town Girls”

  The “Two Small Town Girls” to which the title refers are Giovanni herself and Frankie Lennon in Knoxville, Tennessee.

  Stanza 3: “like Richard Nixon”: Richard M. Nixon (1913–94), thirty-seventh President of the United States (1969–74), was forced to resign in August 1974 after three articles of impeachment had been brought against him because of his participation in a massive cover-up of illegal activities, including wiretapping and corporate payoffs for political favors.

  Stanza 3: “John McEnroe”: John McEnroe (1959–), winner of seven grand slam tennis titles, is perhaps best remembered for the temper tantrums he threw during matches.

  Stanza 4: “Newton”: Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), mathematician and physicist, one of whose laws of motion is quoted here.

  Stanza 5: “Darwin”: Charles Darwin (1809–82), author of On the Origin of Species (1859).

  Stanza 5: “Galápagos”: Among the many places Darwin visited on his cruise of the South American coast and Australia (1831–36) aboard the H.M.S. Beagle.

  Stanza 6: “going to St. Ives”: A reference to the nursery rhyme “As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kitts. Kitts, cats, sacks, wives, how many were going to St. Ives?”

  Stanza 6: “traveled to Skookum”: A reference to a children’s story about a man who asks people along the way if they will keep his bag while he goes to Skookum; no one is willing, so he ultimately must carry the bag with him.

  Stanza 6: “the Little Red Hen”: A reference to the children’s story of the Little Red Hen, who had to do all the work herself and could get no help from any of her friends.

  Stanza 6: “the Engine That Could”: The classic children’s story by Watty Piper, first published in 1930, features a Little Blue Engine whose
determination—“I think I can, I think I can”—enables it to climb impossible hills.

  Stanza 7: “We were born…same hospital”: Although Giovanni grew up in Cincinnati, she was born in Knoxville in Old Knoxville General Hospital. Her parents, Yolande and Gus, were good friends with Frankie’s parents, Estelle and Dusty, who were, however, much more affluent than the Giovannis.

  Stanza 9: “Thomas Wolfe was wrong”: Perhaps a reference to the novel You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe (1900–38).

  “The Cyclops in the Ocean”

  This poem was prompted by Tropical Storm Dennis in 1981, the first hurricane Giovanni experienced firsthand.

  Stanza 1: “cyclops…meets no Ulysses”: A reference to Ulysses’ memorable encounter with the Cyclops in the Odyssey.

  “Harvest (for Rosa Parks)”

  Rosa Parks (1913–) is generally regarded as the mother of the modern Civil Rights movement because her refusal to move to the back of the bus on December 1, 1955, led to her arrest and sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gained national recognition when he was asked to be the spokesperson for and leader of the boycott.

  Stanza 2: “in Tuskegee”: Mrs. Parks was born and spent her early childhood years in Tuskegee, Alabama.

  Stanza 2: “married…at nineteen”: Mrs. Parks married Raymond Parks, a barber, in 1932.

  Stanza 3: “Colored people couldn’t…No”: These lines describe the realities of living in the segregated South.

  Stanza 3: “My husband…belonged”: Both Mrs. Parks and her husband, now deceased, became active members of the local chapter of the NAACP. Raymond Parks helped with the efforts in the 1930s to free the Scottsboro Boys.

  In 1930 in Scottsboro, Alabama, nine black youths, ranging in age from thirteen to twenty-one, were accused of having raped two white girls on a freight train—despite the lack of medical evidence of rape. The first young man to be brought to trial was convicted, as were the others in subsequent trials. The young men had no legal counsel until the day of the first trial, when two lawyers volunteered. The Scottsboro case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court three different times between 1931 and 1937. In 1937, the Supreme Court reversed the earlier convictions of five of the young men, and by 1950 the others were free. Not until 1976 was the last one cleared, when Governor George C. Wallace signed the pardon for his having escaped while on parole in 1948.

  Stanza 3: “Double Victory”: “Victory at home and abroad” became a slogan among African Americans during World War II. It signified the fact that for Black Americans, who constantly struggled against the violence bred by racism, there was a war in the United States as much as one abroad.

  Stanza 3: “I was elected Secretary”: Mrs. Parks served as secretary to the local chapter of the NAACP from 1943 to 1956.

  Stanza 4: “Maxwell Air Base”: Maxwell Air Force Base, just outside Montgomery, Alabama, is the national center of airpower education.

  Stanza 4: “That Colvin girl had been arrested”: In March 1955, Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old high school student, had been arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger. E. D. Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, with whom Mrs. Parks worked closely, decided against organizing a formal boycott around the Colvin case, but the group’s leaders were waiting for the “right” test case.

  Stanza 4: “forty years old”: In December 1955 Mrs. Parks was actually close to being forty-three (her birthday is February 4, 1913).

  Stanza 6: “If I have children…why I moved to Detroit”: Mrs. Parks has no children. After the boycott ended her role in it made it difficult for her to find work, and Raymond Parks was ill. In 1957 the couple moved with Mrs. Parks’s mother to Detroit.

  Stanza 7: “other than her feet…were tired”: In the mythologizing of Mrs. Parks’s role, the notion emerged that she refused to move because her feet were tired; Giovanni finds this idea especially irksome.

  “Reflections/On a Golden Anniversary”

  This poem was originally written for Max and Dorian Washington, parents of Giovanni’s friend Nancy Pate.

  “Resignation”

  Giovanni said in an interview with me that the rhythm of this poem is that of “Love Is So Simple,” a 1968 song by the Dells from their album There Is. See also the explicit reference to the song in lines 47–48.

  “I Am She (For Nancy)”

  Nancy is Nancy Pate, Giovanni’s childhood friend from Knoxville.

  “The Room With the Tapestry Rug”

  In an interview with me, Giovanni stated that this poem was for and about Miss Alfredda Delaney, Giovanni’s English teacher for three years at Austin High School in Knoxville.

  “Love Thoughts”

  L1. 7–9: “Aretha…let me”: “Ain’t No Way,” which was written by Aretha Franklin’s sister, Carolyn, was recorded on the album Lady Soul, released in 1968.

  “A Song for New-Ark”

  This poem was originally written for the twenty-fifth anniversary issue of NewArk Magazine.

  Occasional Poems

  Broadside: “Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis (October 16, 1970)”

  Giovanni wrote this poem to be sold as a broadside to help raise money for Angela Y. Davis’s legal fees. The poem was a part of the international “Free Angela” movement, which erupted shortly after Davis was arrested in New York in October 1970.

  Angela Davis (1944–) first gained public attention when her membership in the Communist Party was revealed and used as a reason for dismissal from her faculty position in the philosophy department at UCLA. She drew increasing attention when she became more active with the Black Panthers and with prison inmates, especially George Jackson (1941–71) and the “Soledad Brothers” at Soledad Prison. After Jackson was killed by prison guards during an alleged escape attempt, his brother Jonathan took guns from Davis’s home and went to the Marin County Courthouse, where his attempt to take hostages ended in his own death and the deaths of three other people. Davis had acquired the guns for self-protection after she received death threats; they were registered. Nonetheless, after the guns were traced to Davis, a federal warrant for her arrest was issued; she went underground before the warrant could be served. Despite the absence of evidence that Davis herself had committed any crime, the FBI placed her on its Ten Most Wanted list on August 18, 1970. She was found about two months later in New York and extradited to California, where she was charged with kidnapping, conspiracy, and murder, and put in jail without bail. She was eventually acquitted of all charges.

  Giovanni was not actually to meet Angela Davis until 2001, at Toni Morrison’s seventieth birthday party. But as Giovanni states in Gemini, “I fell completely and absolutely in love with the image and idea of an Angela Yvonne” (p. 71).

  L. 8: “children in birmingham”: A reference to the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in which four young children were killed and twenty-one people injured. Birmingham was Davis’s hometown, and she knew the girls who were killed.

  Ll. 10–12: “schwerner,/chaney/and Goodman”: Michael Schwerner (1940–64), James E. Chaney (1943–64), and Andrew Goodman (1943–64) were Civil Rights activists who worked in Black voter registration in Mississippi and were murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan, with the complicity of law enforcement officers. After a massive search, including 200 naval personnel, their bodies were found buried not far from Philadelphia, Mississippi. Despite the fact that everyone—including the Federal Bureau of Investigation—knew who the killers were, it was three years before Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, Chief Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price, and five others were convicted on federal charges of violating the civil rights of the three. No state charges were ever filed.

  L. 44: “betty shabazz”: Hajj Bahiyah Betty Shabazz (1936–97), educator and widow of Macolm X, later Al Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz (1925–65).

  L. 50: “no more forget that staccato”: Betty Shabazz witnessed her husband’s assassination, which h
appened in view of a large audience at New York’s Audubon Ballroom.

  L. 52: “jonathan’s face…george’s letters”: Jonathan and George Jackson.

  Ll. 54–55: “Beverly/axelrod”: Beverly Axelrod (1924–2002) was an activist and lawyer whose most famous clients were the Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver and Jerry Rubin, cofounder of the Youth International Party.

  L. 57: “water and sky and paris”: Possibly a reference to the fact that Davis had spent her junior year (as a student at Brandeis University) abroad, studying at the Sorbonne.

  L. 59: “a german?”: Possibly a reference to Davis’s graduate study (1965–67) at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

  L. 97: “i went communist”: Davis joined the Communist Party on June 22, 1968.

  L. 99: “why howard johnson’s”: During her two months of hiding, Davis stayed at a Howard Johnson’s motel in New York City.

  L. 120: “harriet tubman”: Harriet Tubman (c. 1820–1913) was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. Her numerous forays into the slave states to help slaves escape made her indeed “the first/WANTED Black woman.”

  L. 124: “but my helpers trapped me”: Davis’s companion while she was hiding proved to be a police officer.

  “A Poem for langston hughes”

  This poem was originally written for USA Today, in which it was published August 29, 1991.

  “But Since You Finally Asked (A Poem Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Slave Memorial at Mount Vernon)”

  This poem was written in 1993.

  Stanza 1: “Jamestown…in 1619”: The first African settlers—numbering twenty—in North America arrived on August 20, 1619, in Jamestown, Virginia, where they were exchanged by the Dutch ship’s captain for food.