The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998

Ebony

"One of the finest poets of our time. . . Her work still resonates."

Booklist

"Wise and mischievous, Giovanni is a must-read at every stage if her happily, still growing oeuvre."

Booklist

“Wise and mischievous, Giovanni is a must-read at every stage if her happily, still growing oeuvre.”

Ebony

“One of the finest poets of our time. . . Her work still resonates.”

Publishers Weekly

With the initially self-published Black Feeling Black Talk (1968) and the same year's Black Judgment, the then 25-year-old Giovanni helped take the Black Arts Movement to national prominence, including TV appearances, a top-selling spoken-word LP, and nine books (counting interviews and anthologies) in the next six years. Giovanni's fiery yet personal early voice struck many listeners as the authentic sound of black militancy: "This is a crazy country," one poem explained, "But we can't be Black/ And not be crazy"; "White degrees do not qualify negroes to run/ The Black Revolution." The '70s saw Giovanni move toward more personal or private concerns: "touching was and still is and will always be the true/ revolution," she concluded in 1972, suggesting a few years later "We gulp when we realize/ There are few choices in life/ That are clear." This volume compiles not all Giovanni's poems but those of her first seven volumes, from Black Feeling to Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), which introduced her later "lineless" style ("This is not a poem... this is hot chocolate at the beginning of spring"). Her outspoken advocacy, her consciousness of roots in oral traditions, and her charismatic delivery place her among the forebearers of present-day slam and spoken-word scenes. Virginia C. Fowler provides an ample and diligent introduction, chronology and notes to individual works. Giovanni's planned reading tour for 2003-2004 includes the Javits Center in Manhattan and convention centers in D.C., Philadelphia and Miami-one sign of her unusually large fan base. (Dec.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This collection expands on a "selected works" released in 1997 by one of America's best-selling poets. Giovanni stared to self-publish poetry in 1968, beginning with Black Feeling Black Talk and an anthology of poetry by black women. She promoted her books with book parties, readings, and arts festivals to an enthusiastic audience and was soon affiliated with Dudley Randall's Broadside Press and then Morrow. While enrolled in Columbia University's M.F.A. program, she moved to the center of the Black Arts Movement, using the media, particularly black journals like Ebony and Negro Digest and the popular television program Soul!, to advance her career, which also included teaching. Her poems embody the spirit of that time, melding radical black politics, antiwar protest, and feminism: "it's father cooking breakfast/ and me getting fat as a hog/ or having no food/ at all and father proving/ his incompetence/ again/ i wish i knew how it would feel/ to be free." Giovanni's work ranges from war chants to love songs and often claims to be not quite poetry: "if this seems/ like somewhat of a tentative poem it's probably/ because I just realized that/i'm bored with categories." Her strongest work began to appear in the early 1970s, with the more reflective poems of "My House." Virginia C. Fowler's preface from the earlier selected work is reprinted here, along with a chronology and explanatory notes. This work includes the six volumes of poetry published through 1983, plus uncollected work since then; her last three volumes of poetry are not represented. Not essential, then, for libraries that have many or all of Giovanni's poetry but a good introduction for libraries not strong in her work.-Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine LLP Lib., New York Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.