58 Minutes
Nikki Giovanni has a gift for making the everyday extraordinary.
She is an American poet, commentator, activist and educator. She has published multiple poetry anthologies, children’s books and spoken word recordings. In the 1960’s she was dubbed “the poet of the black revolution.” She was an activist in the civil rights movement and an inspiration for the Black Arts movement. She has won 7 NAACP Image awards, the Langston Hughes Medal, and was the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award.
In the 1970’s Nikki produced and made several appearances on the television program Soul!, where she engaged in a memorable dialogue with James Baldwin. She has taught writing and literature at Queens College, Rutgers and Ohio State, and is now the University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech.
We are so, so fortunate to have Nikki on our Twisting the Plot Podcast. We could have talked together for hours. Conversations with Nikki are like poetry itself. Multiple meanings exude from each word she speaks. She’s a wordsmith, a storyteller, and a wise guide. And she lets her imagination run free. She thinks growing older is a good idea.
She reads from her most recent book, Make Me Rain.
Make Me Rain
make me rain
turn me into a snowflake
let me rest
on your tongue
make me a piece of ice
so I can cool you
let me be the cloud
that embraces you
or the quilt
that gets you dry
snuggle close
listen to me sing
on the windowsill
make me rain
on you
Check out Nikki’s website at www.nikki-giovanni.com
Read some more of Nikki’s poems at poetryfoundation.org
Buy Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose by Nikki Giovanni on Amazon
