The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni Read Online Free PDF

publishes The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni, The Genie in the Jar (illustrated children’s book), The Sun Is So Quiet (illustrated children’s book), Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance Through Poems (all 1996), and Love Poems (1997). Releases Nikki in Philadelphia (1997). Receives honorary doctorate from Allegheny College (1997). Reads for “A Celebration of Lorraine Hansberry,” a benefit sponsored by the Schomburg Library. Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni nominated for NAACP Image Award. Reads for Literacy Partners Benefit Reading at Lincoln Center. Receives the Langston Hughes Award. Is Artist in Residence for the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts. Travels on book tour. Continues to do a spring lecture tour. Named Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies at Virginia Tech (1997–99). Serves on the national advisory board of the National Underground Museum and Freedom Center (1997–).
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    Â 1998–99 Giovanni publishes Blues: For All the Changes (1999) and edits and publishes Grand Fathers: Reminiscences, Poems, Recipes, and Photos of the Keepers of Our Tradition (1999). Receives honorary doctorates from Delaware State University (1998), and Martin University and Wilmington University (1999). Named University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, the highest honor the university confers (1999). Wins NAACP Image Award for Love Poems (1998). Attends Millennium Evening at the White House. Inducted into the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. Receives Appalachian Medallion Award. Wins the 1998 Tennessee Governor’s Award in the Arts.
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    Â 2000–01 Giovanni receives NAACP Image Award for Blues: For All the Changes (2000). Wins the 2000 Virginia Governor’s Award for the Arts. Receives honorary doctorates from Manhattanville College, State University of West Georgia (2000), and Central State University (2001). Named to the Gihon Foundation’s 2000 Council of Ideas. Serves as poetry judge for the National Book Awards (2000). Receives Certificate of Commendation from the U.S. Senate (2000). Serves on the board of trustees of Cabrini College (2001–03). Serves on the board of directors of Mill Mountain Theater (of Roanoke, Virginia) (2001–).
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    Â 2002–03 Giovanni publishes Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems (2002). Caedmon records and releases The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (2002). Receives honorary doctorates from Pace University (2002) and West Virginia University (2003). Featured in Foundations of Courage…A Cry to Freedom! on BET. Appears in A&E television’s Witness: James Baldwin. Wins NAACP Image Award for Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea (2003). Judge for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Awards (2002). Serves on Multimedia Advisory Panel for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2002–). Receivesthe first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award (2002). Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Delta of Tennessee Chapter, Fisk University (2003). Performs a tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks with Elizabeth Alexander, Ruby Dee, and Yusef Komunyakaa (2003). Contributes to a Smithsonian special exhibition, In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Detroit Conference of Unity and Art
    (For HRB)
    We went there to confer
    On the possibility of
    Blackness
    And the inevitability of
    Revolution
    We talked about
    Black leaders
    And Black Love
    We talked about
    Women
    And Black men
    No doubt many important
    Resolutions
    Were passed
    As we climbed Malcolm’s ladder
    But the most
    Valid of them
    All was that
    Rap chose me

On Hearing “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair”
    He has a girl who has flaxen hair
    My woman has hair of gray
    I have a woman who wakes up at dawn
    His girl can sleep through the day
    His girl has hands soothed with perfumes sweet
    She has lips soft and pink
    My woman’s lips burn in midday sun
    My