Nikki Giovanni

5 Pages 1223 Words

The Poems of Nikki Giovanni
This research is a study of poems of Nikki Giovanni, a twentieth century African American writer. Giovanni is very versatile writer; she wrote novels, short stories, as well as essays. The most outstanding works of Giovanni includes “Black Judgment”, “Black Feelings and Black Talk”, and “Re: Creation”. Nikki Giovanni has received three NAACP Image awards for her most recent collection; also she is the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage award and holds the Langston Hughes Medal for outstanding poetry. Nikki Giovanni was motivated to write politically and artistically radical poems aimed at raising awareness of black rights and promoting the struggle for racial equality. This study however includes a number of Giovanni’s poems where in social injustice is the principle theme. According to Giovanni African Americans were treated unfairly and human rights were abused. Giovanni uses example of issues with African American, struggles of radical equality, and crimes against humanity.
In this poem “Concerning One Responsible with Too much Power”, Giovanni illustrates social injustice by creating images of what social injustice means.
“Scared? Are responsible Negroes running scared? I understand I’m to be sued and you say you can’t fight fifteen hundred national guards, men so you’ll beat the shit out of poor Black me (no doubt because I’ve castrated you) dynamite came to your attention and responsible negroes tell the cops your tongue must be removed since you have no brain to keep it in check aren’t you turned around teaching tolerance how can I tolerate genocide my cup is full and you already know we have no ability to delay gratification. I only want to reclaim myself I even want you to reclaim yourself but more and more I’m being convinced that death responsible Negro is the first step toward my reclamation it’s very sad I’d normally stop and cry but...