Project Humanities Features Evening with Renowned Poet Nikki Giovanni

February 13, 2014
6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Perhaps no other living poet other than Maya Angelou shares the same respect and popularity as Nikki Giovanni.

As a poet, writer, social commentator, activist and educator, Giovanni has brought the eyes of the world upon her through her outspokenness, writing and lectures. One of the most widely-read American poets in the last three decades, Giovanni remains as determined and committed as ever to the fight for civil rights and equality.

ASU’s Project Humanities is hosting “An Evening of Poetry and Conversation with Nikki Giovanni” as part of its spring 2014 kickoff. The event starts at 6:30 p.m., Feb. 13 at the Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St., Mesa. Admission is free and open to the public.

Giovanni spoke to ASU in the News from her office at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., where she is a University Distinguished Professor of English. As one of the country’s foremost “truth-tellers,” Giovanni freely spoke her mind in this exclusive interview.

Q: There are many different art forms – music, painting, literature, acting and even standup comedy. What is particularly powerful about poetry?

NG: Poetry is, in all fairness to all other art forms, the basics. If you think about music, music is poetry with an opening and verse. But you mostly remember songs and music because of the rhythm. Of course, there are exceptions like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” I have a very smart friend who’s a mathematician and sends things into space. I recently joked with him, “Don’t you feel you owe a lot to us poets?” He said, “Why’s that?” I said, “Because it was poets who invented math … math didn’t invent poetry.” Oh, he got so upset!

Q: The civil rights and black power movements inspired your early work and poetry. How do you view racism today as opposed to say 50 years ago?

NG: It would be hard to say there’s no racism in today’s world, but clearly it’s no longer acceptable to lynch people anymore. White people just don’t get in their dump trucks and go and burn the black community down. That is gone. However, policemen are still shooting people for no reason the same as private citizens, who are also shooting people for no particular reason.

Q: In light of the recent shooting at a Maryland mall, and the fact that you taught Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech student who killed 37 people and wounded 17 others in 2007, it seems as if random shootings are almost a weekly occurrence in our country.

NG: Gun control is like the measles and it’s become a real health hazard. Shootings in malls and schools are so common that it’s become part of our everyday lives. “What did you do today, Mommy?” “Well, I went to school, had lunch and then there was a shooting.” That’s just ridiculous. It’s not something that you want to become desensitized to. We didn’t want to become desensitized to The Black Plague, which wiped out a third of Europe. Nobody wants to become desensitized to horror, and I think we need strong leadership. In all fairness to President Obama, and I’m not anti-Obama, but he has not been courageous in the stand against random violence.

Q: I’m surprised to hear you say this given that you wrote a poem for President Obama’s 2009 inauguration.

NG: It does annoy me, and I’m not trying to pick on President Obama, that people want to compare him to Dr. King. There’s nothing about Obama that’s like Dr. King. Dr. King was a courageous man who raised his voice for the world and he knew there could be a heavy price. The heaviest price Mr. Obama could have paid was that he didn’t get re-elected.

Q: In the past, particularly in the 1960s, there was no shortage of political, civic and moral leaders. Who are our leaders today?

NG: That’s the problem now isn’t it? If we didn’t have Jay-Z, Sean Combs, Kanye West or the rappers, who else is speaking out? By the way, I think there’s something wrong when Kanye West is more courageous than the president.

To read more, visit https://asunews.asu.edu/20140203-nikki-giovanni