nikki giovanni
...n Heights and moves his family there. Originally, Giovanni’’s parents had hoped to be able to build a home in a new all-black housing development called Hollydale. But after having had their money tied up in this real estate venture for several years, they realize that obtaining a loan to build a home was not going to be possible in the foreseeable future; racist lending practices simply could not be circumvented. With the money he makes from selling his stock in this venture, her father is able to make the down payment on the Jackson Street house. During World War II, Lincoln Heights had originally been known as The Valley Homes, affordable housing for employees of General Electric, but with the economic boom following the war, white residents of Valley Homes began moving to other suburbs. The United States government sold the homes to a corporation of black citizens, and Lincoln Heights was born. Giovanni believes that change is necessary for growth. Her poetry is renowned for its call of urgency for Black people to realize their identities and understand their surroundings as part of a white-controlled culture. She is considered a leader in the Black poetry movement. Her collection of poetry, Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgement, captures the militant attitude of the civil rights and Black Art movements of that time. In other works, Giovanni also focuses on her family and personal relationships. She is known for her recordings of her conversations with prominent African-American writers James Baldwin and Margaret Walker. Giovanni continues to write, speak and teach about the history and future of Black people and has become a symbol of the BAM, as well as for Black women and women writers today. Often known to be controversial, she is well remembered for her militancy during the turbulent sixties, becoming quite popular as one of the New Black Poets of the era. In the sixties, Giovanni was mostly introspective, focusing more on personal relationships. However, during the eighties, her focus took on a more global tone - displaying a great concern for humanity. Giovanni went on to record an album Truth is on its Way in 1972, which launched her career as a national speaker and reader of her own poetry. Nikki Giovanni has been named Woman of the Year by Ebony Magazine in 1970, by Mademoiselle in 1971 and by Ladies Home Journal in 1971. She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award, holds the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry. Giovanni has created an indispensable body of work and earned a place among the nation's most celebrated and controversial poets; Gloria Naylor calls her "one of our national treasures." She is the mother of one son, and enjoys gardening and the blues music. But Giovanni's gift for verse, as L. M. Collins of The Tennessean put it, "came to transcend the rhetoric of revolution and to form the essence of....love embracing life." The assassination of Malcolm X and the 1960's rise of the militant Black Panthers unquestionably gave her poetry of the 1960's and 1970's a certain colorfulness and combativeness. A recurring theme of her work during this era is the possible redundancy of poetry in the face of possible revolution. Her work was urgently revolutionary and suffused with deliberate interpretation of experience through a black consciousness. Following this period, Giovanni's single-parent experiences began to impact upon her work, as is readily seen in Spin a Soft Black Song (1971), Ego-Tripping (1973), and Vacation Time (1980) - all collections of poems for children. The themes of loneliness, family affection and disappointment began to surface during this time as well, and she began public readings of her work, which proved very popular and led to several recordings. In the 1980's, she returned to political concerns, publishing in 1983 Those Who Ride the Night Winds, with dedications to black American heroes and heroines. But her tributes extended as well to non-blacks, notably John Lennon, Billie Jean King and Robert Kennedy. The very title of the 1983 Night Winds collection referred to "going against the tide.....people unafraid of trying to effect change. Her moving dedication of this volume reads in part... ".....to the courage and fortitude of those who ride the night winds -- who are the day trippers and midnight cowboys -- who in sonic solitude or the hazy hell of habit know that....for all the devils and gods....Life is a marvelous, transitory adventure......" With a rare and wonderful warmth, accessibility and wit, and a sharp observation of the human condition, Giovanni reveals herself to be a woman of vision and caring, a poet with whom universal audiences can empathize and identify. She first started writing poetry in her teenage years. She always loved the poems that described nature and outdoors when she was younger and she tried to write her own. Her favorite poem Among them are "Where Go the Boats" by Robert Louis Stevenson. She always liked the line "boats Of mine go boating / where will all come home." I think s...