The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the initially self-published Black Feeling Black Talk (1968) and the same year's Black Judgment, the then 25-year-old Giovanni helped take the Black Arts Movement to national prominence, including TV appearances, a top-selling spoken-word LP, and nine books (counting interviews and anthologies) in the next six years. Giovanni's fiery yet personal early voice struck many listeners as the authentic sound of black militancy: "This is a crazy country," one poem explained, "But we can't be Black/ And not be crazy"; "White degrees do not qualify negroes to run/ The Black Revolution." The '70s saw Giovanni move toward more personal or private concerns: "touching was and still is and will always be the true/ revolution," she concluded in 1972, suggesting a few years later "We gulp when we realize/ There are few choices in life/ That are clear." This volume compiles not all Giovanni's poems but those of her first seven volumes, from Black Feeling to Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), which introduced her later "lineless" style ("This is not a poem... this is hot chocolate at the beginning of spring"). Her outspoken advocacy, her consciousness of roots in oral traditions, and her charismatic delivery place her among the forebearers of present-day slam and spoken-word scenes. Virginia C. Fowler provides an ample and diligent introduction, chronology and notes to individual works. Giovanni's planned reading tour for 2003-2004 includes the Javits Center in Manhattan and convention centers in D.C., Philadelphia and Miami-one sign of her unusually large fan base.
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From Booklist

Determined to be heard, 26-year-old Giovanni self-published her first book, the now classic Black Feeling, Black Talk, in 1969 to such galvanizing effect that her third book, My House, was released in 1972 in a quantity unheard of for a black poet: 50,000 copies. A seminal figure in the great social movements of our times, an early and influential practitioner of spoken-word poetry, and a crucial force in American letters, Giovanni is forthright, audacious, and profoundly moving in each of her 11 poetry collections as well as her essay collections, memoirs, and children's books. It is a great boon, therefore, to have her first five volumes published together here in their entirety. Introduced by critic Virginia Fowler and accompanied by extensive notes and an afterword by Giovanni herself, this substantial and potent collection includes 30 years' worth of vibrant, bluesy, and penetrating poetry about race and gender, family and community, risk and justice, sex and love. Wise and mischievous, Giovanni is a must-read at every stage of her, happily, still growing oeuvre. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First edition. edition (November 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060541334
• ISBN-13: 978-0060541330
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #667,591 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Painful and Deep from the Soul, February 24, 2004

By	FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

If you held in your hands the five hundred plus pages in Nikki Giovanni?s latest work, you could count yourself lucky. Anytime a skilled poet looks back across life and shares pure insights with the world ? we are all lucky.

In Collected, we are treated to a view of the world that goes back to the sixties and takes rapid-fire photographs through the nineties.

Giovanni?s poetry ranges from sentimental and introspective to irreverent and militant. It is a broad range of feelings about love, prejudice, injustice and living in one?s own skin.

There are so many interesting entries in this book. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day deals with the frailty of human existence. For Harold Logan is dedicated to a man murdered after daring to open a Black club on Broadway. A Certain Peace talks about enjoying time alone and allowing others the freedom to do the same. All are good.

Rich with texture, Giovanni?s Collected feels like the opening of a soul. More and more and over and over, her poetry taps into the psyche and brings forth memories as much for Giovanni as for the reader.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful collection from a hugely significant poet., July 9, 2008

By	Mark McLaughlin "pop culture junkie" (Deerfield Beach, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (P.S.) (Paperback)

While reading through this wonderfully assembled collection of poetry, it is fascinating to encounter the wonderful historical context that appears throughout the works, constantly placing the reader in the "here and now" of when the poem was written. Because of this Giovanni has become a controversial figure but to simply focus on her earlier "angry work" is to oversimplify her career and have a knee jerk reaction to the pieces which is WHAT IS INTENDED. Nikki said it herself that she didn't want white people examining her work and this is why, they cannot get past the threat that such anger possesses to see the root of the problem. Until this happens that idiotic one star reviews that have appeared on here will continue to do so. Open your minds people and examine your hearts to fully explore these works of genius.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our great National Treasure, our pained History, here and now still and again: READ HER AND REMEMBER!, July 23, 2007

By	C. Scanlon "least helpful reviewer" (among us humans) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (P.S.) (Paperback)

Nikki Giovanni is our great national treasure; please read and remember!

Though each word elicits unknown tears, each line a pain inside the throat denied its cry, read her and find comfort with her, a comfort she gives without receiving.

Read our poet, again and now.

I refer to the 2003 HarperCOllins William Murrow publication, now reprinted with a (PS) apparently, but who can add to this collection, which itself was a reprint of the earlier Selected Poems, with the same Virginia Fowler brilliantly handling the insightful Introduction, the comprehensive chronology and the ample annotations. The annotations themselves are excellent, in particular for those who did not survive those times, and for those of us who somehow did.

Read Nikki once more, and remember, and rediscover our heart and our soul, the soul of our nation now so lost, bought, stole.

Read Nikki to remember. She is our brilliant and embracing mother, sister, friend, who invites us home to eat and to rest.

I bought this book for my English learners but I keep it for myself, to weep with Nikki once more. She is that beautiful, and wise, like a holy grand mother.

Get up. Stand up. As Maya would cry, Arise! And read Nikki once more, please, my good friend. We will get there together. All together.

And while you are at it, go ahead and pre-order the grateful re-issue of her old Folkways recording The Reason I Like Chocolate. She is very much present here within the mighty Amazon, seek her out and you will find your own heart and soul once again, though in pain, but with her you may weep once more, and discover warming comfort from our long and dry loneliness in this odd, exile and alien land which was once the land of our birth, and rejoice within her brave good humour.

Read my Nikki Giovanni.