Synopses & Reviews
In
Racism 101, Nikki Giovanni indicts higher education for the inequities it perpetuates, contemplates the legacy of the 1960s, provides a survival guide for black students on predominantly white campuses (complete with razor-sharp comebacks to the dumb questions constantly asked of black students), and excoriates Spike Lee while offering her own ideas for a film about Malcolm X. And that's just for starters. She also writes about W.E.B. Du Bois, gardening, Toni Morrison,
Star Trek, affirmative action, President John F. Kennedy, the role of griots, and the rape and neglect of urban schools.
Profoundly personal and blisteringly political, angry and funny, lyrical and blunt, Racism 101 will add an important chapter to the debate on American national values.
Review
"This volume contains 30 short essays by an important poet who now teaches at Virginia Technological University. Giovanni writes here on a wide range of topics, from whimsical recollections of her girlhood to Spike Lee, from teaching undergraduates to write to the importance of African-American literature, She is particularly sensible on racism, acknowledging its insidious presence in American society yet counseling young African-Americans to take responsibility for their own success. It is a small irony that Giovanni rails against her academic colleagues for writing 'dumb books on dumb subjects' (p.145) while the essays collected here, though often interesting, lead nowhere in particular.
" Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
In
Racism 101, Nikki Giovanni indicts higher education for the inequities it perpetuates, contemplates the legacy of the 1960s, provides a survival guide for black students on predominantly white campuses (complete with razor-sharp comebacks to the dumb questions constantly asked of black students), and excoriates Spike Lee while offering her own ideas for a film about Malcolm X. And that's just for starters. She also writes about W.E.B. Du Bois, gardening, Toni Morrison,
Star Trek, affirmative action, President John F. Kennedy, the role of griots, and the rape and neglect of urban schools.
Profoundly personal and blisteringly political, angry and funny, lyrical and blunt, Racism 101 will add an important chapter to the debate on American national values.
About the Author
When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged during the Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Arts Movements in the 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and influential poets of the era. Now, more than 30 years later, Nikki Giovanni still stands as one of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape.
Poet, activist, mother and professor Nikki Giovanni was born June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee.While a student at Fisk University, she re-established the campus's Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Chapter in 1965. In New York, 1968, after studying at University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work and Columbia University's School of Fine Arts and, she self-published her first volume of poetry Black Feeling, Black Talk.
Over the span of 30 years as a poet, Ms. Giovanni has received nineteen honorary degrees from colleges and universities including, Fisk University, Smith College, Indiana University, Delaware State University, and University of Maryland. Her numerous awards include Woman of the Year for Ebony, Mademoiselle, Essence, and Ladies Home Journal magazines; YWCA Woman of the Year, Cincinnati Chapter; Outstanding Woman of Tennessee Award; Ohio Women's Hall of Fame induction; Distinguished Recognition Award, Detroit City Council; McDonald's Literary Achievement Award for Poetry presented in the name of Nikki Giovanni in perpetuity; Outstanding Humanitarian Award, The House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky; two Tennessee Governor's Award in the Arts and in the Humanities; the Virginia Governor's Award; and two NAACP Image Awards for Love Poems and Blues: For All the Changes. Ms. Giovanni has been given the keys to more than a dozen cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, New Orleans, and Baltimore. Most recently, she was named the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award.
Nikki Giovanni is the author of 16 books of poetry for adults and children including the seminal Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black Judgement, Re: Creation, My House, The Women and the Men, Those Who Ride the Night Winds, The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni, Love Poems and her most recent Blues: For All the Changes. Nikki is University Distinguished Professor/English at Virginia Tech. She continues to read her work all over the country.