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=Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. by Corey Patton=  Nikki Giovanni tries to gain the attention of black youth and grown-ups with her poetry, telling about the social status of blacks--how they did not have the same rights as whites in the 1960s and 1970s. Her vision as a poet is to encourage women and children to find personal happiness. With poetry from her //Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People//, Giovanni talks about her childhood and tries to describe a chaotic world so she can find her place in it. In this way, Giovanni's poetry explores family values, race and ethnicity, and social issues.  Black power is a common theme in Giovanni’s works. She encourages blacks to fight for civil rights, reflecting the actual time of injustices in the 1960s and 1970s when blacks unified to stop discrimination.  Giovanni’s poetry encourages readers to dream. Giovanni believed that dreams help shape young people’s character and become more aware of change when they are confronted by opposition. Realizing that “black people aren’t supposed to dream,” Giovanni decided to become a “sweet inspiration,” encouraging blacks to dream of being an astronaut or a singer or a pilot but really she wanted to encourage other blacks who read her poetry to rebel against whites who deny them these dreams.  Giovanni’s poetry has a certain rhythm to it, reminiscent of African drums or a jazz or blues musical tone. Her poems center on great African American leaders in music, art, and religion, including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Giovanni’s poems are described as “revolutionary,” exemplified in “black power”, and giving voice to the African American experience.  Because of the lack of freedom for finding work when she was young, Giovanni could only become educated through her reading and writing, and when she began attending school, she through herself into both literary and political activities. Majoring in history at Fisk University, she edited a student literary and political journal and helped with the Black Arts movement. She became popular with her first sets of poetry, called //Black Feeling// and //Black Talk//.  Giovanni has earned much scholarly merits, like the honorary doctorate of humanities and the honorary doctorate of literature. She is currently a Professor of English at Virginia Tech. She said in her book //The Women and the Men// that “poetry is pure energy/horizontally contained/between the mind/of the poet and the reader” (Giovanni 55) and by this she means that poetry is a direct connection between two persons, whether they know each other or not, and the purpose of said poetry is to have one's voice be heard. The importance of understanding this in Giovanni's poetry is understanding how the experiences of growing up can help shape one's own world, when it is necessary to consider one's own health, beauty, and power. It is these things that determine who someone is and what they become. //Giovanni// embraces the experiences of growing up in black America, focusing on the beauty, power, and humor, and leaders both political and artistic, that have shaped her world.

 Becerra, Cynthia S. “Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People.” __Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Literature Series, Supplement__ Salem Press, Inc.  This essay by Cynthia S. Becerra contains information on Nikki Giovanni’s poetry and lifestyle. The essay explains the reasoning and development behind Giovanni’s poetry and how it affects the lives of black children and adults. The essay evaluates the humanity and the purposes of Giovanni’s writing using specific lines from her poetry. I plan on using this information for my wiki entry. I find the facts helpful for understanding Giovanni’s vision as a prominent black poet. I would recommend this to other students for researching her.

 Ballantine, Ellen Kaufman Dewey. __Review of The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni, 1968-1998, by Nikki Giovanni__. New York: LLP library

 This information on Nikki Giovanni distributed by Ellen Ballantine is useful in understanding Giovanni’s advancement as a female black poet. This excerpt from the Review of Nikki Giovanni talks about how her poetry embodies the black spirit of the 1960s and 1970s in regard to feminism, radical black politics, and antiwar protest. I would recommend students to use this information in researching Giovanni because I found that history plays an important role in her career.

 Fowler, Virginia C. “Chronology.” __Nikki Giovanni__. Eds. Frank Day. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. xiii, xvi.

 This chronology from the book states major events in Giovanni’s life, including where she went to school, who she married, which awards she earned, and where she traveled. I understood many things drawn from the timeline of her life, even though Giovanni is still alive. I recommend that students use this timeline to gain an understanding of Giovanni’s achievements and use it as a backbone for their research.

 Robinson, Lisa. “Giovanni, Yolande Cornelia ‘Nikki.’” __Africana, The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience.__ Eds. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates. New York City: Basic Civitas Books, 1999. 839-840.

 Africana is an encyclopedia which covers all of African and African American culture, so it includes information on prominent black figures in America, including Nikki Giovanni. The article is brief, but it summarizes the history of Nikki Giovanni, starting with the location of her birth and closing with information on where she is today. Africana is helpful in getting brief information on Giovanni’s life and her position in black America.