A Poetic Equation: Conversations Between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker

by Nikki Giovanni, Margaret Walker

Conversations about issues from how to raise a child to the Vietnam War to how to save the African-American race that white America is trying to destroy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends". Giovanni was a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.
Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, militant African-American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet of the Black Revolution". During the 1970s, she began writing children's literature, and co-founded a publishing company, NikTom Ltd, to provide an outlet for other African-American women writers. Over subsequent decades, her works discussed social issues, human relationships, and hip hop. Poems such as "Knoxville, Tennessee" and "Nikki-Rosa" have been frequently re-published in anthologies and other collections.
Giovanni received numerous awards and holds 27 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. She was also given the key to over two dozen cities. Giovanni was honored with the NAACP Image Award seven times. One of her more unique honors was having a South America bat species, Micronycteris giovanniae, named after her in 2007.
Giovanni was proud of her Appalachian roots and worked to change the way the world views Appalachians and Affrilachians.
Giovanni taught at Queens College, Rutgers, and Ohio State, and was a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech until September 1, 2022. After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, she delivered a chant-poem at a memorial for the shooting victims.

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This transcribed (and likely edited) intergenerational conversation between two great poets suggests both an evolution in thinking around American racism and highlights the importance of listening to your elders even if you don't wholeheartedly agree. Walker's knowledge of history is formidable, her exacting demands on phraseology infuriating, and her personal experiences with Richard Wright, filled with engrossing details. Giovanni, for her part, brings a respectful urgency at getting to the essence of things with no less a commanding worldview. Her closing essay especially merits your attention.