Blues: For All the Changes: New Poems – Poetry That Galvanizes and Comforts, Inspires and Unifies

by Nikki Giovanni

"If there was a need for poetry that galvanized and inspired, there was also a demand for poetry that comforted and unified — and Ms. Giovanni provided on both counts." — The Washington Post

Genres: Poetry, African American, Nonfiction, African American Literature, Black Literature

100 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 1999

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

[Mya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable and legendary! I love how Nikki Giovanni was so powerful with her words. I can’t even begin to describe this feeling I feel after reading these life changing poems. Many of them bought me to tears. 25 years later these poems are still relevant to today. We are still unapologetically Black and proud of our history. We are tired but we still are strong and rise to greatness every single second. Our Black greatness and beauty will NEVER BE FORGOTTEN OR TAKEN AWAY FROM US! 🤎👑 Rest in peace beautiful Queen! Thank you for sharing your beautiful mind with the world!

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure that there are enough words to describe how amazing this poetry is. Professor Giovanni is brilliant, blunt, hilarious, dead serious and speaks her mind with clarity and honesty. Her poems give voice to how racism has impacted her life and the lives of others without sugar coating or trying to comfort people who might be offended. She talks about the loss of one part of one of her lungs and that this isn't what finally breaks open her grief, but finding a baby bird that needs to be cared for does. She talks about family. She also talks about the stress of living one's life that made me laugh so hard I cried.

Her poetry is so amazing that I picked up a CD of her reading her poetry with a full gospel choir behind her and two more volumes of her poems. They are outstanding.

[Michael P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The, I'll call it a poem, that ends of p. 51 ends in the all caps statement "WHERE IS A POEM WHEN YOU REALLY NEED IT" This in the form of a question, but lacks the usual punctuation.

there are a very few poems ... in this book ... but not very many ... most of the pages are filled with prose ... that lack capital letters ... and proper punctuation ... for the most part lacking conjunctions such as the word and ... with ellipsis substituted ... just as the rest of my comments will ... giovanni calls these poems ... i do not understand her justification for this ... there is nothing poetical about them ... are we to accept that these prose pieces are poetry because they are written by a poet ... i do not accept that ... most run on and on ... they take too long to get to their subjects ... the first three paragraphs of the last one ... could be entirely cut ... it would be much better ... i agree with most ... not all ... the points ... especially the political points giovanni makes in these pieces ... so what ... they are badly written ... lacking the discipline that fine poets use in their work ... WHERE IS A POEM WHEN YOU REALLY NEED IT

[Christy Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got a few poems into this before I realized that I had read it previously, but don't recall when precisely. I'll make a best guess so this will list as a twice read. Some of the poems are very definitely dated to the Clinton years and what would have been the immediacy of the aftermath of Lewinsky and Starr and impeachment hearings. Still, they offer an amusing take on such news and history while serving up other poems that are less time bound in topic.
I love the very raw and real and immediate feeling of Nikki Giovanni's words. I love her evocative use of language and the emotions she conjures with these letters across the page. The tightly held together ideas are allowed some loose play with punctuation and structure. For me, Giovanni is the kind of poet who speaks in a powerful voice and isn't afraid to call out, to name, to swear, to uphold and draw attention to whatever and whomever she gets focused on. This is my idea of the power of poetry to speak in a way that prose alone cannot.

[RYCJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most enjoyable about this small dated rambling treat was the skill used to create satirical artsy prose. The mockery, riddled through long-winded ambling sentences made this otherwise reflective, often serious commentary on everyday life happenings and conversations effective, and easy to curl up with. My favorites; ‘2 Word Poem,’ ‘Monday,’ ‘Be My Baby’ and (haha) ...’A Real Pisser’ was simply, one word, Hilarious. ‘Iverson’s Posse’ was another prose to treasure, and as well, Truthtelling! All around, an impressive treat.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Clinton era, pre-911 collection is totally relevant today. Giovanni rages at inequalities, the justice system, politicians, cancer, and developers. Interspersed with her unpunctuated prose poems are songs dedicated to the beauty of the world. Her voice is one for eternity, just like the blues, and just like the vision of needed change she puts forth.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may be a couple of decades old, but her inauguration poem in this collection could have been used for Obama (both times) and should have been read at Trump's (only! and to replace every other word spoken), a poem about hope and the miseries of centuries of racism. Giovanni always mixes both brilliantly.

[Xiomara Linda Guerrero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I never know words could be used in such a way. As a reader I learned their is a different way to express the same feeling and not use the same word but keep the feeling the same through out I love not using punctuation and capital letters was THE BEST!
As a writer I feel like I have found myself in someone else work. Nicely done. "the Wrong Kitchen" and "Writing Lessons"

[Scott Satterwhite · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing poet. What else can you say that someone hasn't said before. I will say, I was drank to this book in the library because of the cover. I loved that her "Thug Life" tattoo was visible here. The poetry in this collection is great. She's not my favorite of the Black Arts Movement, but she is incredible. This book is a good sample of her mid-career work (almost 30 years before her death).

[Andrea Engle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much angrier than other collections of her poetry ... at least the ones I have read ... a few bordering on poor taste ... still, her poetic voice does not desert, though at times it seems a little shrill ...

[kathe · Rating 3 out of 5]

For most of the collection, (half-written in prose) it was like reading in a beat. I loved that! Some of the poems were political - which is no longer new to me, considering my reading list this year - but there was something more to them, a soul perchance.

[Sharyn Flanagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Nikki Giovanni poems. They give me another perspective on history — especially the Civil Rights Movement and struggle. Sometimes it’s easy to separate ourselves from this history, but reading it through her lens is eye-opening.

[Michael Kikle · Rating 1 out of 5]

About as racist and race-focused as a book could get.

Disgusting.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed her perspective. A few poems really stayed with me.

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and angry. Light and lovely. Stream of consciousness prose over the lyric. Some can go. Most can stay.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. Giovanni was very angry when she wrote this collection of poems.

[Mary Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Favorite poems: The Faith of a Mustard Seed (In the Power of a Poem), Monday, Progress, The Last Poem.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Some people are born to lives that eat at their spirit as cancer eats at the body."

[Kassidy Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I usually like Giovanni but I wasn’t a huge fan of this.

[Carlton Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful! It's been a long time since I've read some Nikki. Great mix of poems and essays.

[Mike Reiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the key longer poem essays are striking in their unexpected insights into 1990s America. But a number of these are also long, somewhat tough sits and they are missing some of that Giovanni sparkle.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm not typically a fan of stream-of-consciousness writing (and much of the poetry in this collection is just that), I really enjoyed this overall. Often, Nikki Giovanni's words took my breath away. This is the first poetry collection of Giovanni's I've read and I'm looking forward to reading more.

[Khepre · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent poetry collection. Some poems in this collection felt good and excellent. However, some felt that they dragged a bit.

[Henry Staples · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable world view, up @ c'burg.

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uncannily I found and read these poems the week of Trump's ascendancy. There is a poem called "the Inaugural poem," which includes these lines: "we hope the president will try to be a decent person while he is president ... let's put the guns away and let's not strike back at people whom we have initially violated and let's see if for just a brief moment we can talk it over and let's think about the new world we are borning and while we recognize we cannot repay the Indian nor the Blacks nor make whole again the Browns nor the Yellows we do not still think we should allow the Whites to run roughshod over the rest of us and we have to say that affirmative action is good and right that equal pay is good and right that paying our taxes is good and right that women have a right to our bodies and that life decisions cannot always reside with those who can enforce their desires with physical strength ..."

[Jessica Hanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a few of Giovanni's poems before, but this was the first time I have read a large collection. After reading Blues for All the Changes, I must admit that I am a bit surprised that this anthology is in my middle school library. The language and thematic issues in many of the poems are filled with inappropriate language and issues. With that being said, I think these poems do have a place with adolescents and their tumultous view of the world. Giovanni tackles her writing with unbridled enthusiasm and she throws her weight behind each piece of writing. This collection (using select poems) would be a great example of writing about everyday issues, as well as really big issues to show my students how they can begin writing their own poems on issues, big or small. Overall, I think Giovanni's poems are an important read.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The long prose poems without punctuation were tough to read, even as a sometimes fan of minimal punctuation. The continual mentions of R. Kneck Kracker (as in "redneck cracker," maybe? took me 80% of the book to think of that) made me feel like I was missing a major reference that was never explained and often felt tacked on as an unnecessary "fuck you" at the end of otherwise lovely poems. There were multiple things that irked me which I didn't expect from Nikki Giovanni (for example, calling Monica Lewinsky a slut, multiple times?). There were moments that I enjoyed, and I still want to read Love Poems, but I was pretty disappointed by this.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nikki Giovanni won my heart years ago with her collection Love Poems. I read this book somewhere, borrowed from someone or someplace, but then had to get a copy of my own, mostly for the poem "Road Rage," though there is so much other fabulousness in this book, and even "Road Rage" itself is made more fabulous by all the other poems that continue and expand on its story of the developers who destroy the little natural area behind her house.

[chunk · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

One of the things I really loved about this collection are the poems that are long and lack punctuation. I read every poem out loud and it was comforting to read something that has the same rambling pace, but concise thoughts that I feel like I speak with. There are moments that feel redundant... Tupac and the construction company, for example... but otherwise, this was fantastic.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose poems are excellent. The verse ones are dumb, juvenile. But since this is mostly prose, it gets a positive 3 stars. Neat phrasing, word selection and observations - about her neighbors, herself and her blackness. Pretty cool, but I also did not find a poem which I LOVED, so there's that... Good, but for me, not the best. But maybe I should have given this 4 stars. Eh.