The Nightside Tribute to Nikki Giovanni

I was blessed to know Miss Nikki, the first time I met her was at a poetry seminar and I mentioned who I was and she knew I had received the James Ryan Morris award and further mentioned she liked that I played her poetry on the radio. Later she visited KUVO in our Welton Street location and subsequently at our current location with our good friend Javon Jackson…she was always kind and encouraging. We were all blessed for her walking the earth. This week we honor her on the Nightside by playing as much of her poetry as possible.

She is with the ancestors SAY THE SISTERS NAME…NIKKI GIOVANNI!!!!!

Nikki-Rosa

By Nikki Giovanni

childhood remembrances are always a drag

if you’re Black

you always remember things like living in Woodlawn

with no inside toilet

and if you become famous or something

they never talk about how happy you were to have

your mother

all to yourself and

how good the water felt when you got your bath

from one of those

big tubs that folk in chicago barbecue in

and somehow when you talk about home

it never gets across how much you

understood their feelings

as the whole family attended meetings about Hollydale

and even though you remember

your biographers never understand

your father’s pain as he sells his stock

and another dream goes

And though you’re poor it isn’t poverty that

concerns you

and though they fought a lot

it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference

but only that everybody is together and you

and your sister have happy birthdays and very good

Christmases

and I really hope no white person ever has cause

to write about me

because they never understand

Black love is Black wealth and they’ll

probably talk about my hard childhood

and never understand that

all the while I was quite happy

Copyright Credit: Nikki Giovanni, “Nikki-Rosa” from Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment. Copyright © 1968, 1970 by Nikki Giovanni. Used with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source: The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni (2003)

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