From one of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America’s political and poetic landscape comes a brilliant and searing collection of essays, articles, meditations and recollections.
This omnibus edition collects celebrated poet and activist Nikki Giovanni’s adult prose: Racism 101, Sacred Cows and Other Edibles and seven selections from Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1971.
Racism 101 (1994) contains essays that indict higher education for the inequities it perpetuates and contemplates the legacy of the 1960s. Giovanni gives searing commentary on Spike Lee and the making of Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, affirmative action, President JFK and the state of urban schools. Racism 101 adds an important chapter to the debate on American national values.
Sacred Cows and Other Edibles (1988) received the Ohioana Library Award. In it Nikki’s essays and articles take on the loftiness of higher education and personal major life crises.
In Gemini (1971), Giovanni explores one of the most tumultuous periods in our history. Her essays take us from her childhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, through her work in the Black revolution of the sixties, to her emergence as an acclaimed poet. Nikki interweaves warm recollections of her personal history with incisive vignettes of cultural and political history, including her often surprising opinions of Amiri Baraka, Angela Davis, Lena Horne, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and others.
"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
This landmark collection of Nikki Giovanni's prose delivers uncompromising social and cultural criticism on topics including:
- Political Essays: Giovanni's incisive analysis of major figures and events, from Malcolm X and Angela Davis to the lasting legacy of the 1960s.
- Campus Racism 101: A sharp critique of the inequities in higher education and a foundational text for understanding the realities of race in America.
- Poetic Memoir: A deeply personal account of Giovanni's first twenty-five years, from a childhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, through her emergence as a leading voice of the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements.
- A Poet's Prose: The same fire, wit, and vulnerability that define her legendary poetry, applied to the most urgent social and political questions of our time.