Nikki Giovanni on Writing and Hip Hop

There is a tendency to assume the child is only a smaller version of ourselves, or worse, a simple human being incapable of thinking complex thoughts.  I hope my poetry reaches both the heart and the mind of a child who is a child and the adult who still nurtures the child within.  -Nikki Giovanni

When Giovanni began writing in college her conservative ideals were shifting towards a more revolutionary viewpoint.  Giovanni was moved by social injustice and disturbed by the murders of leaders such as John. F. Kennedy and Malcolm X.  This was expressed through her writing and she was seen as a political activist.  As her writing progressed it become more introspective and she began to focus on themes such as family.  Giovanni began publishing poetry for children (Something About the Author 80).

Giovanni’s publications for children highlight African American history and celebrate black culture but their themes are universal.  They convey the simple joys of childhood, oppression and self empowerment.  They are at their core an expression of humanity.

Throughout her life Giovanni has been active in teaching others to write and encouraging people to see themselves as writers.  In “Conversations with Nikki Giovanni” Giovanni is asked why she enjoys working with people who are not “writers” such as the Warm Hearth group. She responded, “I have the theory that everybody… can write” (Giovanni 198). She believes that writing is secondary to life, writing is a product of life, which everyone experiences.   Giovanni often describes life as a cycle.  In her writing she examines the past to understand the future and looks to the future to understand the past.  Giovanni believes this close examination of life is what defines a writer.  She believes that to write you must look at the big picture and be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, “Experience is important, but empathy is the key” Giovanni states, because we will never actually experience what it is to be someone else (Giovanni 202).    

Giovanni has always appreciated expression through the spoken word.  Since she was young she was surrounded by rhythm and her writing heavily influenced by gospel and rhythm and blues music.  Giovanni herself has released records, recorded poetry readings and readings set to gospel music.  She believes oral presentations “tap something primal.  There’s something about the reading voice that’s very different” (Giovanni 85). Her appreciation of rhythm led to a love of hip hop. Giovanni makes an effort to work with current hip hop artists as seen in “Hip Hop Speaks to Children”.  Giovanni has always had a great respect for Tupac Shakur and often speaks on his daring and truthful writing describing him as, “a lover whose love was often deliberately misunderstood” (Intro to “Love Poems”). 

Visit Giovanni's Website at http://nikki-giovanni.com/index.shtml