Unknown Title

Title:

Chasing Utopia : a hybrid / Nikki Giovanni.

Author:

Giovanni, Nikki.

ISBN:

9780688156978

Personal Author:

Giovanni, Nikki.

Uniform Title:

Poems. Selections

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

pages ; cm

Content Type:

text

Media Type (RDA):

unmediated

Carrier Type:

volume

Subject Term:

Poetry.

Format:

Books

Available:*

Library	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Niagara Falls Public Library	34305010239302	811.54 GIOV AFRICAN AMERICAN	Searching... Unknown
Searching... North Tonawanda Public Library	34120005864695	811.54 GIOV	Searching... Unknown

The poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred social justice movements and inspired songs, turned hearts and informed generations about the reality of life--especially Black life--in America. One of the foremost African-American writers and activists of her generation, she has been hailed as a healer and a sage, a powerful voice on issues of race, equality, violence, and discrimination.

With Chasing Utopia, Giovanni demands that the prosaic--flowers, food, birdsong, winter--be seen as poetic, and reaffirms once again why she is as energetic, "remarkable" (Gwendolyn Brooks), "wonderful" (Marian Wright Edelman),"outspoken, prolific, energetic" (New York Times), and relevant as ever.

"This slim volume delights on every page. There are stories, imaginings, whimsy, and startling images which prove the poet's power and her command of language . . . Anyone with a love of language will be delighted with this book and the continuing publication of America's treasured poet."--San Francisco Book Review

Author Notes

Nikki Giovanni is one of the most prominent black poets of her generation. Born on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tenn., she graduated from Fisk University and later studied at Columbia University. Giovanni creates strongly written poems to convey messages of love, frustration, alienation, and the black experience. She gained national fame with the publication of Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgement in 1970. Full of the spirit of the black community during this era, her works captured the anger and frustration of many of its members.

Giovanni has been the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford Foundation. She has taught English at Rutgers University, Ohio State University, and Queens College and has given frequent poetry readings. She is also known for several sound recordings of her poetry, including Truth Is On Its Way. She has also been a Professor of English at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

With nearly 30 books for children and adults to her credit as author, and another half-dozen or so as editor, along with a stately list of major awards and honorary degrees, Giovanni has long been a force for literary exuberance and social responsibility. In her latest accessible, teasing, and poignant collection, she offers straightforward, plain-speaking, sneakily resonant poems, many in prose form. Giovanni remembers her grandparents and the joys of simple pleasures: food, Sunday mornings, driving cross-country. She looks back to her childhood and first literary stirrings, and to her return, as a published poet and mother, to take care of her parents after her father's stroke. When she describes the labor involved in scraping off layers of old floor wax, she cues us to reflect on how the past shapes and nurtures us even as we must free ourselves from its smothering accretions. Giovanni also reminds us that Love is a skill; then, in When the Girl Becomes a Poet, she celebrates the opportunity to be a truth giver / contribute / something beautiful and useful to the world. --Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Giovanni is a titan, and deservedly so. In her first book of poems in four years, she focuses on food. One poem pays homage to soup. (LJ 10/15/13) (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Chasing Utopia	p. 1
A Short Essay Affirming Why	p. 4
If a Lemon	p. 6
Podcast for Bicycles	p. 7
Why I Wrote The Grasshopper's Song	p. 9
My Sister and Me	p. 13
Spices	p. 14
The Other Place	p. 16
The Lioness Circles Her Brood in New Orleans	p. 17
The Right Way	p. 19
Spring Blooms	p. 20
The International Open	p. 21
The Giggle Bank	p. 22
Kick Stretch Kick	p. 26
Mrs. Scott	p. 27
Where Did the Night Go	p. 29
It's Just Love	p. 30
Still Life with Apron	p. 32
One Thing	p. 34
And Everyone Will Answer	p. 35
Day Pass to Heaven	p. 41
My Dream	p. 42
Artichoke Soup	p. 43
On Knoxville, TN	p. 44
Affirming My Birth Date	p. 45
The American Vision of Abraham Lincoln	p. 48
I Am at That Point	p. 51
I Hate Mondays	p. 52
A Song for a Blackbird	p. 53
Icarus	p. 54
When the Girl Became a Poet	p. 56
When God Made Mountains	p. 59
These Women	p. 62
Cooking with Mommy	p. 65
What the Fly on the Wall Overheard	p. 68
Fear: Eat In or Take Out?	p. 70
Biscuits: Dropped or Baked	p. 72
Poets	p. 74
For Mark Dressman	p. 75
Postcards	p. 77
In Defense of Flowers	p. 78
Werewolf Avoidance	p. 80
Exercise	p. 81
I Communicate	p. 82
The Lone Ranger Rides the Lonesome Trail Again	p. 83
For Runaway Slaves	p. 85
My Diet	p. 86
Nickels for Nina	p. 87
Blues for Roanoke	p. 89
The Spotlight in the Sky	p. 91
The Spider Waltz	p. 92
I Wish I Could Live (in a Book)	p. 93
I Wish I Could Live (in Music)	p. 95
I Wish I Could Live (in a Painting)	p. 97
Don Pullen	p. 99
Making a Perfect Man	p. 101
When My Phone Trembles	p. 104
Still Life with Crying Girl	p. 105
Robert Champion	p. 107
Allowables	p. 109
Flying in Kigali	p. 110
Terezin	p. 112
To the Lion Who Discovered a Deer in His Habitat: Give Him Ketchup!	p. 114
The Significance of Poetry	p. 116
Note to the South: You Lost	p. 117
The Golden Shovel Poem	p. 119
Morgantown, WVA	p. 120
For Sonia Sanchez	p. 121
For Haki Madhubuti	p. 123
Our Job Safety Is Your Priority with Coffee	p. 125
The Brown Bookshelf	p. 129
Interior Vision	p. 131
I Give Easily	p. 133
People Who Live Alone	p. 134
Before You Jump	p. 135
You Gave Her Something	p. 137
Thirst	p. 139
The Scared and the Vulnerable	p. 141
Author's Note	p. 143

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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