The Prosaic Soul of Nikki Giovanni (Perennial Classics)

For the first time, the collected prose of national treasure Nikki Giovanni Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet Nominated for the National Book Award, this is a journey — both private and public — through the trials and triumphs of 1960s America. Sacred Cows ... And Other Edibles Winner of the Ohioana Library Award, these fresh and wryly humorous essays explore some of America's lofty institutions and the poet's pivotal life experiences. Racism 101 This collection of essays contributes a vital and critical chapter to the debate on American national values. Title Page 2 Contents 4 Gemini 10 Introduction 14 Chapter One 18 Chapter Two 32 Chapter Three 46 Chapter Four 58 Chapter Five 80 Chapter Six 102 Chapter Seven 120 Chapter Eight 126 Chapter Nine 136 Chapter Ten 144 Chapter Eleven 152 Chapter Twelve 164 Chapter Thirteen 178 Sacred Cows...and Other Edibles 200 On Spam, Used Cars and More of the Same 204 On Spam, Used Cars and More of the Same 206 The Cincinnati Series 210 On Handicaps, Seat Belts, Risks and Reason 212 Citizen Responsibility 218 On Holidays and How to Make Them Work 222 Reflections on My Profession 226 In Sympathy with Another Motherless Child 228 An Answer to Some Questions on How I Write 264 About a Poem 274 Four Introductions 280 A Ribbon on the Maypole 282 “The Spiritual: Evolution of a Plaintive Message” 286 The Women’s Alliance 290 Stained-Glass Windows 294 The Sports Pages 296 Defend Yourself 298 My Own Style 300 Let’s Sweat! 304 Toward Better Human Understanding 308 A Patriotic Plea for Poetry Justice 318 ...And the Loser Is... 322 Sacred Cows...and Other Edibles 328 Sacred Cows...and Other Edibles 330 ...Film at Eleven 374 Our Own House Is in Disorder 376 Pioneers 378 Racism 101 384 Foreword 386 Acknowledgments 390 Author’s Note 392 Part One 394 Griots 396 Part Two 400 Paper Dolls, Iron Skillets, Libraries and Museums 402 I Plant Geraniums 406 Remembering Fisk...Thinking About Du Bois 410 The Sixties 414 Black Is the Noun 422 His Name Is Malcolm 438 Shooting for the Moon 454 Part Three 460 Annual Conventions of Everyday Subjects 462 Pioneers 470 This Has Nothing to Do with You 474 Campus Racism 101 480 A Theory of Patience 486 Part Four 492 Coffee Signs 494 A Letter from Nikki 496 Memories Are Selective 498 November 22 502 Virginia 504 Sisters, Too 510 My Road to Virginia 514 Part Five 524 Architecture 526 Black American Literature 530 Discourses 534 Glasses 536 Miss Piersall 548 Meat Loaf 550 Earthlings 554 Appalachian Elders 562 Part Six 572 Afterword 580 About the Author 588 Books by Nikki Giovanni 590 Credits 591 Copyright Notice 592 About the Publisher 593 This omnibus edition collects celebrated poet and activist Nikki Giovanni's adult prose: Racism 101, Sacred Cows and Other Edibles and seven (7) 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 esays 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. Collected for the first time in a single volume, an anthology of the prose work by the distinguished poet features a variety of essays, articles, meditations, and reminiscences that includes Racism 101, Sacred Cows and Other Edibles, and selections from the autobiographical Gemini. Original. 25,000 first printing. Collected in one volume for the first time, the prose of Nikki Giovanni comes alive in this group of essays, articles, meditations, and recollections.