A Celebration of the Enduring Power and Impact of Black Joy
Black literary narratives of the 1960 Black Arts Movement bespeak resistance, resilience, and the reclamation of Black Humanity in the American context. A voice of redemption, influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement, rises with words that speak of Black joy lived out, unjustly taken, and resurrected to new life. This voice is the Acclaimed Poet Nikki Giovanni, born June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee. December 9, 2024, at 81 years old, her voice of resistance was silenced to the world. Yet her words linger in our hearts and minds. “Love those with whom we sleep, share the happiness of those we call friends, engage those who are visionary, and remove those who offer us depression, despair, and disrespect.” Her poetry expresses the co-eternal power struggle of Black feeling, Black healing, Black power, Black living, the embodiment of Black women and sexual autonomy, Black “Mothers, who sit in the dark, although we don’t know how we know and in times of waiting bear the pleasures as we have borne the pains.” One author called her the voice of the Black Revolution. Revolution and redemption go hand in hand “Lie to me,” she tells author James Baldwin in their dialogue about those who fake love in the wake of oppression and cause oppression where there should be authentic love.
One of the world’s best-known African American poets, her work extends beyond poetry to children’s literature, and non-fiction essays, and transcends racial boundaries. Giovanni has won numerous awards, including the Langton Hughes Medal, a 2004 Grammy Award for her poetry album The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection, and was named one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 “Living Legends.” She was educated and an educator. She retired from education, the University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, on September 1, 2022. What is the movement and legacy of life well-lived?
In the poem “Allowables,” Giovanni asserts that fear does justify death.”
“I killed a spider. It was not a murderous one (brown recluse or black widow). If the truth were told, this was only a small, sort of papery spider who should have run when I picked up the book, but “she” didn’t. And she scared me, and I smashed her. I don’t think I’m allowed to kill something because I am frightened.”
Her words reverberate as self-reflective that if one would investigate the sacredness of life, responsive ethics would instill that fear that kills a life destroys a purpose, a path, a movement. To which she resolves that she has no right to do. In a memorial created by Virginia Tech, she reflected on her work, telling students that they were to be the legacy. “It is easy to forget that you are doing something. It is not always about an audience, but sometimes about the little things.” Yolande Cornelia ” Nikki” Giovanni, Jr., thank you for the little big things and the little things. Your voice, your work, and your legacy lives on in us.
Despair bespeaks hope.
A voice is silenced, still there,
Remains Redemption
Safiyyah El-Amin, DMin, BCC, Fellow
Assistant Professor of Religion, Lane College,
Womanist, Preaching, Interfaith Fellow
President, The Seed Program by Kai
#BlackJoy #CommunityImpact #Legacy
