Chance Meeting
Friday February 14th, 2025 with Heavy Ben
Black History Month profile on Nikki Giovanni

Chance meeting on a poem of a voice and a movement On today's show, we dive into the incredible legacy of Nikki Giovanni — poet, activist, one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement, and one of the most celebrated literary voices of the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1943, Nikki Giovanni’s words have resonated with generations. A fierce advocate for social justice and equality, her poems reflect the complexities of race, love, identity, and resistance. Her work is known for its passionate rhythm, unapologetic style, and its ability to inspire and move people to action. Giovanni’s literary achievements span over five decades, with works like Black Feeling, Black Talk, and Love Poems - carving out her place as one of America’s most revered poets. She released 6 LPs in the 1970s of spoken word poetry, jazz/funk and gospel soul with The New York Community Choir. We'll explore Nikki Giovanni's influence in the music world, as sampled and covered by artists across genres — from hip hop to jazz, R&B to contemporary soul. Today, we'll listen to Nikki read her poems, enjoy the music, and reflect on the topics of the civil rights era that too often, tragically, plague America today. Giovanni's recording career was largely limited to the 1970s, so I encourage you to explore her vital speeches and interviews. There is a famous one on television program SOUL with novelist and social critic James Baldwin from 1971. This is sampled in the track "Liars" that we will hear, and the "liar" is not what you expect. A poignant interview that I appreciated is titled "Poet Nikki Giovanni on white supremacy, the Capitol attack, and teaching the Virginia Tech shooter" with British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy in 2024. This past December, Nikki Giovanni died, aged 81. In addition to award winning volumes of poems, Giovanni wrote liner notes for albums by Abbey Lincoln, Labelle, Donny Hathaway, The Isley Brothers, and Aretha Franklin, among others. We begin with a track from saxophonist Javon Jackson's 2022 album "The Gospel According To Nikki Giovanni". Wade In The Water is a spiritual, an African American piece, originally written and sung by Blacks in slavery. https://nikki-giovanni.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Giovanni https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arts_Movement Nikki Giovanni, Poet Who Wrote of Black Joy, Dies at 81 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/obituaries/nikki-giovanni-dead.html# James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni "A Conversation" https://youtu.be/y4OPYp4s0tc Poet Nikki Giovanni on white supremacy, the Capitol attack, and teaching the Virginia Tech shooter https://youtu.be/j5CSXQcsvEo (to embiggen the show icon, right-click and choose "Open image in new tab")