Essay On Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni once said "My family on my grandmother's side are fighters. My family on my father's side are survivors. I'm a revolutionist. It's only logical." Nikki Giovanni had no filter when it came to standing up for what she believed in. Her outgoing and determined personality brought her to be the poet she is today. Nikki Giovanni's family, struggles and works with activism influenced her poetry in many different ways.
Biography- Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on July 7, 1943. Nikki Giovannis interest in black rights and black influenced her poetry tremendously. . Her strong voice and determined spirit brought many opportunities into her life. Her Grandmother was her inspiration and her reasoning behind the person

she is today. Giovanni’s grandmothers intolerance to the white culture taught Nikki to embrace her black culture and give thanks and appreciation towards the African American culture. Being with her grandmother is where her activism started. She valued family even more than black rights. She would move the mountains for her family. Through every struggle that came across her she continued to be strong and use those struggles as a reason to write (Nikki Giovanni ).
Era- The 1960s was not an easy time to be black, especially a black women. It was a time of segregation and discrimination of black people. Prejudice commercials were shown suggesting that blacks and whites should have separate bathrooms, bubblers, schools, and movie theatres. The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle by African Americans to be equal to white Americans, which included equal opportunities, employment, education and housing (Civil Rights in the 1960s) On August 6, 1965 President Lyndon Johnson passed a law that allowed black people the right to vote. Although a law was passed it had enraged white people that the blacks had now become equal to them. Public humiliation, physical abuse, signs, burning houses and going to the extreme of killing black people are the great lengths the white people would go(Civil Rights in the 1960s). Black people in the 1960s were scrutinized as horrible and dirty people, just like Hitler viewed the Jewish Religion. The treatment of black people was a big influence for songs, dances art and poetry.
Paragraph 4- Family has always had a strong impact on Giovanni's poetry. In fact, family was one of the first topics that she incorporated into her writing. As a child she lived well for growing up in a black family, in her poem Nikki-Rosa she explains how she felt as a child. She says “ Black love is Black wealth and they’ll/ probably talk about my hard childhood/ and never understand that/ all the while I was quite happy” (Nikki Giovanni, "Nikki-Rosa"). She explains that as a black child white people wouldn't think she would be happy with her lifestyle, but she was because her family made it possible for her to have a semi-normal childhood as a young black girl. The lack of luxury her family had did not affect they way she lived. Nikki’s grandmother influenced her tremendously with her writing teaching her to speak her mind and to stand up for what she believes in.
Paragraph 5- Everyone in life experiences major struggles in life, some may be more extreme than others.

Although people go through struggles some deal with them differently, some people do things to keep their mind off of the problem, others take medicine, and some people do what Nikki Giovanni does, writes about her struggles and use them as a reason to keep fighting. Nikki Giovanni endeavoured struggles in her life that have changed her whole life. Her lifestyle when she was younger was difficult. When she was younger racism and segregation was a major issue occurring in the United States (Nikki Giovanni ). White people would try to make her hate her family and being black but that didn't affect her. Giovanni used her family as a sign of love and even with the lack of luxury it didn't change her thoughts on what her family meant to her (Nikki Giovanni ) . Later in her life she received the news that she was diagnosed with cancer in multiple places in her money. After recently having surgery, in an x-ray had shown massive tumors along her ribs. Due to the cancer she had to remove parts of her ribs and lungs to survive. In an article Nikki Giovanni says “ "I can see the danger in people like me," she told the newspaper, “You get this tumor and you don't die, so you feel you have this mission ("Nikki Giovanni bounces back after cancer forces partial removal of her lung and ribs.").” She is taking the cancer as a mission from God that she must overcome, she is getting the strength to fight cancer from

God.
Paragraph 6- Activism is defined as the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. Nikki Giovanni stood up for black people and black women's rights. Most of her poems resembled an anger for lack people's rights and the treatment of them. As a young girl she found her drive for black rights through her grandmother who gave her the knowledge of how white people treated black people. As she got older she continued activism in college and took it more serious, that is when she started joining organizations in school. She wrote about her black movements and it became a signature theme in most of poetry and her short stories. To get a more dramatic feeling in her poetry she would add gospel music to play in the background when the poetry is read aloud. She tried to incorporate different kinds of audiences and spread her beliefs on black movements in different ways (Nikki Giovanni).
Conclusion- Childhood life, difficult endeavors and work in activism sculpted Nikki Giovanni's poetry. Her personality reflects throughout all of her poetry, showing that she is a strong women as a whole. Through every struggle she encountered she had faith that God would make it better. Her life brought many opportunities and she jumped at every one of them creating the amazing poet she is now. Like she said her dad's sides are survivors and her grandmother's sides are fighters, creating the tenacious women she has become.