By Olivia Todd
President Andrea Chapdelaine awarded renowned poet and author Nikki Giovanni with the President’s Medal before her speech on Feb. 22 in the Rosenstock auditorium.
Chapdelaine said Giovanni has exemplified one of Hood College’s core values, democracy, by using art to communicate resistance and a fierce commitment to civil rights.
The President’s Medal was established in 2017 by President Chapdelaine in honor of the four Hood College core values–hope, opportunity, obligation and democracy–which are represented in the four pillars of Alumnae Hall.
Giovanni’s literary works, such as “VOTE,” “Rosa Parks” and “Reflections,” highlight the social disparities in America while reinforcing the need for change.
Cyrrah Fisher, a sophomore at Hood who attended the event, said “Rosa” was the first book she ever read. “Nikki Giovanni is the reason I started loving books,” Fisher said.
Giovanni said she is most passionate about the civil right to vote. During her speech, she talked about segregation during the suffrage movement. Although African Americans were not wanted at a 1913 suffrage parade, young founders of Delta Sigma Theta showed up and marched. This led to the rise of the sorority, which Giovanni said she is proud to be a part of.
Her pride was displayed at Hood on Tuesday as the first few rows of the auditorium were filled with crimson and cream, the official colors of Delta Sigma Theta. They were reserved for fellow members of the sorority.
Giovanni’s unique lyrical verses on race and other social issues have been molded by first-hand experience. Giovanni, 78, grew up during the civil rights movement in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“I come from a tradition of people who learned to communicate not only through the words but through the heart,” Giovanni said of why her style of poetry does not follow traditional structure.
While attending Fisk University, Giovanni met influential civil rights leaders John Lewis and Diane Nash, who also attended Fisk. There she participated in sit-ins in Downtown Nashville and was engaged in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Shortly after graduating, she published her first work of poetry,“Black Feeling Black Talk,”inspired by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Her following published works during the ’60s and ’70s led her to become a significant contributor to the Black Arts Movement.
Later, Nikki Giovanni met Rosa Parks and became good friends with her. On Tuesday she recited her poem, “Rosa Parks.”
“To start with Ms. Parks…you have to start with the Pullman Porters,” Giovanni said. The Pullman Porters, former slaves who worked for the railroad system as porters on sleeping cars, helped further the civil rights movement by transporting historic figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Emmett Till.
The last four lines of “Rosa Parks” read:
“But it was the
Pullman Porters who safely got Emmett to his grand uncle and it
was Mrs. Rosa Parks who could not stand that death. And in not
being able to stand it. She sat back down.”
Other topics she spoke of briefly were the simplicity of getting older, the need for COVID vaccinations and the trailblazing actions of the transgender movement.
Giovanni currently teaches at Virginia Tech. Her most recent works are “A Good Cry” and “Make Me Rain.”
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