Nikki Giovanni: Love Poems & A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter

by Nikki Giovanni Narrated by Nikki Giovanni

Overview

Hear Nikki Giovanni read two extraordinary collections of her own work! A singular listening experience!

The poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred movements, turned hearts and informed generations. She's been hailed as a firebrand, a radical, a healer, and a sage; a wise and courageous voice who has touched our national consciousness.

Love Poems: Nikki reads a stunning collection of over twenty romantic, bold, and erotic love poems, expressing notions of love in ways that are delightfully unexpected and full of fearless passion and spirited wit. From the revolutionary ""Seduction"" to the tender ""Just a Simple Declaration of Love,"" and the elegiac ""All Eyez on U,"" written for Tupac Shakur, these poems embody the fearless passion and spirited wit for which Nikki Giovanni is beloved and revered.

A Good Cry: With her new collection Nikki offers listeners an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at her personal history and the mysteries of her own heart. Reading her work, she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents' marriage and her early life. Nikki also celebrates her good friend, Maya Angelou, and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared.

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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

★ 09/01/2017
Plainspoken, moving, and direct, the multi-award-winning poet Giovanni draws a revealing line between heart and history in this 27th collection (after Chasing Utopia). In prose and poetry, she presents the family and friends she cherishes and the places where she was once young, now that she is old. She bares the marks they have all left on her—for good or ill—tracing their stories with a steady hand. For example, in "Baby West, " she says, "I spent the summer/ with Grandmother/ And Grandpapa/ Not realizing a man/ On a Latin school teacher's pension/ And a woman who occasionally cooked/ For white folk/ Could hardly afford/ Another mouth to feed/ More hot water for baths/ Electricity for the Radio WGN until it signed/ Off at midnight." And: "I am in the hospital/ Room/ With yellow tulips/ From Nancy and Diana/ And a beautiful bouquet/ From the English Department/ I am trying to learn/ How to cry/ It's not that my life/ Has been a lie" VERDICT This collection sometimes looks forward, sometimes back, and sometimes hovers in the moment. A warm invitation to sit beside Giovanni as she meditates on (her) life and the people who shaped her.—Iris S. Rosenberg, New York

NOVEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

The acclaimed activist, educator, and poet shares her life story through poetry and narrative. Her voice is familiar to the ear—it’s a voice that has been used to combat injustices, honor unsung heroes, and create old and new ways to love. She whips through certain poems as if their rhythm and timing call for speed. At times, she offers a rhyming intonation that sounds a bit like Dr. Seuss. It’s playful yet, due to its content, suggestive. Overall, Giovanni’s seasoned voice sounds determined, clear, and poignant. Her emotionally complex love poems span her own history, which runs the gamut from an abusive family to friendships with some of the most extraordinary people ever. Listening to this artist is a real treat. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170268238
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/24/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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