Nikki Giovanni: The Poet Laureate of the Black Community
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36473/ujhss.v61i4.1922Keywords:
Black voice, Harlem Renaissance, African American, Identity, Black Women, Strong Voice, Civil RightsAbstract
Black women have a long history and practise of activism that can be traced to pre-colonial Africa. Women writers of African descents have challenged the status quo of the cultural, political, and spiritual realms of their communities by using their skills to present women who challenge traditional roles and resist attacks of oppression. The paper deals with the suffering of women in general and black women specifically. The aim of the study is to give a voice to black women through Nikki Giovanni’s poetry, whom is considered the poets’ laureate. Her poems are like weapons against the oppressors. Using a cross-cultural analysis, will give voice to women who had long been silenced and devalued; women who, according to Zora Neale Hurston, "have the status of a mule".
Downloads
References
• Bennett, Lerone. (1969) Jr. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. Chicago: Johnson.
• Cortez, Jayne. (2004) Remarks given at Yari Yari Pamberi Conference. New York University, October 12-16.
• Fabio, Sarah. (1968) Webster, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 19, No. 5, Intergroup Relations in the Teaching of English (Dec., 1968), pp. 286-287/ Published by: National Council of Teachers of English.
• Giovanni, Nikki. (1970) Black Feeling. Black Talk. Black Judgment. New York: Morrow.
• Hurston, Zora Neale. (1990) Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper and Row.
• Jain, Sheetal (PhD). (2017) A True Voice of African American Female Poets against Gender Discrimination. Vol. V, Issue XI.
• Krishna, Sarath A. et al. (2019) 'Poetic Revolution: A Study of Nikki Giovanni’s Vogue in the Light of Select Poems'. In Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR) Volume 6, Issue 3, Kerala: India. www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) JETIR1903064 Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research.
• Palmer, R. Roderick. (1973) “The Poetry of Three Revolutionists: Don L. Lee, Sonia Sanchez, and Nikki Giovanni.” Donald B. Gibson. Ed. In Modern Black Poets. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.
• URL:http://www.brook/americanstudies/today/online/deferred/dreams.html. Retrieved on 10th of May, 2015.
• William, Yolanda P. (2007) Encyclopaedia of African American women writers, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group.
