A Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails

A Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails 

CC: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177824

Giovanni presents historical events to highlight her perception of history. She says, “Why/LBJ has made it quite clear to me/ He doesn’t give a Good goddamn what I think”. Giovanni is suggesting that President Johnson did not listen to the voices of the Black community. She also clearly highlights that Johnson didn’t even consider or care about her opinions. This presents Giovanni as a little hypocritical because Johnson was the President that passed the Black Voters rights Act. Giovanni really disliked Johnson because since the assassination of her white prince, Kennedy, any person that replaced Kennedy, she would dislike. Giovanni then says, “Rhythm and Blues is not/ The downfall of a great civilization/ And I expect you to Realize/ That the Temptations have no connection with the CIA”. Giovanni conveys the sense of pride for the culture having rhythm and blues, but reminds the reader that the music and the Black culture have no connection with the CIA. The CIA stands for the Central Intelligence Agency and is basically the government that has access to discreet information. Giovanni presents a simile by saying, “We must move on to the true issues of/ Our time/ like the mini-skirt”. She discusses that we as a people must leave and move on to what really matters just as much as we care about the new fashion style of the year. During the 1960s, the true issues of their time were becoming free, equal and the right to vote. She also suggests that we must move on to another era with a different style and new approach to create a solution to our issues. She then says, "It is for Us to lead our people out of the Wein-Bars into the streets into the streets (for saftey reasons only) Lord knows we don't /Want to lose the support of our Jewish friends". She is now focusing on the Jewish community. The Jewish community were a part of the Holocaust and the WeinBars represent the German Nazi's jail, which is the incararation of the Jews. Giovanni also explains that we as a people must not lose the support from the Jews because they are struggle just as must as we are and own businesses. Giovanni ends with “So let us work for our day of Presence/ When Stokely is in/ The Black House/ And all will be right with Our World.” Giovanni suggests that one should let their day of existence be the day of freedom. Stokely was a civil rights activist in the 1960s. The Black House is the allusion of the White House. Giovanni was discussing that at this rate of fighting for freedom, the blacks will be in the Black House. The importance of A Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails is to note or in this case make a footnote about history of the 1960s to reflect on when all else isn’t successful. Giovanni makes a footnote about events that highlight the struggle of the 1960s and her perception about the movement and Black culture.

Here are 3 reason that will give one certainity!

Three reasons why an IB Student should study Giovanni: 

1. Giovanni writes poetry about civil rights, feminine empowerment and black power. 
2. All poems have motifs of love, power, happiness and sadness. 
3. She is a survivor. 

Giovanni writes poetry about civil rights, feminine empowerment and black power. Giovanni writes to motiviate others. She especially writes to the struggling women and about the struggle of freedom and equality for African- Americans. Giovanni's poetry uplifts the reader or provides the reader with diverse cultural context and backgrounds. It is very important that a student to study Giovanni because of her ability to write poems that convey emotional and personal connections too events. She emphasizes that her poetry reflects the struggle through the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle for liberation.

Giovanni's poems have motifs of love, power happiness or sadness. As students, we each annotate poems with various motifs or a change in mood.  Giovanni's poems provide an unusual was of presentation meaning and words, but have hidden motifs and innuendos that students can provide their own analysis. Giovannir's poems establish identity and her inner vioce. She discloses and reveals reality to her perception.
She is a survivor! A part from being a poet, Giovanni survived from cancer. A student should study an author that has great qualities in their writing as well as outside their writing. Giovanni also wrote about the struggle becoming cancer free. Giovanni should be deeply admired, studied and appreciated for her educational background and English literature education. Today, Giovanni is a professor at Virginia Tech.

IB English IV_Nikki Giovanni's bio

Well here's something interesting to stimulate the IB English minds:

                    Did you know Nikki Giovanni's real name is Yolanda Cornelia Giovanni? She changed her name to reflect her as an individual and reinvention of herself!

Nikki Giovanni was born in the country of Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943. However, she was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She then entered the HBCU route and entered Fisk University for her undergraduate education. During the time of her undergraduate education, she worked with the school's Writer's Workshop and edited the literary magazine. After recieving her bachelors degree in 1967, she organized the Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati. Thus, led her into graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

Nikki Giovanni is a poet! Her style of writing is mainly, Topicality writing. She is grounded to the historical era and emotion she feels when writing her poetry. 

Giovanni's first two collections of poetry were Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968) and Black Judgement (1969). This was then Giovanni began in her passion for writing on reflections on the African-American identity. Lately, she published  Bicycles: Love Poems (William Morrow, 2009); Acolytes (HarperCollins, 2007); The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (2003); Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not-Quite Poems (2002); Blues For All the Changes: New Poems (1999); Love Poems (1997); and Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (1996).

                  Did you know that Giovanni has a tattoo that says "Thug Life" in honor of Tupac Shakur? Did you also know that Giovanni became a poet because she enjoyed reading the African-American pioneers of Literature like Langston Hughes and James Baldwin.

In honor of her survival, Giovanni wrote an anthology Breaking the Silence: Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors (Hilton Publishing, 2005). She has been honored multiple times, including three NAACP Image Awards for Literature in 1998, the Langston Hughes award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters in 1996. She also has over twennty honorary degees from national colleges and universities. She is more importantly contributed for becoming the first recipient of teh Rosa Parks Woman of Gourage Award in the category of Spoken Word and becoming African American Literature's Woman of the Year.

IB's Way of Life

1. Eat
2. Study
3. Sleep
4. Perform

Point, blank, period!