{"id":5953,"date":"2017-05-02T08:43:03","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T12:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=5953"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:52:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T15:52:05","slug":"be-true-to-your-own-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2017\/05\/02\/be-true-to-your-own-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Be True to Your Own Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

73-year-old professor and poet still enjoys the \u2018give-and-take\u2019<\/h2>\n

\"Giovanni<\/a><\/h2>\n

Words Of Wisdom:
\nGiovanni came to campus as the 2017 MLK Speaker.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Renowned poet Nikki Giovanni is encouraging college students \u201cto fly and to dream.\u201d She was the keynote speaker at the University\u2019s 2017 celebration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Her inspiring and provocative presentation centered on the theme, \u201cThe Right to Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview prior to her appearance, Giovanni said the internet, blogs and social networking sites are making it easier for today\u2019s young poets to make their poems available for everyone to read. However, she had some words of caution. \u201cThe minute you start writing poetry, you know you are not going to make any money,\u201d she said. \u201cI am fortunate that I have had a couple of bestsellers, but you have to be really careful that you don\u2019t have that as your goal, because if that is your goal, you\u2019re going to sell yourself out. You can\u2019t do that. You have to be true to your own voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best-selling author, activist and educator published her first book of poetry, Black Feeling, Black Talk<\/em>, almost 50 years ago. She is now the author of more than 30 books, essays, children\u2019s stories and recordings, including the Grammy-nominated spoken word CD, \u201cThe Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection.\u201d She is revered by many hip hop artists who have mentioned her in their songs. \u201cI think that hip hop has done what it\u2019s going to do,\u201d she said. \u201cIt opened the door for talented young men and women but the new music is coming. I really hope that I am around to hear the beginning of the new music.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the last 30 years, Giovanni has been on the faculty at Virginia Tech, where she is a distinguished professor of English literature. The 73-year-old still enjoys teaching and the routine that comes with it. \u201cI like the kids and the give-and-take with them,\u201d she said. \u201cWithout a routine at least for somebody like me, I probably wouldn\u2019t do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is working on a new book of poems called A Good Cry<\/em>, in which she explores what it means to mourn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

73-year-old professor and poet Nikki Giovanni still enjoys the \u2018give-and-take.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":5954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-5953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spring-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}