It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me. Nikki Giovanni More Quotes by Nikki Giovanni More Quotes From Nikki Giovanni I knew Stokely [Carmichael] and them, but when you got to that, you saw that Nina Simone started to take up their burden. She started to preach for them. She was taking on the burden of "I want to tell the people." Nikki Giovanni saws want people Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state of mind. Those who accept it are poor; those who struggle are middle class. Nikki Giovanni struggle class thinking I like what they're doing. I think they're doing a good job, and I know that a lot of people are upset by them. These are great young men and women, and they're bold, and they are saying to America, "Something's going to change." I'm very proud of them. Nikki Giovanni jobs men thinking One stands, in fact, in awe of the Constitution of the United States, though it is an idea and not quite a reality. Nikki Giovanni united-states reality ideas I do not understand why any poet or writer would run for office; that's a different sense of who you are. I'm just a poet. I am as truthful as I can be. That makes me an artist. I heed the people; I do not lead the people. Nikki Giovanni office artist running You have to use what you have in order to get what you need and the people can not be rich unless somebody is rich. The Hip-Hop generation has carried more people with it than any other enterprise Black Americans have had. Nikki Giovanni hip-hop order people Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content. Nikki Giovanni poetry education school Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people. Nikki Giovanni over-you tools people The nature of tragedy and accident is that we cannot predict. Nikki Giovanni accidents tragedy We all have our muses. My grandmother and my mother are the people I write for. I'll never have to worry about who buys my work, or who likes it, and who doesn't. The people who I want to be proud of me already are. Nikki Giovanni mother worry writing The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said "A civilization is judged only in its decline." That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players. Nikki Giovanni tennis player civilization I used to go up to her house. She lived upstate [in New York] and I lived in Manhattan; you're living in a lot of noise and my career was being built. For me to spend time with Nina [Simone] is to spend a lot of quiet time. Nikki Giovanni careers new-york house But nonviolence was never for the oppressor; it was for the oppressed. Nikki Giovanni nonviolence oppressors oppressed If culture was a railroad, I can see the tracks running from the Spirituals to the Hip Hop Nation. Nikki Giovanni track hip-hop running We black women are the single group in the West intact. And anybody can see we're pretty shaky. We are, however (all praises), the only group that derives its identity from itself. Nikki Giovanni groups black identity Educational progress is a national concern; education is a private one. Nikki Giovanni progress educational education I hope that, reading 'Rosa,' people will remember their own family and friends and talk about what they did and did not do. Nikki Giovanni family-and-friends reading people BEFORE YOU JUMP OFF A BRIDGE OR HANG YOURSELF OR BE UNHAPPY PLEASE CONSIDER: LIVE FOR YOURSELF; THOSE WHO HATE YOU HAVE NO PURCHASE Nikki Giovanni hate unhappy bridges I am proud of the hip hop generation. They are good business people and, actually, good people. It's strange that the only time the major press talks about them is when someone gets killed or does drugs or something; yet these are the same press people who made heroes out of the Mafia and other crooks, you know. Nikki Giovanni hip-hop hero people And like an unfaithful mate, once a car has let you down you never sort of trust it again. Nikki Giovanni unfaithful mates car
