Acolytes

Title:

Acolytes

Author:

Giovanni, Nikki author.

ISBN:

9780061231315

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : William Morrow, c2007.

Physical Description:

xi, 131 p. ; 25 cm.

Contents:

How you gonna save 'em? 1st stanza. We gather -- Spirit rising -- A prayer for Nina -- Howl (for Nina Simone) -- Sing me home -- The Rosa Parks -- The seamstress of Montgomery -- The death of innocence -- We go on -- The storyteller's silence -- Underground railroad -- Harlem stomp -- Creative writing, poetry -- Saturday days -- Quilts -- On a rainy autumn day -- I am now my own grandmother -- Criaskew's family -- Paint me like I am -- The change of life -- I am in Mexico -- I am Mighty Mouse -- Today : for Mari Evans -- After the drowning --

How you gonna save 'em? 2nd stanza. Tennessean by birth -- I am in the water -- My grandmother -- Remembering Gwen -- Rap-blues' child -- A song for June Jordan -- Missing June Jordan -- For the lyric theatre -- Doors and keys -- For Marion on her 90th birthday -- Brave man dancing -- The antidote -- A daughter comes home -- Brother brother brother -- Jackie Robinson is dead -- For Cleveland "Pepi" Parker 3rd -- Diamonds in the rough -- Haiku -- Don't hold me back -- The first dream -- Letter to the editor -- The old ladies give a party -- Hotel rooms -- The most wonderful soup in the world -- My first memory (of librarians) -- A poem for my librarian, Mrs. Long -- It's spring --

How you gonna save 'em? 3rd stanza. Raid this joint -- I'm an American -- Blues for love -- Indulge -- Serious poems -- A higher level of poetry -- American conversation -- The yellow jacket -- Ten for Toni -- Drinking snowflakes -- When rainbows laugh -- A promise of spring -- We write -- Masks -- The best ever midnight snack -- Plenty of horn -- The leaves -- Sanity (to be continued) -- Good for us -- First date -- Home -- A library -- For summer -- Your pillow -- I don't want to love -- I am your allergy.

Personal Subject:

Giovanni, Nikki-Literary collections.

Subject Term:

American poetry -- African American authors.

American literature -- African American women authors.

African Americans -- Poetry.

Summary:

Collection of 80 new poems and prose pieces including some about slavery, Rosa Parks, Hurricane Katrina, Emmett Till, Nina Simone, Dorothy Height, Mari Evans, Gwendolyn Brooks, June Jordan, Richard Fewell, the Ishley Brothers, Jackie Robinson, librarians, and libraries.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	811.54 GIO	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A collection of eighty all new poems, Acolytes is distinctly Nikki Giovanni, but different. Not softened, but more inspired by love, celebration, memories and even nostalgia. She aims her intimate and sparing words at family and friends, the deaths of heroes and friends, favorite meals and candy, nature, libraries, and theatre. But in between, the deep and edgy conscience that has defined her for decades shines through when she writes about Rosa Parks, hurricane Katrina, and Emmett Till's disappearance, leaving no doubt that Nikki has not traded one approach for another, but simply made room for both.

Author Notes

Nikki Giovanni is one of the most prominent black poets of her generation. Born on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tenn., she graduated from Fisk University and later studied at Columbia University. Giovanni creates strongly written poems to convey messages of love, frustration, alienation, and the black experience. She gained national fame with the publication of Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgement in 1970. Full of the spirit of the black community during this era, her works captured the anger and frustration of many of its members.

Giovanni has been the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford Foundation. She has taught English at Rutgers University, Ohio State University, and Queens College and has given frequent poetry readings. She is also known for several sound recordings of her poetry, including Truth Is On Its Way. She has also been a Professor of English at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The extraordinarily popular Giovanni got that way as a black militant during the 1970s, known for her inspirational, fiery live and recorded performances. This first volume since her 2003 Collected Poems loses the fire but keeps the inspiration: "Poetry says No to destruction and Yes to possibility," Giovanni declares. Her mix of lineated and prose poetry says yes over and over-to the glories of children and grandmothers, to "the men with hopes and dreams and talents," as well as to the memory of the African-American cultural heroes who died in the last few years. Many pages are, in effect, orations: "We will miss June Jordan. For her courage, her insight, her love of us all. We will miss this poet." Some of the strongest and most detailed works are short, not especially lyrical, pieces in prose. One remembers meeting Gwendolyn Brooks; another shows a grandmother's strong support for Virginia Tech Hokies football. Giovanni's most serious verse and prose link her own struggles-as a black woman, as a latter-day icon, as a cancer survivor, as a teacher-to the larger patterns of black American history, of striving toward freedom always: "I choose always as best I can to keep truth and compassion in my life." (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

A living legacy of the female and African-American experience, Giovanni has published countless books, been honored with numerous awards, and been heralded as a poet of social conscience. Her latest book presents 80 poems that embody the main element that propelled Giovanni's emergence as a powerful voice during the Black Arts Movement: the drive to keep slavery, injustice, and the struggle for civil rights alive in America's consciousness. For this, Giovanni has become an important cultural figure. Yet, from a poetic and literary standpoint, this collection disappoints. Giovanni retraces old ground, and offers more straightforward memoir than imagistic, rhythmically sophisticated poetic song. That said, Giovanni has a dedicated audience, and though this isn't her best work, Giovanni stands as a poet who opens our minds, eyes, and hearts. --Janet St. John Copyright 2006 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Once again, Giovanni (Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea) takes it upon herself to tell stories, in histories and memories, in eulogies and celebrations, and in poetry and prose and bits that blur genre. She remembers kindergarten and grade school, trips to the library, even her first date-with Herbert Albright: "He was so cool." She sings to praise June Jordan, Mari Evans, and Gwendolyn Brooks, on whom she wrote a seventh-grade book report and earned an A. She eulogizes Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, and Nina Simone. She elucidates on the underground railroad, blues and jazz, and the sacred act of poetry-even providing a recipe for the "best ever midnight snack." She cries and cries out in the face of Hurricane Katrina, the cranky storm that was Marge Schott, and the sad doldrums surrounding the death of Emmett Till: "I am in the water/ I cannot swim/ I am brave and unafraid/ The waves are not daunting." Giovanni is our conscience and our heart. "Poems are not advertisements braying/ For the good life/ They have serious work to do." Highly recommended for all contemporary literature collections.-Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Excerpts

Acolytes Poems How You Gonna Save 'Em? 1st Stanza It's hard to save 'em If they won't learn how to pray Give 'em the blues And make 'em weep all day We Gather An invocation for the underground railroad We are gathered to fulfill a covenant . . . a vow made in cadence to the tramping feet carrying the weary . . . scarred . . . branded bodies harvested for the unspeakably vicious trade in slave labor We are gathered because a sacred vow was made as these people . . . chained head to toe head to toe head to toe . . . with no room to turn . . . no privacy of body or soul . . . bereft of the comfort their Gods and languages could bring . . . allowed a curiosity . . . a wonder . . . a sense of newness . . . to give them the courage . . . to survive . . . to thrive . . . to find a new world We are gathered in awe of the people who stood on the auction block . . . bent under the master or the lash . . . clearing land they could not claim . . . growing crops they could not share . . . birthing children they could only love in mem-ory . . . being shamed by powerlessness We recognize it was never their shame We gather in celebration of those who utilized the Underground Railroad . . . those who rode it and those who helped others get onboard We flow bitter tears for those whose freedom was found at the end of a rope We come to this moment having achieved neither restoration nor reparation but we come . . . we gather together with friends of freedom to commemorate the courageous men and women who have sacrificed their all for the uplifting of humankind . . . we find in this moment the same moon reflecting the same brilliant sun . . . the same stars dancing among the same night skies We gather because three hundred and eighty- four years ago the "Cargo" that stepped off a Dutch Man-of-War . . . being exchanged for food and water . . . recognizing this was not a good situation which would get better anytime soon . . . still decided to live . . . and fight their battle with a glorious song . . . raised to a new God . . . in a strange land We gather because it is the right thing to do . . . and it is to that . . . that we say . . . Amen Acolytes Poems . Copyright © by Nikki Giovanni. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Acolytes: Poems by Nikki Giovanni All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

Excerpts

Excerpts

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