How to Be Cussed Out by a Civil Rights Leader

okay then. So it's been a hot minute since my last entry I posted in here and some interesting things have taken place already. First off, true to the title of the piece I basically was almost cussed out by the female version of Martin Luther King on Thursday. The school has miss Nikki Giovanni the uber famous black historian and poet come here, and thanks to some fancy talking and a bit of sheer luck, I was able to meet with her privately in the SGA office after Poetry class on Thursday with Dr. Helgeson. The lady is responsible for some of the most influential works in all of human history, and she's basically one of the last remaining civil rights leaders left alive today. With all of that said, when we went into the room to speak with her, I only really had one question that I wanted to ask, though I was told that the question was going to be considerably scandalous and cause some major issues, but knowing me, I had to do it, because hey, when other chances do you have to do something like that? So I did. I went in there and when we were all sitting down, I started out the traditional way telling her that I was a big fan of hers and that I couldn't believe that I was sitting in front of her because she's actually IN our African American textbooks and stuff like that. But then after all of the preliminary "kiss my ass" kinda stuff, I asked her one simple question like the following: "Dr. Giovanni, you'll have to excuse me but I just wanted to ask you one more question being that we don't have much time to do so. In your previous works of art, you've been called militant, racist, and hateful (as some of our English professors put it). But this was 40 some odd years ago. Do you still work in the same vein as you did all those years ago? Do you still feel the same way?" And after I asked the question, she just looked at me as though she wanted to stab me or something, and I felt like a complete idiot and she said: "Give me a minute." After a moment or so, she replied with, "Well am I hateful? No. What Tim Hardaway said about John Amaechi was hateful." (More on that later.) "But am I militant? Yes. Granted I'm glad we can go into Walmart today. Because 40 years ago, we weren't allowed to do that. And why do you think drive-thrus were created? Because you and I couldn't go into McDonald's and get a hamburger. We had to go around. But nowadays anyone can go through a drive-thru and they get treated the same way as anyone else. So yes I'm glad that it's changing. But there are still things to be done. And Condeleeza is still a crazy ass bitch." LOL. yeah, she went there. She is a very powerful lady deserving of the respect that she gets and more still. When we heard her speak in the GPAC (of which there was an amazing crowd, surprisingly) she brought up a lot of really good issues, and for once she didn't side-step or dodge the military questions. She spear-headed them. She's a powerful lady with a powerful message, but when I ask her that question I thought she was going to use her power and completely destroy me. LOL. And it only gets more interesting. After our meeting upstairs, she went to the Old Main TV station and did an interview with them together where she said: "Prior to my conference with a few students on this campus, when one student in particular asked me a certain question," she said, "I have NEVER been criticized in my work in the 50 years I've been writing. I've always avoided criticism of my own work. He is the first student to openly critique my style." I was horribly embarressed and completely floored at the same time. Me? The FIRST? Wow. All my friends said, "well we'll be seeing an autobiography of you soon." lol. Who knows? Perhaps. And to finish this appropriately, some work from Nikki Giovanni:

Ego Tripping by Nikki Giovanni

I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad

I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful woman

I gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat's meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can't catch me

For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother's day
My strength flows ever on

My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would save

I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
across three continents

I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by my permission

I mean...I...can fly
like a bird in the sky...

Currently watching:
Labyrinth (Superbit Collection)
Release date: 04 March, 2003
5:51 AM
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