Reflections on Nikki Giovanni after reading Hip Hop Speaks to Children
By Rachel Amaru, Co-Founder of Good Trouble For Kids
“My dream was not to publish or to even be a writer: my dream was to discover something no one else had thought of. I guess that’s why I’m a poet. We put things together in ways no one else does.”
— Nikki Giovanni
At the end of this write-up, I’m going to invite you and your kids to try writing poetry. There is so much poetry in this book for you and your kids to sample and taste and listen to (and don’t worry if, like me, you no longer have a CD player! Many of these poems and songs can be found on the internet). It seems only appropriate after reading this book together that you then try your hand at poetry. And, if you’re a musician, maybe you’ll set what you wrote to music!
First, please read poet Nikki Giovanni’s biography here. It is not an easy thing to do to write a biography like this that covers so many aspects of one’s life in such a short space. Doing so insists that one hone in on what is most important to you. What strikes me after reading Nikki Giovanni’s short story of her self — because that is what it is, of course — is that she is first and foremost a poet, a writer. In this book, Nikki Giovanni introduces poetry to young children, and it is clear that she wants children to fall in love with poetry. (Since I originally wrote this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it is worth also considering Giovanni in light of the Civil Rights Era).
During Poetry Month (April), Good Trouble For Kids featured a variety of poetry across four age categories. Please take a look at the other write-ups on Good Trouble For Kids — they are obviously connected to the featured book in some way, but also are meant to be generally informative, and hopefully introduce you to some poetry you might not have read before.
In Hip Hop Speaks To Children, Nikki Giovanni suggests that poetry can be a new way of telling story. When she tells of how the slaves lost their drums, and thus reverted to drumming on themselves (hamboning), in order to hold on to whatever they could, it made me think of a Hasidic legend about the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, who used to go to a special place in the woods, light a fire, and pray. His successor would go to the same place in the woods and pray, but no longer remember to light a fire. And then a generation later, his followers would go to the woods, but no longer remember the fire or the prayer. And finally, there was the generation that no longer remembered the place, the fire, or the prayer, but remembered only to tell the story. This primacy of story — through music or through telling tales — is, I think, core to the poetry Giovanni presents here.
In addition to the element of story, Giovanni draws the connection between music and poetry, especially as heard in hip hop. Giovanni’s definition of hip hop is “poetry with a beat” — “one part story, one part rhythm.” In a deeper way, Giovanni is also highlighting the incredible contributions of Blacks to American music and American literature (here emphasizing poetry). The Black voice is essential to any understanding of blues, jazz, rock ‘n roll, hip hop, rap, etc. And, as Good Trouble For Kids is hopefully outlining, the Black voice is integral to the American literary canon.
Spoken Word…
If you search Nikki Giovanni on YouTube, you can find multiple videos of her poetry set to music. Above is her compassionate “Poem for Aretha” (Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen). This recent article speaks to the joy of listening to Nikki Giovanni on audio recordings.
…& Music.
Here is Nikki Giovanni’s poem “Ego Tripping,” also set to music. Clearly Giovanni recognized the power of spoken word, and was intrigued by the addition of music. According to Poetry Foundation’s biography of her, “she made several recordings of her poetry set against a gospel or jazz backdrop.”
I hope you’ll all read Giovanni’s introduction and her notes at the end. They provide a concise history of Black American poetry and background on the poets and illustrators. Which poems speak most to you? Which ones did your kids come back to and want to hear again?
I was particularly drawn to “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.” Listen to Tupac Shakur speak about his use of this metaphor in this video, and you can hear Maya Angelou speak movingly about meeting him here. In November 2000, four years after 2Pac died, an album by the same title was released with music mixed with Tupac Amaru Shakur’s writings (yup, we share the name Amaru). There are obvious elements of spoken word. Nikki Giovanni recites the verse poem of “The Rose That Grew From Concrete,” and you can hear 2Pac’s vocals on that track as well.
Writing Exercise.
Show your children this picture. Ask them if they’ve ever seen a flower growing from an unexpected place. Ask them to draw a flower growing somewhere unusual, or where they didn’t expect to see one, and then ask them to write about what they drew.
Writing Exercise.
Jamaican-British poet, James Berry, was part of the Windrush Generation who moved to the United Kingdom from the Carribean between 1948–1971. I love the sound of his voice, of his patois. I love that he liked making poems out of “every day music.” The Children’s Poetry Archive has some recordings of his poems that would be wonderful to share with your children. I particularly liked listening to his recitation of “Seashell.”
Turn on a recording of the sea, give your children a seashell to hold in their hands, and then ask them to write their own poem about the sea or a shell, perhaps to the background sound of a recording of waves. Have them recite it aloud to you.
“Poems come from your more secret mind.”
— James Berry
Writing Exercise.
Gwendolyn Brook’s poem “Aloneness” distinguishes between the feeling of being lonely and being alone. Other poems tap into what it is to feel joy or sadness.
Writing about what you’re feeling can be difficult, for adults and for kids. So do something different. Make an emotion come alive. Describe what color it is, what it sounds like, whether it frightens you, or makes you feel good. Personify it. Remember the movie “Inside Out”? Do this in poetry. What does anger look like? sadness? happiness? What does it smell like? taste like? Get really creative.
Final Writing Exercise
So many of the poems in this book are about love: love of your people, love of mamas, love of children. Have your children write a love song — to anyone or anything they want. Write one yourself. Read them aloud to each other. Don’t be surprised if you find that you’ve likely written love songs to each other.
I hope you’ll write with your kids, and then share your writing with each other. There is only one rule: don’t judge yourself. Just keep your pen to paper, and go with it. It doesn’t matter if you spell the words correctly; nothing has to rhyme; you can write in paragraphs or in short verses. Tell your kids to do the same. Try writing in silence; try writing with music in the background. More than anything, my hope is that you use these poems as a jumping off point to write your own, and that in doing so, you will have a greater appreciation for the art of poetry and for the power of words.
Originally published on Story Remedy
