Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea.by Nikki Giovanni Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni (born June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is a Grammy-nominated American poet, activist and author. Giovanni is currently a Distinguished Professor of English at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. William Morrow/HarperCollins December 2002 $16.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-060-09952-6 One of the most pleasing aspects of Giovanni's Quilting quilting, form of needlework, almost always created by women, most of them anonymous, in which two layers of fabric on either side of an interlining (batting) are sewn together, usually with a pattern of back or running (quilting) stitches that hold the layers the Black-Eyed Pea is that its subtitle speaks to its actual contents, "poems and not quite poems." This 110-page collection offers anecdotes, musings and praise songs. Giovanni's prose pieces explore various social issues of contemporary black life; a letter to a mother who killed her children then blamed a fictitious black man in "Susan Smith"; a man's love for his wife inspires her activism during the Civil Rights Movement in "Bring on the Bombs." Giovanni's signature observant humor is revealed in "The Self-Evident Poem": "We just can't keep bomb/-ing the same people over and over again because we don't want/to admit the craziness is home grown." Several pieces would provide text for charming children's books, especially "Word Olympics" and "The Meadow Throws a Birthday Party." This hodgepodge of memoir, epistles EPISTLES, civil law. The name given to a species of rescript. Epistles were the answers given by the prince, when magistrates submitted to him a question of law. Vicle Rescripts. and praise poems offers variety, but Quilting also shows that poetry is not always her strongest medium. A few of the poems could have been cut to let slip the beauty of her life experiences. --Tara Betts is published in Spoken Word Revolution and Best Black Women's Erotica erotica - pornography 2. |
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