Nikki Giovanni’s slightly raspy, slightly sibilant voice draws listeners into this important collection of poetry and prose. Letting her poet’s sense guide her tempo, Giovanni wrings the humor, anger, and sorrow out of being Black in America. In “And So It Comes to This,” Giovanni’s mocking tone is the perfect match for a scathing indictment of white men and their obsession with a false supremacy. Her palpable anger recalls the death of Michael Brown in “Ferguson: the Musical,” and her heart seems to be breaking as she describes “the brother” getting up in the dark to drive to the Million Man March. Warm tones express themes of quilts and songs and love. As Giovanni tells us, “All is transition and love is forever.” S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

11/23/2020

Giovanni (Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid) celebrates in her poignant 20th collection art as redemptive of traumas past and present, illuminating the ways in which “the blues is our encyclopedia.” With a mind attuned to ironies, Giovanni considers refuge from systemic injustice: “I remember sitting/ During the age of segregation/ In the ‘colored’ car/ Where the Pullman Porters looked out/ For my sister and me/ And we didn’t understand we were/ Not wanted/ We loved it.” In “When I Could No Longer,” speakers affirm the healing power of community against personal abuse, elegizing godmothers, grandmothers, educators and friends, including the late Toni Morrison. The most memorable moments in the collection reveal the cutting directness that made her a laureate of the Black Arts Movement: “The blues may talk about/ My man/ Or my woman/ Who left me/ Or took my money/ And is gone/ But what they mean/ Is I was stolen/ In an African war.” Similarly, in “Lemonade Grows From Soil, Too,” the speaker wryly notes, “Everybody wants to confuse love with sex. Ask Bill Cosby about that.” Such pleasurable jolts offset the collection’s more rhetorically slack moments and reinforce Giovanni’s unapologetic commitment to documenting both injustice and joy. (Oct.)

Black love, Black struggle and Black joy have long been at the center of Giovanni’s work. Her newest book is thick with affection for African-American people in their everyday lives.”  — New York Times

“Giovanni . . . celebrates in her poignant 20^th collection art as redemptive of traumas past and present, illuminating the way in which ‘the blues is our encyclopedia’ . . . The most memorable moments in the collection reveal the cutting directness that made her a laureate of the Black Arts Movement.”  — Publishers Weekly

“Nikki Giovanni—one of the great poets of any generation—still has much to impart in Make Me Rain, her hybrid autobiography of poems and prose. Given the tumultuous aspects of 2020, the disruptions and the dislocations of quotidian and public life, there’s a refreshing discordance in reading Giovanni’s newest and especially personal collection... This book is indeed a love letter, a celebration, both musical and soft-spoken, that doesn’t shy away from politics or pain, but is, above all, hopeful and thankful... History matters. Storytelling matters. Who we choose to be matters. Nikki Giovanni—this collection—reminds us of why.”  — Chicago Review of Books

“The work of Nikki Giovanni has been as evolutionary as it has been revolutionary. One of the finest poets of our time. . . Her work still resonates.”  — Ebony

“Nikki Giovanni’s work has always been remarkable for energy, venturesomeness, direct honesty, and courage.”  — Gwendolyn Brooks

Nikki Giovanni’s work has always been remarkable for energy, venturesomeness, direct honesty, and courage.” 

Black love, Black struggle and Black joy have long been at the center of Giovanni’s work. Her newest book is thick with affection for African-American people in their everyday lives.” 

The work of Nikki Giovanni has been as evolutionary as it has been revolutionary. One of the finest poets of our time. . . Her work still resonates.” 

Nikki Giovanni—one of the great poets of any generation—still has much to impart in Make Me Rain, her hybrid autobiography of poems and prose. Given the tumultuous aspects of 2020, the disruptions and the dislocations of quotidian and public life, there’s a refreshing discordance in reading Giovanni’s newest and especially personal collection... This book is indeed a love letter, a celebration, both musical and soft-spoken, that doesn’t shy away from politics or pain, but is, above all, hopeful and thankful... History matters. Storytelling matters. Who we choose to be matters. Nikki Giovanni—this collection—reminds us of why.” 

05/01/2020

Distinguished African American poet/activist Giovanni, winner of the Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award for Nonfiction among dozens of other awards, celebrates her heritage and head-butts Donald Trump's policies in her first volume of verse in seven years. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Nikki Giovanni’s slightly raspy, slightly sibilant voice draws listeners into this important collection of poetry and prose. Letting her poet’s sense guide her tempo, Giovanni wrings the humor, anger, and sorrow out of being Black in America. In “And So It Comes to This,” Giovanni’s mocking tone is the perfect match for a scathing indictment of white men and their obsession with a false supremacy. Her palpable anger recalls the death of Michael Brown in “Ferguson: the Musical,” and her heart seems to be breaking as she describes “the brother” getting up in the dark to drive to the Million Man March. Warm tones express themes of quilts and songs and love. As Giovanni tells us, “All is transition and love is forever.” S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine