"This morning, Spirit Soul Music will honor the spirit of and wisdom of Nikki Giovanni, whose powerful words and soulful reflections have inspired generations"-Host, Bobbi Booker

When: today 6am-9am

Where: WRTI 90.1 FM

How: Live Stream from WRTI.org

If you can't, enjoy this quick compilation of sources to hear her voice and learn about her body of work and now legacy for our futures.

Tribute copy for the world.

A voice like a fiery comet, a roar the size of the ocean, a legacy that is there now to remind us-who we really are using the drum of her heart, the rhythm that she made look so casual that it has the home-y-ness of wonder and a pond to swim in….but simple English that took her to the sky.

 Nikki Giovanni took charge of words and used them to choose life, state her politics, change the conversations.  She said " to be memorable write with empathy".  "Give up approval".  Know you have a mission to know you are enough, dynamically lovable and the possibility to experience in waiting for touching life. She asked us to see and feel, acclaim and feel and think.  Philosopher, lover, friend and a word not often heard "Poet".

And phrases and indictment's or rabble-rousing  natural participant.   Check out some of the quotes below and you will find yourself reading and quoting her into a long tomorrow.   Contemporary. Thrilling.  Enchanting.  Evocative. How about "Public Intellectual".  "Fierce tender lover of the power of words".  Aristotle's storyteller with a beginning, middle and end in the smallest amount of room.

Mendacity of asking us to really live, deeply think, openly share and find ourselves wrestling with angels, angles, raindrops, rainbows, and respect one another, don't take life for granted, try it on and taste it and welcome home.

Quotes from Good Reads that will grab you:

*"Writers don't write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don't. ...If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy."

*"I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )"

*"the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by."

*"There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect."

*"i hope i die

warmed

by the life that i tried

to live"

She is gone from cancer, here for her courage to be known, seen, wanted, and heard.  What a gift have us wonder while we are still here, what we gotta do to be warm, alive, expressed.

Who else said these things and things soooo very clearly.  Not many dared.  Was willing to risk and make life an expression of our shared histories, of the American soul, of seizing the intellectual moral ground from the tiniest of contemplations to embodying Jesus, the Goddess and the power of the Nile. She is a national treasure, but her books ageless. She has lived her life aloud and here to be discovered of a life well lived and a clarity that will continue to touch and awaken our hearts.

Don't lecture about her- heed her gift that will keep on giving.  If you have never heard her or read her work; grab recordings from the web, social media, to her own videos, talks, classes and papers.

There has never been a greater time or a greater need in this country, on our block, in the world.

A historian, a story teller, a powerful woman, an enchantress, a challenge, and eternal and universal commitment to laying it down in such simplicity and grove that we will stand on her shoulders and say her name, say her name, say her name that we will not forget the preciousness of time and what we have seen, wondered about and been given.  What a life. She achieved her wish and bade us to live honestly, deeply and well.

Get a book, a tape, a video- wonder at this American voice and share her work, share her voice and read out loud to drink this stuff in…it lives in the sharing.

Links: see below.

Bibliography: Go to the Public Library or the web.

Nikki Giovanni, The Collected Poetry, 1968-1998

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/22050.Nikki_Giovanni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8KNsKziNI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4OPYp4s0tc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCNa-opcUg