Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems

by Nikki Giovanni

Book Overview

"One of her best collections to date." --Essence

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea is a tour de force from Nikki Giovanni, one of the most powerful voices in American poetry and African American literature today. From Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgment in the 1960s to Bicycles in 2010, Giovanni's poetry has influenced literary figures from James Baldwin to Blackalicious, and touched millions of readers worldwide. In Quilting the Black-Eyed...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060099534
• ISBN13: 9780060099534
• Release Date: December 2010
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Poems and Essays¿Nikki Style

Holding a book of poetry or essays by Nikki Giovanni is like holding a gift of joy in one's hand. In this slim volume called Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, we get both genres. Some pieces have both; they start off as a poem and meander into essay form as in the self-titled offering, "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea". What does H. Rap Brown have to do with NASA and Martians? Well, in this poem/essay, she ties it all together and somehow it all makes sense. In "Twenty Reasons to Love Richards Williams, Giovanni pays tribute to Venus and Serena Williams' father; "He makes white folks crazy (PS and the black bourgeoisie, too)". "Don't Think" is but six powerful lines and "Blackberry Cobbler", now one of my favorite poems, is reminiscent of childhood and grandmothers. Tributes are paid to James Baldwin, Rosa Parks, and there is another Aretha poem. In these tributes, a ground work of black history is laid before she bestows the honoree with ultimate adulation.As in Love Poems, her previous collection, Giovanni gives you words of wisdom, love, and conscientious discourse. This is a book that you will find yourself picking up again and again and wanting to share with others. This is poetry- Nikki style.Dera WilliamsAPOOO BookClub

WONDERFUL!

I loved this book of poems and not quite poems. I have so many favorites but the one I liked most was "Twenty Reasons to Love Richard Williams". When I read the title I was thinking who is Richard Williams...maybe some one she once dated. As I started reading it I realized who she was talking about. This poem is so funny yet so VERY true. I actually read it twice. There were several others that I enjoyed like "Aunt Daughter and that Glorious Song" and "Bring On The Bombs: A Historical Interview". As I read these I was sort of lost at first and then I realized that they were about James Weldon Johnson and Daisy Bates, I love the way that she tells the stories of those two events in history. I do wonder if "Aunt Daughter and That Glorious Song" is a true story. I also enjoyed "What We Miss", which was some what therapeutic for me becuase I lost my mother last year and many of the things that I miss about my mother were written in this poem. And "He Blew It" just speaks for itself.I love Ms. Giovanni's writing and this book is one of my favorites. She is so truthful about everything that she has written here. It is like she put on paper what everyone has been thinking.

Quilting the Black Eyed Pea

...I must say this is the best work by nikki since black judgement black thought...I loved this book and just like the title sugguests they are poems and not quite poems...my favorite is "rosa parks"....it was wonderful, simply nikki...vb

The voice of a preeminent poet

"Quilting is a metaphor for space travel and the Black folkthat I imagine await on us on Mars, sitting around quilting the black - eyed pea." -- Nikki GiovanniIn light of the quote above, I begin the arduous task of reviewing the works of a cultural icon who has remained unwaverved in her political beliefs and true to living life her way. She has mastered the art of blending grief, sarcasm and sometimes outrage with the right touch of humor.Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, is a collection of 50 poems, sketches and meditations that touches on a gamut of events as Ms. Giovanni in her narrative voice gives the world a historical overview and also focuses on the future. This collection which cuts to the core and seems unapologetic is very intimate. Each piece in the collection has the ability to pull the reader into a vortex of introspection. I urge everyone to read them slowly and absorb the author's message. In 'We're Going to Mars' and 'Symphony of the Sphinx', she exposes sketches of Black history and the intense struggle people of color have endured just to live the American dream. In 'Here's to Gwen', Ms. Giovanni depicts women as forces to be reckoned with in literary history with her special dedication to the premier poet, Gwendolyn Brooks. In 'Twenty Reasons to Love Richard Williams', she pays homage to a tennis father who had the stick-to-itiveness to propel his daughters to tennis stardom, and who made the world see through his eyes how beautiful Black is. There is nothing quite like her terse, biting '9-11-01'('He blew it'), asMs. Giovanni shares her views on the politics of the country, and on the office of the Commander and Chief. A meditative 'My America',(for Hugh Downs) is a quiet, calm piece where the hope for something better is the message. Ms. Giovanni's life altering illness emphasizing how fragile life is was very evident in her poignant letter to 'Emerson Edward Rudd', prior to his execution in Huntsville, Texas on November 15, 2001 for the armed robbery and murder of a restaurant manager. In her final poem, 'The Song of the Feet,' she humorously reflects on how the feet of women have been and will continue to be a cornerstone in the development of Black History as well as American History. Ms. Giovanni is a poet, activist, mother, the author of 27 books, and a distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, VA. In 1999 she was one of 14 living writers inducted into The Literary Hall of Fame for writers of African Descent. From the cover, "One of the most commanding, luminous voices to grace America's political and artistic landscape." I highly recommend Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, a book of poetry not by one of America's foremost Black poets, but by one of America's preeminent poets, period. Reviewed by aNN Brown

Quilting The Black-Eyed Pea - Sensational Poetry!

Quilting The Black Eyed Pea by Nikki Giovanni is a gut wrenching and emotion jerking book of oh so fabulous poetry based on events from her heart and corresponding to major events that shook the lives of the nation called America. Beginning with the Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea (We're Going To Mars), this poem is indeed one as I have never read in my life of literature. Nikki poetically finds similarities between the trip to Mars (that we yearn for) and the Middle Passage in the slave ship on it's way to a desitation unheard.This poem reasons out the trip to Mars to be very important to us because of self denial, waiting for all our bad attributes to become lost somewhere else, so we journey off to leave our old selves back to try and find a new self. Then all at once, we get to Mars and begin to kill the "Martians and the Martian Sympathizers". . ."As if the Fugitive Slave Law wasn't bad enough then". Sound familiar? All of a sudden, the way that we are packed in the space ship is the same way the enslaved were whipped and chained in the slave ship. They survived though their survival own skills. Thus, Nikki concludes with a smiling martian community watching us land on their terf while they simply continue to quilt a black-eyed pea. This is remarkable. Focusing on Emmett Till, Susan Smith, Rosa Parks, and even President Bush and his response to the terrorists attacks and how it should have been! I must say. . . she makes much sense in her poetic vibe. Her magnificent poems circle around love for animals and nature and any forms of life. . .especially human. Not to be self centered and consumed with everything that we forget everything. Learn to care and be compassionate. Nikki shares these feelings to us through saddness of past errors in the law, anger, sweetness and joy in her poetry. If anyone is a poetry fan, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea will grab you and take you off the ground. This books is wonderful because of the up front nature it contains while it speaks to you in a different light. It makes you feel and reflect. Five Stars!Mirika Cornelius...