moonscapist's review
4.0
My! Never have I ever read a poetess as brave as Giovanni. Reading "Reflections on April 4, 1968" made me weep. Her poetry style reminds me of E. E. Cummings' postmodern/experimental techniques, particularly the departure from poetic forms I am familiar with, but what makes this collection incomparable to my previous poetry reads is its courage and boldness, considering the political climate when it was written/published!
mrjess_bhs's review
4.0
Powerful poetry. I can see Giovanni as a young woman in the height of civil rights and black power and can feel the anger, pain, and occasional hopelessness that is behind her words. The use of homophonic, antisemitic, and racist language against Vietnamese was jarring, even if I understand it was common at that time, it still sucks to see people who have been dehumanized, then dehumanizing others. And that’s why white supremacy must be eradicated. I also appreciated how her silliness emerged in some of the poems. Delightfully weird, like everyone I love.
i32505's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. This kinda ebbed and flowed between militant black revolutionary poems and simple and beautiful love poems. I loved it.
Update for June 19th, 2018: Ethereal, loving, violently militant all describe Nikki Giovanni's poems in this collection. I guess that's the same impression I had as the first time I read this book, but one thing that struck me this time is how enraged she is about MLK's assassination. This makes me want to ask the people around me who were alive at the time about their reactions to his death.
Update for June 19th, 2018: Ethereal, loving, violently militant all describe Nikki Giovanni's poems in this collection. I guess that's the same impression I had as the first time I read this book, but one thing that struck me this time is how enraged she is about MLK's assassination. This makes me want to ask the people around me who were alive at the time about their reactions to his death.
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