Last Wednesday poet, educator, and activist Nikki Giovanni keynoted the fourth annual Black History Month celebration, themed “Black Joy,” at UW-Madison hosted by the Pathways to Educational Achievement office and the Black History Month Student planning committee.
Giovanni’s quick-witted and unfiltered speech was titled “Black Joy is Black Wealth,” a line from her poem “Nikki-Rosa.”
Giovanni performed the poem, which discusses her family, growing up in Chicago, and the erasure of the Black experience when narrated by white writers.
“I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me because they never understand Black love is Black wealth,” read the poem.
There were some moments during the keynote when Giovanni kept to the motifs of the poem discussing the importance of family and more specifically women roles in holding families together.
“Women are wonderful. I can see why men have been jealous and trying to control them,” she said.
There were other moments, though, when one topic would naturally lead to another and Giovanni would share her honest outlooks on the world.
In her opening, for example, she held no punches, going straight for the sitting president, calling Trump “that idiot in the White House” and “a coward and a fool.”
“I don’t understand how a white man is scared of anything, [they] run the world,” said Giovanni.
She also took the audience on a trip through time discussing the role of music and Black women in establishing a collective means of communication during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to more contemporary issues like Kanye West’s meeting with Donald Trump signaling the death of Hip-Hop, according to Giovanni.
Within her combination of humorously honest opinions and brief lessons on history Giovanni encouraged students to live life to fullest and put little limits on their future.
“If you never make a mistake, you’ve made the biggest mistake,” she said. “That means you never tried.”
Ultimately Giovanni showed the audience that Black joy is unadulterated, unapologetic, and unrestricted.
“I’m very proud for Black joy because Black joy is Black will,” said Giovanni. “I’m very proud that we are here, working our way through life because that’s all you got to do.”
