Quilts

“Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni (1970)

“Nikki-Rosa” is a poem looking back on Giovanni’s childhood as a metaphor for how childhood happiness is misconceived, based on racial prejudices. It is widely cited as an early success. It demonstrates Giovanni’s talent for speaking as representative for a group of people—which has always been a key element of her writing. The poem declares how she wants to be remembered, which is a sentiment echoed in “Quilts.”

“For Tupac Amaru Shakur” by Sonia Sanchez (1998)

Sonia Sanchez is a contemporary of Giovanni in the Black Arts Movement. They both lived, wrote, and were involved in the same activist groups in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Both women likely worked with Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, in the Black Panther Party. Similar to Giovanni’s writing, Sanchez writes with raw tenderness and an expansive voice that recognizes the weight of speaking for a community in times of tragedy as well as times of joy.

“A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde (1997)

Lorde’s poem follows a similar free-verse structure that alternates between short and longer lines to make the reader focus on the intent of the words.