This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Virginia Tech chapter.
“I’m a big fan, frankly speaking, of Black women. I think that Black women are everything, I think the world without Black women would just be a sad world. They are a kind people; [they] have made and produced something…that has not been produced before.”
–Dr. Nikki Giovanni
On Sunday, March 20, Dr. Giovanni spoke at New River Community College in Dublin, Virginia on the subject of her new book, Chasing Utopia. The event lasted an hour and Giovanni spoke for about twenty minutes, touching on many subjects from the text and reading two poems.
University Distinguished Professor Dr. Nikki Giovanni is a member of Virginia Tech’s esteemed faculty. She is a celebrated author and activist who has taught at Virginia Tech since 1987. Dr. Giovanni’s extensive accolades include receiving the first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award and seven NAACP Image Awards, and writing multiple New York Times and Los Angeles Times Best Sellers. It is an absolute honor to have her at our university.
On Sunday, as I drove thirty minutes down one-lane mountain roads, passing rundown gas stations and threatening mountainsides, I kept wondering why in the world Dr. Nikki Giovanni was hosting an event at a community college that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Interestingly, this is one of the first things Giovanni spoke of.
“Of all the white people in America,” Giovanni stated, “the best white people are Appalachian.” This earned a round of applause from the audience, which was not predominately white or black, young or old. Even on a rainy Sunday afternoon in the middle of nowhere, the turn out to hear Dr. Giovanni speak was diverse and large. She continued, saying, “We here, in the New River Valley, are Appalachian. So we know also that whatever it is that you all bring to us, you do not bring fear. You do not bring bigotry and hatred; you actually bring love.”
Giovanni then praised the history of Appalachia, recounting that it was always a safe place for runaway slaves who could make it that far and the home 90% of astronauts. “One of the reasons that we…have so many Appalachians who’ve been going to space is that we can live within ourselves.” Giovanni stated. “We know that one of the important thing on earth is being able to live within yourself.”
The first poem she read was When God Made Mountains, which was inspired by the people of Appalachia. “It’s about us.”
Throughout the event, Giovanni’s personality shone . As a professor, Giovanni is known to go off topic as her passions lead her. This tendency was by no means absent on Sunday. From astronauts to lung cancer to the Supreme Court, Giovanni spoke on many diverse subjects with equal passion.
One phrase that the professor used multiple times was “he hasn’t said yes but he hasn’t said no.” This testifies to her well-known habit of chasing after what she wants, regardless of how overly-ambitious an idea may seem. Some of the ambitions she mentioned on Sunday were desires to put creative writers in space so they can convey the best-possible account of what it’s like up there to us, to recruit former coach Frank Beamer for an event celebrating Maya Angelou in September and to have the director of NASA elected to the Supreme Court.
If ever an opportunity to hear Dr. Giovanni speak arises, or a chance to take one of her classes, I would encourage you to take it. After all, it’s not every day that you can experience the works of one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 Living Legends, but here at Virginia Tech we can.