Nikki G rocks this house!

I am wired and fired up. Matt and I just saw Nikki Giovanni speak at UAA. How could anyone sleep with the heart of that poet beating so close? ahhhh. . . really good stuff. I feel like writing and singing and teaching and dancing and living, with some screaming and shouting and kicking thrown in. Here are some highlights. . .

She talked about the need to live WITH the things we feared, and that really was a theme the whole evening, but she started this topic with a rant against Palin and the aerial wolf shooting that Palin supported and allowed up here. That flowed into racial and cultural differences, which really was at the heart of what she spoke of tonight, as she was a guest speaker for Civil Rights Month.

She spoke of the importance of finding love and joy, and surrounding yourself with people you love and lift you. She spoke of the power of education and narrative to heal and change. You shouldn't seek an education for money, she said, but to change as a person. She spoke of the courage of MLK and Rosa Parks, and detailed Park's life and ultimate courageous act on that bus, and I learned more about the civil rights movement in an hour than I have in my whole educated life. She spoke of the heinous death of Emmett Till, which I knew nothing of before tonight, but basically was the spark (oh, there was plenty of tinder, but this was really the flash of light that started the burn) for the movement. I am changed for the knowledge I gained tonight.

I left thinking, "I have so much to show my students, they need to know these things!" I am inspired and thankful to have had the opportunity to bask in the heat of this incredible woman. As a bonus, I got my Nikki Giovanni poetry book Matt had given me for Christmas many years ago signed by her, and he got her to sign her poem "We Will Prevail"; which she wrote on the eve of the Virgina Tech massacre. Every time I hear or read this masterpiece I tear up and stand in awe of the power of words. . . to heal things we should never have to experience . . . to move us to fully embody our best . . to help us see the light. Thank you Nikki, for bringing a spark to this cold, Alaskan night.