Specialty Post #4...Rational for Nikki Giovanni Answers..

The rational for question 1 appeared on Wikipedia.org, Nikki was quoted in saying "she has never felt anything like the love for her son"(when he was born). That is what i based my answer off of because i think it shows the value of her family and not of a spouse. Question 2 i got the rational from our text book Literature for Composition(page 751). In her poem Love in Place, Nikki explains that she doesn't remember falling in love and so that is why i gave the answer of her not being able to recall because it's like how can you recall and event that never took place in your life. For question 3, it came from the biography on her website nikkigiovanni.com. She says "my focus is on individuality,specifically, on the power one has to make a difference in oneself", and I felt like she thinks marriage or being endulgent in love strips a person from their individuality and self-thought.
For question4, this came from the book also in her poem Love in Place. In lines 5-9, she says" I know i must have fallen in love once because i quit biting my cuitcles and my hair is gray and that must indicate something and i all of a sudden had a deeper appreciation for Billie Holiday and Billy Strayhorn so if it wasnt love i dont what it was". From that i inferred that she is basically saying when you switch up your daily routines, signs of stress(like gray hair), and appreciate love songs, you must be in love and making alterations to fit that love. Question 5, came directly from a quote in her peom"Nikki Rosa". I watched the video of her reading this poem and it is about the relationship between love and wealth, she is reflecting on how much love she was surrounded by as a child, despite her poverty. Despite her poverty, she was always happy because she was loved. I inferred that maybe if society put more love in the air instead of violence and death and filth, people would be much happier and not so dark.
Although, i do not have much rational for question 6, i basically made an assumption because of how she explains the unconditional love for her son, which is ultimately tied to the rational for question 1. For question 7, that came from a direct quote of hers about her overcoming her cancer. Question 9 cam from wikipedia.org, she says "marriage is an institution that is inhospitable to women and would never play a role in her life".

Works Cited:::
{1}Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. Literature for Composition. 8th ed. Pearson and Longman, 2007. 751-752.

{2}"Nikki Giovanni Biography." Nikki Giovanni.Com. 2003. 25 Feb. 2008 .

{3}"Nikki Giovanni." Wikipedia. 25 Feb. 2008 .

{4}Nikki Rosa. Perf. Nikki Giovanni. 2003. Nikki Giovanni. 26 Feb. 2008 .

The Love Interview:Nikki Giovanni

The assignment was to interview Nikki Giovanni, these answers are inferred from my own perspective from her works, poems, and books and are not fully accurate.

Ms. Interviewer: O.k first question, what does the term "love" mean to you?
-- Well the term love does not mean to just be married and have a relationship with somebody because i think marriage is inhospitable to women but love is something like a bond, something that can't be broken or taken away. Like the love for my son that i have, that will never be broken or taken away.
Ms.Interviewer: Great. what are some of the positive things about being in love?
--To be perfectly honest, i dont think i have ever been in loveand i dont think that i can explain the feelings of being in love and I have been in love once MAYBE but i can not recall.
Ms.Interviewer: What are some of the negative things?
--I think in a sense of individuality and i think a women should be able to be alone and still be happy and i think love makes a human being more vulnerable and dependent on another person. I think that marriage is like i said before inhospitable to women and we should be able to be individuals and life should not be based on marriage.
Ms.Interviewer: How do you know when you are in love?
--When you follow a routine everyday and then you find that when you meet somebody new and everything you are use to doing is altered i think you are in love and your mind and body are consumed in being in love.
Ms.Interviewer: How important is love to life and/or society?
--Honestly, i dont think that love is important to society except that growing up i was much loved and i think being loved as a child shapes the kind of person you will be as an adult no matter the circumstances(poverty, abuse, etc.).

Ms.Interviewer: If you've never been in love, why do you write poems based on love?

--Just because I have never given my heart to a man does not mean i haven't been in love, I felt unconditional love when i held my son and when i was younger my parents would do anything for me and thats the kind of love i show my child. I love my students whom I have been teaching at Virginia tech since 1987. Society has made love to be just between couples; love can be with mothers, daughters, friends, etc.

Ms.Interviewer: Do you think a near death experience made you love life and cherish it more?

--No, heck no, if it takes a near-death experience for you to appreciate life, you're wasting somebody's time.

Ms.Interviewer:Do you feel lonely because you do not have a husband or other half to complete you?

--No, the key to life is independence. Women do not need men to complete them, women can do more alone then they can do with a man or some "other half", you only have the power to make a difference in yourself.

Ms.Interviewer: So, do you think you will ever marry?

--It'll be somewhat of a miracle, not to say i do not believe in love, but it{marriage} would never play a role in my life. I have accomplished a lot in my lifetime and I do not want to be held back.

Specialty Post #2- Our Song and Image....((AMY WINEHOUSE in the HOUSE))

They tried to make me go to rehab but I said 'no, no, no' Yes I've been bad but when I come back you'll know know know I ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks I'm fine He's tried to make me go to rehab but I won't go go go I'd rather be at home with ray I ain't got seventy days Cuz there's nothing There's nothing you can teach me That I can't learn from mr hathaway I didn't get a lot in class But I know it don't come in a shot glass They tried to make me go to rehab but I said 'no, no, no' Yes I've been black but when I come back you'll know know know I ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks I'm fine He's tried to make me go to rehab but I won't go go go The man said 'why do you think you here' I said 'I got no idea' 'I'm gonna, I'm gonna lose my baby So I always keep a bottle near' He said 'I just think your depressed, This me "Yeah, baby, and the rest" They tried to make me go to rehab but I said 'no, no, no' Yes I've been black but when I come back you'll know know know... I don't never wanna drink again I just ooooh I just need a friend I'm not gonna spend ten weeks Have everyone think I'm on the mend It's not just my pride It's just til these tears have dried They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said 'no no no'Yes I've been black, but when I come back you'll know know knowI ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks I'm fineThey tried to make me go to rehab but I won't go go go

Above are the lyrics of Amy Winehouses' song "Rehab". The song is basically about her and not wanting to attend rehab because basically she's going to lose her baby. It talks of depression and drug use, but in the midst of her realization she still does not want to attend rehab. This song was the first song that came to mind when the assignment was explained in class because she is singing about her personal depressions and whats making her want to sing this song and share it to the world. The song also has a slow and mello tone with a hint of blues and jazz to it. I think that since blues music was used to exert frustration, sadness and depression, thats what Amy Winehouse did in this song also.

The image I chose was of the Promises Celebrity Rehab center in Malibu. I found this picture under google and the reason I chose it because when I think of rehab, I usually think of a gloomy, dark place. The Promises Center is very clean and happy looking. It makes one think hmm " why wouldn't Amy want to go there?" I think that inevitably people who say no to rehab are usually in fear of what they see in the media, but this center seems a little more inviting and I think with the song and image together a different story can be told.

BRAINSTORM:

NEW IDEAS:

• Maybe if Amy would have examined this center more closely she would have chosen it.


• Since I read her biography, I think it would have been nice for Amy to escape to some sunshine and happiness.

So far that is all I can really think of!!

WHOA READING POST #3((Emily Dickinson Poems))pg.580-586

In this reading, we explore the writings of Emily Dickinson. While some may find her writings to be disturbing, there is truly an intelligience behind them. In reading the poetry in depth I made an attempt to understand what Emily Dickinson was like and see what was inside her head. I think the most amazing part of reading these poems is that if in fact her sister did not betray her and broke her promise, we would not be able to view Emily's poems.

In the first poem" I Heard a Fly Buzz-when I died-", it makes it easier to envision what death is like. The desolate silence she portrays in the poem and stillness in the air is so easy to imagine. In lines 9-11, she says" I willed my keepsakes-signed away..what portion of me be Assignable". This quote makes me think of a will because it basically assigns to whom and to where you want your possessions and keepsakes to go. In most of the poems, she speaks of death but also she is in touch with her religious side too. Like in "These are the days when Birds come back", she makes references to sacraments and in "Papa Above!", I think she is in reference to Jesus and in the last poem she makes references to Cathedrals.

Her poems not only provide a feeling to death, it also gets in tune with the religious side of things. Her poems aren't really necessarily as sad as you expect death to be, I find them like sort of an explanation or story. I think it is amazing how she has written the poem as though dying is a day to day activity. I think these poems are anthologized to inevitably show the life behind death. To give feelings to what, in most cases, is associated with no feeling.

Reading Post #2 Pgs- 603-610((Word and Image))

Okay, so this reading was interesting because I did not know this style of poetry existed. Since, I am a visual learner, I gravitated toward this style immediately because of the pictures used to match the poetic words in these poems. In the different writing pieces, the authors of the poems and of the pictures weren't the same and I noticed that while reading.

For the first poem by Jane Flanders, I think the words just explain and put more empasis to the images in the pictures. While describing what we see, the poem also makes you want to visualize what this bed is like and the picture just seems to add more umph to the words. I think that if this picture wasn't here it would be hard to visualize such a descriptive bed.

In the poem by William Carlos Williams, I think this poem just adds more importance to this number. Seeing the number 5 in this painting made me think of how the simplest objects can really begin to mean something when they are focused on more in depth. I find it wierd that somebody would see this passing on a truck and decide to take a piece of paper out and draw it, but that is the beauty of artists, they find the importance in such simplistic items.

While Edwin Romanzo Elmer's "Morning Picture" painting is quite disturbing and scary, I think that this does enlighten the words in the poem. I think again it is easy to visualize her parents sitting in the dark. This would otherwise seem wierd and odd for me to try to visualize. This poem adds life to the picture, it makes me think of these people as actual human beings with feelings and emotions. I think the poem had a lot of emotion behind it. Although it was wierd to me at first, I think the picture and poem together add beauty to this poem that otherwise I would not be able to find just reading it without the imagery behind it.

I feel that the use of images and poetry together is a beautiful combination because it adds life and visuals to something that would otherwise bore me. With the pictures here it is easier for me to understand and read the poem.

Specialty Post#1..YaY

Finally my specialty post is here...

I took my quote from pg. 592(Langston Hughes)

He said" The blues can be real sad, else real mad, else real glad, and funny, too, all the same time. I ought to know. Me, I growed up with blues. I heard so many blues when I was a child until my shadow is blue".

I think that he is trying to imply that one the blues has all different kinds of meanings. The blues can be sad, glad and even funny. I also think that as many other African Americans back then, he felt like blues was a normal way of life because he had seen it so much as a child. The blues way of singing was enstilled in him as a child because he heard so much of it. This quote is worth anthologizing because I think that much of what we do as adults is because of what we learned as children. I think this quote is a good way of putting the phrase "Like mother, like daughter" or vice versa. The things we see our parents do is what we will most likely do when we are adults.

Reading: America Sings the Blues

Okay, at first I was wondering why in the world are we reading this? After I realized what it was about I definitely began to engage more and become interested. I liked reading this because I enjoy poetry and I did like 5 projects about Langston Hughes in Elementary and Middle School. It basically talked about blues music and how slaves use to sing these songs to make them "feel better". I guess it made them escape reality for a little. Blues also influenced several genre's of music such as rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and gospel.

Although I read all of the poems, there were only a couple that made me actually think and want to reread. Bessie Smith's poem reminded me of a new age R&B song. The second to last line of the poem made me think like that, it was "Take me back baby, try me one more time". It seems like she is begging him and I don't think this is a "feel better" song. As I read Robert Johnson's poem, I began to think of his as a prayer, he said the Lord's name and it seemed like he was trying to tell more of a story from the time he woke up in the morning until whenever he wrote that poem.

Now I got interested when Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poems came up because he is by far one of my biggest poetic influences. His poem seems more like a blues poem that a slave would sing because he used the language and also words and actions that they could relate to. His use of broken English may throw some people off, but I could understand. In line 1 he says, "standing at de winder", although some people in the new age would not understand this, I bet slaves and blacks in his time did. I liked the short biographies above their poems and I saw that Paul was the only African American in his high school class and I think this was an amazing accomplishment for him. In W.H Auden's poem, I did not feel the sense of "feel better", it would have made me sadder to hear it. In Line 6 of his poem, he says " Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead". This makes me think of death, but in the reading it does say that blues was used to express death sometimes and I guess this did fit the category.

This Johnny Cash poem that he performed for Folsom State Prison was actually on CMT a couple of days ago and I think he related to the prisoners. I also think it was a good thing to see that white people could also sing blues too because it seemed to usually be associated with the slaves and with blacks. In his poem he says "not to play with guns" and similar phrases and I think that is brave to sing such a song in front of prisoners.