BLACK FEELING, BLACK TALK, BLACK JUDGEMENT

by Nikki Giovanni ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 1970

Blackness is its own qualifier/ Blackness is its own standard,"" Miss Giovanni writes in a poem titled ""Of Liberation,"" and it might be best to let the whole volume go at that. Except that one would like to understand these poems in terms other than scare-headline versions of black militancy--lines like ""We would also suggest blinding or the removal of at least two eyes from one of the heads of all albino freaks"" notwithstanding. Fortunately her tone is usually milder, but with few exceptions the pieces are still exhortations to war, and (possibly an effect of poetic form) their shrillness and occasional outright savagery exceed anything one would expect to find in comparable radical prose. Her readers, almost by definition, will share and respect her anger; but because she dismisses its causes with rhetorical nose-thumbing and allows her style and language to be almost cliquishly insular, they may find some difficulty relating her arguments to the solid, persuasive logic of black liberation. Miss Giovanni is a writer of enormous political passion, but a good deal less analytical comprehension, and that weakness coupled with the peculiar exigencies of poetry can produce the most hair-raising kind of rant, regardless of how just the basic position may be.

Pub Date: Aug. 28, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION