Literary Highlights: Nikki Giovanni & The Printers Row Book Fair

I was eighteen when I first picked up a pen, and got the book that changed, my literary view, "My House" by Nikki Giovanni, a book that was published in 1972, four years after I entered this earth. A mixture of soul, sage, mother, activist, the book called to my soul, especially the wonderful cultured poems about africa and governmental watching...So how befitting that I would end up a poet teaching poetry in the inner city and also using Nikki's work to inspire a generation, just like she did me.

So today, I take off to the Printers Row Book Fair with fellow road literary friend, Felicia Madlock, author of Sins of the Father (www.urbanbooks.net), because Felicia was going to read at the Book Fair this morning. Around 11:15, we got downtown, paid a little money for parking and walked over to the fair, found ourselves in the middle of literary heaven. There were booths, were authors, literary organizatoins, and book stores like Powell's Book Store, Borders and Barnes and Nobles. We grabbed a map and headed for the tent where Felicia was to read a selection. With her cam in hand, she taped performances of fellow writers in the Journal of Ordinary Thought.

My phone was on vibrate so I missed the phone call by FoFeet (st. Louis, native/spoken word artist) but I quickly called her back. We would meet later at the Nikki Giovanni reading. A few poets later, after Felicia read, "Spring", we headed over to the children's tent where Nikki would wear her literary hat #1 and read selected pieces from "Poetry Speaks to Children". In the hot sun, we walked past a few booths when we noticed Hill Harper (of CSI: NY), reading selected poems from his book, "Letters to a brother...MANIfest" and swore under our breathes, because we could not do both readings.

We found our seats for Nikki's first reading, and waited for the reading to start. I found myself staring at a neighbor from my building, who said, she loved Nikki too. Many calls later, Fo and I stated we would meet in the Harold Washington building where Nikki would read from her "Rosa" collection.

Felicia and I went to get a snack to eat at the fair- big juicy hotdogs, ummm, they were great before heading over to the auditorim to hear Nikki read again. Forty-five minutes later, we were entering the auditorium, after standing in the overflow line, and I purposely smiled, because I had some books in my bag. Books for Nikki~

During her presentation of the book, "Rosa", the audience was blessed with her cultural historical presentation about how the book was formulized and history about Rosa and general her Nikkisms. I am always reminded of why I love her so much. It's not just that she's a woman, an activist but as eloquently, she is a "woman of courage". She reminds us all that women are needed, we must have courage to "BE" and just use our voices, in all the ways we can use our voices. Be bold, unafraid, and not "ego-trip". It's a beautiful thing to be in the midst of a person who seems to know herself so well and not be afraid to speak her "peace".

I am not sure how long her presentation, took because she was so enthralling that we lost count of time. No one watched the time and personally, I could have stayed there all day to hear her and her thoughts on the world and her place in it.

We stood in line to give her love. We shook her hand, and I gave her my book, Liquid Kisses, and also told her I was a literary educator whose school she had recently visited and she remembered Michael Faraday where I'm currently in residency teaching poetry. I took the cam and took Felicia's picture with Nikki and ran into Fofeet during that timeframe at the same space.

3pm, we wound up in the Gwendolyn Brooks Tent listening to some of the Third World Press readers, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Nicole Shield, and others who really gave praise to Gwen's place in literary history. It was a great reading.

After the reading, we ended up going by Mello Yellow in Hyde Park for cuisine - and a libation. I had a Pina Colada (hey, sitting in the sun all day can be hard work).

Felicia and I headed back south to get some rest before the long night ahead non-literary related. For the House Heads....you understand when it's time to get down for a few hours of rest before going to a real music party. We're going to a midnight House Party....you know how we do it.

We'll return to the Book Fair on Sunday to hear more readers and some artists perform.

If you are ever in Chicago, you should try to check it out. It's free and everything is laid out for you. Plenty of chairs, parking spaces, bathrooms, just make sure to wear comfortable shoes, plan a budget of where you want to spend your time, bring summer chairs, and for little ones, snacks - fruit, juices, water. The basics.

It's a great time. Why not spend a weekend celebrating the written and spoken word?