|
RICHMOND, Va. -- Nikki Giovanni, the poet and Virginia Tech professor whose "We AreVirginia Tech" speech galvanized a national audience five years agoduring the convocation after the massacre on the Tech campus, willbe in Richmond on Wednesday. She plans to read some of her poems at Virginia Union University insupport of a fundraising effort for Ashland Supportive Housing, anorganization that assists those in danger of becoming homeless. The organization's founder, Lucinda Jones, a writer herself, saidshe had no inside path to get Giovanni to assist her nonprofitorganization. "I just wrote to her, trying to connect. Then I got acall back from her office, and we started talking." Ashland Supportive Housing was founded a year ago to helpstruggling families and individuals who have jobs but are in dangerof losing their homes. Some of them have been living in an Ashlandmotel. Giovanni, who turned 69 on Thursday, said the reason she was movedto help Jones and her organization is simple: "People should havehomes. … If you don't have a home to go to, it changeseverything about you," she said. "If you're living in a motel or acar, it changes your outlook." Giovanni said she doesn't anticipate lecturing Wednesday'sgathering about homelessness, but rather reading from her books ofpoetry, among them "Bicycles: Love Poems." The opening and closing poems in that book are about darkly tragicdays at Tech. The first piece, "Blacksburg Under Siege: 21 August 2006," draws onthe memory of the fatal shooting of a hospital security guard and asheriff's deputy in the college town. The last is her memorableconvocation speech, addressing the unspeakable grief after Tech'sawful day and the grief that wells up from tragedies worldwide. "Those days," she said, "were spinning in my head like wheels, thewheels of the bicycle. … How do you connect them? How do youunderstand life in the midst of such sadness?" Her answer: "Love. I decided to write some love poems. I decided tolaugh. There's nothing as silly as being in love. … Thatcheered me up. Love is balance and trust. That's how you learn toride a bicycle — balance and trust." She said she won't read her iconic "We Are Virginia Tech" poemWednesday. "There's no way to go back to that day," she said. "That was such asad time. That poem doesn't fit any other time.". I am an expert from woodpellet-machine.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Pellet Cooler , Animal Feed Production Line, Biomass Pellets Machine,and more.
Related Articles -
China Pellet Cooler, Animal Feed Production Line,
|
