“Dreams” by Nikki Giovanni (1968)

This poem begins with the speaker acknowledging the message that “black people aren’t / suppose to dream” (Lines 3-4). At the same time, before the speaker learned this, they had plenty of dreams. Like Giovanni, this speaker does not allow negative messaging to stop her from dreaming. Instead, she questions the messages she hears. In “Walking Down Park,” the speaker takes this questioning even further, asking what life was like before Europeans enslaved African people, finding a time in which Africans were not discouraged from following their dreams, and resurrecting that version of herself and others.

“Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni (1968)

One stereotype of African American childhood is that it’s filled with impoverishment and sadness. In this poem, Giovanni both acknowledges and questions the stereotype. She laments that the public never talks about “how happy you were to have / your mother / all to yourself […]” (Lines 6-8), among other things. As is characteristic of Giovanni’s work, she creates an alternate narrative that subverts and expands on the one-dimensional way that African Americans are sometimes portrayed.

“Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea (We're Going to Mars)” by Nikki Giovanni (2010)