Rachel Martin
Appearances
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
No, I like it. I like it. I mean, it's real. That is your fear, the ostrich.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Three. In what ways do you choose to find joy?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
You said that sometimes you catch yourself, or maybe it's not catching yourself, just sometimes you do just talk out loud to your mom or your grandmother. Does it happen when you're cooking?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard, the game where cards control the conversation. Each week, my guest chooses questions at random from a deck of cards. Pick a card one through three. Questions about the memories, insights, and beliefs that have shaped them. My guest this week is poet Nikki Giovanni.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
We've got another quick break, but when we come back, Nikki tells me about her belief system.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
So now this is the beliefs round. Beliefs. One, two, three. Okay, three. Three. Do you think about the legacy that you will leave behind?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
No. Wow, I'm surprised by that answer. No. Huh.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Have you seen people get too caught up in preemptively analyzing their legacy?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Let me ask this question a different way then, though. I get what you're saying, that you don't want to get wrapped up in your ego. You don't want to think about, you know, I'm so important. People are going to remember me. What are they going to write on my tombstone? What are all the great accolades they're going to give me?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
But are there moments when you think back on your life and allow yourself moments to feel proud?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
That's beautiful. Thank you. This is the last one. Okay. Last question. One, two, or three. Let's go two again.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
What belief helps you make sense of the world?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
There are so many words I could use to describe my guest today. Poet, revolutionary, queer icon, feminist, space enthusiast, mother and grandmother, legend. Nikki Giovanni is all those things. But she is also a woman who figured out really early that she didn't have to apologize to anyone for who she was or for what she wanted from her life.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Don't go to church. Don't pray. But there's still something about Jesus.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Well, you won the game, Nikki. So the prize, alas, is not ginger cookies. Oh. I know. It is a trip in our memory time machine. So, as your prize, you get to revisit one moment from your past that you would not change anything about. It's just a moment you'd like to linger a little longer in.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
I want you to be in it now, though. Can you go there now in your mind?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
She can write poems that look directly at all the pain and hatred in the world. And she can write children's books about feeling safe and loved. She can also conjure what it will look like when humans set up shop on Mars and black women lead the way.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Well. You don't owe me anything. You don't have to take me to your moment.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
But I'm glad that you can go there easily these days. Yeah. They're with me. Yeah. Yeah.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Well, it was my great pleasure to get to talk with you. Thank you so much for doing this.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni, poet, author, revolutionary, amazing human. Thank you so much for talking with me.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
If you want to hear more from Nikki Giovanni, we've got a bonus question you can hear by signing up for Wildcard Plus. I asked her what her thoughts are on marriage.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
You'll also hear Ted Danson talk about adjusting to the world of adult responsibility. And you'll hear my reflections on how those conversations affected me personally. Wildcard Plus is the best way to support our show and support public radio at the same time. Go to plus.npr.org slash wildcard to join today.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni has just been doing it her own way all along and writing it down so the rest of us can start to see beyond ourselves and whatever hard thing we happen to be stuck in at any particular moment. Nikki Giovanni, welcome to Wildcard. I'm so glad you're here.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
So are you a person who enjoys a good birthday party? Did you have one?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
I get it. I get it. I'm so glad you're out of the hospital. I'm glad that you're doing better. Are you a game person? What do you think about this?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
All right. I'm into it. So let me explain how this is going to go, okay? Okay. I've got a deck of cards in front of me, and each one has a question on it that I would love for you to answer. I'm going to hold up only three cards at a time. And then you, Nikki, are going to choose one at random to answer. Okay. There are two rules. You get one skip.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
If you use your skip, I will swap in another question from the deck. Okay. And rule number two, you get one flip. So you could put me on the spot and ask me to answer one of the questions before you do. Okay. And we're breaking it up into three rounds. Okay. Memories, insights, and beliefs with a few questions in each round. And because it's a game, there's a prize when you make it to the end.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Ginger cookies. Ginger cookies. How did you know?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
It's not ginger cookies. I should just tell you right now so you can emotionally prepare.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Okay, so this is the memories round. Three cards to choose from. One, two, or three? Of course, two. Of course, two. You said that like everybody knows it's two. It's the best number.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Okay. Were you ever obsessed with a particular cosmic question as a kid?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
And I love that you have planted that idea in our collective consciousness and have written a lot about it. When did Mars come into your head? Do you remember? Like as a kid? I didn't think about Mars as a kid. How did it capture your imagination?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Did fixing your gaze upward make you feel safer? I mean, you had a tough home life. You've talked and written a lot about that. Did thinking about the planets, the cosmos, the universe, Did that help you escape whatever was going on at home?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Three new cards. Okay. Same drill. You pick one, two, or three. I guess I should take one. Okay. Let's do one. What's something you thought was normal about your childhood? that you now realize was unusual?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Because that was your norm. So you assumed that all families to some degree were broken in that way.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
We've got to take a quick break, but when we come back, I ask Nikki if she is afraid of anything. And her answer may surprise you.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
Now, we move into the second round. Oh. The insights round. This is stuff you're learning now, stuff you're working through now. Okay, three new cards. One, two, or three. Remember, you have a skip and a flip. You don't have to use them. One, two, or three. Well, let's go for two again. Okay. What emotion do you understand better than all the others?
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
It's a long life already, Nikki, 81. And most of your friends are older than that. Some good longevity.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
My kids asked me that recently, if I wanted to, you know, not just to 100, but like, would I want to live forever? And then, you know, that's an interesting question to talk about with kids and how having a finite end to life sometimes creates... because you think things are going to end, you know. But I said I would do it with some caveats. I just want my health.
Up First from NPR
The Poetic Wealth of Nikki Giovanni
I just want my body to still work. I don't want things falling apart on me.