My laundry list of life regrets is full of squandered chances, like when I missed Justin Timberlake at Gypsy Tea Room in 2005. Still, none sits higher than the time I passed on a lecture by Nikki Giovanni. The poet, activist and educator stopped by Mountain View College to perform her work and looking back, I can't even remember why I sat the evening out. Go ahead and file that under My Greatest Errors.
Needless to say, the opportunity to see her again, especially in such an intimate setting, won't come twice, but today life offers a re-do, of sorts. The literary hero will be honored at 8 p.m. this evening as part of a Women's History Month celebration at the South Dallas Cultural Center, and while she will not be present, her work will be. It's March's installment of "Queerly Speaking," an open mic event offered by Fahari Arts that's dedicated to artistic expression in the creative gay community.
Start your weekend with selections by one of the strongest, and most challenging voices of modern poetry. Giovanni's work focuses on identity and the individual, and as a champion for human rights and equality, she's a more than apt closing voice for Women's History Month. You might not remember anything you else you do today, but you'll remember the effect hearing her work performed had on you.
she wanted to be a blade of grass amid the fields but he wouldn't agree to be the dandelion
she wanted to be a robin singing through the leaves but he refused to be her tree
she spun herself into a web and looking for a place to rest turned to him but he stood straight declining to be her corner
she tried to be a book but he wouldn't read
she turned herself into a bulb but he wouldn't let her grow
she decided to become a woman and though he still refused to be a man she decided it was all right
