Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea by Nikki Giovanni hums with the rhythm of spoken word poetry and the jazz of human experience. Each poem carries with it an essence that reflects the Black experience from the capture and transportation of slaves and what that should teach us about how to treat people to the lessons we carry with us once our relatives die. Her poetry is frank and honest, but it pulls no punches to ensure that readers understand that there are deep wrongs that can be learned from as long as we are willing to look at them closely. It may be difficult to review past transgressions without jumping to defend or shy away from shame, but her poems cause you to meet those challenges head on and to learn from our own follies.

At other show more times, her verse decries the blind eye that we turn every day to our own situations and histories, wishing that there were a different outcome or social norm. Giovanni’s poems focus a bit on the Black experience, but in many ways her verse and perspective transcends beyond those parameters to reach out to all of humanity. From “Possum Crossing” (page 5), “All birds being the living kin of dinosaurs/think themselves invincible and pay no heed/to the rolling wheels while they dine/on an unlucky rabbit//”

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I don't really like reading poetry, but I picked this up and started to read and couldn't put it down. I later saw her lecture and she's a compelling speaker too.

I had to buy this book for the title poem. Which I have an mp3 of Nikki Giovanni reading at some college years ago and is so very very perfect.