Independent Poet, activist and writer Yolanda Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967, resulting in her organizing the Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati before entering graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. One of her quotes that speaks to me is something I am currently trying to improve because I am so much better than what others believe. “She decided to be a woman and though/ and though he still refused to be a man. She decides it was alright” (18-22). Nikki Giovanni poems are so inspiring because she encourages women to chase their dreams, and not to depend on…show more content… She wants him to be the dandelion, so that he could stand by her and support her while also allowing her to grow. By not agreeing to be that dandelion she needed, he did not allow her to grow or support her. She only desired was for her significant other to have her back and give her words of encouragement. Nikki needed that extra support to let her know that if she happens to fall then he will be there to catch her. “She wanted to be a robin singing/ through the leaves/ but he refused to be/ her tree” (Giovanni5-8). And the robin singing symbolizes her being happy. She wants to be like a bird; free to go her own way and being happy while she is doing it. Giovanni wanted the man to encourage her to be liberated and to do what makes her happy. Having a man as her tee means she has someone to come back too. In “Woman”, you can tell that the woman in the poem is a free spirit, and she was afraid of herself because she did not have self-confidence; she relied on her significant other to give her that craved-encouragement. But at the end she found herself. The woman came to the realization that she does not need any man’s approval to dictate her
