Nikki Giovanni
speaker
68 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Nikki Giovanni’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Probably the most unusual thing about my childhood was that I recognized that my parents' marriage was not my business. Because it was unpleasant. Saturday night at 11 o'clock, I was listening to my father beat my mother. So that's unpleasant. But you also recognize it has nothing to do with you. It was none of my business. And I didn't believe Ozzie and Harriet or Father Knows Best.
I didn't believe any of that. I still don't think that there's such a thing as a happy family.
Yeah, they're crazy. And so the best thing you can do, sometimes you need to walk away. You need to find friends and get rid of the family. Because the family drives you crazy. Just because you happen to be born. It doesn't make them kin to you. You make your own families, is what I guess I'm saying.
I recommend dogs. But they're faithful, they're intelligent, and they always love you. You walk into the house, the dog is always happy to see you.
Patience.
I'm incredibly patient. It takes a lot to really push me. Okay. Where does that come from? Well, I don't know. I'm the baby sister of two. So that teaches you, one, you're always watching your big sister because they're always so wonderful. They're prettier. They're more intelligent. Everything. In your mind, yes. And you want to say, well, one day I'll grow up or whatever.
But most of my friends are older. I have very few friends who are older. My age, I'm 81. Right.
Well, I'm hoping that Aunt Sarah, who is my mother's great aunt, and nobody liked Sarah, by the way. She was a despicable person. But she lived to be 100. So I do want that dream that lets you live to be 100. I think it'd be interesting to see what's happening at 100.
Things are going to fall apart. And so that's, again, one of the things that you can hear in my breathing. It's because of the pneumonia. Okay. Oh, and that'll go away. This will get well. But I'm not afraid of, you know, being blind. I have a friend who's losing her sight and it makes her very uncomfortable. I think it's what an opportunity to now see the world in a different way. I mean,
Look at Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder. So you say, well, they couldn't see, but look at what they created. So obviously they saw something. And I'm not afraid. As I said, 80 kicked my butt. I mean, if it could be wrong with me, it was wrong with me. And I was thinking, okay, well, you know, I had cancer. I had lung cancer. And I had breast cancer.
And I said, whatever happens, I don't want to read. I don't want to be sitting. Well, I'll be sitting in hell because I don't think I'm going to heaven. But I don't want to be sitting in hell. And they said she fought cancer for 20 years. I'm not fighting any disease. I'm learning to live with it. And I want the disease to live with me.
So every morning that I wake up, me and cancer, we're in good shape. And I said, well, let's take a shower. Go about our day. Let's do our life. Yeah. And one day we won't. And then that means that I'll be transitioned. I'll be in another place.
And that's what, you know, I'm talking about my grandmother, but that's what I think about grandmother, about Sister Althea, who was my eighth grade teacher, and I loved her so much. I don't think they're not dead because they will never be forgotten for me.
And I find myself, if I'm not careful, and sometimes even if I am talking to them or they're talking to me, you know, you're never alone when you have somebody like that around you.
Well, I'm very cautious around ostrich when I was on, you know. Nikki, what are you talking about?
Well, yeah. You ever been on safari? They are mean. No, they are mean, and that kick will kill you. Ask a lion. If you had to put a lion against an ostrich, the lion is gone. That's why you don't see lions.
Yeah, you have to be very careful around them. I'm not afraid of lions because lions are an intelligent being that unless you're threatening them, they're not going to bother you. But the only ostriches I've had in relation, you know, it's been unpleasant. And I'm lucky that they didn't get to me or they would have killed Thomas and my son and I on safari. You have to be careful around ostriches.
People need to know that.
Let's do three.
Cooking. Cooking. I love to cook. Do you? I really do. I cooked with my grandmother. And my mother could cook, but not as well as my grandmother. And I didn't cook with Mommy. I watched Mommy cook. But I cooked with Grandmother. And I would be the one. She used to be the one. I hope nobody's upset. But, you know, you'd go and get the chicken. We lived in Knoxville. In Tennessee, yeah.
Showing 21–40 of 68 · page 2 of 4
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