Commentary by AbbyMcQuire

If you told me I would have gotten the chance to see Nikki Giovanni speak about the importance of women in society, I wouldn’t have believed you. But nevertheless, on Tuesday, Aug. 27, I was lucky to get the opportunity, along with senior Mary McKay, to go to “Lunch for the Girls.” 

This luncheon is hosted by Girls Inc., an Omaha non-profit organization that is active within the Omaha community. 

They focus on helping minorities and girls from underserved communities get opportunities and community support. 

Girls Inc. hosts an annual “Lunch for the Girls” which includes an activist speaker to help raise money for their cause. 

In the past, they have hosted Michelle Obama, Barack Obama and Malala Yousafzai, just to name a few. 

This year they hosted Nikki Giovanni. Giovanni is a prominent figure in American political history as well as the literary community. She rose to fame during the Black arts movement, where she used her experience as a Black woman to tell the complex story of Black Americans.

During her talk, her concern for the underprivileged was clear, emphasizing the importance of voting to maintain personal autonomy. “Women are a good idea,” Giovanni said. She told the women in the crowd that because of their gender, they have a responsibility to vote in order to protect the autonomy of all women. 

Giovanni is 81 years old and the same issues she wrote about in the 1960s are still prominent today. Many people would feel discouraged, but Giovanni is not one of them. “As long as there is any part of me that is alive, I will vote,” Giovanni said. She then shared one of her poems,“Vegetable Soup.” This poem was written for her granddaughter and talks about the importance of food in a Black woman’s life. 

The speech Giovanni gave had no hidden meanings and she made several overtly political statements. Along with criticizing one of the presidential candidates, she voiced her support for gun bans “We live in a world where we ban books and not guns. We need to ban guns.” 

She also discussed literary censorship and her disappointment that she was not included in some of Ron Desantis’s original book bans. It caused her to question whether her writing was truly striking and revolutionary, but her anxiety was put to rest when he banned her children’s book, “Rosa”, a few years later. 

“I want to be with the banned, not those who ban,” Giovanni said. 

Besides her political commentary, the majority of her speech was focused on urging young women to live the lives they want to, instead of the way society tells them to. “Don’t wait for other people to decide your worth and your path,” Giovanni said. If she had listened to what society dictated she must be, she never would have become the poet she is today. 

She finished the speaking portion of her time at Girls Inc. by reading her poem “Eagle Tripping.” It is one of her most popular poems because it is meant to inspire women to feel pride in their accomplishments. 

Then she moved on to a student-led interview, giving witty answers to their questions. When asked if she wants to be a mentor to young people, she responded, “I want to let you live your life. I write because it’s what I do.”

 Giovanni explained that she doesn’t feel a need to inspire or mentor people because she didn’t write for the attention of others, she writes because she loves the craft. It is the choice of those exposed to her work whether or not they want to get inspired. 

Although her response to the question caught many people in the audience off guard, it goes along with her previous statements about the importance of women’s independence and right to autonomy. 

 When you are handed opportunities to explore and learn, all of you should take them. Giovanni said, “Young people need to be curious and explore themselves,” so take her advice and try new things and experiences. The worst that could happen is that you wish you didn’t go—but the best that could happen is immeasurable.