Nikki Giovanni, of all the honorary degrees you received in your life, which one meant the most to you?

My mother is much more of a dreamer. My mother -- I think all of my dreams come from Mommy because Mommy`s always imagining. She has a wonderful imagination....

So he stopped sending it?

When was the first time you made money as a writer?

And it was 500 books for $500. So you can`t make any money off of that. But if you go back to press, now it`s 500 books for $300, right? So you are...

Birdland was being run by -- was owned by Lloyd Price – "Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy Miss Clawdy"-- and his partner, Harold Logan. Mr. Logan was a gangster....

So I started doing late-night radio, WWRL, inviting people to come down. And our theme was " `Black Judgement` is coming," which was terrific because...

The reporter finally got to me, and he said, I`m looking for Nikki Giovanni. And I said, yes? He said, Well, where is he? I said, I`m Nikki Giovanni....

Which?

Oh, that was in 1968.

I live in Virginia. I teach at Virginia Tech. Go, Hokies. We had a sad ending to our football season, but we did well -- 8 and 4 is not bad. But we`re...

I teach creative writing in the fall, and I teach the intro course. And I teach the intro courses because I think people like me should get the students...

Oh, we`re the biggest institution -- biggest academic institution in Virginia. Of course, most people know our counterpart, UVA, and we`re very proud...

Yes.

Yes.

Everything! I don`t know if you`ve ever been out to the Grammys, but they send you -- I`m nominated in "Spoken Word." And they send you this nice letter,...

And so it`s been a lot of fun in the community because I`ve gotten -- the guy who cuts my hair is named Clinton. And Clinton (UNINTELLIGIBLE) clips,...

That`s my poem for Rosa Parks, who I totally adore. I mean, I`ve always adored Ms. Parks, and I`m very honored to be the first recipient of the Rosa...

1955. It was August. The trial was in September. And as the defense of Bryant and Milam, who did indeed murder the young man, said, I`m sure that --...

But Rosa Parks, of course, that following December -- and I`m sure I did not -- I`ve never asked Mrs. Parks. I know her, but I`ve never asked. But I`m...

Yes, I think that`s a true story.

Oh, I`m sorry. I`m always assuming that people know these things. Emmett`s body was found in the Tallahatchie River, and the sheriff said to his mother,...

Mississippi. This is all Mississippi. He was -- it was money. He was abducted for money. Actually, Mose lived just a little bit, I would say, like,...

They said he wolf-whistled at the wife of Bryant, at Carolyn Bryant. I don`t know why. I mean, why isn`t -- it`s never something -- there`s no reason...

If the sheriff had been able to bury the body in Mississippi, we would not have had a case because they would have said, Well -- as the sheriff did...

But they asked her, Would you like for us to fix him up? And she said, No. You know, they did put a suit on him. You`ve seen the -- well, I don`t know...

And I`m a Tennessean by birth, so there`s no way that you could say to yourself, Oh, this was a Mack Parker or this was some other -- you know, this...

Other things -- and these are random notes I want to get your response to. Armstrong Williams, "a pitiful dumb bunny."

And you talk about Shelby Steele and you -- "lawn jockey for the right," Clarence Thomas.

Why such strong words?

Expand on that. (LAUGHTER)

You know, it`s a shame. "Emerge" magazine, which was a great magazine and a great loss that it`s gone, put him on the cover as a lawn jockey. I thought...

Are you kidding? Have you read any of his opinions?

I don`t even know if I -- Clarence was a minority voice on the decision -- I think it was a Louisiana decision -- where the sheriff was holding the...

I`m very dismayed about the whole Bush administration because how rich do you have to be? How rich do you have to be before you feel rich enough to...

And we need a Marshall Plan for America. We need to rebuild our cities. We need to reinvent and restructure and help our public schools. Our public...

But people come and they come to America and they work to help us make a better country, right? And we don`t even want them to have a driver`s license?...

Can you be black and be conservative?

You mentioned cancer. When did you get it?

And I went to my doctor, and he was, like, Oh, you know, you have high blood pressure because my blood pressure was way up. And I was, like -- I don`t...

And so we set up an appointment for me in Roanoke, but of course, you need a second opinion. And I always say if anybody`s looking that`s got any cancer...

And it was snowy. It was a bad day. And my friend, Ginny Fowler, said, I`ll drive you. And so we drove to Cincinnati. And Creighton Wright – it's...

So what he had done was to make me laugh, right? And it`s, like, 10:00 o`clock in the morning, I`ll be there. He said, See you then. And I did. I was...

But he did. I was in the hospital for a month. And the nurses -- I actually cried. When I -- you know, they put you in a wheelchair. When I finally...

If you had asked me...

Well, yes. As far as I know. And again, I answer as I do, not to be difficult, but if you had asked me the week before I was diagnosed, I would have...

And so, we operated to send a message to say, I don`t think you are being very nice to me. And if I let you have your way, you will kill both of us....

Well, I...

Yeah.

I`m not a very good rhymer. And every now and then I will end up doing something like, a poem like "What It Is," you know, ultimately you get to –...

I`m an eastern Tennessean. And, of course, our most famous eastern Tennessean storyteller is Dolly Parton, and Dolly, of course, tells all these wonderful...

But I didn`t want to try to fit into -- poetry is an essence, when we want to compliment anything, when we want to -- there was a Super Bowl last week,...

Before I get to your poem, born in Knoxville, raised in Cincinnati, went to Fisk University in Nashville? GIOVANNIN: Yes.

Yes, I did. In `64.

Because I had questions about Lyndon Johnson. I didn`t want to vote for Lyndon Johnson, because I was unhappy that Jack Kennedy was killed in Texas...

I think that would be the election, so it`d be `68.

No, I don`t. If somebody asks me to, yes, I would. This `68, my -- I`m prolific but not quick, is what I want to say. So there`s a lot of work, and...

What I know. I know that we have not made proper use on Earth. This is an Earth thing, this is not an American thing or not an African thing or not...

So in order for Earth to prepare itself for space travel -- I`m not knocking the shuttle. I like the shuttle. And I like Mir. I like all of that. But...

But where we are now, and this is what I`m excited about, because I`m always going forward, I too am going forward, because I think I`m a prime candidate...

Here`s a poem, "Sometimes." It`s a very short poem. Do you remember what year you did that one?

Yeah.

But what year?

It's very short. "Sometimes when I wake up in the morning and see all the faces, I just can`t breathe." It`s a simple poem. Where did you write something...

Did you just write it when you were traveling?

But I like people. But you do get these pressures at times. And it`s been interesting, because I`ve had a big career because I did an album, when there...

On the CD, "I Remember You" -- I wrote some notes down, you talk about your tattoo.

And Tupac.

Did you know him?

There`s a direct line -- I mean, you can go from Outkast all the way back to "Go Down, Moses," that there`s a direct line between the honesty of the...

But Tupac, I mean -- I have "Thug Life" on my arm.

Three days after he was dead, because I was depressed. My mother came over -- my mother lives down the street from me, and mom came to the house, and...

And I tried to think of what to do, and it was like finally -- it was - you`re not dreaming, you just kind of walking, and then it`s like, a tattoo,...

What does "the thug life" mean?

Do you show the tattoo to your students?

We see, yeah. We`ll get a shot of that.

Hold it up again. Just - we didn`t get a very good shot of it.

They`ll get another shot.

Where did you have that done?

On that point, let me jump back years ago. You say you`re a woman of the `60s and don`t have a telephone or a clock in your bedroom.

Why is that a person of the `60s?

If I sleep through it, if I would have -- in coming here to be with you, David -- if I had slept through, right? I`m either sick or so in need of the...

"Don`t You Think It`s Funny."

Oh, Lord, that had to be in the middle `70s. I`m sorry.

Oh, this is fun -- you don`t want me to read this whole thing? Because these are getting longer and longer and longer.

OK. And this is very true. "The FBI came by my house three weeks ago, one white agent, one black or I guess Negro would be more appropriate. With two...

Oh, yeah. They can`t arrest you for that. You know, you can`t say F-you to TSA, they made a rule. If you say that, they`ll arrest you.

But they didn`t have it then, and so you could just say, because it`s the FBI. And if you let those guys intimidate you -- what they said was, we want...

And what they were looking for in this poem, by the way, is Angela Davis, and so they were combing New York, because they were looking for Angela, and...

They trailed not just me, because I did know Rap Brown very well, but they trailed a bunch of people, but they trailed me, they were shadowing me because...

So I never had much money, but I gave him the money, and I had on a sable jacket, actually. And he said, I`ll take that mink. And I said, you can take...

Oh, I don`t know. I`m pretty high. I don`t know about peak.

I do a lot, because I love it. I speak in churches. I speak in elementary schools. I`ll speak practically anyplace you ask me. You know, if I can get...

Well, I stay pretty current, and so right now I`m really -- and I`m enjoying talking to middle school and high school students, and I`ve been doing...

We have to find a way to face this experience, and that`s what I`m talking about. And the kids are always surprised, because I`m talking mostly, as...

I have one last question and we`re going to have to go. Your son, how old is he and where is he?

Here`s the cover of the book that contains the poems, called "The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni Jr."

Thank you very much.