ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 15, 1997 TAG: 9704150073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Poet and teacher Nikki Giovanni reads from her work to inspire Roanoke elementary school children on Monday.
When the math and reading lessons were finished Monday, the children sat on the red carpet in the music room and listened to poet Nikki Giovanni.
She brought some of her brightly illustrated books of poems and read to them as she turned the pages.
Giovanni sat on the edge of a chair, leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and opened the books so the boys and girls could see the drawings.
She read a love poem for her grandmother from her book "Knoxville, Tennessee." It's a poem about homemade ice cream, gospel music, going barefoot in summer and other memories of her childhood.
She told the fifth-graders at Hurt Park Elementary School how she sat in the corner as a child and listened to her grandmother and other grown-ups talk.
"You have a lot to write about if you listen to grown-ups talk when you're growing up," she said.
The children at the Roanoke school listened intently.
Giovanni, a nationally known poet and an English professor at Virginia Tech, would occasionally stop in the middle of her reading to talk to the children about herself and her memories.
She said she is fascinated with space, rockets and the possibility of life in space.
"I'd like to ride a comet, maybe go into space when my son gets out of college," she said. "Right now, I'm trying to be a responsible parent."
She wanted to know how many boys and girls had seen the comet Hale-Bopp?
Several hands went up.
Poetry won't change the world, but it can "remind us that the world is a nice place to be in," Giovanni told the children in the after-school arts program that is sponsored by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.
The Arts Council received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to help finance the program two afternoons a week for about 20 fifth-graders at Hurt Park. It includes the visual, performing and literary arts.
Susan Jennings, executive director of the arts council, said the Hurt Park program is a pilot project that may be expanded to other schools.
Giovanni, who has written more than a dozen volumes of poetry among her 25 books, also read from "The Genie in the Jar" and her latest book of poetry for children, "The Sun Is So Quiet."
She explained the title to the children: The wind and rain are noisy, but the sun is quiet. Her words came softly and swiftly as she read lines such as "Clouds cover the sky to make a rainy day."
When she had finished reading, she invited questions. One boy went up and whispered his question in her ear.
Giovanni said he wanted to know if her books sold. Yes, she said, people do buy poetry.
Several boys and girls told her they've tried to do some writing. Jermaine Otey, 10, said he's written poems about flowers and spring. Another boy said he has written detective stories.
The children were given new, brightly colored copies of "The Sun Is So Quiet." Giovanni autographed each copy as the boys and girls gathered around her as if she were a star athlete.
Marcus Ollie, 10, clutched his book and said he couldn't wait to get home to show it to his mother and grandmother.
"My grandmother admires people like her who do extraordinary things," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: KELLY HAHN JOHNSON\THE ROANOKE TIMES. Nikki Giovanniby CNBreads some of her work to Hurt Park Elementary School pupils
participating in the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge after-school
arts program on Monday. color.