THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603230250
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Terry Cummings went to the Portsmouth Campus of Tidewater Community College Friday to meet and thank poet Nikki Giovanni.
Twenty years ago, Cummings was a beauty pageant contestant, clad in a sexy black dress, strutting on stage as she recited Giovanni's ``Ego-Tripping'' for the talent competition.
Giovanni had given her that moment.
```I was born in the Congo, I was beautiful','' Cummings said yesterday, reciting some of the poem, which is a tribute to black women. ``I had satin around the wrists of my dress . . . satin on the bottom, and a slit up the leg. You couldn't tell me I didn't look good!
``I was truly ego-tripping. But that's what Nikki Giovanni has given us.''
Giovanni was in Portsmouth and Newport News Friday for a Women's History Month observance and to promote her most recent book, ``The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni.''
At a reception at Tidewater Community College for the poet, more than 40 people came to eat bagels, drink coffee and meet the 52-year-old woman who's written about the societal struggles of minorities and women for more than 25 years.
Giovanni, a professor of Creative Writing at Virginia Tech, read some of her work but mostly talked politics, gave advice to hopeful poets, and shared her life.
``I believe we need more heroes. We've come to a point where society seems anti-hero,'' she said.
``Remember the Olympics, a few years ago, the marathon runner who struggled to finish but was just so exhausted?
``I sat there in front of the T.V. and just cried, just heaved. All that woman wanted to do was run a 26-mile marathon. . . . But she is a hero, a real hero. I think ordinary people are extraordinary.''
Many of those gathered around Giovanni were saying the same things about the poet.
Giovanni's work became prominent in the '60s with her in-your-face poetry of racism and sexism, earning her a reputation as one of the most controversial voices of the Civil Rights era.
Her most recent battles, however, have been with lung cancer, for which she had surgery last year.
It hasn't kept her from traveling around the country to share her poetry because, as she said, ``It was always intended to be read aloud.''
Margaret Jenkins, who lives in Portsmouth, has been an admirer of Giovanni for years.
``The way she talks to people, she's just so down-to-earth,'' Jenkins said. ``She talks of gender differences, homelessness, adoption, religion but brings it around and makes it relevant to everyone. She's incredible.'' ILLUSTRATION: Poet Nikki Giovanni read from her work at the Portsmouth Campus
of Tidewater Community College on Friday for Women's History Month.
by CNB