Filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson are capturing Nikki Giovanni in a state of transition. The trailblazing Black woman poet and activist whose words inspired the Civil Rights and Black Power movement, is making an effort to share her deepest, most personal emotions. Now in the winter of her life, Giovanni contends with seizures, whose every occurrence depletes her memory. Scenes of her bedroom bathed in blue hues, the overbearing sound of static, the numbing overexposure of light, along with compositions that see her body blinking in and out of reality, visualize her harshest fight. Her health problems, however, haven’t dimmed her sharp wit, her charismatic personality, and her unflinching independence.
“Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” , sees her promoting a new collection of poetry entitled “A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter.” In it, the writer draws upon the raw emotions of her upbringing — a violent father,...
“Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” , sees her promoting a new collection of poetry entitled “A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter.” In it, the writer draws upon the raw emotions of her upbringing — a violent father,...
- 1/20/2023
- by Robert Daniels
- Indiewire
The title of “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” teases galactic possibilities and plays with the notion of the unfinished work. Not the film’s labor — directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson have crafted an eloquent and engaging portrait — but that of its spiky, brilliant subject. One of the luminaries of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s into the 1970s, the now 79-year-old Giovanni continues to address the pain and joys, the anger and resilience of the descendants of the Middle Passage, who know much about uncertain and dangerous journeys.
Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tn, in 1943, before moving with her parents and sister to Cincinnati, Oh. During the summers as a child, she returned to Tennessee to visit her maternal grandparents. She later attended Fisk University in Nashville and currently lives in Christiansburg, Va, not far from Virginia Tech, where until recently, she was a Distinguished Professor of Writing and English.
Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tn, in 1943, before moving with her parents and sister to Cincinnati, Oh. During the summers as a child, she returned to Tennessee to visit her maternal grandparents. She later attended Fisk University in Nashville and currently lives in Christiansburg, Va, not far from Virginia Tech, where until recently, she was a Distinguished Professor of Writing and English.
- 1/20/2023
- by Lisa Kennedy
- Variety Film + TV
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