Giovanni Offers Inspiration

Nationally recognized poet and African-American activist Nikki Giovanni addressed the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) at their 22nd Annual Spring Conference yesterday, touching on themes from from space to slavery under the banner of this year’s theme, “A Call to Consciousness.”

The conference, hosted at Harvard Law School (HLS) this past weekend, featured seven panels on topics ranging from civil and human rights to the effects of the criminal justice system on the African-American community. The conference also featured a multi-city networking dessert reception, a Saturday school program, and numerous social events.

Jenée Desmond-Harris, an HLS student who co-chaired the conference with F. Danielle Lewis and Tara L. Curtis said she invited Giovanni to speak at yesterday’s “inspirational brunch” even though she is not a lawyer because “she would deliver an inspiring message that would encourage students to think about their social responsiblity in keeping with the theme of our conference.”

Giovanni accepted the invitation because she saw the conference as an opportunity to raise awareness “of how we treat each other [and] how we treat the environment [and] other life forms.” Giovanni spoke about a wide range of topics, including her “Ten Percent Solution” in which she advocates one in ten people travel to Mars, the history of African enslavement, the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and her admiration for hip-hop artists.

Towards the end of her speech, she showed a tattoo on her forearm which reads “Thug Life” and also read several of her poems, which she said are themselves “calls to conscience.”

As audience members ate, Giovanni spoke extensively about the history of African enslavement and the practice of slavery in the United States.

She also described herself as a “space freak” and said that “the trip to Mars can only be understood through black Americans,” who as descendants of slaves would help any life-forms found on Mars deal with oppression from Americans.

Kendra N. Thompson, a current senior at Hampton University who will attend HLS next year, travelled to Cambridge to attend the conference and said, “I didn’t know [Giovanni] would be so funny.”

She continued, “It gave me something else to think about as far as who I am as an African-American...and what that means to my tenure at Harvard Law School and even beyond.”

Vanessa Tyson, a Ph.D. candidate in American Politics, said, “Nikki Giovanni’s speech was very thought-provoking, very clever. She spent a lot of time bringing out the depth of black history and the legacy of slavery. She was able to draw remarkable parallels between what many of us experience in our everyday lives and temporary policy issues on a larger scale.”

Giovanni’s remarks struck a similar chord in Karen M. Hardwick, who said, “What’s extraordinary is that this conference brings together lawyers, law students, professors, judges, and creative geniuses like Dr. Giovanni so that we can support one another and figure out how to best deploy our common assets on behalf of those historically excluded.”