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Nikki Giovanni weaves her life’s journey into University of Memphis lecture

NNPA NEWSWIRE — During a Q&A that brought talk of her love for Samuel Adams’ luxurious beer Utopia, the black arts movement influence of hip-hop and President Trump’s administration, Nikki Giovanni reflected on the Baldwin interview that led to the 1973 book “A Dialogue.”

Published

6 years ago

March 22, 2019

Oakland Post

By Harlan McCarthy, Special to The New Tri-State Defender

After closing her recent keynote lecture during the 10th Annual Women’s Honor Conference at the University of Memphis University Center, iconic poet Nikki Giovanni fielded a question that provided a snippet of her philosophy about contradictions.

The backdrop for her take on contradictions was her 1971 interview with novelist, playwright and activist James Baldwin, whose novel, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” is the basis of the hit movie of the same name.

During a Q&A that brought talk of her love for Samuel Adams’ luxurious beer Utopia, the black arts movement influence of hip-hop and President Trump’s administration, Giovanni reflected on the Baldwin interview that led to the 1973 book “A Dialogue.”

Giovanni, now a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech University, said television producer Ellis Haizlip made the interview happen just hours earlier.

“I haven’t looked at it,” she said of the now 38-year-old televised exchange with Baldwin. “I don’t go back because I don’t mind making a mistake… I might have contradicted myself… If you’re going to be an artist, you’re going to contradict yourself.”

The Annual Women’s Honor Conference is presented by Professional Assertive United Sisters of Excellence (P.A.U.S.E.) and several other campus organizations. P.A.U.S.E’s mission is to unite UofM women of all races, creeds and economic backgrounds while promoting academic and professional success through workshops and networking.

Multiple workshop sessions – rooted in the theme Grit, Grace and Glow – accented the conference. They featured Memphis-area professionals such as Dr. Menson-Furr, a UofM African studies professor, new state Rep. London Lamar and attorney, author and and blogger Carlissa Shaw, Esq.

Then came Giovanni. With the room full of women, the best-selling author thanked P.A.U.S.E President Kennedie Toney before easing into a range of topics that included politics, health, race, gender and social culture.

An avid game-show fan, Giovanni made light of the “Family Feud” and later shared a “Jeopardy” tale that included her calling host Alex Trebek when her name wasn’t listed among those in a category she believed to be NAACP Image Awards. She’s a seven-time Image Awards winner.

“Alex, they ought to have known I should have at least been a wrong answer,” she recalled telling Trebek.

Giovanni said she once asked her English class students whether she should be a contestant on the show “Deal or No Deal.” A definitive “no” was the response, with the reasoning being that they didn’t want her to be made a fool, she said.
In response, Giovanni said she told her class, “As old I am, if the first time I make a fool of myself is on ‘Deal of No Deal,’ I lived a bless life.”

A cancer survivor, Giovanni made a segue into her mastectomy and the topic of embarrassment. She punctuated that element of her address with a reading of “Deal or No Deal English 4714 CRN 169-7.”

At one point, Giovanni weighed in on the social problems surrounding victims in Charlottesville, women’s lynching in the Appalachia, the historical importance of Viola Liuzzo, adoption and abortion.

A native of Tennessee and an alumnus of Fisk University, Giovanni also read her poem “Native Tennessean,” which speaks to her love for her home state.

Describing herself as a mother’s daughter, Giovanni talked about the difficulty of relating to her father, whom she said mistreated her mother. She told a story about moving back from New York to help her ill father and how she dealt with the mistreatment of her mother.

She then read “I Married My Mother,” a poem about the relationship she had with her mom.

Giovanni, an avid quilter, put her experience with the craft in context by referencing her experience with the Quilts of Gee’s Bend, which are created by a group of women and their ancestors who live or have lived in the isolated African-American hamlet of Gee’s Bend, Ala. along the Alabama River.
She ended her lecture with “Quilts,” a poem about quilting.

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#NNPA BlackPress

Recently Approved Budget Plan Favors Wealthy, Slashes Aid to Low-Income Americans

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts

Published

5 days ago

March 21, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown

BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

The new budget framework approved by Congress may result in sweeping changes to the federal safety net and tax code. The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts. A new analysis from Yale University’s Budget Lab shows the proposals in the House’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Resolution would lead to a drop in after-tax-and-transfer income for the poorest households while significantly boosting revenue for the wealthiest Americans. Last month, Congress passed its Concurrent Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2025 (H. Con. Res. 14), setting revenue and spending targets for the next decade. The resolution outlines $1.5 trillion in gross spending cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax reductions between FY2025 and FY2034, along with $500 billion in unspecified deficit reduction.

Congressional Committees have now been instructed to identify policy changes that align with these goals. Three of the most impactful committees—Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means—have been tasked with proposing major changes. The Agriculture Committee is charged with finding $230 billion in savings, likely through changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. Energy and Commerce must deliver $880 billion in savings, likely through Medicaid reductions. Meanwhile, the Ways and Means Committee must craft tax changes totaling no more than $4.5 trillion in new deficits, most likely through extending provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Although the resolution does not specify precise changes, reports suggest lawmakers are eyeing steep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid benefits while seeking to make permanent tax provisions that primarily benefit high-income individuals and corporations.

To examine the potential real-world impact, Yale’s Budget Lab modeled four policy changes that align with the resolution’s goals:

A 30 percent across-the-board cut in SNAP funding.
A 15 percent cut in Medicaid funding.
Permanent extension of the individual and estate tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Permanent extension of business tax provisions including 100% bonus depreciation, expense of R&D, and relaxed limits on interest deductions.

Yale researchers determined that the combined effect of these policies would reduce the after-tax-and-transfer income of the bottom 20 percent of earners by 5 percent in the calendar year 2026. Households in the middle would see a modest 0.6 percent gain. However, the top five percent of earners would experience a 3 percent increase in their after-tax-and-transfer income.

Moreover, the analysis concluded that more than 100 percent of the net fiscal benefit from these changes would go to households in the top 20 percent of the income distribution. This happens because lower-income groups would lose more in government benefits than they would gain from any tax cuts. At the same time, high-income households would enjoy significant tax reductions with little or no loss in benefits.

“These results indicate a shift in resources away from low-income tax units toward those with higher incomes,” the Budget Lab report states. “In particular, making the TCJA provisions permanent for high earners while reducing spending on SNAP and Medicaid leads to a regressive overall effect.” The report notes that policymakers have floated a range of options to reduce SNAP and Medicaid outlays, such as lowering per-beneficiary benefits or tightening eligibility rules. While the Budget Lab did not assess each proposal individually, the modeling assumes legislation consistent with the resolution’s instructions. “The burden of deficit reduction would fall largely on those least able to bear it,” the report concluded.

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A Threat to Pre-emptive Pardons

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process.

Published

5 days ago

March 21, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

President Trump is working to undo the traditional presidential pardon powers by questioning the Biden administration’s pre-emptive pardons issued just days before January 20, 2025. President Trump is seeking retribution against the January 6th House Select Committee. The Trump Justice Department has been tasked to find loopholes to overturn the pardons that could lead to legal battles for the Republican and Democratic nine-member committee. Legal scholars and those closely familiar with the pardon process worked with the Biden administration to ensure the preemptive pardons would stand against any retaliatory knocks from the incoming Trump administration. A source close to the Biden administration’s pardons said, in January 2025, “I think pardons are all valid. The power is unreviewable by the courts.”

However, today that same source had a different statement on the nuances of the new Trump pardon attack. That attack places questions about Biden’s use of an autopen for the pardons. The Trump argument is that Biden did not know who was pardoned as he did not sign the documents. Instead, the pardons were allegedly signed by an autopen. The same source close to the pardon issue said this week, “unless he [Trump] can prove Biden didn’t know what was being done in his name. All of this is in uncharted territory. “ Meanwhile, an autopen is used to make automatic or remote signatures. It has been used for decades by public figures and celebrities.

Months before the Biden pardon announcement, those in the Biden White House Counsel’s Office, staff, and the Justice Department were conferring tirelessly around the clock on who to pardon and how. The concern for the preemptive pardons was how to make them irrevocable in an unprecedented process. At one point in the lead-up to the preemptive pardon releases, it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process. President Trump began the threat of an investigation for the January 6th Select Committee during the Hill proceedings. Trump has threatened members with investigation or jail.

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Reaction to The Education EO

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Meanwhile, the new Education EO jeopardizes funding for students seeking a higher education. Duncan states, PellGrants are in jeopardy after servicing “6.5 million people” giving them a chance to go to college.

Published

5 days ago

March 21, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

There are plenty of negative reactions to President Donald Trump’s latest Executive Order abolishing the Department of Education. As Democrats call yesterday’s action performative, it would take an act of Congress for the Education Department to close permanently. “This blatantly unconstitutional executive order is just another piece of evidence that Trump has absolutely no respect for the Constitution,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) who is the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee. “By dismantling ED, President Trump is implementing his own philosophy on education, which can be summed up in his own words, ‘I love the poorly educated.’ I am adamantly opposed to this reckless action, said Rep. Bobby Scott who is the most senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Morgan State University President Dr. David Wilson chimed in saying “I’m deeply concerned about efforts to shift federal oversight in education back to the states, particularly regarding equity, justice, and fairness. History has shown us what happens when states are left unchecked—Black and poor children are too often denied access to the high-quality education they deserve. In 1979 then President Jimmy Carter signed a law creating the Department of Education. Arne Duncan, former Obama Education Secretary, reminds us that both Democratic and Republican presidents have kept education a non-political issue until now. However, Duncan stressed Republican presidents have contributed greatly to moving education forward in this country.

During a CNN interview this week Duncan said during the Civil War President Abraham “Lincoln created the land grant system” for colleges like Tennessee State University. “President Ford brought in IDEA.” And “Nixon signed Pell Grants into law.” In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush which increased federal oversight of schools through standardized testing. Meanwhile, the new Education EO jeopardizes funding for students seeking higher education. Duncan states, PellGrants are in jeopardy after servicing “6.5 million people” giving them a chance to go to college. Wilson details, “that 40 percent of all college students rely on Pell Grants and student loans.”

Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) says this Trump action “impacts students pursuing higher education and threatens 26 million students across the country, taking billions away from their educational futures. Meanwhile, During the president’s speech in the East Room of the White House Thursday, Trump criticized Baltimore City, and its math test scores with critical words. Governor West Moore, who is opposed to the EO action, said about dismantling the Department of Education, “Leadership means lifting people up, not punching them down.”