Here is Nikki Giovanni as she appears in a recent photo. She was due to appear at the Flint Public Library on February 28th (2008), but she had to cancel due to her body's untimely decision to play hostess to the ever-popular flu virus. Some of Saginaw's River Junction Poets had talked about going to the Library to hear her read & to buy her books. Alas, it was not to be. Instead, we (when I say 'we' I mean 'I') decided to print the Flint Library's homepage which had a message about the Giovanni event being cancelled due to illness and include it in a get-well card which we signed and sent to her at Virginia Tech. The card had a cartoon of somebody in the hospital and said something about getting your sassy butt out of bed. Anyway, she enjoyed the card and wrote back to say so. Specifically, in her card she writes 10 March 2008
Dear Andrew Christ:
Thank you for the Library pages and for the card. It made me laugh! I went for my 2nd round of antibiotics so I guess I'll see the end of the flu. It's been miserable :( but friends like you :) help.
Poetically,
[signed]
Nikki Giovanni
Did you see that? She said the card made her laugh. Aren't you glad you know that now? They say the best things in life are free, well there you go. Friendship. Even if you had a stick you couldn't beat it. I broke down and spent the $2.99 to make it happen, not to mention the time and money she invested to keep the ball rolling. And then the blog and the writing, and of course your reading. That's how we do. Freedom is not free. What? Did I say something just now?
-- "It is our goal to appreciate and improve our talents, to share our own work and to communicate the joys of poetry with others. Everyone's poetry is valued."
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