WEBVTT

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Good evening.

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Thank you for
being here tonight.

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I have the pleasure of
introducing Nikky Finney.

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Before I do that,
though, I just want

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to also say that I stand
here before you tonight

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as a directly impacted
person, and that I

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stand in solidarity
with the folks who are

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working for sentencing reform.

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And on behalf of these
justice issues, thank you.

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She walks in beauty, like the
night, and her words follow.

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I first encountered
Nikky Finney when

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I was a shiny, newly minted
professor at Berea College.

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Shown to my office by an elder
faculty member, who told me,

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Nikky Finney, the poet, used
this space during her residency

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here.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Like a good scholar
with a new reference,

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I set about to find
who Nikky Finney was,

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and what work she
did in the world.

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This was 2011 and
Head Off & Split

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was the work that called to me.

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The way this collection
braided the painful political

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experiences of the present day
segregated South of Hurricane

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Katrina, and the past public
and personal experiences

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of the Civil Rights
era, shattered my mind

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in the best possible way.

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The way this collection
illustrated the intense beauty

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and pain of Black girl
becoming inside oneself,

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and inside one's family, and
outside, and on the other side,

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through a long lineage of
Black heroism in the shape

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and image of ourselves as Black
women, whose capaciousness

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is vast and ever
expanding has become

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significant to how I locate
myself as a Black scholar,

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teacher, mother, in
this life journey that

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has withstood political terror
in the aftermath of history.

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At the height of my obsession
with Head Off & Split,

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I remember losing track
of my copy of the book.

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I found it under my
daughter's pillow.

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A third grader at
the time, she told me

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she decided to read it to
herself in bed the night

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before, that she was curious
because of the dead fish

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wrapped in paper on the cover.

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Her eight-year-old
self went on to tell me

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that she only made it through
the first poem, "Red Velvet."

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And In case I didn't know
already, it wasn't about cake.

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[LAUGHTER]

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It was about Rosa Parks.

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I continued to probe
her interpretation.

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She confessed and resolved that
even though the poem confused

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her now, that she was
going to keep reading it

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because she could tell
it was important for her

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to eventually understand.

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The following year, she went on
to read a few stanzas of "Red

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Velvet" aloud to her class
for their Black History Month

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Celebration.

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The teacher asked
students for a rationale

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of why they chose to
share what they shared.

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Milora's read, quote, "So
that other students can know

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the truth about Rosa Parks.

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She sewed, and she
planned, she wasn't old,

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and she wasn't tired."

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Hashtag, parenting win.

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[LAUGHTER]

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During my couple of
years in Kentucky,

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I would come to learn
from Black women

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colleague friends at the
University of Kentucky

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that Nikky was among the faculty
there, and that she was indeed,

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every bit the supporter, lover
of, and friend to Black women

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that one imagines and
hope she is, that she

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was a blessing and a paradigm.

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Though I didn't
have the opportunity

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to know Nikky Finney
in that context,

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I felt her presence linger
in my Berea College office,

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and I got to see
her from a distance

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a few times, just
in passing when

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I was in the company of
some of our mutual friends.

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My interest in Ms.
Finney and her work

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continued through her now famous
and lauded acceptance speech

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from the National Book
Critics Award for Poetry.

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This speech is the
wordsmithing and world

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making of an artist at
the pinnacle of her craft.

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I return to it often,
in the classroom,

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and in alone spaces when
I need to be reminded

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of my own literacy narrative
and of the important labor

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of teaching and resistance that
I have been carved and called

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to do in academic settings
and in my community.

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I left Kentucky, and in
2015, I came to the U of A.

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At that time, my dear colleague,
professor Adela Licona

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hosted a lovely feminist
gathering for me at her home.

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A lover of poetry herself,
before breaking bread

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rather than a prayer, though the
best poetry is like a prayer,

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Adela offered and read to us
one of her favorite poems.

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It was Nikky Finney's
"The Making of Paper,"

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which Nikky had written
for Toni Cade Bambara.

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I thought of "Red
Velvet" and Rosa Parks,

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of these poems, gifts
from Nikky Finney to us

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that record into history anew
the Black women elders, whose

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words and deeds have guaranteed
us greater access to freedom,

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the pursuit of creativity,
and black girl dreaming.

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The women gathered that
night at Adela's house.

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We were fed delicious food
and drink by our host,

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but above all, what I
remember about that night was

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that we were nourished mightily
by Nikky Finney's poem.

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It was a night of inspiration,
joy, affirmation, and laughter,

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and Ms. Finney was among us.

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More recently here in Tucson,
another shared affinity

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for the work of
Nikky Finney emerged.

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And my burgeoning friendship
and co-teacher relationship with

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the brilliant local poet
Teré Chapman Fowler.

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Teré was kind enough to allow me
to share some of their journey

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with Nikky and her
work with you tonight.

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Teré told me, quote, "I didn't
believe in the magic that I

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believe in now.

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I didn't believe that these
poems can be carefully crafted

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and magically open
doors that read

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as closed, that these poems
could catapult me into the sky,

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and into a new city,
into a new experience.

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I didn't believe in
colleges or universities

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because it felt like they
didn't believe in me.

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During this time, I was
sitting on the third floor

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of this building.

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During this time,
I wrote poetry,

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but I made a living saying
welcome to Livingsocial my name

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is Teré Fowler Chapman.

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Can I have your email address?

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Over and over and over again.

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During this time, I would
write poems and update my blog

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any chance I could.

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The blog, a reminder I
was beyond just the voice

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being used as a customer
service machine.

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During this time, my favorite
poet was Nikky Finney.

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I believed in her magic, I
believed in storytelling, I

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believed in myself.

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I listen to all
of her interviews.

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I watched all of her
videos on YouTube.

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And I wanted more than
anything my own copy

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of Head Off & Split.

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During this time, I
had one of her quotes,

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"You come from people that can
fly," plastered on my cubicle.

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I wrote poems and
shook them loose,

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and asked my storytelling to
dance the way her truth dances.

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I practiced performing
and asked my voice

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to gently land quietly the way
hers gently landed quietly.

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Her soft poems threw this
inspiration in practice,

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I found my own dance, my own
landings, and my own poetry.

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During this time,
I received an email

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that Ms. Finney
had found my blog,

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a blog that folks
barely knew was there.

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During this time I remember
going back and forth

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if it was really her, and
how could this have happened,

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and there was no
way this was real.

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During this time, I
remember making the decision

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to write her and say thank you.

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During this time,
she messaged me back.

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And her message,
she told me, "You

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don't sound like
anybody else, you

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don't think like anybody
else, you are wise and full

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of a passionate heart.

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I'm going to tell you what Toni
Cade Bambara said to me when

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I was 26.

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OK, Nikky, so you can
write pretty, so what?

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So what's the plan for
you and your pretty words?

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Now I'm saying to you, OK,
Teré, so you can write pretty.

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So what's the plan for you,
and your pretty world of words?

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Take a deep breath.

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Teré goes on to say, though
Nikky told me explicitly not

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to be foolish, the next
day, I quit my job.

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I became a poet.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And I became a teaching artist,
and I became an organizer,

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and I became an
executive director.

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And I became an artist of my
craft, and I became a teacher.

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And I became a
college student, and I

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became an assistant principal.

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And I became something.

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I became unafraid
and affirmed the way

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I felt when reading her poems.

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And I would not
have jumped the way

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I jumped without those
words from Ms. Finney.

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[APPLAUSE]

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So that is the story of how
Nikky Finney and I have tangled

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and traveled across eight
years in several states,

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and ended up with each other
and with everyone gathered here

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together, at the
Poetry Center tonight.

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And how along the
way, Ms. Finney's

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touched my daughter's life.

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And by extension a
class of fourth graders,

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and the lives of my fierce
queer women of color colleague

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friends, and so many of
my students and on and on.

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Ms. Finney, thank you for
always acknowledging and naming

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our ancestors and kinfolk
in all that you do.

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I tingle every time I reach
the point in your acceptance

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speech, where you shout out
your professor Dr. Gloria

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Wade-Gayles, great and
best teacher of my life.

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My hope is that in
my own practice,

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I will someday be that
teacher for somebody.

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Like you, I believe in the
power and wisdom of teachers.

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I hold dear, and continue to be
blessed by each of my Florida

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public high school
English teachers, who

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took what my family made
and what the universe gave

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to help find me, to help me find
pathways that eventually led me

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to that office in Berea.

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To your life, and mind altering
poetry, and to the night

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that is before us now
thank you for being here

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and thank you for not leaving
the arena to the fools.

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[APPLAUSE]