Arts | 4/13/08

Nikki Giovanni is a prominent American poet-activist. She has been well recognized for her work, including a nomination for a Grammy award. Her fascinating life journey brought her to Virginia Tech, where she now works as a professor of English.

This Wednesday will mark one full year since the mass shootings at Virginia Tech. That is why this week, to honor the 32 that passed last April 16, I yield the space reserved in The Towerlight to share with you the words of Giovanni. Following the tragedy, Giovanni made a pivotal speech at a rally that is still inspiring and healing those involved with this tragedy. So without further ado, here are the words crafted by this wise woman that bore the weight of a community:

"We Are Virginia Tech"

We are Virginia Tech

We are sad today

And we will be sad for quite a while

We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning

We are Virginia Tech

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly

We are brave enough to bend to cry...

And sad enough to know we must laugh again

We are Virginia Tech

We do not understand this tragedy

We know we did nothing to deserve it

But neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS

Neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army

Neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory

Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water

Neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of night in his crib in the home its father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized

No one deserves a tragedy

We are Virginia Tech

The Hokie nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds

We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid

We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be

We are alive to the imagination and the possibility

We will continue to invent the future

Through our blood and tears

Through all this sadness

We are the Hokies

We will prevail, we will prevail, we will prevail!

We are Virginia Tech!



Better Read Than Dead will return next week with a review of "Tommy's Tale" by Alan Cumming.

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