I remember when Elaine Brown, former chairperson of the Black Panther Party, was touring for her book, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story, in the early 1990s. At a New York reading, she mentioned that everyone always gets excited about “revolution” as if it were an event. She reminded us that “revolution is not an event, it is a process.” With that in mind, here’s a little something I like to read every now and then:

i used to dream militant dreams
of taking over america
to show these white folks how it should be done
i used to dream radical dreams
of blowing everyone away
with my perceptive powers of correct analysis
i even used to think
i’d be the one to stop the riot and negotiate the peace
then i awoke and dug
that if i dreamed natural dreams
of being a natural woman
doing what a woman does
when she’s natural
i would have a revolution

-nikki giovanni

For more information about books and poems by nikki giovanni, visit http://nikki-giovanni.com.

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