Artemis: Her History and Rebirth After 20 years of publishing Artemis, year 2000 marked more than the end of the 20th century and the beginning of a new millennium. It also marked the end of a respected and distinguished small press journal. Artemis was one of the few publications in southwest Virginia to provide an off campus literary and arts presence in our communities. After fourteen years of retirement, 2013 began her journey back into publication. Today, Artemis2014 has been reborn to celebrate and give voice to artists and writers in the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond. The origin of Artemis is rooted in social activism, starting in 1977 as a writing workshop for the T.A.P. Women's Center in Roanoke, Virginia. It's founder, Jeri Nolan Rogers, encouraged women in the group to express themselves through poetry and other art genres as a therapeutic tool. For the first few years of publication, Artemis showcased the work of women from this group. In 1979 the journal expanded its scope to include men and the community art large. Throughout its history, Artemis presented many educational and cultural events: school mentorship programs, an annual Winter Lights Festival, live readings at Hollins University and other venues such as the Art Museum of Western Virginia, Mill Mountain Theatre, the Blue Ridge Writer's Conference and more. Artemis was also a place for many contributors to debut their work. They were published side by side with national and state poet laureates, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, a T.S. Eliot prize winner, VCA and VCCA literary prize winners, an NAACP Image Award recipient, and numerous other award winners. Continuing the tradition, Artemis 2014 is presenting a number of first-time-published poets and artists. Along with many distinguished, published contributors, we are especially honored to present the work of our guest poet Nikki Giovanni, and guest photographer Sam Krisch. Their contributions to poetry and art are unparalleled. We, the editors, proudly present a new and resurrected Artemis. We hope that you enjoy this 2014 edition and many more to follow. Artemis, P.O. Box 505, Floyd, VA 24091 ArtemisJournal.org

The poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred social justice movements and inspired songs, turned hearts and informed generations about the reality of life--especially Black life--in America. One of the foremost African-American writers and activists of her generation, she has been hailed as a healer and a sage, a powerful voice on issues of race, equality, violence, and discrimination. With Chasing Utopia, Giovanni demands that the prosaic--flowers, food, birdsong, winter--be seen as poetic, and reaffirms once again why she is as energetic, "remarkable" (Gwendolyn Brooks), "wonderful" (Marian Wright Edelman),"outspoken, prolific, energetic" (New York Times), and relevant as ever. "This slim volume delights on every page. There are stories, imaginings, whimsy, and startling images which prove the poet's power and her command of language . . . Anyone with a love of language will be delighted with this book and the continuing publication of America's treasured poet."--San Francisco Book Review

-One of her best collections to date.- --EssenceQuilting the Black-Eyed Pea is a tour de force from Nikki Giovanni, one of the most powerful voices in American poetry and African American literature today. From Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgment in the 1960s to Bicycles in 2010, Giovanni's poetry has influenced literary figures from James Baldwin to Blackalicious, and touched millions of readers worldwide. In Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Giovanni turns her gaze toward the state of the world around her, and offers a daring, resonant look inside her own self as well.

This omnibus covers Nikki Giovanni's complete work of poetry from 1967-1983. THE COLLECTED POETRY OF NIKKI GIOVANNI will include the complete volumes of five adult books of poetry: Black Feeling Black Talk/Black Judgement, My House, The Women and the Men, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, and Those Who Ride the Night Winds.

Nikki self-published her first book Black Feeling, Black Talk/BlackJudgement in 1969, selling 10,000 copies; William Morrow published in 1970. Know for its iconic revolutionary phrases, it is heralded as one of the most important volumes of modern African-American poetry and is considered the seminal volume of Nikki's body of work.

My House (Morrow 1972) marks a new dimension in tone and philosphy--This is Giovanni's first foray into the autobiographical.

In The Women and the Men (Morrow 1975), Nikki displays her compassion for the people, things and places she has encountered--She reveres the ordinary and is in search of the extraordinary.

Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (Morrow 1978) is one of the most poignant and introspective of all Giovanni's collections. These poems chronicle the drastic change that took place during the 1970s--when the dreams of the Civil Rights era seemed to have evaporated.

Those Who Ride the Night Winds (Morrow 1983) is devoted to "the day trippers and midnight cowboys," the ones who have devoted their lives to pushing the limits of the human condition and shattered the constraints of the stautus quo.

A ground-breaking anthology celebrating Marvel's beloved Black Panther and his home of Wakanda, penned by an all-star cast of authors such as Sheree Renee Thomas and Nikki Giovanni. T'Challa faces the gods of his parents. Vampires stalk Shuri and a Dora Milaje in voodoo-laced New Orleans. Erik Killmonger grapples with racism, Russian spies, and his own origins. Eighteen brand-new tales of Wakanda, its people, and its legacy. The first mainstream superhero of African descent, the Black Panther has attracted readers of all races and colors who see in the King of Wakanda reflections of themselves. Storytellers from across the African Diaspora-some already literary legends, others who are rising stars-have created for this collection original works inspired by the world of the Panther and its inhabitants. With guest stars including Storm, Monica Rambeau, Namor, and Jericho Drumm, these are stories of yesterday and today, of science and magic, of faith and love. These are the tales of a king and his country. These are the legends whispered in the jungle, myths of the unconquered men and women and the land they love. These are the Tales of Wakanda. Featuring stories by Linda D. Addison, Maurice Broaddus, Christopher Chambers, Milton J. Davis, Tananarive Due, Nikki Giovanni, Harlan James, Danian Jerry, Kyoko M., L.L. McKinney, Temi Oh, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Glenn Parris, Alex Simmons, Sheree Renee Thomas, Cadwell Turnbull and Troy L. Wiggins.

Spanning over 250 years of history, Black Ink traces black literature in America from Frederick Douglass to Ta-Nehisi Coates in this "breathtaking anthology celebrating the power of the written word to forge change" (O, The Oprah Magazine).Throughout American history black people are the only group of people to have been forbidden by law to learn to read. This expansive collection seeks to shed light on that injustice, putting some of America's most cherished voices in a conversation in one magnificent volume that presents reading as an act of resistance. Organized into three sections--the Peril, the Power, and the Pleasure--and featuring a vast array of contributors both classic and contemporary, Black Ink presents the brilliant diversity of black thought in America while solidifying the importance of these writers within the greater context of the American literary tradition. "This electric and electrifying collection of voices serves to open a much-needed window onto the freedom struggle of black literature. It's a marvel, and a genuine gift for readers everywhere" (Wil Haygood, author of The Butler: A Witness to History). Contributors include: Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, Walter Dean Myers, Stokely Carmichael [Kwame Ture], Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Terry McMillan, Junot Diaz, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, Marlon James, Roxane Gay, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Colson Whitehead. The anthology features a bonus in-depth interview with President Barack Obama.

One of America's most celebrated poets challenges us with this powerful and deeply personal collection of verse that speaks to the injustices of society while illuminating the depths of her own heart. For more than fifty years, Nikki Giovanni's poetry has dazzled and inspired readers. As sharp and outspoken as ever, she returns with this profound book of poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and racism, celebrate Black culture and Black lives, and give readers an unfiltered look into her own experiences. In Make Me Rain, she celebrates her loved ones and unapologetically declares her pride in her Black heritage, while exploring the enduring impact of the twin sins of racism and white nationalism. Giovanni reaffirms her place as a uniquely vibrant and relevant American voice with poems such as "I Come from Athletes" and "Rainy Days"-calling out segregation and Donald Trump; as well as "Unloved (for Aunt Cleota)" and "When I Could No Longer"-her personal elegy for the relatives who saved her from an abusive home life. Stirring, provocative, and resonant, the poems in Make Me Rain pierce the heart and nourish the soul.

One of America's most celebrated poets looks inward in this powerful collection, a rumination on her life and the people who have shaped her.The poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred movements, turned hearts and informed generations. She's been hailed as a firebrand, a radical, a healer, and a sage; a wise and courageous voice who has spoken out on the sensitive issues, including race and gender, that touch our national consciousness. As energetic and relevant as ever, Nikki now offers us an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at her personal history and the mysteries of her own heart. In A Good Cry, she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents' marriage and her early life. She pays homage to the people who have given her life meaning and joy: her grandparents, who took her in and saved her life; the poets and thinkers who have influenced her; and the students who have surrounded her. Nikki also celebrates her good friend, Maya Angelou, and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared before Angelou's death in 2014.

In a career that has spanned more than a quarter century, Nikki Giovanni has earned the reputation as one of America's most celebrated and contoversial writers. Now, she presents a stunning collection of love poems that includes more than twenty new works.

From the revolutionary "Seduction" to the tender new poem, "Just a Simple Declaration of Love," from the whimsical "I Wrote a Good Omelet" to the elegiac "All Eyez on U," written for Tupac Shakur, these poems embody the fearless passion and spirited wit for which Nikki Giovanni is beloved and revered.

Romantic, bold, and erotic, Love Poems expresses notions of love in ways that are delightfully unexpected. Articulating in sensuous verse what we know only instinctively, Nikki Giovanni once again confirms her place as one of our nations's most distinguished poets and powerful truth-tellers.

Ever since ancient astronomers gazed up at a distant ruby spark in the night sky and named it for their god of war, Mars has captivated the human imagination as a source of endless speculation and a beacon of hope for its potential habitability. The many mysteries of the fourth planet from the sun are uncovered through six decades of missions and pioneering research at NASA—photographs have revealed a rocky world, visually so much like our own, that likely supported ancient life. See the earliest close-up images of Mars taken by the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965, the first ever captured of another planet, along with historical illustrations, before scientific advancement matched our curiosity. Science and art collide as NASA’s later missions capture ancient riverbeds, polar ice caps, dust devils, vast canyons, and formidable volcanoes in an endlessly varied landscape. As they traverse Mars’ scarred surface, NASA’s rovers have operated as mechanical extensions of humankind for the past 25 years—until we can get there ourselves—marveling at mountain ranges and blue sunsets, drilling holes, and searching for traces of water. Through hundreds of cutting-edge photographs from NASA and JPL’s extensive archives, we join NASA scientists in the ongoing quest to better understand Mars. Essays from some of the masterminds behind NASA’s missions to the Martian planet James L. Green and Robert Manning, curator Margaret Weitekamp, poet Nikki Giovanni, and more illuminate the latest electrifying research on the red planet and its enduring hold on our culture.

The poetry of Nikki Giovanni has spurred movements, turned hearts and informed generations. She's been hailed as a firebrand, a radical, a courageous activist who has spoken out on the sensitive issues that touch our national consciousness, including race and gender, social justice, protest, violence in the home and in the streets, and why black lives matter. One of America's most celebrated poets looks inward in this powerful collection, a rumination on her life and the people who have shaped her. As energetic and relevant as ever, Nikki now offers us an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at her personal history and the mysteries of her own heart. In A Good Cry, she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents' marriage and her early life. She pays homage to the people who have given her life meaning and joy: her grandparents, who took her in and saved her life; the poets and thinkers who have influenced her; and the students who have surrounded her. Nikki also celebrates her good friend, Maya Angelou, and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared before Angelou's death in 2014.

For more than fifty years, Nikki Giovanni's poetry has dazzled and inspired readers. When she first emerged from the Black Arts Movement in the late 1960s, she immediately became one of the most celebrated and controversial poets of the era. Considered a living legend, this is the first new Selected since the late nineties, and offers readers a chance to be introduced to and to celebrate her incredible lifetime's work. Arranged chronologically, Giovanni's poetry speaks from and to the Black experience, with Black love, Black struggle and Black joy at the centre. The selection charts a full half-century of American life, touching on mothers and motherhood, great loves, death, dreams and revolution, showing Giovanni at her essential, profound best.

Fifty years after her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, Mrs. Rosa Parks is still one of the most important figures in the American civil rights movement. This tribute to Mrs. Parks is a celebration of her courageous action and the events that followed. Award-winning poet, writer, and activist Nikki Giovanni's evocative text combines with Bryan Collier's striking cut-paper images to retell the story of this historic event from a wholly unique and original perspective.

Thirty-two poems that reflect aspects of the African American experience.

When Nikki Giovanni's poems first emerged from the Black Rights Movement in the late 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and controversial poets of the era. Finally, here is the first compilation of Nikki Giovanni's poetry. It is the testimony of a life's work from one of the commanding voices to grace America's political and poetic landscape at the end of the twentieth century.

From the revolutionary "The Great Pax Whitie" and "Poem for Aretha" to the sublime "Ego Tripping" and the tender "My House," these 150 mind-speaking, truth-telling poems are at once powerful yet sensual, angry yet affirming. Arranged chronologically, they reflect the changes Giovanni has endured as a Black woman, lover, mother, teacher, and poet. Here is the evocation of a nation's past and present -- intensely personal and fiercely political -- from one of our most compassionate, outspoken observers.

Here is the superb second edition of the annual anthology devoted to the best nonfiction writing by African American authors--provocative works from an unprecedented and unforgettable year when truth was stranger (and more inspiring) than fiction.
The galvanizing election of Barack Obama was on the minds--and the pages--of authors everywhere. Best African American Essays 2010 features the insights of writers from Juan Williams to Kelefa Sanneh and even Obama himself (his seminal speech on race is included here in its entirety). Ta-Nehisi Coates, in The Nation, proclaims that the president has "redefined blackness for white America," while Adolph Reed, Jr., in The Progressive, calls him a "vacuous opportunist" and Colson Whitehead, in The New York Times, lightheartedly revels in the election of "someone who looked like me . . . slim." The First Lady is considered, too, as Lauren Collins, in The New Yorker, assesses the radical quality of Michelle Obama's very normalcy.
But Best African American Essays 2010 goes beyond the Obamas with brilliant pieces from such writers as Hua Hsu, who declares the end of white America in "a new cultural mainstream which prizes diversity above all else"; Henry Louis Gates, who researches his family tree, adding to the "young discipline" that is African American history; and Jelani Cobb, who dares to defend George W. Bush. There are thoughtful and heartfelt tributes to living legends, including Bill Cosby (and an analysis of his famous "pound cake" speech, which promoted black responsibility, empowerment, and self-esteem), and remembrances of those who have passed, including Miriam Makeba, Isaac Hayes, Eartha Kitt, and Michael Jackson.
Selected by guest editor Randall Kennedy, a leading intellectual and legal scholar, the wide-ranging pieces in Best African American Essays 2010 comprise a thrilling collection that anyone who wishes to understand the meaning of the new America must own.

Quiet . . .
like a quilt on a feather bed . . .
and frost on the window . . .
we write our names knowing . . .
the sun will melt them off
But the sun is so quiet . . .
that we don't care
we smile
--from "Connie" by Nikki Giovanni
The quiet and noisy, wintery and sometimes sunny poems in "The Sun Is So Quiet" will always make you smile. Nikki Giovanni describes riding rainbows, tiptoeing through strawberry patches, licking chocolaty fingers, snuggling under covers, and many other wonderful childhood moments. Ashley Bryan's warmest, most colorful illustrations make each page look like a bright, beaming smile.
Together, they have created a collection that you can linger over like a peppermint candy cane or enjoy as quickly as a snowflake melts on your nose.