Last week I had the honor and privilege of hearing the provocative poet and professor Nikki Giovanni speak at the IUPUI Black Student Union's celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. The sold out formal dinner, which was held downtown at the Hyatt Regency, was overflowing with people who came to hear the woman whose collected words tell the story of America (1968-2008) from a Black woman's perspective.

I'm not sure what I expected to see when I saw her, but I was somewhat surprised to see such a small framed woman with such a big voice take the stage. Her speech didn't feel like a speech at all. It was more like a talk; an interesting conversation among an intimate group of friends.

She began her talk with us by voicing her frustrations with BET's (Black Entertainment Television's) former owner Bob Johnson who sold out his community for the biggest paycheck he could get. I said "Amen!" She continued to tell us how sick she is of that son of a bi#ch Bill Cosby and his insinuation that single mothers and their bastard children are what's wrong with America. And I yelled "Tell em!" She commented on the unnecessary political mudslinging by the Clintons and Obama. "True, True!"

And before she talked about the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. whom we all agreed was a great man who did what he did for the love of humanity and nothing else, she reminded us all that before there was the King, and all of the other black male preachers who love to take all the credit for the Civil Rights Movement in America, there were the Queens. Black women. Speaking, organizing, praying, boycotting. One black woman in particular, refusing to give up her seat while the black man next to her did is now called the mother of the civil rights movement. Black women deserve to have their contributions to the movement remembered too, she reminds us, and then moves on to King.

"Preach sistah!"

After dinner, I was one of the first in line to buy her latest book of poems, Acolytes, which she so graciously autographed for me.