Walking Down Park

Nikki Giovanni is a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement. This movement was a response to the Harlem Renaissance, pioneered by poets such as Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, and Sonia Sanchez. Critics of the Harlem Renaissance believed that Hughes and others were writing in the style of white Americans, making their work palatable for white culture. By contrast, the proponents of the Black Arts Movement created art that spoke directly to Black Americans. They wrote in a style that incorporated slang and the so-called “street language” of African American communities.

Many poets of this movement avoided capitalization and punctuation, meant to reflect a more natural form of communication that did not conform to American academia. In “Walking Down Park,” Giovanni writes without punctuation and capitalization. This allows the language to flow without stopping and mimics informal patterns of speech or writing informally for one’s friends instead of outsiders.

The poem also addresses many issues unique to the Black community. The speaker addresses other African American people directly, using the term “you” and “we,” asking variations of “did you ever wonder” several times. When she says, “we are the stock / exchanged” (Lines 12-13), she refers to Black people brought to the United States and sold like livestock.