Also this issue: The Right Hand Giveth... Richard Price talks about his new novel, Samaritan, and the selfish side of altruism. -Interview by Frank Halperin Fly South for Winterthur A Delaware estate presents a unique display of Mexican art. -Robin Rice Domestic Bliss -Susan Hagen Flipping the Bird -Lori Hill A Plantsman in Asia: 1979-1999 -Lori Hill Seussical: The Musical -Jesse Delaney Artsbeat -Debra Auspitz

January 9-15, 2003

artpicks

Nikki Giovanni

As a recent lung cancer survivor, Nikki Giovanni -- civil rights activist, pioneer of the Black Arts Movement, essayist, poet and publisher -- has added a whole new category to her list of accomplishments. Giovanni's latest collection of writings, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems (William Morrow), meditates only briefly on Giovanni's struggle, but the author's sense of mortality looms in the many poignant tributes she pays to others, from civil rights pioneers to her favorite English teacher. Still, for all her odes, Giovanni has not stopped questioning the order of things. Read between the memorials and you'll find stealthy barbs aimed at Bush, Gore, interventionist foreign policy and the penal system, proving that if Giovanni's lens has softened, she has not shifted her focus. In "Shoulders Are For Emergencies Only," Giovanni even questions the state of her medium: "What are your plans Poem I hear you're a rap star now." Not to worry. With her appearance this week, Giovanni will demonstrate that the art form is as vibrant as she is.

Nikki Giovanni reads Sat., Jan. 11, 2 p.m., free, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322.

—Elisa Ludwig