“I hope you leave out with something wonderful in your pockets,” National Book Award winner Nikky Finney said before beginning her first poem “Hurricane Beulah.”
The English department at Winthrop invited the critically-acclaimed poet to campus to do a reading from her poetry collection “The World is Round.” Laughs erupted and meditative silence permeated Whitton Auditorium as Finney shared her creative work with students, faculty and Rock Hill community members.
She read several poems that night including “The New Medicine,” a poem about her family and late father who had Alzheimer’s, “Elephantine,” where she visited an annual carnival, and “Heirloom,” where the speaker threw heirloom tomatoes in response to an ending romantic relationship. “Hurricane Beulah,” was about her grandmother and their various trips to the Salvation Army, using recycling as a motif and youth and memory as themes.
“Noticing is a type of research for poets,” Finney said. “The research that an artist is required of artists falls into the category of empathy. Not sympathy, empathy.”
Finney’s father was a lawyer and her mother was a teacher; they were both involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Political activism and social awareness bled into her creative conscience and writing, earning her multiple accolades and praises throughout her career.
Her presence on campus is part of the reader series the English department hosts in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences. Epharim Sommers, an associate English professor, wrote a grant and received funding from the Winthrop Alumni Association to facilitate Finney’s reading. The English department invited Winthrop alumna April Ayers Lawson to campus for a reading in fall 2018.
“She was a pretty perfect choice,” Dustin M. Hoffman, the graduate director of the English department at Winthrop said. Finney teaches at the University of South Carolina, so her proximity also made her a suitable candidate; she is also from Conway, South Carolina and grew up in Sumter.
“She’s a huge celebrity in [the literary] world. Dr. Fike said ‘she’s one of, if not the most, famous African American female poet alive right now,’” Hoffman said.
Finney said she taught at the University of Kentucky for 23 years, and she received the title professor emeritus in 2013. She also “accepted the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina,” according to her webpage on University of South Carolina’s website. She teaches in the English department and the African American Studies program at the school.
Her other works include “On Wings Made of Gauze” (1985), “RICE” (1995), Heartwood (1997), “Black Poets Lean South” (2007) and “Head Off & Split” (2011), which won the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry. She also won the PEN American Open Book Award and the Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry.
“I think what really stuck with me was the way that her poetry captured the character’s soul, seemed to speak with them for a while, then let them go,” Laura Gray Hopkins, a senior English major said. “The characters seemed to be real people whose essence stayed within the poem.”
Brianna Muller, a junior English major, said that listening to Finney read her poetry was “a lot more fun and entertaining” than reading it in isolation.
“Not only did I enjoy just listening to her read her poetry, but she gave us background information on the stories that really helped the poetry come to life,” she said.
Hoffman said he is a fan of Finney’s work.
“I got to read with her when my book came out. I saw her read, and I wept at the reading,” the graduate director said. “She was so great. I’ve organized dozens of poetry readings and been at lots of great ones, and I’ve never wept at one before. She’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.”
