Rhetorical Continuities

Black Rhetorical Continuities in 15 Minutes:
"Ego-Trippin... There Might Be a Reason Why" and Its Remix

The poem was recorded and sold as a record.

Part 1: The 1970s-80s

Click here for the annotated lyrics on genius.com. We will hear the poem twice. Notice how digital culture archives these histories today, but even before-- other technologies did the same.

Giovanni's many sources of inspiration include:

Her then-recent 1972 trip to Africa;
Words/history of enslaved Black women like Sojourner Truth,
The popular Black song of the moment--- "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations

Part 2: The 1990s

Featured on the show "A Different World" about college students at an HBCU as the students, especially the Black women students, come to grips with the negative stereotypes of Black women, the Mammy image, and slavery.

Watch the way "Kim" sheds the negative past and ends by adorning herself in a positive African past and new future.

This episode is called "Mammy Dearest." You can watch the entire episode below on your own (this is optional).