Remembering Poet Nikki Giovanni (1943-2024)

      I much admire the work of Nikki Giovanni -- a poet who spoke both fearlessly and eloquently.  As she deserved, her life was big news in the Washington Post  -- I learned of her passing (on December 9) in a front-page article that celebrated her work and her person.  Another informative Post  tribute to Giovanni is available here -- and a rich sampling of her poetry is available here at PoetryFoundation.org.

     Giovanni has not included math ideas in many of her poems but I did find some counting in "The Way I Feel" -- sampled in this blog at this link -- and I offer below a few lines from "Balances";  Giovaanni's complete poem is available here. 

Mathematics might be dangerous!

       Censorship of Math Texts: A Syllable-Square with Questions
    
       Florida educators have banned
       Lots of mathematics texts because
       The books’ problems-to-solve include some
       REAL problems – bias and racism!
       Are the banners blind to their bias?
       Do they fear exposure and critique?
       Do they worry that knowing the need
       for drastic changes may open doors
       to fair, equal treatment of us all?

Here is a link to a news article about the Florida censorship -- written by Moriah Balingit, from 5/9/2022 in the The Washington Post.

Counting the women

     The stimulus for this posting appeared a few weeks ago in the Washington Post -- in an article that considers the loneliness of women in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math). 
     For me, it was never a conscious thing -- the counting.  It simply happened.  The numbers are small and you know, if you are a woman and a mathematician in a room full of mathematicians, how many women are in the room.  Any room.  It is a small counting number.  Sometimes it is 1.