Award-winning poet speaks in Law School Auditorium
Silence was the most persistent noise in the School of Law Auditorium as the audience waited to hear the words of award-winning poet Nikky Finney.
Finney, a South Carolina native, was introduced as a woman that “was always driven to be a writer.”
Stepping onto the auditorium stage, facing the crowd, she took everyone in.
“This feels like a first date,” Finney said.
“Diamonds in a Sawdust Pile” is considered Finney’s first official lecture series and was sponsored by USC’s Women’s and Gender Studies program.
Finney, who is known for her works’ “intense” dialogue and her voice, introduced her topic the best way that she knew how: her poetry.
“The Hazelwood Central High School honor student said she wanted some time to think about her life. Said she wanted to pay her own way. Said she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father,” Finney read from her poem, telling the story of 19-year-old Lavena Johnson.
Johnson, an African-American soldier, was declared dead of “self-inflicted wounds,” a soldier told John Johnson, her father, on June 19, 2005.
Finney’s poem outlined everything from Johnson’s works throughout school, her personality, her passion for excellence, her drive to become successful and her determination to make it on her own.
Johnson wanted to join the military because she had dreams of going to college without asking for her father’s help.
Finney shared the story of Johnson passionately, and continued to outline in her poem the real meaning behind Johnson and her lecture.
“How better should we have warned you? Because there are no warning signs nailed over recruitment doors for 19-year-old honor students who grow up loving music,” Finney said. “The dotted line you signed, Lavena, should have included what your father found out after. … It’s what every mother and father, and family of every daughter signing up for the military must know. That every woman that enters has a two to three (times) higher chance of being raped than being killed by enemy fire.”
Intently listening, audience members seemed to be wrapping their minds around what they had just heard: that Johnson, a female soldier, was raped, and that it was falsely deemed a suicide.
“I don’t feel any privileges as a writer,” Finney said, “only responsible.”
A video of Johnson’s father describing the way he felt when he found out that his daughter was not coming home played shortly after Finney’s poem was read. Finney described John Johnson opening the small white envelope in her poem as “something that a father shouldn’t have to do.”
And like Johnson, there are other, similar stories that involve rape in the military and the lies that are told to families with dead daughters, Finney said.
“I’ve seen so many young girls in uniforms since I’ve gotten here, and I often ask myself, ‘Do they know the story of Lavena Johnson?’” Finney said.
She continued to describe her hurt, silently warning young women to “please be safe” and “don’t be silent,” just like the words Finney’s mother often told her.
“[My mom] knew that I loved the power of stories,” Finney said. “[The advice she gave] was to ‘watch your choices, because they are a reflection of who you are.’”