Nikky Finney: Interview
Nikky Finney, daughter of civil rights workers, sees herself playing with the hottest, blue tongue of the flame as a witness with a pencil to the struggles of Black people and her family in the South. Documentation of these struggles represents the bulk of her poetry collection, Rice (Sister Vision Press, 1995), and also finds its hold on her works-in-progress—a novel, Frogmarch, and a third poetry collection, The World is Round.Finney gravitates toward recognizing the traditions she has emerged from and building her own voice. “Time is such an essential factor. There was a time I was working 10 hours at a day job,” said Finney. This former Kinko’s manager, waitress