Nikki Giovanni By Blake Hutchings

Early Life Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943 She grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio in a suburb called Lincoln Heights. She returned to Knoxville to live with her grandparents in 1958, and go to the city’s Austin High School. She did not adjust to college well after high school and was actually expelled from Fisk University in Nashville, she later came back spoke to the Dean and was readmitted. She knew she needed an education.

Early Life Nikki Graduated with honors with a B.A. in history and she later went to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. In 1969 She started teaching at Livingston College of Rutgers University. In 1970 she actually made regular appearances on the TV program, Soul!, it was a talk show that promoted black art, culture, and allowed political expression.

Life work All of Giovanni’s writings were heavily inspired by African- American activists and artists. Other issues that influenced her were race, gender, sexuality, and the African-American Family. She even wrote a book in memory of Tupac Shakur in 1997 called Love Poems. A famous quote from her is “rather be with the thugs than the people who are complaining about them” Her children’s picture book called “Rosa” that was about the civil rights leader, reached number three on New York’s Best Seller list and recieved the Caldecott Honors Award and Coretta Scott King Award.

Life Work Her poems during the 1960s and 1970s were described as being politically spiritually, and socially aware. She constantly conveyed the urgency in expressing the need for Black awareness, unity, and solidarity. Giovanni herself has always taken great pride in being a “Black American, a daughter, mother, and a Professor of English. She has written over two dozen books, including poetry, illustrated children books, and collections of essays. Giovanni has always wanted her work to speak to all ages and tries to make her work more easily accessible and understood by both adults and children.

Life Work Her first poetry to receive serious attention was Black feeling, Black Talk (1967), and Black Judgement (1968), The civil rights and black power movements are what inspired her for these 3 poems. Black Talk sol over ten thousand copies in its first year and Black Judgement sold six thousand copies in 3 months. All three of these poems helped in establishing Giovanni as a new voice for African American. Giovanni is commonly known as being one of the best African American poets that emerged from the Black Power and Black Arts Movements.

Life work Giovanni’s poetry in the late 60s and 70s regularly addressed black womanhood and black manhood among many other themes. So in a book that she co-wrote with James Baldwin titled A Dialougue, both of the authors spoke quite blatantly about the status of the black male in the household. Baldwin’s point of view was that man is not a woman whether or not a man is wrong or right he is responsible for the house hold. While Giovanni recognized the black man’s strength, but said that it depends whether or not he is responsible enough to be head of the house. The interview made it clear that regardless of who is ‘responsible’ for the home, the black woman and man shoud be dependent on each other.

Life work Throughout her career she won a number of awards including the Langston Hughes Medal, the NAACP Image Award, she was even nominated for a Grammy Award. Also, she was named one of Oprah Winfrey’s twenty-five “Living Legends”. She provided such a great African American perspective that one writer named her the “Poet of the Black Revolution”.

Present Day In her life, Giovanni taught at Queens College, Rutgers, and Ohio State. She is currently a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. Following the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, she actually gave a chant-poem at a memorial for the victims in the shooting. She still teaches at Virginia Tech today and has been writing mostly children’s books releasing four in 2007.

References Jane M. Barstow, Yolanda Williams Page (ed.), "Nikki Giovanni," Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007), p. 213.Nikki Giovanni," Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007), p. 213.