NIKKI GIOVANNI 1943-2024
Princess of Black poetry dies of cancer at age 81
By Cynthia Gibson
Contributing Writer
Renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator Nikki Giovanni, author of more than two dozen works of poetry anthologies, poetry recordings and nonfiction essays, died Dec. 9 from cancer complications. She was 81 years old.
Over her prolific career which spanned five decades, Giovanni received the NAACP Image Award seven times, received 20 honorary doctorates and various other awards, including the American Book Award, the inaugural Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award and the Langston Hughes Award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters. She also received a key to the city of Los Angeles, one of several cities throughout the country who honored her in that manner.
Her autobiography, “Gemini,” was a finalist for the 1973 National Book Award. In 2004, her album, “The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection,” was a Grammy finalist for Best Spoken Word Album.
Giovanni retired from Virginia Tech in 2022 after 35 years as a professor.
Many local poets remembered Giovanni’s fearless exploration of social issues and authenticity.
Poet V. Kali, coordinator of the Anansi Writers workshop at the World Stage in Leimert Park, first met Giovanni at a book signing in the 1980s. Since then, Kali had seen Giovanni at several bookstores including the now closed EsoWon Books and Beyond Baroque in Venice. Giovanni was also a part of a reading with the Anansi Writers workshop.
Kali was struck by Giovanni’s easy-going nature and her humor.
“She was not just a poet, she was an essayist,” Kali said. “She was funny as hell. She was a humorist. She made so much sense.
“She talked about everything and everybody. She had a filter, but no filter. She was very courageous in her work.”
Los Angeles based writer S. Pearl Sharp met Giovanni in the late 1970s when she was living in New York. She remembered the two of them on a train ride to northern New York and talking about writing and life.
“I loved Nikki’s sense of humor,” Sharp said. “She was quick comeback. She was brilliant. And very good at analyzing a situation, handing it back to you in a poetic essay kind of package where you could just get it.
“You could see her clarity very easily. I admired that about her.”
Poet and Leimert Park Book Festival Poetry state coordinator Connie Williams remembers meeting Giovanni at a Beyond Baroque anthology reading. She was also the featured poet at the book fair. Williams said Giovanni will be remembered as not just an African-American poet, but a great American poet.
“The way that she lived her life unapologetically is something that speaks to those of us who are traversing this life and facing new types of challenges,” Williams said. “We need a voice like Nikki Giovanni to remind us, not to apologize for being who we are and what we are and what we believe.”
Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr., was born on June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee and given the nickname “NikkI” by her older sister, Gary. Her family moved to Ohio where Giovanni grew up in a turbulent, but loving household. Her childhood remembrances were a foundation of her work, starting with her 1968 signature poem, “Nikki-Rose.”
“And though they fought a lot, it isn’t your father’s drinking that makes any difference but only that everybody is together and you and your sister have happy birthdays and very good Christmases and I really hope that no white person has cause to write about me because they never understand that Black love is Black wealth and they probably will talk about my hard childhood and never understand that all the while I was quite happy,” she wrote.
“Nikki-Rose” was part of Giovanni first volume of poetry, “Black Feeling, Black Talk,” which she borrowed money to publish. By the end of 1968, Giovanni was able to use the money made from sales of “Black Feeling Black Talk” and a grant from the Harlem Arts Council to privately publish her second volume of poetry, “Black Judgement.”
She was influenced by and became a major influence on the Black arts movement and the Black power movement of the late 1960s and 70s. She began publishing militant, artful poetry that quickly made her a leading figure in the Black arts movement and a fiery counterpoint to the overt masculinity she found in certain facets of the civil rights movement.
Giovanni said she was obligated to speak out about injustice, inequality and racism.
“I honestly think the most important word to me is duty,” she once said. “I just think there are things you have to do when all the [expletive deleted] hits the fan, you’re still going to stand up and do the right thing. Our people have. The history of our people is a great history and it’s our duty to tell that story.”
Nikki Giovanni’s last book of poetry, “The Last Book,” is scheduled for release in 2025.
Cynthia Gibson is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers.
