Yolanda
Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni
was born in Knoxville,
Tennessee, and raised
in Ohio. In 1960, she
entered Fisk University,
where she worked with
the school's Writer's
Workshop and edited
the literary magazine.
After receiving her bachelor of arts degree, she organized the Black Arts Festival
in Cincinnati and then entered graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.
Her honors include the NAACP Image Award for Literature in 1998,
and the Langston Hughes award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts
and Letters in 1996. Several magazines have named Giovanni Woman of
the Year, including Essence, Mademoiselle, and Ladies Home
Journal. She is currently Professor of English and Gloria D. Smith Professor
of Black Studies at Virginia Tech.
Nikki Giovanni has long been known as the "Princess of Black Poetry." However,
an examination of her body of work to date unquestionably reveals a poet who
has evolved into a vibrant, passionate and stunningly honest voice whose influence
extends to an audience well beyond one defined by race.
Born on June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee, she was raised in the Lincoln Heights
area of Cincinnati, Ohio. In the late 1960's Giovanni became involved in both
the Writers' Workshop and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committe.
In 1967, Giovanni became actively involved in the Black Arts movement, a loose
coalition of African-American intellectuals who wrote politically and artistically
radical poems which strived to raise awareness of black rights and the struggle
for racial equality. The connections between literature and politics continued
to influence her work for decades to come.
But Giovanni's gift for verse, as L. M. Collins of The Tennessean put it, "came
to transcend the rhetoric of re volution and to form the essence of....love embracing
life."
The assassination of Malcolm X and the 1960's rise of the militant Black Panthers
unquestionably gave her poetry of the 1960's and 1970's a certain colorfulness
and combativeness. A recurring theme of her work during this era is the possible
redundancy of poetry in the face of possible revolution.
In her first three collections of poems, Black
Feeling, Black Talk (1968) and Black
Judgement (1969) and Re: Creation (1970),
Giovanni reflects on the African-American identity and her work was urgently
revolutionary and suffused with deliberate interpretation of experience through
a black consciousness.
Following this period, Giovanni's single-parent experiences began to impact upon
her work, as is readily seen in Spin a Soft Black
Song (1971), Ego-Tripping (1973),
and Vacation Time (1980) - all
collections of poems for children.
The themes of loneliness, family affection and disappointment began to surface
during this time as well, and she began public readings of her work, which proved
very popular and led to several recordings.
In the 1980's, she returned to political concerns, publishing in 1983 Those
Who Ride the Night Winds, with dedications to black American
heroes and heroines. But her tributes extended as well to non-blacks, notably
John Lennon, Billie Jean King and Robert Kennedy. The very title of the 1983
Night Winds collection referred to "going against the tide.....people unafraid
of trying to effect change. Her moving dedication of this volume reads in part...
".....to
the courage and fortitude of those who
ride the night winds --
who are the day trippers and midnight cowboys --
who in sonic solitude or the hazy hell of habit know that....
for all the devils and gods....
Life is a marvelous, transitory adventure......"
With
a rare and wonderful warmth, accessibility
and wit, and a sharp observation of the
human condition, Giovanni reveals herself
to be a woman of vision and caring, a
poet with whom universal audiences can
empathize and identify.
"...sometimes gentle, sometimes angry, and always moving..."
- J. Lester (The Guardian)
Now a professor of English at Virginia Tech, Giovanni recently survived surgery
for lung cancer, and has published several volumes of essays and autobiographical
reminiscences.
"Giovanni,
Nikki ." Microsoft® Encarta® Africana
Third Edition. © 1998-2000 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.
March4orth,
LLC (2002 - 2005) 
