Nikki Giovanni, Lauded Poet and Civil Rights Icon, Dies at 81

Nikki Giovanni, the Civil Rights Movement leader, poet and professor at Virginia Tech, has died of cancer, WDBJ 7 reported Monday. She was 81.

Giovanni began her undergraduate studies at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, as an “early entrant,” a designation that allowed her to begin college without having finished high school. She left the school for several years due to a dispute with the then-Dean but returned in 1964.

Giovanni published three books of poetry after graduating in 1967: “Black Feeling, Black Talk,” “Black Judgement,” and “Re: Creation.” She would go on to publish over two dozen volumes of poetry, essays, and anthologies as well as 11 children’s books.

Giovanni’s work from the 1960s and 1970s is often described as more radical than her later offerings. A fierce advocate for both racial and gender equality, Giovanni was described as one of the most important voices from the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements.

She began to write children’s poetry and literature in the 1970s after giving birth to her son, Thomas Watson Giovanni. Giovanni picked up teaching jobs at Queens College and Rutgers University before she cofounded the publishing company NikTom Ltd. She also began to record her spoken word poetry and won the 1972 National Association of Radio and Television Announcers award for Best Spoken Word Album. Giovanni continued to publish books of poetry throughout the decades that followed.

Giovanni joined the faculty at Virginia Tech in 1987 and stayed on through 2022. While at the school she served as a University Distinguished Professor in the English department and received several NAACP Image Awards.

She was asked to deliver a convocation speech at a memorial for the 32 people who were killed at Virginia Tech by mass shooter Seung-Hui Cho in April 2007. Giovanni, who had requested to have Cho removed from one of her classes due to his behavior, closed out her speech with a chant poem.”

“We know we did nothing to deserve it. But neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS. Neither do the invisible children walking the night awake to avoid being captured by a rogue army,” she said. “Neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory. Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water….We are Virginia Tech…. We will prevail.”

This was her third bout with cancer. She was first diagnosed with lung cancer in the 1990s, and her book “Blues: For All the Changes: New Poems” documented her battle against the disease.

The poet was not without a sense of humor. In a wide-ranging interview with NPR in July, Giovanni admitted to being “cautious around ostriches.” When pressed further, she explained, “Have you ever been on a safari? They are mean. And that kick will kill you. Ask a lion. If you had to put a lion against an ostrich, the lion is gone.”

“I’m not afraid of lions because lions are an intelligent being that, unless you’re threatening them, they’re not going to bother you. You have to be careful around ostriches. People need to know that,” she added.

In the same interview, Giovanni said she didn’t spend time thinking about what kind of legacy she might leave behind after her death, “Because it gets you caught up in your life, and your life is not about your life, your life is about your duty. And so, no, I don’t think about it.”

After NPR’s Rachel Martin rephrased the question to ask about what moments from her life Giovanni was proud of, she softened. “Oh, there are moments that I feel proud because I’ve worked hard. And when I went to the opening of the African American Museum in D.C, I had forgotten we gave permission to use my poetry. And when I turned a corner, there was a photograph of me,” she said.

“And it brought tears to my eyes. And I turned over my shoulder and said, ‘Look, grandmother, I did my duty.’ And that still amazes me. It’s like she was there. I did my duty and that’s what matters to me.”

Born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr. on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the renowned poet said in a 2021 New York Times interview that she was “a space freak” since childhood.

“As a little girl, I shared a bedroom with my sister. And I got to sleep on the side of the bed facing the outside wall, so there was a window, and I would look out at the stars. I thought if I ran into a Martian and the Martian said, ‘Who are you?’ what would my answer be? The only answer could be ‘I am an Earthling,'” she said.

“And if I could start Earth all over again, I would always make sure that if you had to answer the question, ‘Who are you?’ then you’d have to say, ‘I’m an Earthling.’ That way you don’t get trapped in what somebody thinks is your gender and your race. If Earth survives — there’s a good chance we’ll blow ourselves up — gender and race are going to go.”

Giovanni also admitted that while her earlier work did not argue race is a negative construct, in her later years she believed it was. “It was a different world. You’re talking to me almost 60 years later, and there are things that I have learned and things that Earth has learned,” she explained.

Giovanni’s family moved to Ohio when she was a child and she remained there until 1958, when she moved back to Knoxville to live with her grandparents and attend high school. She enrolled at Fisk University, her grandmother’s alma mater, before graduating high school.

In the same Times interview, Giovanni said “My job was to be as truthful as I knew how. I am also a storyteller. We’re the dreamers. I still dream … I try my best to get people to think. That’s what I do.”

Nikki Giovanni is survived by her wife, Virginia Fowler, her son Thomas Giovanni, her granddaughter, Kai Giovanni, two cousins, Haynes Ford and Allison (Pat) Ragan, and a nephew Christopher Black.

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