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Award-winning poet, author and civil rights activist Nikki Giovanni was born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A poet extraordinaire and spoken word artist, Giovanni entered Fisk University in 1960, where she edited the school's literary magazine and became involved in the Writer's Workshop and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, receiving her B.A. in 1967. She became active in the black arts movement, organizing the Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati. During that time, she developed strong and enduring friendships with fellow writers James Baldwin and Sonia Sanchez. Radicalized by the assassination of Malcolm X and the rise of the Black Panthers, her poetry in the 1960s and 1970s became the voice of many African Americans. Later, Giovanni applied for and was accepted into the graduate program of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work. She has also studied at Columbia University's School of Fine Arts.

In 1970, Giovanni founded her own publishing company, Niktom Limited. She has published more than fourteen volumes of poetry, including Black Feeling Black Talk, Black Judgement, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, My House, The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni and Love Poems. She has also written and published books, including Racism 101 and Blues: For All the Changes. In 1987, she began working as a professor in the English department of Virginia Polytechnical Institute. She teaches writing, poetry and literature, and was named a distinguished professor.

With ever-growing popularity, Giovanni has received many honors and awards for her work, including numerous honorary degrees, the NAACP Image Award for Literature in 1998 and 2000, and the Langston Hughes Award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters in 1996. She has also been named Woman of the Year by several magazines, including Mademoiselle, Essence and Ladies Home Journal.




Giovanni was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on January 31, 2003.


Bibliography

Giovanni, Nikki. Black Feeling Black Talk. New York: William Morrow, 1980.

———. Black Judgement. Broadside Press, 1968.

———. Blues: For All the Changes. New York: William Morrow, 1999.

———. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day. New York: William Morrow, 1980.

———. Love Poems. New York: William Morrow, 1997.

———. My House. New York: William Morrow, 1974.

———. Racism 101. Quill, 1995.

———. The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni: 1986-1995. New York: William Morrow, 1996.