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Salem Press

Great Lives from History: African Americans

Nikki Giovanni

by Gustavo Adolfo Aybar

Writer and activist

Giovanni is a key figure of the Black Arts movement and a well-known social and political activist. Her work deals with themes of revolution, civil rights, equality, love, and survival. Her canon, stretching back to the 1960’s, reflects the sentiments and experiences of black life, thought, and struggle.

Areas of achievement: Education; Literature; Poetry; Social issues

Early Life

Nikki Giovanni (gee-oh-VAH-nee) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents, Yolande and Jones “Gus” Giovanni, were social workers. Her grandparents Louvenia and John Brown Watson were enduring influences on Giovanni from her childhood until maturity.

Nikki Giovanni.

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Giovanni writes fondly about her time spent with her grandparents on 400 Mulvaney Street in Knoxville and began her book Gemini (1971), an autobiographical account of her first twenty-five years, by describing the house, the neighborhood, and her relationship with Tennessee. She also attended her grandfather’s alma mater, Fisk University. Her activism and her writing began to take shape during her studies at the historically black college. There, Giovanni published her first article, participated in writing workshops, and graduated magna cum laude in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in history.

Giovanni also studied at the University of Pennsylvania and the School of Fine Arts at Columbia University, although she did not complete either program. During those years, in the late 1960’s, she became active in the Civil Rights movement. She organized the first Cincinnati Black Arts Festival and helped restore the Fisk chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. At twenty-six, Giovanni published her first book of poetry, Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968), which confronted issues of black identity and established Giovanni as a black-power revolutionary.

In 1969, Giovanni published her second book, Black Judgment. In August of that year, she gave birth to her son, Thomas Watson Giovanni. Giovanni’s poetry at this time evinces a softer, less militant tone, in part because of motherhood and maturity. One of her most famous poems, “Nikki-Rosa,” is a part of this collection.

Life’s Work

In a career that has spanned nearly half a century, Giovanni’s achievements are varied and vast. As a key figure in the Black Arts movement of the 1960’s, her work reflects the spirit of that era and the African American struggle for equality. In 1995, she was treated for lung cancer but survived to add to her body of work. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) nominated Giovanni for an NAACP Image Award in 1996 for her book The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni. She won NAACP Image Awards for Love Poems (1997), Blues: For All the Changes (1999), Acolytes (2007), and Hip-Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (2008).

Giovanni began teaching at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 1987. She has held the posts of English professor, University Distinguished Professor, Commonwealth Visiting Professor, and Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies. She holds honorary doctorates in the humanities, literature, and humane letters from several academic institutions, including Fisk University, Smith College, and Indiana University. Although she is better known for her poetry, Giovanni also has written prose, essays, and children’s books, and she has edited several anthologies.

Giovanni also performs her writing. By 2010, she had made ten audio recordings, including Stealing Home: For Jackie Robinson (1997) and Legacies (1976). Her album The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (2002), which includes poems about key figures of the Civil Rights movement, received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album. Giovanni has received numerous awards and honors, including being named Woman of the Year by Ladies Home Journal, Ebony, and Mademoiselle magazines. In 2005, Oprah Winfrey honored her as a “living legend.”

Significance

Throughout her career, Giovanni has been a keen observer of black issues and aspirations. Her work is filled with themes of black love, black history, and black thought, yet it also speaks to a broad audiences beyond African Americans. Her work is a testament to and a reflection of the tumultuous era in which her career began, and its gradual softening is in line with the changes that have occurred in American society. Committed to education and activism, Giovanni has vowed to hold America to its ideals.

Further Reading

1 

Giovanni, Nikki. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998. Introduction by Virginia C. Fowler. New York: William Morrow, 2003. Contains Giovanni’s first seven volumes of poetry as well as some other, uncollected poems. Includes explanatory notes and chronology.

2 

_______. Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-five Years of Being a Black Poet. New York: Penguin Books, 1971. Offers a personal account of Giovanni’s childhood, literary and family influences, and views on musical and historical figures.

3 

Giovanni, Nikki, and Margaret Walker. A Poetic Equation: Conversations Between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1974. Lively discussion between Giovanni and Walker, another African American poet whose work deals with race and inequality. Topics include politics, literature, family, and race relations.

4 

Perry, Patsy B. “Nikki Giovanni.” In Contemporary Poets, Dramatists, Essayists, and Novelists of the South: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook, edited by Robert Bain and Joseph M. Flora. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. Biography, discussion of Giovanni’s activism and major themes in her writings, and a survey of criticism of her work.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Aybar, Gustavo Adolfo. "Nikki Giovanni." Great Lives from History: African Americans, edited by Carl L. Bankston, Salem Press, 2011. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLAA_132951932088.
APA 7th
Aybar, G. A. (2011). Nikki Giovanni. In C. L. Bankston (Ed.), Great Lives from History: African Americans. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Aybar, Gustavo Adolfo. "Nikki Giovanni." Edited by Carl L. Bankston. Great Lives from History: African Americans. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2011. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.