Acclaimed American poet and activist Nikki Giovanni, who wrote irresistible
and in a way sensual
about race, politics, gender, sex and love, according to the specialized press, died on Monday the 9th in Blacksburg, Virginia, reported yesterday The New York Times. He was 81 years old. His death was due to complications from lung cancer, said Virginia C. Fowler, his partner.
We will feel eternally blessed to have shared a legacy and love with our dear cousin
Allison (Pat) Ragan said in a statement on behalf of the family.
The author of more than 25 books, her fans came to know her well through her work, readings and other live appearances, and her years as a scholar at Virginia Tech, among other schools.
Poetry collections like Black Judgement y Black Feeling Black Talk They sold thousands of copies, earned him invitations to The Tonight Show and other television shows and made her popular enough to fill the 3,000-seat Lincoln Center for a 30th birthday celebration. It was the subject of the award-winning documentary Going to Mars (2023).
He received countless recognitions and awards. In 2004 she was nominated for a Grammy Award for her album The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. He was among the 25 living legends
by Oprah Winfrey. Her poems have been celebrated both in children’s books, on stage, and in the mass media, as well as in more than two dozen best-selling poetry collections.
Giovanni was described as a prolific star of the Black Arts Movement, a wave of black nationalism that broke out during the civil rights era
also promoted by the novelist John Oliver Killens; the playwright and poet LeRoi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka, and the poets Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange and Sonia Sánchez, among others.
As part of the movement, Giovanni also attracted the attention of the FBI. Did you ever tell Pittsburgh Press who used to invite the agents who monitored her to her house to have coffee because I knew they wanted to check the place
he stated The Guardian.
This princess of black poetry
as she was once known, was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, as Yolande Cornelia Giovanni. Soon her older sister started calling her Nikki. He was four years old when his family moved to Ohio, eventually settling in the black community of Lincoln Heights, outside Cincinnati, although he always kept in touch with his Tennessee roots.
I was lucky, because my nose was always stuffy, due to colds or allergies. That meant I was able to stay home a lot and not go to school. Thanks to this I was able to read the books I wanted to read. My mom had a big library.
Giovanni wrote in a short biography on his website. In 1967 he graduated in history from Fisk University in Nashville. He studied poetry at Columbia University School of the Arts.
However, My dream was not to publish, or even to be a writer: my dream was to discover something that no one else had thought of. I guess that’s why I’m a poet. We combine things in ways no one else does
he also wrote.
Giovanni had the support of friends to publish his first collection, Black Feeling Black Talkwhich came out in 1968, and the same year he self-published Black judgement. The Black Arts Movement was at its peak and Giovanni’s early poems such as A short essay of affirmation explaining why
, Of liberation
y A litany for Peppe
They were called militants to overthrow white power: The worst junkie or black businessman is more humane / than the best honkie
(The worst black drug addict or businessman is more human than the best white guy
), he came to write.
I have been considered an author who writes from anger and that confuses me. What else do writers write about?
captured in a biographical sketch for Contemporary Writers. A poem has to say something. It has to make some sense: be lyrical, be concise, and still be readable by any reader who is kind enough to pick up the book.
. He always told his story, as well as paying tribute to heroes from Nina Simone to Angela Davis.
Giovanni taught English at Virginia Tech from 1987 to 2022. In 2007, one of his former poetry students murdered 32 people in a shooting on campus. The poet later said that she had asked the university to remove him from her class in 2005, as she felt he was threatening. Regarding the shooting, Giovanni commented: “Killing is equivalent to a lack of creation. It is a lack of imagination; it is a failure to understand who you are and your place in the world. “Life is interesting and… a good idea.”
Moderation
His opposition to the political system moderated over time, although he never stopped advocating for change and self-empowerment or remembering the martyrs of the past. In 2020 he appeared in an ad for presidential candidate Joe Biden, urging young people to vote, because someone died so you would have the right to vote
.
Giovanni had a son, Thomas Watson Giovanni, in 1969. She never married his father, because, she told the magazine, Ebony, I didn’t want to get married and I could afford not to.
. During the latter part of his life he lived with his partner, Fowler, a fellow faculty member at Virginia Tech and his biographer.
When he died, he was working on a final collection of poetry, as well as his memoirs titled A street called Mulvaney (A street called Mulvaney). I used to think that I had become more mellow
he said to The Guardian last February. He soon realized that no, there’s still a lot of anger left
. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in the 90s and subsequently underwent several surgeries. Apart from his son, he has a granddaughter.
when i die
Nikki Giovanni
When I die I hope that no one who has hurt me will cry.
and if he cries I hope his eyes fall away
and a million worms that were once his brain
be dragged from the empty holes and devour the flesh
that covered that demon that posed as someone
who I probably tried
amar
When I die I hope that every worker in the national council
security
interpol fbi cia development foundation
black women get
an extra bonus and maybe it will take the day
And you might even wonder why they didn’t work so hard for us.
like they used to do
for them
although it seems that it has always been like this
please don’t let them read nikki-roasa
maybe they just leave
let a black woman who called herself my friend go here and there
and collect
every single one of my books and let some black man who said he was
Negative of me wanting him to be a man collect every photograph
and poster and make them burn – throw acid on them – shit on them
above like
to me while I tried
live
and as soon as I die I hope all those who loved me learn
the meaning
of my death that is a simple lesson
Don’t do what you do too well too well and enjoy it this
scares white people
and it makes black people very angry
but I really hope someone tells my son
that his mother liked little old ladies with
Their blue dresses and hats and gloves they sit
next to the window
to see how the dawn rises it is valid to smile at a man
viejo
and petting a dog does not take you away from virility
someone
please
tell him i always knew what it could be
It is what it will be but I wanted to be a new person and my rebirth was stifled not by the master
but for the slave
And if I ever touched a life I hope that life knows
that I know that touching has been and is still and will always be
the real one
revolution
The Day publishes this poem with authorization from the magazine Círculo de Poesía, in a version by Gustavo Osorio