Nikki Giovanni, Poet and Leading Figure of Black Arts Movement, Dies at 81

Mar. 15, 2025

Nikki Giovanni in 1970.Photo:Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Nikki Giovanni in 1973.Bettmann/Getty

Bettmann/Getty

In 1968, Giovanni self-published her debut poetry collection,Black Feeling Black Talk. Her work discussed topics like race, politics, sex, love and age. Giovanni published over 20 books throughout her career, including 1968’sBlack Judgementand the prose workGemini, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1973. She earned a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album forThe Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collectionin 2004.

Nikki Giovanni in 2016.Kris Connor/Getty

Kris Connor/Getty

Giovanni was a Professor Emerita in the English Department at Virginia Tech, where she taught for over 30 years. She was also the subject of the 2023 documentaryGoing to Mars, which recounted the writer’s influence.“It’s incredibly comfortable and nice when you can look at your own work and say to yourself, ‘I did a good job.’ And then you let it go, because anything else is going to make you crazy, and anything else, you’re going to be trying to impress people who don’t even like you,” Giovanni said in a 2017 interview withThe Creative Independent. “That’s the truth! You have to be very careful of letting people who not only don’t know you, but don’t understand you, don’t like you … you can’t let those people determine who you are.”

source: people.com