Nikki Giovanni, acclaimed poet of the Black Arts Movement, dies aged 81
Source: The Guardian
Tue 10 Dec 2024 00.06 EST
Last modified on Tue 10 Dec 2024 09.31 EST
The US poet Nikki Giovanni, who has died aged 81. Photograph: Logan Wallace
Nikki Giovanni, the award-winning US poet who emerged as one of the leading voices of the 1960s Black Arts movement, has died aged 81. Giovanni died on Monday following her third cancer diagnosis, her friend, the author Renée Watson, told NPR in a statement. “We will forever be grateful for the unconditional time she gave to us, to all her literary children across the writerly world,” said the poet Kwame Alexander.
Born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr in 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee, but dubbed Nikki by her older sister, Giovanni studied at Fisk University in Nashville. There, she met several Black literary figures including Amiri Baraka and Dudley Randal before studying poetry at Columbia University School of the Arts.
She published her first two poetry collections in 1968 – Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgement – starting a career that would span more than 30 books including Those Who Ride the Night Winds and Bicycles: Love Poems.
She became part of the burgeoning Black Arts movement which included figures such as Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Thelonious Monk and Audre Lorde. As a civil rights activist and politically engaged writer, Giovanni also attracted the attention of the FBI; she told the Pittsburgh Press that she used to invite the agents monitoring her into her home “for coffee because I knew they wanted to check out the place”.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/10/nikki-giovanni-acclaimed-poet-of-the-black-arts-movement-dies-aged-81
OMG this story got buried under all the other news yesterday. What a loss.
Rest in Power dear Nikki.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and drizzly afternoon to you too! 
You Came, Too
I came to the crowd seeking friends
I came to the crowd seeking love
I came to the crowd for understanding
I found you
I came to the crowd to weep
I came to the crowd to laugh
You dried my tears
You shared my happiness
I went from the crowd seeking you
I went from the crowd seeking me
I went from the crowd forever
You came, too
