Poet Nikki Giovanni Dies at 81. She is a well-known American Black poet. People read her works to understand the life, love, and happiness of Black people.
Nikki Giovanni died in hospital from complications of lung cancer.
Giovanni was born to Italian parents; she was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1943. Her upbringing was in the 1950s and early 60s, when segregation and discrimination based on race were the norm in America.
Still, Giovanni discovered herself as a poet and emerged as a leader of the Black Arts Movement of the sixties and seventies.
Giovanni’s primary concerns were featured in poetry as love, family, and social justice. She would write about black pain, but she was also going to write about black pleasure, black survival, and black potentiality.
Her poems were quite simple and meaningful, which is why readers of different ages love her and use her books.
Nikki Giovanni belongs to a generation of Afro-Americans who contributed to the Black Arts Movement of the Civil Rights Movement. Alongside other writers like John Oliver Killens, Amiri Baraka, and Audre Lorde, Giovanni herself has a major role in this movement.
However, machismo was present in the movement and aimed at discrediting Giovanni, but she emerged as a celebrity poet, a public intellectual, and most of all, a great performer.
Her new concept, which promoted jazz and blues, attracted people from all over the country.
But she was not only one of the representatives of the Black Arts Movement but also one of the prominent poets and public intellectuals of her generation. The woman was an eloquent speaker who appeared on TV and gave speeches all across the country.
For reciting her poems, she combined features of jazz, blues, and comedy. She had a special connection with two groups in particular: college students and prison inmates, groups who were always touched by her performances.
During her writing career, Giovanni has written many poetry collections, some of which include Black Feeling, Black Talk, and Love Poems.
She also penned several children’s books as well as essays, and she became a women spokesperson and educator. Giovanni was a professor of English at Virginia Tech University, as well as at other universities.
For her work, she was awarded many awards, including the National Book Award, NAACP Image Award, and Langston Hughes Medal.
She also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and is a member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
The overwhelming success did not affect her and she stays focused on her music and performances up to date. She continued writing and teaching until her death; she has contributed immensely to literature through her poetry.
Giovanni’s death is a great blow to the literature. However, she will continue to inspire people through her poems for the generations.
