Back to Previous

Nikki Giovanni

b. 1943
https://nikki-giovanni.com

Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with a degree in history from Fisk University. A world-renowned poet and one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement, her notable books of poetry are Black Judgment (1968) and Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), which were influenced by her participation in the Black Arts Movement and Black Power movement in the 1960s. 

Giovanni has published numerous collections of poetry—from her first self-published volume, Black Feeling Black Talk (1968), to New York Times best seller Bicycles: Love Poems (2009). She has written several works of nonfiction and children’s literature and made multiple recordings, including the Emmy-award nominated The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (2004). Her most recent publications include Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose (2020); Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (2013); and, as editor, The 100 Best African American Poems (2010). She has published more than two dozen volumes of poetry, essays, and edited anthologies and 11 illustrated children’s books, including Rosa, an award-winning biography of Rosa Parks. 

Giovanni has received numerous awards, including the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the inaugural Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, the American Book Award, the Langston Hughes Award, the Virginia Governor’s Award for the Arts, the Emily Couric Leadership Award, a Literary Excellence Award. She is a seven-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award. Her autobiography, Gemini, was a finalist for the 1973 National Book Award. In 2004, her album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection, was a Grammy finalist for Best Spoken Word Album.

Giovanni’s work explores race, gender, sexuality, and the African American family. Her poetry was political and worked to uplift the black experience in the arts and as part of the Black Arts Movement. Giovanni also dedicated herself to uplifting other Black writers, especially Black women writers, such as by editing and publishing Night Comes Softly (1970), an anthology of poetry written by Black women. She also advocates for the right to vote worldwide and supports the right of incarcerated people to vote. She continues to write poetry and recently made headlines for penning a poem titled “Vote” on the importance of voting.

Giovanni has taught at many universities, including Rutgers, Ohio State, and Queens College, City University of New York. She was on the faculty at Virginia Tech since 1987, where she was a University Distinguished Professor.

Poems by Nikki Giovanni
Related Content
More About this Poet

Bibliography

POETRY

  • Black Feeling, Black Talk, Broadside Press (Detroit, MI), 1968, 3rd edition, 1970.
  • Black Judgement, Broadside Press (Detroit, MI), 1968.
  • Black Feeling, Black Talk/ Black Judgement (contains Black Feeling, Black Talk, and Black Judgement), Morrow (New York, NY), 1970.
  • Re: Creation, Broadside Press (Detroit, MI), 1970.
  • My House, foreword by Ida Lewis, Morrow (New York, NY), 1972.
  • The Women and the Men, Morrow (New York, NY), 1975.
  • Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, introduction by Paula Giddings, Morrow (New York, NY), 1978.
  • Those Who Ride the Night Winds, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.
  • The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni, 1968-1995, Morrow (New York, NY), 1996.
  • Love Poems, Morrow (New York, NY), 1997.
  • Blues: For All the Changes: New Poems, Morrow (New York, NY), 1999.
  • Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems, Morrow (New York, NY), 2002.
  • The Prosaic Soul of Nikki Giovanni, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2003.
  • The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998, Morrow (New York, NY), 2003.  
  • Acolytes, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2007.
  • Bicycles: Love Poems, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2009.
  • Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid, William Morrow, 2013.
  • Make Me Rain, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2020.

 

WORK FOR CHILDREN

  • Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis, Afro Arts (New York, NY), 1970.
  • Spin a Soft Black Song: Poems for Children, illustrated by Charles Bible, Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 1971, illustrated by George Martins, Lawrence Hill (Westport, CT), 1985, revised edition, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1987.
  • Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People, illustrated by George Ford, Lawrence Hill (Chicago, IL), 1973.
  • Vacation Time: Poems for Children, illustrated by Marisabina Russo, Morrow (New York, NY), 1980.
  • Knoxville, Tennessee, illustrated by Larry Johnson, Scholastic (New York, NY), 1994.
  • The Sun Is So Quiet, illustrated by Ashley Bryant, Holt (New York, NY), 1996.
  • The Genie in the Jar, illustrated by Chris Raschka, Holt, 1996.
  • Girls in the Circle, illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2004
  • Rosa (children’s book), illustrated by Bryan Collier, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2005.
  • Poetry Speak to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (guest contributor), Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2005.
  • Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship, illustrated by Bryan Collier, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2008.
  • Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (audio CD), Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2008.
  • I Am Loved, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2018.

 

OTHER

  • (Editor) Night Comes Softly: An Anthology of Black Female Voices, Medic Press (Newark, NJ), 1970.
  • Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-five Years of Being a Black Poet, Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis, IN), 1971.
  • Truth Is on Its Way (album), Atlantis, 1971.
  • (With James Baldwin) A Dialogue: James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1973.
  • Like a Ripple on a Pond (album), Collectibles, 1973.
  • (With Margaret Walker) A Poetic Equation: Conversations between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker, Howard University Press (Washington, DC), 1974.
  • The Way I Feel (album), Atlantic, 1975.
  • Legacies—The Poetry Of Nikki Giovanni—Read By Nikki Giovanni (album), Folkways, 1976.
  • The Reason I Like Chocolate (And Other Children's Poems) (album), Folkways, 1976.
  • Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (album), Folkways, 1978.
  • (Author of introduction) Adele Sebastian: Intro to Fine (poems), Woman in the Moon, 1985.
  • Sacred Cows ... and Other Edibles (essays), Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.
  • (Editor, with C. Dennison) Appalachian Elders: A Warm Hearth Sampler, Pocahontas Press (Blacksburg, VA), 1991.
  • (Author of foreword) The Abandoned Baobob: The Autobiography of a Woman, Chicago Review Press (Chicago, IL), 1991.
  • Nikki Giovanni and the New York Community Choir (album), Collectibles, 1993.
  • Racism 101 (essays), Morrow (New York, NY), 1994.
  • (Editor) Grand Mothers: Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories about the Keepers of Our Traditions, Holt (New York, NY), 1994.
  • (Editor) Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poems, Holt (New York, NY), 1995.
  • In Philadelphia (album), Collectibles, 1997.
  • Stealing Home: For Jack Robinson (album), Sony, 1997.
  • (Editor) Grand Fathers: Reminiscences, Poems, Recipes, and Photos of the Keepers of Our Traditions, Holt (New York, NY), 1999.
  • Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like the Rivers (compilation), Rhino, 2000.
  • (Author of foreword) Margaret Ann Reid, Black Protest Poetry: Polemics from the Harlem Renaissance and the Sixties, Peter Lang (New York, NY), 2001.
  • The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (CD), HarperAudio, 2002.
  • (Contributor) Breaking the Silence: Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors, Hilton Publishing (Munster, Indiana), 2005.
  • (Editor and Contributor) The 100 Best African American Poems, Sourcebooks MediaFusion, 2010.

Contributor to Voices of Diversity: The Power of Book Publishing, a videotape produced by the Diversity Committee of the Association of American Publishers and Kaufman Films, 2002. Contributor to numerous anthologies. Contributor of columns to newspapers. Contributor to periodicals, including Black Creation, Black World, Ebony, Essence, Freedom Ways, Journal of Black Poetry, Negro Digest, and Umbra. Editorial consultant, Encore American and Worldwide News. A selection of Giovanni's public papers is housed at Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University.