Nikki Giovanni, a renowned poet, activist, book author, and educator known for her thoughtful work on race and gender, died at age 81 on Monday, Dec. 9 in a hospital in Blacksburg, Virginia. The cause was complications from lung cancer, a disease with which she was originally diagnosed in 1995.
“The acclaimed poet, Black Arts Movement icon whose poems of wit, wonder, and wisdom were celebrated in children’s books, on keynote stages and television shows, and in more than two dozen bestselling poetry collections, died peacefully on December 9, 2024, with her life-long partner, Virginia Fowler, by her side,” Giovanni’s friend and fellow writer Renée Watson confirmed in a statement, via CNN.
“We will forever feel blessed to have shared a legacy and love with our dear cousin,” added Allison Ragan in a statement on behalf of Giovanni’s family.
Born as Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Giovanni was a prolific and well-regarded poet who initially gained attention in the late 1960s as part of the Black Arts Movement after graduating from Nashville’s Fisk University. Throughout her career, she won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal, the Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award, seven NAACP Image Awards, and 31 honorary doctorates. In 2003, she was nominated for a Grammy for her spoken word album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Earlier this year, Giovanni was awarded an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
“We had music growing up, 78RPM’s that evolved into 45RPM’s and, always, the radio,” Giovanni wrote on her website. “The radio in my day, Black and white, played everything. Gospel Spirituals, even some opera when Leontyne Price came along. You could listen to R & B late at night or you could go to the other station and listen to popular music. There was also jazz if the wind was right. I feel so sorry for the kids who only hear one kind of music. Where do your dreams come from? My dream was not to publish or to even be a writer: my dream was to discover something no one else had thought of. I guess that’s why I’m a poet. We put things together in ways no one else does.”
For her early works, Giovanni drew inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power movements, often writing about issues of race, politics, and gender, as well as grief. In the late ’60s, she self-published her first two books, Black Feeling Black Talk and Black Judgment. “No one was much interested in a Black girl writing what was called ‘militant’ poetry,” Giovanni noted in her biography. “I thought of it as good poetry but we all have our own ideas. Since no one wanted to publish me I formed a company and published myself.”
Around the same time, she began appearing on TV series Soul!, a variety talk show that promoted Black expression and art and also hosted guests like Muhammad Ali, James Baldwin, and Stevie Wonder. Her lengthy 1971 interview with Baldwin, released in 1973 as a book called A Dialogue, was notable for its candor and intelligence.
Giovanni released over 30 books, including her 1971 autobiography Gemini, as well as spoken word albums and works for children. She held teaching positions at Rutgers and Queens College before being recruited to the English department of Virginia Tech in 1987 by Fowler. Her most recent book, The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things, is expected to be released in 2025.
In her website biography, written when she was 71, Giovanni noted that she recommended old age, calling it “fun.” She added, “I don’t have a lot of friends but I have good ones. I have a son and a granddaughter. My father, mother, sister, and middle aunt are all deceased literarily making me go from being the baby in the family to being an elder. I like to cook, travel, and dream. I’m a writer. I’m happy.”
