Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni, born in 1943, American poet, essayist, and lecturer, whose work reflects her pride in her African American heritage. She was born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr., in Knoxville, Tennessee. She received a bachelor's degree with honors from Fisk University in 1967 and studied further at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work and Columbia University's School of Fine Arts. In 1970 Giovanni founded Niktom Limited, a publishing company.

The focus of Giovanni's work has changed frequently, mirroring her view that life itself is fluid and that change is necessary for growth. Her poetic language and rhythms reflect jazz and blues music, and she is considered a leader in the black oral poetry movement. Her earliest collections of poetry, including Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968) and Black Judgment (1968), capture the militant attitude of the civil rights movement during that time. In later work, Giovanni began to look inward and focus on family and personal relationships. Her works from this period include Re: Creation (1970), My House (1972), The Women and the Men (1975), and Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978). She also wrote Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet (1971). Subsequent works have stressed a global outlook and include Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983) and Sacred Cows ... and Other Edibles (1988). Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance Through Poems (1996), an anthology of African American poetry edited by Giovanni, includes her commentary on the poets and their work. Giovanni has also written children's books and poems and has made recordings of her poems and of her conversations with prominent African American writers James Baldwin and Margaret Walker.