Nikki Giovanni

1
Nikki Giovanni
1943 -

• Nikki is an African American poet whose writings
  can be appreciated from any walk of life.
  Ranging from violent revolution calls to private
  personal statements ever to childrens poems, she
  is a voice heard loud and clear all over the
  world.

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Biography

• Born on June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee,
  Yolanda Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. was the
  second
• child of Yolanda and Jones Giovanni. The August
  after Nikkis birth the family moves from
  Knoxville to
• Cincinnati, Ohio. Nikkis spends the next
  fourteen years of her life in Cincinnati until
  1957. In 1957
• Nikki decides to live with her maternal
  grandparents in Knoxville, Tennessee in order to
  attend Austin
• High School.
• After completing high school Nikki enrolls in the
  all-black Fisk University in 1960. She becomes
  and
• active member of the community and is involved in
  many activities including the Writers' Workshop
• and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
  Committee. After receiving her bachelor of arts
  degree at
• Fisk University, Nikki organizes the Black Arts
  Festival in Cincinnati. Then enters into
  graduate school
• at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Nikki is very concerned with the political aspect
  of poetry and uses her poems as an outlet for
  her to
• show her true feelings to the world. She
  expresses her feelings on the Civil Rights
  Movement as well
• as the oppression of the African American society
  during these times. Nikki becomes very popular
• because she is one of the first women to speak
  out in such an articulate manner.

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Published Works
Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgement
(1979) Vacation Time Poems for Children
(1980) Those Who Ride the Night Winds
(1983) Sacred Cows and Other Edibles (1988) Grand
Mothers Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories
About the Keepers of Our Tradition
(1994) Knoxville, Tennessee (1994) Racism 101
(1994) The Genie in the Jar (1996) Shimmy Shimmy
Like My Sister Kate Looking at the Harlem
Renaissance Through Poems (1996) The Selected
Poems of Nikki Giovanni (1996) The Sun is So
Quiet Poems (1996) Love Poems (1997)

• Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968)
• Black Judgement (1968)
• Night Comes Softly (1970)
• Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis (1970)
• Re Creation (1970)
• Gemini An Extended Autobiographical Statement on
  My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet
  (1971)
• Spin a Soft Black Song Poems for Children (1971)
• In My House (1972)
• Dialogue (1973). My House, Ego-Tripping and Other
  Poems for Young People (1973)
• A Poetic Equation Conversations between Nikki
  Giovanni and Margaret Walker (1974)
• The Women Gather (1975)
• The Women and the Men (1975)
• Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978)

4
Balances
In life one is alwaysbalancinglike we juggle
our mothersagainst our fathersor one teacher
against another(only to balance our grade
average)Three grains of saltto one ounce
truthour sweet black essenceor the funky
honkies down the streetand lately I've begun
wondering if youre trying to tell me
somethingWe used to talk all nightand do things
alone togetherand I've begun(as a reaction to a
feeling)to balancethe pleasure of
lonelinessagainst the pain of loving you
5
Winter Poem
once a snowflake fell on my brow and i loved it
so much and i kissed it and it was happy and
called its cousins and brothers and a web of snow
engulfed me then i reached to love them all and i
squeezed them and they became a spring rain and i
stood perfectly still and was a flower
6
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
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Most Recent Awards Honors

• 1999
• Invited Participant at Children's Defense Fund
  Symposium. Organized by Marian Wright Edelmann.
  Other participants included Hillary Rodham
  Clinton, Secretary of Education Donna Shalala,
  Toni Morrison. March 1999.
• University Distinguished Professor. Virginia
  Tech. Blacksburg, VA. August 1999.
• Blues For All the Changes. Nominated for Library
  of Virginia 2000 Poetry Award. September 1999.
• Blues For All the Changes. NAACP Image Award for
  Literature. 12 February 2000. .
• Black Feeling, Black Talk. Included in "Some 100
  classic millennial books," Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe,
  Jr., The New York Amsterdam News, 30 December
  1999 5 January 2000, p. 20.

2000 N.A.A.C.P. Image Award for Blues For All
the Changes Virginia Governor's Award for the
Arts. Judge, Poetry Panel. The National Book
Awards. Appreciation given to Nikki Giovanni by
the Virginia Dept. of Correctional Education.
Certificate of Appreciation. The Black Caucus of
Virginia Tech. Hollywood Walk of Fame. A
Celebration of Poetry, Art, Music. Los Angeles,
California. 2001 Keys to the Cities of Saginaw,
Michigan and Dallas, Texas. Recognition from
Ohio House of Representatives and the State of
Texas. The SHero Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Rosa Parks Women of Courage Award
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Works Cited

• http//members.tripod.com/Raincloud771/htm/nikki.
  htm
• http//www.poets.org
• http//www.math.buffalo.edu/sww/poetry/giovanni_n
  ikki.html
• http//www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3948/nikki
  .html
• http//www.nikki-giovanni.com