Well-Known Virginia Tech Professor and Poet, Nikki Giovanni, Has Died at The Age of 81

Virginia Tech professor and poet, Nikki Giovanni, has died at the age of 81.

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) – Virginia Tech professor and poet, Nikki Giovanni, has died at the age of 81. She died peacefully with her life-long partner, Virginia (Ginney) Fowler, by her side.

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, served as a University Distinguished Professor in the English Department at Virginia Tech. Giovanni, an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., is the recipient of hundreds of awards and honors. She was most recently awarded a 2024 Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.

As a prominent figure of the Black Arts and Civil Rights Movements, she became friends with Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, and Muhammad Ali, and inspired generations of students, artists, activists, musicians, scholars and human beings both young and old.

Having battled cancer twice already, Giovanni refused to let a third bout interrupt her art. Just three weeks ago, she performed with saxophonist Javon Jackson at the Louis Armstrong House in New York City. Her forthcoming book of poetry, “The Last Book”, will be published in fall 2025.

“The poet Adrienne Rich wrote ‘…somehow, each of us will help the other live, and somewhere, each of us must help the other die.’ Renée Watson and I sat by her side, with Ginney, along with family and close friends, chatting about how much we learned about living from her, about how lucky we have been to have Nikki guide us, teach us, love us. We will forever be grateful for the unconditional time she gave to us, to all her literary children across the writerly world,” said Kwame Alexander.

Giovanni is survived by her wife, Virginia Fowler, her son Thomas Giovanni, her granddaughter, Kai Giovanni, two cousins, Haynes Ford and Allison (Pat) Ragan, and a nephew Christopher Black.

“We will forever feel blessed to have shared a legacy and love with our dear cousin,” said Allison Ragan on behalf of the family.

via: WDBJ

Renowned poet and Black arts movement icon Nikki Giovanni dies at 81

The renowned poet Nikki Giovanni has died. Giovanni died on Monday, Dec. 9, following her third cancer diagnosis, according to a statement from friend and author Renée Watson. She was 81. “We will forever be grateful for the unconditional time she gave to us, to all her literary children across the writerly world,” said poet Kwame Alexander in the statement.

Giovanni published her first poetry collection, Black Feeling Black Talk, in 1968. It established her as an emerging figure out of the Black Arts Movement. In it, Giovanni writes about the intersections of love, politics, loneliness and race. Her language is sometimes spare and longing, other times dense and righteous. The final lines in “Word Poem” read, “let’s build / what we become /when we dream.”

Giovanni eventually found her way to Virginia Tech, teaching English for more than three decades. There, she expressed concerns about one of her students. He’d go on to murder 32 people in the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. Speaking about the shooting, Giovanni told NPR, “Killing is a lack of creation. It’s a lack of imagination. It’s a lack of understanding who you are and your place in the world. Life is an interesting and a good idea.”

She kept working until her final days. After dozens of poetry collections under her belt, she was working on getting her last book of poetry out when she died. It’s still set to come out next year, titled THE LAST BOOK.

via: NPR

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