The author of Black Feeling, Black Talk has been remembered for her immense impact on literature
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The award-winning US poet Nikki Giovanni passed away on Monday (9 December) at the age of 81, following her third cancer diagnosis.
Nikki was a prominent voice within the Black Power and Black Arts movements in the 1960s, beginning her career with the publication of her books Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgement. Using her poetry and writing to speak out against the tragedies that catalysed the civil rights movement such as the murder of Emmett Till, Nikki soon became one of the leading voices of the time. She would later go on to write 30 books and receive 27 honorary degrees for the immense impact her work has had.
In a statement by poet Kwame Alexander, Nikki was remembered for her outstanding legacy on literature. “We will forever be grateful for the unconditional time she gave to us, to all her literary children across the writerly world.”
Outside of her writing, she was a regular guest on Soul!, a Black arts and culture talk show on WNET, where she once interviewed queer icon James Baldwin. Last year HBO released a documentary about Nikki entitled Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project. The documentary was co-produced by her wife Virginia Fowler, an English professor who was her biographer before they married.
In the documentary, she expressed her love for Black women and the legacy they continue to make. “I’m a big fan of Black women. ‘Cause in our blood is space travel,” she said. “Because we’ve come through an unknown, to an unknown. And that’s all that space travel is. If anybody can find what there is in this darkness, it’s Black women.”
She spoke openly about her relationship with her wife, lovingly referring to Virginia as her “bench” in an interview with the New York Times in 2020. “Everybody needs a bench, and in order to get a bench, you have to be one,” Nikki said. “I could say love, but you get tired of hearing about love.”
Nikki was diagnosed with lung cancer in the 1990s. She is survived by her wife Virginia, her son, and her granddaughter. Her latest poetry book, entitled The Last Book, is set for release in 2025.
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