Nikki GiovanniHer view on civil rights and equality

About Nikki Giovanni

Giovanni was born on 7 June 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee, but grew up in Lincoln Heights, which was an all-black town of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents were Jones and Cornelia Giovanni. She grew up with her sister Gary and they spent many summers with their grandparents John Brown and Louvenia Watson in Knoxville. Giovanni graduated high school after skipping her senior year and attended Fisk University in Nashville, her grandfather’s alma mater.

Her Poems

• Black Feeling, Black Talk

• Black Judgment

• Poem for Black Boys

• Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day

• Nikki-Rosa

• Re-Creation

• My House

• The Women and the Men

Her Books

• Bicycles: Love Poems• On My Journey Now: Looking at African-American History

Through the Spirituals

• Rosa • The Genie in the Jar • Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems• On My Journey Now: Looking at African-American History

Through the Spirituals• Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Her Recorded Albums

• Hip Hop Speaks to Children with CD: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat

• The African American Audio Experience

Awards

• NAACP Image Award (1998, 2000, 2003, 2008, 2009)

• Langston Hughes Award

• Rosa Parks Women of Courage Award

• Governors’ Awards

Conclusion

Her vision was that everyone had the power to make a difference in other people’s existence. She gave us her experiences and perspective and gave us a way to stand our ground as well.