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

By Andrew Limbong

Published December 9, 2024 at 10:02 PM EST

American poet Yolanda Cornelia 'Nikki' Giovanni leans on her desk beside a typewriter, in front of a wall decorated with photos, 1973. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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."

She was born Yolanda Cornelia Giovanni, Jr., on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tenn. Though she grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and its surrounding suburbs, she returned to Nashville to attend Fisk University for college. There, she met other writers who'd become leading Black literary figures – Dudley Randall, Margaret Walker, Amiri Baraka and more. While at Fisk, she also re-established the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

As her writing career took off, Giovanni became a regular guest on Soul!, a Black arts and culture talk show on WNET. Her conversation with the acclaimed writer James Baldwin came on the heels of being named "Woman of the Year" by both Ebony magazine and Mademoiselle.

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.