Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with a degree in history from Fisk University. A world-renowned poet and one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement, her notable books of poetry are
Black Judgment (1968)
and
Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), which were influenced by her participation in the Black Arts Movement and Black Power movement in the 1960s. Giovanni published numerous collections of poetry—from her first self-published volume,
Black Feeling Black Talk (1968), to
New York Times best seller
Bicycles: Love Poems (2009). She wrote several works of nonfiction and children’s literature and made multiple recordings, including the Emmy-award nominated
The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (2004)
. Her most recent publications include
Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose (2020);
Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (2013); and, as editor,
The 100 Best African American Poems (2010). (
Source)
