‘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.”…’ (Andrew Limbong via NPR)
