Nikki Giovanni

Poet, essayist, educator and highly sought after lecturer, Giovanni is also acclaimed for her recorded conversations with prominent writers James Baldwin and Margaret Walker. Believing that change is necessary for growth, her early poetry is renowned for its call of urgency for Black people to realize their identities, while in later works, she also focuses on family and personal relationships as well as her great concern for humanity. Author of more than 20 books of poetry, including Blues: For All the Changes, Love Poems, The Genie in the Jar and The Sun is So Quiet, as well as several anthologies including Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate and Grand Mothers: Poems, Reminiscences and Short Stories About the Keepers of Our Traditions, Giovanni was the subject of the PBS special, Spirit to Spirit: the Poetry of Nikki Giovanni, produced and broadcast in 1987.