February 28 - NIKKI GIOVANNI
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY & CULTURAL HERITAGE MONTH and WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH with
NIKKI GIOVANNI
Poet, Essayist, Activist, Professor
“Truth-Telling & the Need for Poetry"
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
7:30 p.m. Ted Mann Concert Hall
FREE to UM students, faculty, and staff and the general public
YOU MUST GET TICKETS IN ADVANCE in COFFMAN UNION
Poet Yolanda Cornelia“Nikki� Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943. Although she grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, she and her sister returned during the summer months to Knoxville, Tennessee to visit their grandparents. Nikki graduated with honors in history from her grandfather's alma mater, Fisk University. As a student at Fisk, she worked with the school's Writer's Workshop and edited the literary magazine. After graduating, she organized the Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati and then entered graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. In her first two collections, Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968) and Black Judgement (1969), Giovanni explores African-American identity. More recent works include: Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not-Quite Poems (2002) Blues For All the Changes: New Poems (1999), Love Poems (1997) and Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (1996). In 2003, William and Morrow & Co. published The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998. Giovanni’s honors include the Langston Hughes award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters in 1996 and the NAACP Image Award for Literature in 1998. Several magazines have named Giovanni Woman of the Year, including Essence, Mademoiselle, and Ladies Home Journal. She is currently Professor of English and Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies at Virginia Tech University.
Nikki Giovanni’s Writing:
Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968)
Black Judgement (1968)
Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black Judgement (1970)
Re: Creation (1970)
Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis (1970)
My House (1972)
The Women and The Men (1975)
Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day (1978)
Those Who Ride The Night Winds (1983)
Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (1996)
Love Poems (1997)
Blues: For All the Changes (1999)
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems (2002)
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni (2003)
Acolytes (forthcoming)