In the last years of her life, Nikki Giovanni felt her memory fading. At the beginning of the 2023 documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, she offered an inventive take on how the loss affected her: “I remember what’s important,

OnMonday,literary giant Nikki Giovanni died at 81. Shortly after the news of her passing became public, there was a palpable feeling of grief among Black women who loved her and the body of work she gifted us.

The poet, who died Monday, set the course for her revolutionary career early, and charted it faithfully for decades by staying true to her vision and herself.

Nikki Giovanni died this week, at the age of eighty-one, as that rarest of things: a best-selling poet. Her work burst onto the scene in the nineteen-sixties already fully formed—it was concerned, as much of the Black Arts poetry of the day was,

A poet. An author. An educator. Those were just some of the words used to describe Nikki Giovanni, by her colleagues, friends, and those who loved her on social media. Giovanni was in her third battle with cancer,

The poet set the course for her revolutionary career early, and charted it faithfully for decades by staying true to her vision and herself.

Nikki Giovanni, the Black Arts poet who died on Monday at the age of 81, catapulted to fame in her 20s and remained a celebrity for the rest of her life thanks to her charisma, he