isaan.live — Popular poet, activist, writer and teacher Nikki Giovanni has passed away. She was 81.
“The well-known poet, Black Arts Movement symbol whose rhymes of wit, wonder, and knowledge were celebrated in children’s publications, on keynote stages and tv shows, and in greater than 2 dozen successful verse collections, passed away quietly on December 9, 2024, with her life-long companion, Virginia [Ginney] Fowler, by her side,” said a statement from friend and other author Renée Watson.
“We’ll forever feel honored to have common a tradition and love with our dear relative,” said Allison Ragan in a declaration in behalf of Giovanni’s family. The declaration didn’t say how Giovanni passed away.
Known for her work on civil rights and social problems — particularly sex and race — the enthusiastic and respected iconoclast released lots of quantities of verse, essays and anthologies, and greater than 10 children’s publications, inning accordance with a account on the website of Virginia Technology, where she was Emerita Teacher in the Division of English and on faculty since 1987.
Giovanni was granted a 2024 Emmy for Remarkable Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for Mosting likely to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, and her newest book of verse, The Last Book, is scheduled to be released in fall 2025.
Birthed in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni finished with a level in background from Fisk College in 1967.
“My dream wasn’t to release or to also be an author: my dream was to discover something no one else had thought about. I guess that is why I’m a poet. We put points with each other in ways no one else does,” Giovanni composed in a short bio on her website.
“As among the social symbols of the Black Arts and Civil Rights Movements, she became friends with Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, and Muhammad Ali, and inspired generations of trainees, musicians, activists, artists, scholars and humans, young and old,” the announcement from Watson said of the poet.
Giovanni is made it through by her spouse, Virginia Fowler, and her child and granddaughter, Thomas and Kai Giovanni along with relatives Allison “Rub” Ragan and Haynes Ford and nephew Christopher Black.
Among Giovanni’s many rhymes reflects on her life and her ultimate passing.
“I hope I pass away heated by the life that I attempted to live,” she composed.