(poet, activist, and professor)
Ego Tripping
I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can’t catch me
For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever on
My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
across three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by my permission
I mean…I…can fly
like a bird in the sky…
Renowned poet, activist, and professor Nikki Giovanni, passed away on 9 December 2024 at age 81. A key figure in the Black Arts Movement, she was celebrated for her powerful writings on race, politics, gender, and love. Beyond the movement, she became a public intellectual and a captivating performer, known for her jazz-inflected cadence and dynamic presence. Her impact resonated deeply with college students and prison inmates alike, leaving behind a lasting literary and cultural legacy.
At just 29, Nikki Giovanni sold out Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, performing her poetry alongside gospel music by the New York Community Choir. A year later, she packed Philharmonic Hall for her 30th birthday, joined by Melba Moore and Wilson Pickett. The crowd erupted when she read Ego-Tripping, a poem that remains a powerful anthem for Black female empowerment.
By 1971, she had already published her memoir Gemini, boldly dissecting the contradictions of the Black Power movement and her views on gender. Known for her fierce intellect and independence, she self-published her early work when mainstream publishers showed little interest in her so-called “militant” poetry. To honor her grandmother and bridge worlds, she recorded Truth is on its Way (1971) with the New York Community Choir, blending poetry with gospel in a way that resonated deeply with audiences.
Nikki Giovanni self-published her first two books, Black Feeling Black Talk and Black Judgment, in 1968 and became a mother the following year. To sustain herself, she hit the lecture circuit and became a regular on Soul!, the groundbreaking Black culture program. In 1971, at just 28, she conducted a remarkable two-hour televised conversation with her literary hero, James Baldwin. Their exchange, filmed in London and aired as a two-part special, was hailed as an iconic moment of intellectual and artistic communion. In the discussion, Giovanni fearlessly confronted painful truths about Black masculinity, domestic violence, and love, reflecting on the cycles of trauma that shaped her experiences.
She later taught at Rutgers and Queens College before joining Virginia Tech in 1987 at the invitation of Virginia C. Fowler, who would become her wife.
Poetry collections
Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968)
Black Judgement (1968)
Re: Creation (1970)
Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black Judgement (contains Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgement) (1970)[
My House (1972)
The Women and The Men (1975)
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978)
Woman (1978)
Those Who Ride The Night Winds (1983)
Knoxville, Tennessee (1994)[
The 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 Prosaic Soul of Nikki Giovanni (2003)
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (2003)
Acolytes (2007)
Bicycles: Love Poems (2009) (William Morrow)[
100 Best African American Poems (2010) [editor] (Sourcebooks MediaFusion)
Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (2013) (HarperCollins)
A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter (2017) (William Morrow)
Make Me Rain (2020)
Children’s books
Spin a Soft Black Song (1971)
Ego-Tripping and Other Poems For Young People (1973)[
Vacation Time: Poems for Children (1980)
Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People Revised Edition (1993)
The Genie in The Jar (1996)
The Sun Is So Quiet (1996)
The Girls in the Circle (Just for You!) (2004)
Rosa* (2005)
Poetry Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (2005) advisory editor
Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship (2008)
Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (2008) (Sourcebooks)
The Grasshopper’s Song: An Aesop’s Fable (2008)
I Am Loved (2018)
A Library (2022) Illustrated by Erin K. Robinson
Discography
Truth Is On Its Way (Right-On Records, 1971)
Like a Ripple on a Pond (Niktom, 1973)
The Way I Feel (Niktom, 1975)
The Reason I Like Chocolate (Folkways Records, 1976)
Legacies: The Poetry of Nikki Giovanni (Folkways, 1976)
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (Folkways, 1978)
Nikki Giovanni and the New York Community Choir* (Collectibles, 1993)
Every Tone A Testimony (Smithsonian Folkways, 2001)
The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (2002)
The Gospel According To Nikki Giovanni (Solid Jackson, 2022) with Javon Jackson
Other
(Editor) Night Comes Softly: An Anthology of Black Female Voices, Medic Press (1970)
Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-five Years of Being a Black Poet (1971)
A Dialogue with James Baldwin (1973)
(With Margaret Walker) A Poetic Equation: Conversations between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker (1974)
(Author of introduction) Adele Sebastian: Intro to Fine (poems), Woman in the Moon (1985)
Sacred Cows … and Other Edibles (essays) (1988)
(Editor, with C. Dennison) Appalachian Elders: A Warm Hearth Sampler (1991)
(Foreword) The Abandoned Baobob: The Autobiography of a Woman (1991)
Racism 101* (essays, 1994)
(Editor) Grand Mothers: Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories about the Keepers of Our Traditions (1994)
(Editor) Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poems (1995)
Foreword to Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Honey, Hush!: An Anthology of African American Women’s Humor (1998)
(Editor) 100 Best African American Poems (2010)
(Afterword) Continuum: New and Selected Poems by Mari Evans (2012)
(Foreword) Heav’nly Tidings From the Afric Muse: The Grace and Genius of Phillis Wheatley by Richard Kigel (2017)
(Featured Artist) Artemis 2017 (Academic Journal of southwest Virginia) (2017)[
(Foreword) Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing (2018)