Black arts literary icon Nikki Giovanni dies at 81

Acclaimed poet and literary force Nikki Giovanni, who was at the forefront of the Black Arts Movement, and known across the world for her defiant yet endearing prose about race, gender, sex and love, has died.

Giovanni, 81, died on Monday with her lifelong partner, Virginia “Ginney” Fowler, by her side, according to a statement from friend and author Renée Watson.

“We will forever be grateful for the unconditional time she gave to us, to all her literary children across the writerly world,” fellow poet Kwame Alexander told US media.

Known for her work on civil rights and social issues, Giovanni was called “one of the most important artist-intellectuals of the twentieth century” by The New Yorker.

Giovanni – who was born Yolanda Cornelia Giovanni, Jr, in 1943 – received many honours in her decades-long career, including seven NAACP awards.

Her approach to race and gender in the 1960s, though timely, happened on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, and was not immediately unanimously welcomed.

She self-published her first two books, Black Feeling Black Talk and Black Judgement, in 1968, quickly becoming a leading voice in the black arts movement.

By the early 1970s, she was selling out some of New York City’s most iconic arts performance centres, including the Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic theater.

Many see her interview with James Baldwin on “Soul!” – filmed in London and aired as a two-part special – as a defining moment in Giovanni’s career.

Several people reflected on that interview while paying tribute to Giovanni on social media on Tuesday.

“Nikki Giovanni really gave me a different perspective on what strength was in the Black relationship as well as black masculinity,” one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter, attaching a clip of the Baldwin interview.

“I listen to this conversation with James Baldwin on a weekly basis [because] of her. I’ll miss her a lot.”

Giovanni, whom Oprah Winfrey named one of 25 living legends, spent 35 years as an English professor at Virginia Tech university, before retiring in 2022.

She authored more than 30 books, ranging from poetry to children’s books. Her last work, titled The Last Book, is set to publish in 2025.

Giovanni grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, before graduating from Fisk University, a historically black college in Tennessee, with honours, in 1967.

She is survived by her son, granddaughter, and wife, Virginia Fowler.