Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr.is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She has won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal, the NAACP Image Award, and has been nominated for a Grammy Award, for her Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she has recently been named as one of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth7 June 1943
CityKnoxville, TN
CountryUnited States of America
A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked... . We as black people, we as people, we as the human species have got to get used to the fact we're not going to be right most of the time, not even when our intentions are good. We've got to go naked and see what happens.
I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.
Death is a slave's freedom.
You're only as good as your last book.
Writers ... I think ... live on that fine line between insanity and genius ...
Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state of mind. Those who accept it are poor; those who struggle are middle class.
Baseball is already the world's most tranquil sport. It is probably the only active sport where you are not seriously required to be alive to play.
And like an unfaithful mate, once a car has let you down you never sort of trust it again.
God knows it's a sign of a really sick mind to see grown people, adults with responsibilities, wearing class rings.
Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.
The ability to take pride in your own work is one of the hallmarks of sanity.
Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.
For most of my life, I've thought of myself as pretty cool.
Fanatics are, for one thing, boring and, for another, unreliable. They tend to burn out just when you need them.