Giovanni is the author of more than two dozen volumes of poetry, essays and edited anthologies 11 illustrated children’s books and 10 albums or recordings. “The role of the poet in society is to tell the truth,” Giovanni said in an interview with Virginia Public Radio. Giovanni has been called a “firebrand” and a “truth-teller.”
She received a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1969 and is known as an early member of the Black Arts Movement. Soon after publishing her first volume of poetry in 1968, she received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Harlem Arts Council. She will read one of her poems as part of Roanoke’s Commencement ceremony on May 6.īorn in Knoxville, Tennessee, Giovanni grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and earned a history degree at Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee. She is also a lifelong teacher, recently retiring from Virginia Tech after 35 years of service, and a force for social and racial justice. Giovanni is a prolific poet and author who has received a long list of awards and other accolades over a writing career that has spanned more than five decades. Roanoke College’s Class of 2023 will gain an extra special member at this year’s Commencement when Yolande “Nikki” Giovanni joins its ranks as the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
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