According to the New York Times, poet Nikki Giovanni passed away at the age of 81 from complications related to lung cancer. Giovanni, who was born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr., was a celebrated novelist who earned 27 honorary degrees from universities and was awarded keys to over two dozen American cities for her advocacy and poetic accomplishments. She led the Black Power and Black Arts movements in the late 1960s, and she had a lasting impact on activism and the arts. Her reputation as a significant poet was cemented in 1968 when her debut book, a collection of poetry titled Black Feeling, Black Talk, sold over 10,000 copies in its first year. Giovanni then started penning children’s novels like Spin a Soft Black Song in the 1970s. The Ecuadorian leaf-nosed bat species Micronycteris giovanniae bears her name, and she has won the NAACP Image Award seven times. Sometime in 2025, her last book, The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things, will be released.
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