Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni (1943–2024) was a poet, activist, mother, grandmother, and educator who grew up in Tennessee and Ohio and graduated with honors from Fisk University in Nashville. The author of more than thirty books, she received seven NAACP Image Awards, the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, an Emmy Award, and thirty-one honorary degrees. She garnered her most unusual honor in 2007 when a South American bat species—Micronycteris giovanniae—was named in celebration of her. A devoted teacher, she was an honorary member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and spent thirty-five years as University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.