“I was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, but I am an earthling,” poet Nikki Giovanni says in her documentary, “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.”
Giovanni was born in 1943 and is one of the most famous poets of our time. Her writing often draws on personal and cultural experiences that explore the struggles and triumphs of being Black in America. There are many references to her younger years in Tennessee. Giovanni’s most famous poem is “Nikki-Rosa,” about her childhood in the South. My favorite lines are, “They never understand / Black love is Black wealth.” The poem speaks about being misunderstood, Black stereotypes and the richness of her life filled with love.
She has visited ETSU several times, with her most recent visit in 2022. She recited her poem, “Tennessean by Birth,” about growing up during segregation, lynchings and redlining, but despite this, she thrived and maintained hope.
My friend Brittney Dunn, who attended the “Y’all don’t hear me” event said, “I love that she spent a lot of time in Tennessee and speaks a lot about how close Appalachia is to her heart.”
Brittney’s favorite poem is “Knoxville, Tennessee,” a poem about Southern life from comfort foods including fresh corn, okra and collard greens to gospel music and the mountains. Another poem about life in Tennessee is “400 Mulvaney Street,” which reflects on Giovanni’s grandparents’ home in Knoxville. The street is now Hall of Fame Drive and shows little resemblance to the childhood home she once visited in the summers. The city of Knoxville dedicated a plaque erected in front of Cal Johnson Recreation Center, honoring her life and work.
Giovanni attended Fisk University and was dismissed due to a run-in with the conservative dean. Later, she went back to Fisk and obtained a degree in history. Giovanni became a leading voice in the Black Arts Movement and has written over 30 books in poetry, children’s literature and essays.
Throughout her career, she has won many awards including Fisk University’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Langston Hughes Poetry Award, the inaugural Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award and she is a 7-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award. She has taught at several universities, her lengthiest duration at Virginia Tech, where she delivered a powerful and emotional speech at the memorial service following the 2007 school shooting.
The poet is a self-proclaimed “space freak.” In an interview with Krista Tippett on the podcast, “On Being,” Giovanni draws on her Appalachian roots.
“I spent most my life in Appalachia. We are used to the quiet…we are used to looking at the stars dreaming.”
I agree that there is a silent nurturing respite from the city lights in the rural South that allows a person to gaze at the stars, to dream and to wonder at the complexity of the universe and this life. She believes that Black women are the experts needed for celestial trailblazing.
“We’ve come from a known through an unknown to an unknown, and that’s all space really is,” she said.
Giovanni interviewed Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to travel in space.
“Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” captures Giovanni’s younger self in an interview saying, “I try to bring out the personality of my life, that my family was a good family, because they’re Black people, and Black people are good people.”
She considers herself a “personal poet” meaning that her poetry conveys the essence of her life as it probes her reality, life and experiences. She is known for exploring an array of themes namely, Black identity, social justice, relationships, feminism, self-discovery and cultural critique. She talks about the impact her grandmother had on her life.
“We could tell our grandmothers we can’t do it or we could change the world, it was way easier to change the world,” she said.
She was friends with James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, some of the most notable civil rights activists, writers and intellectuals of the 1950s and 60s.
“A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter,” is Nikki Giovanni’s latest book, published in 2021. One of the poems is called “Space: Our Frontier,” where she writes about dreams, space and Appalachia. I hope she revisits our school soon.
