Nikki Giovanni was one of the greatest poets of her generation and it was an honour to sit with her for a special episode of The Last Bohemians, recorded in spring 2024, while Nikki was promoting what would become her final anthology, Poems: 1968-2020. When I saw she was in town, in London, I jumped at the chance to speak with her and I’m grateful to have been granted an interview.
A poet, author and activist, Nikki was considered a key figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s, which ran parallel to the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in America. It included notable writers and artists like Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou and another of The Last Bohemians, Betye Saar, many of whom she counted as close friends – just imagine that dinner party!
Nikki was born in 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee, grew up in Ohio, and self-published her first two books in 1968. Her DIY spirit paid off, and by the 70s she was selling out huge concert venues and started blending gospel music with spoken word, on albums like Truth is On The Way – said to have foreshadowed the birth of hip-hop. Nikki’s poems spoke fearlessly of justice and Black liberation but had love and joy at their centre, and she released over 30 books of them.
It’s strange and sad to speak about Nikki Giovanni in the past tense: she passed away on 9 December 2024 aged 81, of complications from lung cancer, before this edit was finished.
I’ve sat on this episode for a while, unsure what to do with it and when to release it to the world. But I think you should have it in time for International Women’s Day tomorrow. Since 2019, I’ve either launched a series or a one-off around this time and felt that, with everything going on in the world at the moment, it’s the moment to send this special conversation out there. And wow, does she have some things to say, as she discusses becoming a success, her famous friendships with Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone, the power of anger, her self-care routine and why poetry is a serious business indeed.
I really hope you enjoy this tribute to Nikki and her questing spirit, edited beautifully by @ktcallin. I’m releasing it on all podcast platforms for free but if you like what you hear and you’d like to hear more, please consider becoming a paid subscriber so I can put together a new season.
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