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Written by Kim Williams
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  Nikki Giovanni—a poet, activist, and University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. She has attained plentiful awards with over twenty honorary degrees and notable recognitions from grassroots organizations and print journals. A mere snapshot of her notable achievements include becoming a National Book Award finalist, Caldecott Honoree, and a LA Times bestseller.
I was invited to sit through her graduate poetry course where I observed her class interaction and pedagogical structure. Nikki introduced me and explained my purpose as an interviewer; I was welcomed with a “hello” in class unison. She had a guest speaker, author Daryl Cumber Dance who brought her anthology on African American literature. A couple of students had their poems work shopped which lead to a discussion on personification and allegories. The conversation later transitioned into a diatribe by Giovanni about death and altruism. It became increasingly visible the classroom was a mere meeting among new friends.
Immediately after class ended, Ms. Giovanni gave me her time and patience (my tape recorder decided to shut down in the beginning of the interview) to complete an informal interview. We discussed her new literary projects, musical preferences, and cinema tastes amongst other seemingly arbitrary topics that were met with distinct Giovanni answers. Here are the interview clips Clip -- Nikki delicately insults my favorite Blues artist.
Clip -- Nikki describes her jazz preference between two musical greats.
Clip -- Nikki explains her cinema tastes and divulges of why she does not regularly visit movie theatres.
Clip -- Nikki discusses her need for silence when writing.
Clip -- Nikki discusses her recent and ongoing literary projects.
Clip -- Nikki asserts the creative writing genre will survive amidst the recent downsizing of print journal. |
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