[CANCELED] Nikki Giovanni Tribute Evening

February 24, 2026 at 7:00PM ET (CANCELED)

Location: Copley Formal Lounge

Due to the recent weather affecting the East Coast, travel for our speakers has been significantly impacted. As a result, the Readings and Talks Nikki Giovanni Tribute Event scheduled for Tuesday, February 24 has been canceled.

We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to reschedule this event at a later date.

Lannan Center hopes to host a special reading honoring Nikki Giovanni featuring poets Jericho Brown, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Nicole Sealey, and Kevin Young. This event will be hosted by poet and Director of Readings and Talks, Carolyn Forché.

Poet Nikki Giovanni (1943—2024) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with a degree in history from Fisk University. A world-renowned poet and one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement, her notable books of poetry are Black Judgment (1968) and Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), which were influenced by her participation in the Black Arts Movement and Black Power movement in the 1960s.

Giovanni published numerous collections of poetry—from her first self-published volume, Black Feeling Black Talk (1968), to New York Times best seller Bicycles: Love Poems (2009). She wrote several works of nonfiction and children’s literature and made multiple recordings, including the Emmy-award nominated The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (2004). Her most recent publications include Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose (2020); Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (2013); and, as editor, The 100 Best African American Poems (2010). She published more than two dozen volumes of poetry, essays, and edited anthologies and 11 illustrated children’s books, including Rosa, an award-winning biography of Rosa Parks.

Dreams

–Nikki Giovanni

in my younger years

before i learned

black people aren’t

suppose to dream

i wanted to be

a raelet

and say “dr o wn d in my youn tears”

or “tal kin bout tal kin bout”

or marjorie hendricks and grind

all up against the mic

and scream

“baaaaaby nightandday

baaaaaby nightandday”

then as i grew and matured

i became more sensible

and decided i would

settle down

and just become

a sweet inspiration

From The Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (2003), reprinted by the Poetry Foundation.