Nikki Giovanni was legendary. Known primarily as a poet, she was so much more. When I heard that she had died I dusted off this recording of her only appearance on the program. The year was 2002 and she was on a book tour for her collection "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems."
You might assume that she read a lot of her poetry that day. Well, she didn't. Mostly we just talked. About a lot of things. She recalled how she used to come out to Yellow Springs fairly often. Why? To play tennis. She talked about how the thing that finally ended her life, lung cancer, had almost killed her seven years before our interview.
She talked about James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks. And she read a little of her poetry. Just a smidgeon. When she described racist horrors that took place in Tulsa her words had so much raw power I felt like a
cyclone was passing through the studio.
That was Nikki Giovanni. What a presence she had. Now, in her absence, we should remember her. What she did. What she said. Who she was.
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, Wright Memorial Public Library, and Tipp City Public.
