Southbank Centre’s Book Podcast: Nikki Giovanni at Poetry international
A leading light in the Black Arts Movement of the mid 1960s to mid 1970s, Nikki Giovanni is a winner of (amongst others) the Langston Hughes Medal and NAACP Image Award, as well as a Grammy nomination for her album The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection.
In 2019 Giovanni appeared here at the Southbank Centre as part of Poetry International and our London Literature Festival, joining British Ghanaian writer, Bridget Minamore in conversation. In a thoroughly engaging wide-ranging and entertaining discussion, Nikki Giovanni begins by talking about a memorable meeting and subsequent friendship with Rosa Parks.
And from there moves on through a diverse range of topics, including wanting to be the International Space Station’s poet-in-residence, her dislike of Thanksgiving, her love of rap and hip-hop, and the immortality of Queen Elizabeth II.
“I’m always falling in love, it’s a good idea. You fall in love and then you get rid of them, and then you fall in love again. It goes.”
Poetry International returns to the Southbank Centre on 20–23 July for its 53rd year.