Nikki Giovanni at Poetry international
The legendary poet and activist joined Bridget Minamore in conversation in 2019
A leading light in the Black Arts Movement of the mid 1960s to mid 1970s, Nikki Giovanni was 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, Giovanni began by talking about a memorable meeting and subsequent friendship with Rosa Parks.
And from there she moved 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 seeming 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.’
Nikki Giovanni
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