“The composers that I know spend time alone and sing to themselves. It’s wonderful because they would never have heard those sounds if they’d been going out and around. We who write, we who sing, we who create—we’re just trying to capture what we see”
-Nikki Giovanni, episode 245 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
For the past 50 years, Nikki Giovanni has been one of our preeminent poets. Rest in Power to the legendary writer and activist, who passed this week at the age of 81.
Today we return to our conversation from 2021, reflecting on how her childhood led to a life of writing (6:21), the enduring impact of a televised conversation with James Baldwin (13:40), the story behind her famous poem, “I Married My Mother” (18:30), and why she doesn’t believe in role models (28:15).
On the back-half, we work our way to the present, as Nikki shares her experience of visiting the African American Museum (30:14), the evolution of her poetry (36:40), and how she grappled with two cancer diagnoses (40:20). To close, Nikki reads from her inventive about the author page (45:49).
Show-notes:
- To learn more about Nikki’s life and work, visit her personal website.
- Find Nikki’s poetry collection, Make Me Rain.
- Hear our past conversations with poets and writers: Jason Reynolds, Ocean Vuong, Sandra Cisneros, and Claudia Rankine.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi.
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