Nikki Giovanni

by Virginia C. Fowler

Nikki Giovanni began to write poetry in the 1960s when she was associated with the radical Black Arts Movement. She has since won a large popular following of a kind rarely achieved by poets in American society. Many ordinary people read, memorize, and recite her work, and her public readings are invariably well attended. Indeed, Giovanni's popular success has perhaps caused academic critics to underestimate the depth and breadth of her work. A strong-minded and independent woman, Giovanni has always resisted pigeon-holing, whether by literary critics or political ideologues. In this study, Virginia C. Fowler provides a ground-breaking survey and interpretation of Giovanni's work, thus filling a significant gap in contemporary literary studies. Fowler's close readings of Giovanni's work elucidate the orality of her poetry and the often subtle ways in which the poet has been influenced by spirituals, the blues, and jazz. In addition, the social, political, and biographical contexts that