The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni Read Online Free Page A

Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated on April 4. Receives a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Moves to New York City, where she begins almost immediately to attract attention. Enrolls in an M.F.A. program at Columbia University’s School of Fine Arts. At the end of the year, uses money from sales of Black Feeling Black Talk and a grant from the Harlem Arts Council to privately publish her second volume of poetry, Black Judgement; Broadside Press offers to distribute it.
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    Â 1969 Giovanni teaches at Queens College. She has a Sunday afternoon book party (to promote Black Judgement ) at the old Birdland jazz club, which attracts hundreds of people and makes the next day’s metro section of The New York Times. Gains increasing attention from the media and begins receiving invitations to read and speak. In April The New York Times features her in an article entitled “Renaissance in Black Poetry Expresses Anger.” The Amsterdam News names her one of the ten “most admired Black women.” Regularly publishes book reviews in Negro Digest. Travels to Cincinnati for Labor Day weekend and gives birth to Thomas Watson Giovanni, her only child. Returns to New York and begins teaching at Livingston College of Rutgers University; frequently makes the commute with the struggling writer Toni Cade Bambara (1939–95).
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    Â 1970 Giovanni edits and privately publishes Night Comes Softly, one of the earliest anthologies of poetry by Black women; it includes poems by new and relatively unknown writers as well as by established poets such as Margaret Walker and Mari Evans. Establishes NikTom, Ltd. Meets Ellis Haizlip (1929–91) and begins making regular appearances on his television program, Soul!, an entertainment-variety-talk show that promoted Black art and culture and allowed political expression. (During the history of the show—1967–72—which aired on WNET, many important artists and leaders, including Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Gladys Knight, Miriam Makeba, and Stevie Wonder, made appearances. Giovanni was for several years a “regular.”) Giovanni publishes Black Feeling Black Talk/Black Judgement as one volume with William Morrow & Co. Publishes Re: Creation with Broadside Press. Writes and publishes the broadside “Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis.” Has become a recognized figure on the Black literary scene; in the anthology We Speak as Liberators, published this year, she is referred to as an “established name.” Ebony magazine names her Woman of the Year.
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    Â 1971 Giovanni publishes autobiography, Gemini, and poems for children, Spin A Soft Black Song. Black Feeling Black Talk/Black Judgement comes out in paperback. Records Truth Is On Its Way with the New York Community Choir. Performs with the choir in a concert to introduce the album at Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem before a crowd of 1,500. Continues regular appearances on Soul!, including an appearance in January with Lena Horne. The Mugar Memorial Library of Boston University approaches her about housing her papers and she accepts; today the Mugar has all her papers and memorabilia. Contact magazine names her Best Poet in its annual awards. Mademoiselle magazine names her Woman of the Year. Travels to Africa. Truth sells more than 100,000 copies in its first six months. Giovanni travels to London to tape special segments of Soul! with James Baldwin; these air on December 15 and 22. Falls ill from exhaustion after returning to the United States.
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    Â 1972 Giovanni publishes My House. Joins National Council of Negro Women. Receives an honorary doctorate from Wilberforce University, becoming the youngest person so honored by the nation’s oldest Black college. Truth Is On Its Way receives NATRA’s (National Association of Television and Radio Announcers) Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Receives widespread attention from