Noted Civil Rights Activist Shares Her Poetry, Insight, and Humor as Part of University’s Centennial Speaker Series

It was about 40 minutes before Nikki Giovanni, the celebrated African American poet and activist, would start a campus address, and Jahniya Morris ’21, president of the University’s Black Student Union, already had her front row seat.

“I’m a fan of her, everything about her,” Morris said. “Black girl magic, the power a black woman has, she embodies all of that.”

Jordan Harris ’21, president of the University’s student chapter of the NAACP, said the group was thrilled to bring Giovanni to campus as a kick-off to Women’s History Month and as part of the University’s Centennial Speakers Series. “She’s the perfect speaker as Black History Month ends and Women’s History Month begins,” Harris said. “She’s from the Black Arts Movement, and her poetry is her activism.”

Giovanni, a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, is the author of more than 20 books, and she is a recipient of multiple NAACP Image Awards, more than 20 honorary doctorates, the Rosa L. Parks Women of Courage Award, and the Langston Hughes Award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters.

During her evening at the University, she received two standing ovations from the capacity crowd as she shared a selection of her poems and talked in an expansive question-and-answer session hosted by Kaela Bazemore ’21, the University’s NAACP chapter treasurer.

Bazemore asked Giovanni how she would define a black woman. “A black woman is the most incredible person on earth,” Giovanni said. She pointed to a poem she read, "Stardate Number 18628.190,” which Giovanni wrote in 1995 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence magazine. The lines read, in part, “This is the Black woman…in all our trouble and glory…in all our past history and future forbearance…in all that ever made love a possibility.”

‘You all have to decide… what you want to fight for’

Speaking on Super Tuesday as voters around the country went to the polls, Giovanni read “2020,” a poem about the importance of voting. After, she shared a story about Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the most powerful voices of the civil and voting rights movements, who co-founded the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party and withstood beatings after trying to get that party recognized and seated at the Democratic National Convention.

“I said to myself if I didn’t ever do anything else as long as there was breath in me, for Fannie Lou Hamer, I would vote,” Giovanni said. “I told you that story because I want you to know the price she paid for you to be able to go to the polls. It doesn’t matter who you write in, you have to go. It’s very important that you not be silenced.”

During audience questions, Giovanni was asked how she summoned up her courage across a lifetime of civil rights activism.

She always, she told the crowd, turns to words. “All I have are words,” she said.

“It’s not for me to decide what makes you brave,” she said. “You all have to decide who you are, what you want, and what you want to fight for.”

‘I’m honored to be named for such a powerful woman’

Nicholas Zachman ’21, a member of March for Our Lives Connecticut, a non-partisan group working to end gun violence, said it was the way Giovanni galvanized the Virginia Tech community, reading her poem, “We Are Virginia Tech,” at a memorial service the day after a mass shooting there, that drew him to the event.

“She stands up for what she believes in, and she believes in unity,” he said.

At the end of the event, long lines of students gathered to take photos and talk with her. Kristen Marcus ’21 had tears in her eyes, and said she was moved by Giovanni’s words. “I think the most important thing she said was that our degree wasn’t for us, the ones receiving it, but for the people behind us, our parents and our grandparents,” she said.

T.J. Furman ’20 told Giovanni that she made him think about his grandmother, his mother, and aunts, all the strong women in his family. “She has the essence of where I came from,” he said. “I just got a vibe that made me feel at home.”

Giovanni Roper ’19 returned to campus for a special reason. “My mom was a huge fan of Nikki Giovanni’s in college. She loved her work and everything she stood for, both my parents did, so they named me for her,” Roper said. Her family later met Giovanni at an event, told her about the inspiration for Roper’s name, and they became friends.

“I’m honored to be named for such a powerful woman,” said Roper, a program fellow for Y2Y, a nonprofit working to end homelessness.

“I liked how she kept saying, ‘all I have are words,’” Roper continued. “She uses them very well. I think it speaks to knowing what talents you have and using them. She inspires me to use the gifts that I have.”