Poets & Writers Theater

In this video, Nikki Giovanni reads a selection of her poems and speaks about her life and career for the Wright Conversations series hosted by the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and PBS Books. Giovanni died at the age of eighty-one on December 9, 2024.

“I remember what’s important and I make up the rest. That’s what storytelling is all about.” This HBO Original documentary takes a look at the life of legendary poet and activist Nikki Giovanni. The award-winning film is directed and written by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, and includes readings by executive producer Taraji P. Henson.

In this video, Nikki Giovanni and Renée Watson speak about their love of libraries, the writers who have influenced them, and Maya’s Song (HarperCollins, 2022), a picture book for young readers about the life and work of Maya Angelou written by Watson and illustrated by Bryan Collier.

“I know crying / Is a skill / I automatically wipe / My eyes even though I know / Crying / Is a skill.” In this 2017 video, Nikki Giovanni reads her poem “I Married My Mother” from her collection A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter (William Morrow, 2017).

“I'm a native Tennessean. I know what it is / to be free. I am singing the country blues. I / am whittling a wooden doll. I am / underground mining coal.” Nikki Giovanni reads a selection of her poems and speaks about her book Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (HarperCollins, 2013) for the Salon@615 series at the Nashville Public Library.

“He was a very gentle person, and he was a great storyteller.” In this Penguin Classics video celebrating the hundredth birthday of James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni talks about her experiences meeting the late author and reading his works.

"I write pretty good poetry most of the time, and that's what I want to do." Nikki Giovanni responds to the notion of being a living legend and shares stories of her experience in the Black Arts Movement.

“When you’ve done the best you can do, you let it go. And go write another poem.” In this 2009 video, poet Nikki Giovanni discusses traditions in storytelling, generating ideas, and hip-hop music as classical poetry.