Nikki Giovanni Audio & Video

Nikki Giovanni reads and discusses excerpts from her latest of 27 books, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems.

In the 1960s, Nikki Giovanni was a revolutionary poet of the Black Arts Movement that nourished civil rights. She had a famous dialogue with James Baldwin in Paris in 1971.

Author, spoken word artist, poet, essayist, professor, Nikki Giovanni has been electrifying audiences for more than 40 years, earning her one of Oprah Winfrey's Living Legends distinctions.

One of the most significant occurrences in America during the 20th century was the rise of African-American writers to the forefront of literature.

In a career that has spanned over three decades, Nikki Giovanni has perceptively recorded her observations of both the outside world and the gentle yet enigmatic territory of the self.