Was nikki giovanni gay

She was a fixture of the public TV program Soul!, for which she conducted a two-part interview with Black gay writer James Baldwin in “Two of the most important artist-intellectuals of the. 1 Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. 2 His novel Giovanni’s Room, about an affair between a bisexual American expat in Paris and an Italian man facing execution, was one of the first books to bring Baldwin into the literary spotlight. 3 When an on-stage interviewer asks her where she was on April 4th the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 Giovanni was a towering figure in the Black Arts Movement as well as in the lesbian feminist movement. In the s, she spent a period of time in Philadelphia studying social work at the University of Pennsylvania while also broadening her poetic reach on TV and radio. 5 Nikki Giovanni needs no real introduction. Active from her early twenties in public life as a poet, cultural critic, and steadfast advocate for Black lives, Giovanni is beloved by generations of people across the country and, indeed, around the world. 6 Yolande Cornelia " Nikki " Giovanni Jr.[1][2] (June 7, – December 9, ) was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator. One of the world's best-known African-American poets, [2] her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to. 7 I felt a collective breath of recognition echo across the audience. Giovanni nods to this in the middle of one of her poetry readings, several of which the film captures. 8 Because of Giovanni, I fought my own revolution against homophobia in the Black Church. In the s, I was invited to deliver a talk on religion and homophobia at Virginia Tech. I was ecstatic. 9 . 10