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Black History Month Performance
Thurs.,
February 21
8 P.M.
An Evening with Nikki Giovanni
Finney Chapel, corner of W. Lorain & N. Professor Sts.
For more information, contact African-American Studies Dept. 440 775 8923
Sponsored by Office of the President & The Hewlett Committee
NIKKI GIOVANNI TO PERFORM AT OBERLIN COLLEGE FEBRUARY 21
FEBRUARY 14, 2002--Renowned poet and essayist Nikki Giovanni will present An Evening with Nikki Giovanni at 8 P.M. on Thursday, February 21 at Oberlin as part of the College's Black History Month observance. The event is free and open to the public.
One of the most widely read American poets to come out of the Black Arts Movement, Giovanni is a long-time activist in the fight for civil rights and equal education.
Currently University Distinguished Professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Tech, Giovanni is also an essayist, educator, and highly sought-after lecturer.
Believing that change is necessary for growth, she concentrated her early poetry on a call of urgency for Black people to realize their identities. Her later works focus on family and personal relationships as well as her great concern for humanity.
Author of more than 20 books of poetry, including the two NAACP Image Award-winning books Love Poems and Blues: For All the Changes, she has also edited such anthologies as Grand Mothers and Grand Fathers. Giovanni was the subject of the PBS special Spirit to Spirit; the Poetry of Nikki Giovanni in 1987.
Her 1972 recording of the album Truth is on its Way, an original combination of poetry and gospel music, reinforced her reputation as a national speaker and reader of her own poetry and impacted an emerging genre-the poetry in motion that would become known as rap music. Giovanni is acclaimed for her recorded conversations with prominent writers James Baldwin and Margaret Walker.
Giovanni is the recipient of more than a dozen honorary doctorate degrees and won the Langston Hughes Award for Literature. She has been named Woman of the Year by Ebony Magazine, Mademoiselle, and the Ladies Home Journal.
She was named by the Gihon Foundation to serve as one of five panelists on its 2000 Council on Ideas. She also won the Virginia Governor's Award for the Arts 2000, given for distinction in creative achievements and was honored with a program called New York City Honors 30 Years of Nikki Giovanni.
Ms. Giovanni's appearance is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Common Ground Grant, which enables the College to enhance its campus community dialogue about pluralism and multicultural issues through programs that reinforce cooperation and communication skills.
Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli
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