Nikki Giovanni Research Paper

Nikki Giovanni’s Fight for Justice and Equality Nikki Giovanni was an African American poet, author, professor, and civil rights activist. She has won over 62 awards for her poetry, books, records, tapes, and CDs including seven NAACP image awards, the Langston Hughes award, and the Gwendolyn Brooks award (Giovanni, “Awards and Honors”). Nikki Giovanni was born on June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee, but was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio (Aybar, “Nikki Giovanni”). She would often visit her grandparents, who lived in Knoxville, and they influenced her work greatly by teaching her from a young age to fight injustice (Aybar, “Nikki Giovanni”). Although the majority of Giovanni’s works were written with a militant tone, “Winter Poem” uses nature to express the same ideas she writes about in her other works.
Giovanni often wrote in a humorous and militant manner about black discrimination and segregation, while addressing the problems with society’s portrayal of African Americans (Rampersand and Marcellus, African American Poetry). Giovanni’s peak years were the late 1960’s to 1970’s as black rights movements became increasingly popular. It was around this time that important figures in African American history such as Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and Robert Kennedy passed away (Poetry Foundation, “Nikki Giovanni”). Giovanni published many works in response to their contributions to Black rights. Her, “Winter Poem” was written around this time and although it spread the same messages as her others, concerning the need for equality. she chose to write from the perspective of mother earth, as she had recently become a mother to her son, Thomas (Aybar, Nikki Giovanni). Nikki Giovanni is arguably one of the most beloved African American poets because of her tendency to abide by these words, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Martin Luther King