The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni (4 page)

 

 1973
 Giovanni publishes
Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People
and
A Dialogue: James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni,
an edited transcription of the videotaping she did with Baldwin for two episodes of
Soul!
Releases the album
Like A Ripple On A Pond.
The American Library Association names
My House
one of the best books of 1973.
Gemini
is nominated for a National Book Award. Meets Margaret Walker in Washington, D.C., to complete the tapings for their book. On May 14 receives a Woman of the Year Award from the
Ladies' Home Journal;
the ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, airs nationwide, and Giovanni is criticized for accepting the award. Throws a thirtieth birthday party for herself on June 21 at New York's Philharmonic Hall; the recital includes an introduction by Reverend Ike and guest appearances by Wilson Pickett and Melba Moore. Is initiated as an honorary member into Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., at its convention in Atlanta in August. Takes her sister to Paris to celebrate Gary's graduation from Xavier University (Cincinnati). Receives Life Membership and Scroll from the National Council of Negro Women. Goes on an African lecture tour sponsored by USIA; brings her son and his nanny, Deborah Russell, a former student of hers at Rutgers. They visit Ghana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria.

 

 1974–77
 Giovanni publishes
A Poetic Equation: Conversations Between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker
(1974) and
The Women and the Men
(1975). Releases the albums
The Way I Feel
(1975),
Legacies
(1976), and
The Reason I Like Chocolate
(1976). Receives honorary doctorates from Ripon University; the University of Maryland, Princess Anne Campus; and Smith College. Continues to write essays for
Encore American & Worldwide News.
Lectures extensively at colleges and
universities across the country. Travels to Rome for the United Nations' First World Food Conference (1974).

 

 1978–82
 Giovanni publishes
Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day
and releases album with the same title (1978). Publishes
Vacation Time
in 1979. In 1978 her father has a stroke and is subsequently diagnosed with cancer. Giovanni moves with her son back to her parents' home in Lincoln Heights. Primary responsibility for her parents and her son, including steep medical bills, increases her speaking schedule and she has less time to devote to writing. Named an honorary commissioner for the President's Commission on the International Year of the Child. Father dies on June 8, 1982, one day after her thirty-ninth birthday.

 

 1983–87
 Giovanni publishes
Those Who Ride the Night Winds
(1983). Continues a heavy schedule of speaking engagements. Named Woman of the Year by the Cincinnati YWCA (1983). Teaches as a visiting professor at Ohio State University (1984–85) and as professor of creative writing at Mount Saint Joseph's College (1985–87). Receives honorary doctorates from Mount Saint Joseph's College (1985) and Mount Saint Mary College (1987). Makes a European lecture tour for USIA, visiting France, Germany, Poland, and Italy (1985). Is named to the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame (1985) and named Outstanding Woman of Tennessee (1985). Receives
The Cincinnati Post
's Post-Corbett Award and serves as Duncanson artist in residence at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati (1986). Is the subject of a PBS documentary,
Spirit to Spirit
(1987). Thomas graduates from high school and enlists in the Army. Accepts position as Commonwealth Visiting Professor of English at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia. Her mother moves to California to live with Gary. Serves on the Ohio Humanities Council. Judges the Robert F. Kennedy Book Awards.

 

 1988
 Giovanni publishes
Sacred Cows…and Other Edibles.
Receives honorary doctorate from Fisk University.
Cincinnati bi-centennial honoree.
Spirit to Spirit
receives the Silver Apple Award from the Oakland Museum Film Festival. Receives the Ohioana Library Award for
Sacred Cows.
McDonald's institutes the Nikki Giovanni Poetry Award. USIA selects
Spin a Soft Black Song
for inclusion in its Exhibition to the Soviet Union.
Vacation Time
receives the Children's Reading Roundtable of Chicago Award. National Festival of Black Storytelling initiates the Nikki Giovanni Award for Young African American Storytellers. Begins a writing group at Warm Hearth Village, a retirement home.

 

 1989–91
 Giovanni accepts a permanent position as tenured full professor of English at Virginia Tech and relocates to Blacksburg, Virginia. Edits an anthology by her Warm Hearth writers group,
Appalachian Elders: A Warm Hearth Sampler.
Receives honorary doctorate from Indiana University. Attends Utrecht International Poetry Festival as the featured poet. “Two Friends” is incorporated as a permanent tile wall exhibit by the Oxnard Public Library in California. Thomas enrolls in Morehouse College. Continues to lecture on campuses across the country during the spring. Serves on the advisory board of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy (1990–96).

 

 1992–94
 Giovanni publishes the twentieth-anniversary edition of
Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young Readers
(1993), which includes new poems. Publishes
Racism 101
(essays) and
Knoxville, Tennessee
(illustrated children's book). Edits and publishes
Grand Mothers: A Multicultural Anthology of Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories About the Keepers of Our Traditions.
Receives honorary doctorates from Otterbein College (1992), Rockhurst College (1993), and Widener University (1993). Featured Poet at Portland (Oregon) Art Beat Festival. Receives Community Volunteer of the Year Award from Warm Hearth Village. Writes and presents a poem commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Mount Vernon Slave Memorial (“But
Since You Finally Asked”). Conducts interview with the astronaut Mae Jemison for
Essence
magazine. Is Martin Luther King, Jr., Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon (1992). Is Hill Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota (1993). Continues to receive keys to the major cities in America; to date, these include Dallas, Miami, New York, New Orleans, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Mobile, and a dozen or so more. Receives the Tennessee Writer's Award from the
Nashville Banner.
Thomas graduates magna cum laude from Morehouse College (1994). Her mother and sister relocate to Virginia (1994).

 

 1995
 In mid-January Giovanni is diagnosed with lung cancer. Travels to Cincinnati for a second opinion and has surgery at Jewish Hospital. Receives honorary doctorates from Albright College and Cabrini College. Is a week-long writer in residence for the National Book Foundation's Family Literacy Program at the Family Academy in Harlem. In summer is visiting professor at Indiana University, Kokomo.