Nikki Giovanni on 'Community Conversations'

Nikki Giovanni was the inaugural guest on a new podcast series, "Community Conversations," hosted by Emory University's Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Books Library, which launched in October and features conversations with individuals connected to the archive. Producer Lolita Rowe explains that the conversation between Giovanni and the library's instruction archivist, Gabrielle M. Dudley, took place when Giovanni "visited Emory University campus in February 2020, as the guest poet for the 20th anniversary of the Twelfth Night Revel, and as the featured poet in the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library reading series." What starts out as a discussion about archives and home libraries, and about what's on Giovanni's reading list now (lots of YA!), morphs into an exploration of the intersections of poetry and politics, Black history, prayer and spirituality, and the poet-activist's ties to influential Black women, among them Margaret Walker, Toni Morrison and Nina Simone. Reflecting on the way her writing has changed over the years, Giovanni notes, "I'm an old woman, and I think that it's easy to see that I am. I'm not a youngster who thinks I can change the world, I'm just and old woman who knows I will not let the world change me."

Listen to the entire conversation here.