This week, THE IDEALISTS. podcast host and entrepreneur Melissa Kiguwa speaks with world-renowned poet Nikki Giovanni—one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. She has published numerous books of poetry—from her first volume, Black Feeling Black Talk (1968), to New York Times bestseller Bicycles: Love Poems (2009). She has written several works of nonfiction and children’s literature and made multiple recordings, including the Emmy-award nominated The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (2004). 

Among her numerous awards, are the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the inaugural Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, the American Book Award, the Langston Hughes Award, the Virginia Governor’s Award for the Arts, and the Emily Couric Leadership Award. She is a seven-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award. Her autobiography, Gemini, was a finalist for the 1973 National Book Award. Her album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection, also netted her a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album.

In this frank, yet revelatory episode, Nikki is unabashedly herself. When she says she wants to produce a history series where “librarians sit around and drink champagne... other people may say it should be coffee, but it's my show and they'll drink champagne… not bitchin’ and moanin’, just talking,” it’s clear she knows what she wants. Listening to her speak in an Afro tradition of loosely aligned parables feels not unlike listening to jazz—the music of surprise—with tangential, non-linear explorations that loop back to something greater.