Nikki Giovanni (photo courtesy of Barron Claiborne)

Nikki Giovanni, a world-renowned American poet, essayist, activist and educator whose work influenced many throughout the black arts movement of the 1960s, will read from her writings Friday, December 8 as part of the Rider University EOP Distinguished Writers Series.

Giovanni will talk at 7 p.m. in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater (BLC). The program is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow in the BLC Lobby.

Over the years, Giovanni created a body of work that has become vital and essential to the American consciousness. Born Yolanda Cornelia Giovanni in 1943 in Knoxville, TN, she graduated with honors from Fisk University with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1967. At Fisk, she was involved in both the Writers’ Workshop and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

When Giovanni’s poems first emerged during the civil rights and black arts movements of the 1960s, she immediately took a place among the most celebrated and influential poets of the era. The connections between literature and politics would continue to absorb her attention for decades to come. Her poetry is noted for its urgent call for African Americans to realize their identities and understand their surroundings as part of mainstream culture.

In Giovanni’s collection of poetry, “Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment,” she captures the militant attitude of the civil rights and black arts movements. In other works, she focuses on her family and personal relationships. She has written more than two dozen books, including volumes of poetry, illustrated children’s books, and three collections of essays.

Giovanni’s noted works include: “Spin a Soft Black Song: Poems for Children” (1971), “Ego-Tripping” (1973), “Vacation Time” (1980), “Those Who Ride the Night Winds” (1983), “Sacred Cows…and Other Edibles” (1988) “Love Poems” (1997) and “Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems” (2002). In her children’s picture book, “Rosa” (2005), a first person story about the day Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, won Caldecott Honors and the Coretta Scott King Award for illustrations.

Early in her career, Giovanni was dubbed the “Princess of Black Poetry,” and most recently, one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 “Living Legends.” Giovanni is the recipient of the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, and has been named Woman of the Year by “Mademoiselle,” “Ladies’ Home Journal” and “Essence” magazines.

Since 1987, Giovanni has been a university distinguished professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, where she teaches writing and literature. A lung cancer survivor, she contributed an introduction to the book, “Breaking the Silence: Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors” (2005).

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