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One reason why Giovanni does not capitalize the word, “English,” could be because it is not used well for communication, unless people “speak through it.”

(she was asked by Steger at 5:00 pm on the day of the shootings, giving her less than 24 hours to prepare the speech)

she approached the department chair to have Cho taken out of her class, and said she was willing to resign rather than continue teaching him

In 1964, Giovanni spoke with the new Dean of Women at Fisk University, Blanche McConnell Cowan ("Jackie"), who urged her to return to Fisk that fall. While at Fisk, Giovanni edited a student literary journal (titled Èlan), reinstated the campus chapter of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), and published an essay in Negro Digest on gender questions in the Movement.[6] In 1967, she graduated with honors with a B.A. degree in history. Soon after graduation, she suffered the loss of her grandmother, Louvenia Watson, and turned to writing to cope with her death. These poems would later be included in her collection Black Feelings, Black Talk. In 1968, Giovanni attended a semester at University of Pennsylvania and then moved to New York City. She briefly attended Columbia University and privately published Black Feeling, Black Talk.[7] In 1969, Giovanni began teaching at Livingston College of Rutgers University.

One of the world's most well-known African-American poets,

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee,[4] to Yolande Cornelia Sr. and Jones "Gus" Giovanni. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where her parents worked at Glenview School. In 1948, the family moved to Wyoming, and sometime in those first three years, Giovanni's sister, Gary, began calling her "Nikki." In 1958, Giovanni moved to Knoxville, TN to live with her grandparents and attend Austin High School.[3] In 1960, she began her studies at her grandfather's alma mater, Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, as an "Early Entrant", which meant that she could enroll in college without having finished high school first.[5] She immediately clashed with the Dean of Women, Ann Cheatam, and was expelled after neglecting to obtain the required permission from the Dean to leave campus and travel home for Thanksgiving break. Giovanni moved back to Knoxville, where she worked at a Walgreens drug store and helped care for her nephew, Christopher.