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=Yolande "Nikki" Cornelia Giovanni Jr. by Kayla Perkinson=

Yolande "Nikki" Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. came into the world on June 7th, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Shortly after her birth, her parents Yolande and Jones Giovanni picked up their small family and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. All throughout her childhood, Nikki was very close to her grandmother, Louvenia Terrell Watson an outspoken elderly woman who was terrible intolerant of white people. Nikki went to live with her grandmother during her sophomore and junior years of high school. Louvenia taught Nikki to be loyal to her "own people" beginning a stroke of thought in the young girls mind.

In September 1960, Nikki Giovanni entered into Fisk University at the age of 17. Nikki did not approve of Fisk, nor fit in with the social life. Fisk women were expected to be intelligent well off young women who would more likely than not settle down to a comfortable life with one of the graduates of nearby Meharry Medical College. Giovanni more fit in with the less privileged students who attended Tennessee State University on the other side of the city. After rushing home during the Thanksgiving break without the permission of the Dean of Woman, whom she often referred to as a "bitch," Nikki was place on probation and eventually thrown out after failing to exhibit the expected behavior of a Fisk woman. Four years later however, Giovanni returned to Fisk University and made herself known as an ideal student. She became very active and began showing interest in Black Power. Speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. quickly stole Giovanni's attention.

On the fourth day of February 1967, Nikki Giovanni graduated with honors in history. Shortly after her return home however, terrible news reached her. On March 8th, her grandmother, Louvenia Terrell Watson died. Deeply troubled by her grandmother's death, she blamed society and she became painfully aware of the helplessness of her people, something that caused anger to be extremely evident in her earliest works. Giovanni has been known to state that the move her grandmother was forced to make after the street she lived on had been turned into a new shopping mall, is what essentially killed her. Giovanni felt her grandmother died because "she didn't know where she was and didn't like it. And there was no one there to give a touch or smell." Giovanni entered into Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work and she opened a black history workshop in the black community where she could continue her black activist activities.

Nikki Giovanni has lead a very active life, she is a multi-prized winning poet and many things and events in her life have contributed to her voice as a poet. Many of her earliest works showed a violent, aggressive attitude towards society, angry at the treatment she and her black brothers and sisters received. Later works are very motivational and speak of unity in the black and white communities. Over the years, Giovanni's work has transformed into controversial publishes, exploring the ideas of identity and individualism. Nikki Giovanni is a great example of an author whose own personal experiences have molded her perception and style.

=Anotated Bibliography=

Fowler, Virginia C. "Nikki Giovanni." New York:Twayne Publishers, 1992.

"Nikki Giovanni" by Virginia C. Fowler proved to be a very useful source because the very first pages were a time line of Nikki Giovanni's life. I used this to understand the order of events circling Giovanni's life.

Metzger, Linda. Straub, Deborah A. "Nikki Giovanni." __Contemporary Authors.__ 1986.

The section of Contemporary Authors entitled "Nikki Giovanni" was a useful quick reference to important details about Nikki Giovanni's life. It helped me to make my author trading card because it was set up in a very similar format. I used many interesting facts from this book.

"Nikki Giovanni" //DISCovering Authors//.Online Detriot: Gale, 2003. //Student Resource Center - Gold//. Gale. Fuquay-Varina High School/WCPS/. 22 May. 2008 

"Nikki Giovanni" from //DISCovering Authors// is a short critical essay analyzing the life of Nikki Giovanni. It explores many of her various works and the author gives his opinion as the the meaning behind Giovanni's words. I used this essay to help understand what Giovanni might have meant for her reads to think and feel, I believe reading this critical essay gave me a better understanding of Giovanni's writing style and helped to form my wiki entry.

"Nikki Giovanni" //DISCovering Authors//.Online Detriot: Gale, 2003. //Student Resource Center - Gold//. Gale. Fuquay-Varina High School/WCPS/. 22 May. 2008 

"Nikki Giovanni" from //DISCovering Authors// is a 16 page critical essay that doubles as a biography. It highlights all of the most important events in Giovanni's life and told of her many accomplishments. Reading this essay helped me to understand the thoughts and emotions behind Giovanni's poems, knowing what events happened in her life helped me to understand why she wrote the poems that she did and why certain feelings were meant to be portrayed in her poems.