Virginia Tech honors the life and works of Nikki Giovanni
BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR) — Virginia Tech celebrated the legacy of esteemed poet, mentor, and artist Nikki Giovanni inside its Center for the Arts on Sunday.
Giovanni died on December 9, 2024, after losing her third battle with cancer.
After her death, the famed writer was honored in the New York Times, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and now, at Virginia Tech.
'First of all, I'm happy to be here and I don't know how you could not be happy to be here, even though the occasion may be somewhat sad,' said comedian and friend of Giovanni W. Kamau Bell. 'To be invited to a room to celebrate Nikki Giovanni means you're doing the right thing in life.'
Two dozen friends, students, colleagues, and mentees of Giovanni's performed throughout a two-and-a-half-hour ceremony, all the while joking that the woman they were honoring often deferred the spotlight.
But just a day after she would have celebrated her 82nd birthday, the timing seemed right to honor the life of a legend.
'She was incomparable,' said friend and Virginia Tech alumna Traci DeShazor. 'She was Nikki Giovanni. She was Virginia Tech. And we should all be grateful to have lived during the same time as her.'
Nikki Giovanni receives a posthumous honor, the Frost Medal for lifetime achievement
Across those 24 tributes was a dazzling display of art, performed across song, dance, and poetry.
But there were more traditional tributes as well.
A number of Giovanni's students were in attendance, including 2014 Virginia Tech graduate Jordan Holmes, whose relationship with Giovanni dates back to 2012.
'She ended up feeling more like a grandmother figure than just a mentor,' said Holmes, who first met Giovanni through her creative writing courses.
Giovanni's partner Virginia Fowler was presented with flowers and a unanimously approved joint resolution from the Virginia state legislature recognizing Giovanni's contributions to both Blacksburg and the commonwealth.
And Virginia Tech president Tim Sands spoke to Giovanni's everlasting impact on Virginia Tech, where she taught in the English department as a professor of distinction for more than three decades.
'Legacies are often memorialized through inscriptions on buildings, plaques, and monuments,' said Sands. 'Nikki Giovanni's legacy lives on in the words she gave us, in the hope and vision that they continue to inspire.'
That being said, the school is still memorializing Giovanni's words in permanent fashion.
A new immersive exhibit that offers readings of two of her most well-known poems officially opened on Sunday, and the school says it has plans to add on to the exhibit in the coming months.
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