She has served as professor of English at Livingston College of Rutgers University in New Jersey, as professor of Black Studies at Queens College of City University of New York, visiting professor of English at Ohio State University, professor of creative writing at Mount St. Joseph's College, and visiting professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she has remained since 1989. She has traveled in Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean and has received many honors and awards. Her recording
Truth Is on Its Way (1971), in which she recites some of her poetry to the background of gospel music, was among the best-selling albums of that year. Her poetry also demands and has received much critical attention. In 1987 PBS produced a film about her life, titled
Spirit to Spirit: The Poetry of Nikki Giovanni. Giovanni was born Yolande Cornelia GiovanniJr. in Knoxville, Tennessee, the younger of the two daughters of Gus and Yolande Giovanni. Even as early as four years of age she was brave, assertive, and forceful and idolized her older sister, Gary, whom she was determined to "protect." When Giovanni was quite young, her family moved to Wyoming, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati.
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