Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni, poet, activist, mother and professor, was a seven-time NAACP Image Award winner and the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, and held the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, among many other honours. She was the author of thirty books and received thirty-one honorary doctorates. Until 2022, she was the University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.