Happy Birthday Nikki Giovanni! . . "Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts." . . . Yolande Cornelia Giavonni, Jr. was born in Knoxville, TN, in 1943. She grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from Fisk University and is a distinguished professor at Virginia Tech. She established the first Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati in 1967, and by the 70's, Giovanni was an award-winning poet ushering forward the Black Arts Movement. From children's books to essays, from activism to poetry, Nikki Giovanni has done, and continues to do, so much for the intersection of Civil Rights and Black literature. . . . #blackwomenwriters #womenwriters #blackwriters #community #blackpoets #poetry #art #professor #civilrights #activist #artivist #NikkiGiovanni #blackliterature #readblackbooks #africanamericanliterature #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #shelfie #booksonbooksonbooks #buybooks #readbooks #YoMaYouRead #bookstagram #books #readmore #readharder