Celebrating and honoring the life and legacy of legendary poet, professor, activist and revolutionary Nikki Giovanni on the occasion of her passing.

Celebrating and honoring the life and legacy of legendary poet, professor, activist and revolutionary Nikki Giovanni on the occasion of her passing. WHEREAS, Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943. She was a celebrated poet, whose words were as revolutionary as her activism. Nikki changed the face of poetry in America and relentlessly pushed us on a path toward equity; and WHEREAS, Nikki started taking courses at Fisk College while still attending high school. As a student at Fisk, she re-established the college’s chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and published several essays focused on the role of gender in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements; and WHEREAS, Nikki spent a semester living in West Philadelphia and studying social work at the University of Pennsylvania. During this time she began writing her first poetry collection “Black Feeling, Black Talk,” which went on to sell thousands of copies making her popular figure in the Black Arts Movement; and WHEREAS, Our City and Nikki have an intertwined history, so much so that she titled one of her remarkable pieces of work “In Philadelphia,” published in 1997. The album includes many remarkable poems that fit the spirit of our City, notably including but not limited to the famous piece “Ego Tripping,” but fittingly concludes with “And Yeah... This Is A Love Poem;” and WHEREAS, Few poets have left as indelible, magnitudinous a mark as Nikki. She has …