Susie Anderson
Staff Writer
While the late writer, poet, activist, commentator and educator Nikki Giovanni never visited Chautauqua, her words and legacy will be celebrated in an open mic tribute to conclude the summer at the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall.
“I wanted to bring her energy and spirit, even when I couldn’t bring her to Chautauqua,” said Kwame Alexander, Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua.
For the final Summer on the Steps program of the summer, Chautauqua Literary Arts will host its tribute to Giovanni at 12:15 p.m. today on the porch of Alumni Hall. All are welcome to bring the words of the late poet that resonate with them and share with the community.
Giovanni was an integral piece of the Civil Rights Movement, an iconoclast and poet who used her words to champion change. She was the recipient of myriad accolades, including the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, and honorary doctorates from over 30 universities. She is an author of numerous poetry books, children’s books and essays. In the 35 years that she taught at Virginia Tech, she established the Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize and became a mentor to a young Kwame Alexander. Since taking her class as a sophomore undergraduate, Alexander and Giovanni developed a 37-year friendship.
“The plan had been for Nikki to be one of the guests for (Week Seven’s Chautauqua Lecture Series theme) ‘Kwame Alexander and Friends,’ ” Alexander said. “It would’ve been her first time in Chautauqua. I was excited for her to be able to walk the grounds, and this is her demographic. She was like a mother to me and so I wanted her to experience this place.”
When Giovanni passed on Dec. 9, 2024, Alexander felt it as a loss of a second mother.
“It sort of sent my life into a tailspin of just emotional chaos — just not being able to figure out how to move forward in the immediate future with my birth mother, having passed away in 2017, and now Nikki having passed away,” Alexander said. “So it’s this idea that you are so fortunate and you feel like you’re so lucky to have two mothers and then, of course, you never realize that could also mean you have to bury two mothers.”
While Giovanni had not visited Chautauqua, her words reached audiences far and wide, including Chautauquans of all ages.
“She was also a big proponent of never talking down to kids and inspiring and entertaining young people,” Alexander said.
Extending the celebration of Giovanni’s legacy beyond her poetry, the Summer on the Steps event will include a reading from young writers who participated in the Book-in-a-Day workshop during Week Six Young Writers’ Institute. Their work was compiled and published into a book this past week. Where’s the Lollipop? Creating a Community Through Poems is available for purchase at the Chautauqua Bookstore.
In a culmination of a summer of literary arts programming, the event invites community members to celebrate the legacy of the late poet and the power of the written word.
“Our tribute to her will be through some of the most powerful things that we can remember her with — the words that she shared with us all,” said Stephine Hunt, managing director of literary arts.
