https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/12/10/well-known-virginia-tech-professor-dies...
Virginia Tech professor and poet, Nikki Giovanni, has died at the age of 81. She died peacefully with her life-long partner, Virginia (Ginney) Fowler, by her side.
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, served as a University Distinguished Professor in the English Department at Virginia Tech. Giovanni, an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., is the recipient of hundreds of awards and honors. She was most recently awarded a 2024 Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
As a prominent figure of the Black Arts and Civil Rights Movements, she became friends with Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, and Muhammad Ali, and inspired generations of students, artists, activists, musicians, scholars and human beings both young and old.
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RIP. Unfortunately never got to have her as a professor but I watch her "We Are Virginia Tech" speech every year.
Dang. It's crazy, as someone who didn't know who she was before April 2007 (and being a 2007 grad, she is a big standout in my memory of my final year there) I always think of her as she was in 2007, never imagined her aging.
Same. My wife broke the news to me last night. Hit me kind of hard. Her speech was great comfort in a dark time.
A phenomenal Hokie and a terrible loss for our University and the countless number she inspired.
Not just the University, she was recognized throughout the country. Her passing was on CNN.com main page (where I saw it earlier today). Godspeed Nikki.
What a legend. I'll have to watch her documentary soon.
Very sad news. I had no idea she won an Emmy. I'll have to check out that documentary ASAP.
An inspiration. The world is a little less bright without her. Rest in peace.
She was really nice the one time I met her