MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Sad news now - Nikki Giovanni, one of the most celebrated poets of the last century, has died at 81. Her work - that includes more than two dozen poetry collections, not to mention works included in other collections - was an integral part of the Black Arts movement and the civil rights era. Along with her writing, she was a teacher, a mentor and a cultural figure who inspired generations of readers and writers. In this recording from HarperCollins, Giovanni reads from her poem, "A Good Cry."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NIKKI GIOVANNI: Maybe, since we will all soon be gone, I should be happy I found my mother in someone else who loves me. Maybe that's all that really matters.
MARTIN: To tell us more about her life and legacy, I'm joined by Kwame Alexander - he's also a poet and an author - who counted Nikki Giovanni as a mentor and a friend. Kwame, good morning. First of all, I'm so sorry for this loss.
KWAME ALEXANDER: Thank you, Michel. I'm sorry for all of us.
MARTIN: I mean, she does seem like somebody who you feel should always be here.
ALEXANDER: Yeah, it's hard to imagine a world without Nikki. I mean, she - for so many of us, she meant empowerment. She meant speak your mind. She meant know your worth. She meant lift your voice. And, you know, that legacy is going to remain in all of the writers like Edwidge Danticat and Jericho Brown that she's inspired and influenced.
MARTIN: And you mean that as a writer and, of course, as a poet, but what about as a person? What did she mean to you?
ALEXANDER: The poet Adrienne Rich - my friend Veronica Chambers sent me this poem, and it ends with, (reading) somehow, each of us will help the other live, and somewhere, each of us must help the other die. And so, you know, as we sat by her bedside yesterday, we just - you know, Renee Watson and I and Ginney and all these loved ones, we just reminisced and remembered the way she taught us how to live and how lucky we have been to have her guide us, to have Nikki teach us and love us. And it's a really sad time and a sad and a hard day, and we're flattened. And we're also - we got her books. Like, those dozens of books you talked about, like, they are, you know, those precious memories that keep us moving forward. She was a literary mother to a lot of people and for me, you know? Like, I figure now I got to figure out how to make my own lamb chops.
MARTIN: Aw.
ALEXANDER: (Laughter) I got to learn how to do some of these things myself.
MARTIN: I was going to ask you - and Ginney being her wife, Virginia. Is there a - you had so much time with her, and so you were very fortunate in that way. But is there a particular moment or conversation with her that you think you will hold with you?
ALEXANDER: It's always the last moment. And, you know, in fact, her new book is called "The Last Book." Like, this woman is so prophetic. And the last conversation I had with her, she was trying to figure out, Michel, how to use FaceTime.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
ALEXANDER: And so she FaceTimes me and cannot figure out how to turn the picture on. And she's like, Kwame, you see it? You see it, Kwame? And I'm like, nah, Nikki, I don't see anything. Turn the video on. And finally, she - after, like, 15 minutes, she gets the video on, and she's holding her Emmy Award. And she's like, see, you're not the only poet with a Emmy.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
ALEXANDER: And so - and we just laughed, and then I sent her some flowers. And we just had this beautiful conversation, and that was seven days ago. And it's - like you said, it's just really hard to imagine that she's not here.
MARTIN: Let me play this just really briefly. In a recent interview with NPR, Giovanni said she didn't think about her legacy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
GIOVANNI: 'Cause it gets you caught up in your life, and that's not what - your life is not about your life. Life is about your duty. And so, no, I don't think about it, you know.
MARTIN: OK. But Kwame, despite that, what do you think of as her legacy, as briefly as you can?
ALEXANDER: You know, that's the thing. I don't have to figure out what her legacy is, and none of us do, y'all. Like, she told us a lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked. They don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. She said, you go naked until you die. That's the way it goes down. And that's what I learned.
MARTIN: That's poet and author Kwame Alexander. Thanks so much for sharing these memories with us.
ALEXANDER: Appreciate it. Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONDO LOOPS' "HOUSE OF LEAVES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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