When Nikki Giovanni uttered these words in January ... I wanted to leave the university, where her sister-friend Maya Angelou had taught for decades, but Nikki texted via her partner of nearly ...

Poet and civil rights activist Nikki Giovanni, a prominent figure ... delivery and was a friend of fellow wordsmiths Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison.

In the song Hey Mama from his hit 2005 album Late Registration, Kanye compares his mum to a book of poetry, referencing writers Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni. And in 2010, he wrote in a blog ...