Howard’s Department of English and the First-Year Writing Program hosted a Nikki Giovanni Day as part of its inaugural “Visions of Freedom” Film Festival.
The event featured a read-a-thon titled “Exclusively Giovanni” and a screening of the documentary “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.” The screening was followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson.
President Ben Vinson III, who could not attend the Zoom event due to travel, sent a proclamation declaring Feb. 14 as Nikki Giovanni Day for the university.
In the proclamation, he said, “It is with such a convening that our community can deepen its engagement with dialogues about social justice, identity and cultural empowerment, from history to the present day.”
Carole Boyce-Davies, chair of the Department of English and professor of African Diaspora Literatures, explained that the coincidence of Nikki Giovanni Day falling on Valentine’s Day “ends up working because we want to give her love.”
Giovanni, a celebrated poet, author and activist, passed away Dec. 9, 2024, from complications of lung cancer. She was a professor at Virginia Tech for 35 years before retiring in 2022.
“We just lost [Giovanni] as a major icon, and we wanted to make sure students knew about her work, especially if they hadn’t heard of her,” Boyce-Davies said. “The read-a-thon part of it is about making her work come alive for a new generation.”
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a greeting to the event, writing that the Nikki Giovanni Read-A-Thon provided a unique opportunity to celebrate activism, literature and its role in advancing social justice reform while fostering unity.
“Although considerable progress has been made, we still have much work left to do. Thanks to programs like the Nikki Giovanni Read-A-Thon, we can continue the dialogue and inspire the next generation of writers, filmmakers and activists,” she wrote.
Boyce-Davies, who joined Howard after 18 years at Cornell University, said she believed in Howard’s ability to influence through programs like this one.
“The idea was that Howard is the place where African American literature really began to be formulated and have a legitimized structure for teaching, writing and studying it,” Boyce-Davies said. “We want to bring that back again so that anybody who comes to Howard should have a good sense of Black literature—not just U.S. Black literature, but African diaspora literature in general.”
Other speakers at the virtual event included Cashenna Cross, mayor of Glenarden, Maryland, department of English faculty and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Rubin Patterson, who each spoke of Giovanni’s impact and accolades.
Boyce-Davies noted that the department had previously hosted a James Baldwin Read-A-Thon. Since Giovanni and Baldwin had a famous conversation when Giovanni was 28, the department thought it was fitting to honor her as well.
Boyce-Davies explained that Giovanni helped redefine engagement with Black literature and poetry, critiquing the U.S. system and racism while also addressing life from a woman’s perspective. Giovanni explored the relationships between Black women and Black men, white men and dominant white culture.
The first poem performed, “Ego-Tripping,” was read by Angela Verdelle, a creative writing professor at the university and MC for the event.
Following Verdelle, 17 students and several faculty members read a selection of Giovanni’s poetry.
Arrionna Robinson, a sophomore political science major from Pennsylvania, was one of the participants in the read-a-thon.
“I volunteered to participate because I feel like it’s just a perfect opportunity, to not only work on my public speaking, but to celebrate Nikki Giovanni,” she said.
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
