A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs. Long Resources

Here you will find solid biographical information, a bibliography, and many resources to help you with research. There is also a tab on the page that lets you explore more of Giovanni's poems.

Here's a wonderfully detailed timeline of Nikki Giovanni's early life. Pretty much everything you need to know is right here.

Giovanni performs her most anthologized poem. You can truly hear the effect of her free verse and its imitation of natural speech here.

Giovanni performs her work "Talk to me poem" for Def Poetry.

Nikki Giovanni delivers closing remarks (a poem) to students and faculty mourning the loss of 32 students and the wounding of 17 in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where she is a distinguished professor of English.

Check out this video footage of an early 1960s civil rights march through downtown Knoxville (Market Square and Gay Streets, the general area near the library and bookstore mentioned in the poem). Could our poet have witnessed or participated in this? Possibly so.

Giovanni performs her most famous poem "Ego Tripping" with the backing of the New York City Choir on the 1971 album Truth is On its Way.

Here's Giovanni's "2nd Rapp," set to "This Little Light of Mine"—a beautiful, rousing rendition of both works.

Here she is, looking as direct and joyful as ever.

Here is an image of the Lawson McGhee Library in Knoxville circa the mid-1940s, about 15 years before Giovanni would have met Mrs. Long.

Here's the cover art for the collection Acolytes, in which the poem to Mrs. Long appears.

The image in this article, of a sit-in at a Nashville lunch counter, was part of an exhibition on civil rights in the Lawson McGhee Library (the one in the poem). The short article highlights Nashville (about 180 miles from Knoxville) as the first city in the south to desegregate public institutions.

Nikki Giovanni is hosted by Omari Hardwick in this BET Genius Talks episode, which he opens with the most unabashed poem of praise for his mentor. Get the tissues out.

This is an excellent interview with Nikki Giovanni in which she talks about the importance of beer, her "Thug Life" tattoo, and the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

This is a good story about the dismantling and restoration of the JFG Coffee sign, which Giovanni mentions in line 4 of this poem.

You can find the poem of praise for Mrs. Long reprinted here, in Giovanni's work Acolytes.

Giovanni edits and contributes to this nifty collection of poems (with accompanying CD!) for kids. But don't be fooled—adults will love this too.

Dr. Giovanni doesn't slight prose—and you might be surprised how the book gets its title.

Dr. G appeared on the long-running show as a guest.

The poet appears as herself in this 2008 documentary about violence in hip hop culture.