Instead, I encountered Dr Giovanni as a unapologetically queer, Appalachian, womanist professor and poet who taught her students that our collective stories and identities are a gift. She comforted and convicted so many Hokies - myself included.

Thank you, Dr Giovanni.

Saddened to hear about Nikki Giovanni passing, but deeply grateful for her voice over all those decades in the Virginia Tech English Dept. I never knew her as a young 60s radical organizing with SNCC and talking abolition with James Baldwin (1/2)