Homework For Mouthourie Bolton For April 28, 2008

Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni was born June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee to Yolanda Cornelia and Jones Giovanni. She grew up in Lincoln Heights and in 1960 began her study at Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated in 1967 with honors, receiving a B.A. in history. Following, she then attended University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. In 1969, Nikki Giovanni began teaching at Livingston College, of Rutgers University. She gave birth to Thomas Giovanni, her only child in August of 1969. Both Giovanni’s mother and sister died of lung cancer, and in 1995, Giovanni herself was diagnosed with the disease as well. She then stopped smoking after she was diagnosed with the disease. What inspired her to do poetry was the Civil Rights and black power. Giovanni is currently a distinguished professor of English at Virginia Tech.

Maya Angelou

On April 4, 1928, Maya Angelou who was born Marguerite Johnson was born in St. Louis Missouri. She grew up in St. Lewis and Stamps, Arkansas. She is an author, poet, songwriter, playwright, dancer, civil rights activist and much more. In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1961 until 1962,she was associate editor of “The Arab Observer”. Angelou’s first book that she wrote was “ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” which talks about the first seventeen years of her life. At the age of eight Maya Angelou was sexually abused And raped by her mother’s boyfriend. After that happening Maya Angelou became mute for nearly five years. Before graduating, she became the first black female conductor in San Francisco. Three weeks after completing school, she gave birth to her son Clyde, and then became a poet. She is a famous and good role model to a lot of people.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks was born June 7, 1917, to Keziah and David brooks. Later that year her family moved to Chicago where two siblings were born. When she was seven, Brooks mother discovered her talent and gift for writing. After graduating from high school, she then attended Wilson Junior College and graduated in 1936. In 1939 she then married Henry Blakely and they had two children. In 1945, Gwendolyn Brooks published her first book, then in 1949, she the won a Pulitzer Prize in 1950. In 1968 she was named poet laureate for the state of Illinois. MS. Brooks died at the age of 83.