Already Missing You, Nikki Giovanni

Top 10 Quotes and a Poem

John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I never met Nikki Giovanni, although we attended the same college, Fisk University. There is a culture at Fisk, and Nikki was a part of it. We knew some of the same people and had at least one instructor in common, Dr. L.M. Collins. He always smiled at the mention of her name; that was enough for me.

Nikki was a revolutionary. There was a baseless rumor associating her with a fire that burned down Old Livingston Hall, but that wasn’t true; she had long before graduated and left. Nikki is revered by those who knew her and respected by those who only knew of her.

I won’t use this space to list her achievements and honors. I’ll let her own words do the speaking with ten quotes and a poem. I always assumed I’d meet you at a Fisk graduation or Homecoming. They say you can’t miss what you never had. I beg to differ.

There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.