“She was joy.” Family and colleagues remember Nikki Giovanni

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) – It’s been nearly a week since the world lost renowed activist and poet Nikki Giovanni, but her memory is still very alive in the hearts of those who knew her.

To the world, Nikki Giovanni was a legend for her written works, words of inspiration and as a recipient of hundreds of awards throughout her career… But those closest to her knew her just as “Nikki.”

“She was just a really cool important Auntie who had really cool things, whose home was a museum, who invited you to go on a cruise to Antarctica,” remembers Lauren Wilkerson, Giovanni’s second cousin. “She was just this larger than life person.”

Wilkerson said Giovanni was there at every family event but her name also popped up in nearly every literature class growing up.

“It happened every semester, for sure . . . No one believed me, especially when you use language like a cousin, people didn’t understand how I had a ‘cousin’ one, that was so much older than us, and two, that was so important,” said Wilkerson.

Saturday, Wilkerson joined others who learned and studied Giovanni’s poetry during a visitation in her honor at McCoy Funeral Home.

“Being here to be with the Tech community, with folks from Blacksburg to get that peek into what her everyday world does feel really special,” said Wilkerson. “[It’s] extra loving to say goodbye to her here in that way.”

And she also got to hear some of the stories from Giovanni’s colleagues who shared the same sentiments about how special she really was.

“Wherever she went, I felt like she was spreading joy,” said Matthew Vollmer, a professor in the English Department at Virginia Tech. “I felt like she was a joyful person and you couldn’t be in her presence for more than 30 seconds without laughing.”

Vollmer and Giovanni worked together for 18 years. He said even in her passing, she will always be celebrated on campus.

“Things won’t ever be the same, but also we want to find ways to honor her legacy and to keep to keep that joy going that she instituted,” he said.

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