Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr., the beloved Knoxville native and internationally recognized poet and provocateur, died Monday in Blacksburg, Virginia. Giovanni, 81, held many titles. She was a writer, activist, educator, recipient of the Langston Hughes Medal and NAACP Image Award, Grammy Award nominee and much more.

You know Nikki Giovanni's poems and the power of her words. Here are some facts you might not know about the poet and author who died at age 81.

In the last years of her life, Nikki Giovanni felt her memory fading. At the beginning of the 2023 documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, she offered an inventive take on how the loss affected her: “I remember what’s important,