Make Me Rain

“The work of Nikki Giovanni has been as evolutionary as it has been revolutionary. One of the finest poets of our time. . . Her work still resonates.”  — Ebony “Nikki Giovanni’s work has always been remarkable for energy, venturesomeness, direct honesty, and courage.”  — Gwendolyn Brooks “Black love, Black struggle and Black joy have long been at the center of Giovanni’s work. Her newest book is thick with affection for African-American people in their everyday lives.”  — New York Times “Giovanni . . . celebrates in her poignant 20th collection art as redemptive of traumas past and present, illuminating the way in which ‘the blues is our encyclopedia’ . . . The most memorable moments in the collection reveal the cutting directness that made her a laureate of the Black Arts Movement.”  — Publishers Weekly “Nikki Giovanni—one of the great poets of any generation—still has much to impart in Make Me Rain, her hybrid autobiography of poems and prose. Given the tumultuous aspects of 2020, the disruptions and the dislocations of quotidian and public life, there’s a refreshing discordance in reading Giovanni’s newest and especially personal collection... This book is indeed a love letter, a celebration, both musical and soft-spoken, that doesn’t shy away from politics or pain, but is, above all, hopeful and thankful... History matters. Storytelling matters. Who we choose to be matters. Nikki Giovanni—this collection—reminds us of why.”  — Chicago Review of Books

“The work of Nikki Giovanni has been as evolutionary as it has been revolutionary. One of the finest poets of our time. . . Her work still resonates.”  — Ebony “Nikki Giovanni’s work has always been remarkable for energy, venturesomeness, direct honesty, and courage.”  — Gwendolyn Brooks “Black love, Black struggle and Black joy have long been at the center of Giovanni’s work. Her newest book is thick with affection for African-American people in their everyday lives.”  — New York Times “Giovanni . . . celebrates in her poignant 20th collection art as redemptive of traumas past and present, illuminating the way in which ‘the blues is our encyclopedia’ . . . The most memorable moments in the collection reveal the cutting directness that made her a laureate of the Black Arts Movement.”  — Publishers Weekly “Nikki Giovanni—one of the great poets of any generation—still has much to impart in Make Me Rain, her hybrid autobiography of poems and prose. Given the tumultuous aspects of 2020, the disruptions and the dislocations of quotidian and public life, there’s a refreshing discordance in reading Giovanni’s newest and especially personal collection... This book is indeed a love letter, a celebration, both musical and soft-spoken, that doesn’t shy away from politics or pain, but is, above all, hopeful and thankful... History matters. Storytelling matters. Who we choose to be matters. Nikki Giovanni—this collection—reminds us of why.”  — Chicago Review of Books

Nikki Giovanni (1943–2024), poet, activist, mother, grandmother, and educator, grew up in Tennessee and Ohio and graduated with honors from Fisk University in Nashville. The author of over thirty books, she was also the recipient of seven NAACP Image Awards, the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, the Frost Medal, as well as thirty-one honorary degrees and an Emmy Award. She garnered her most unusual honor in 2007 when a South American bat species—Micronycteris giovanniae—was named in celebration of her. A devoted teacher and honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she spent thirty-five years as University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.