Welcome to another episode of Karen Hunter is awesome.

I am Karen Hunter, and this week we lost the great Nikki Giovanni poet, author, educator,

just amazing human being at the age of 81.

Going to Mars, I hope she made it. I hope she made it rest in power.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Nikki Giovanni, a hero of mine. Several years ago, before the

pandemic, in the studio. And it was, I was nervous. Let me say that. And I was worried that I wouldn't

ask smart questions because this woman is amazing still.

And so I said, let me give you a little taste of my very first interview with Nikki Giovanni.

Now, since then, I've gotten way more comfortable.

We ended up talking a few times.

I even interviewed her in 2023.

And up next, my very first interview with the great Nikki Giovanni I hope you enjoy

let me just introduce we're going to kick off the show with this woman because you know if you are

a literary person if you like to read or if you just care if your soul is in need of something you would

know who this person is because for several decades now, this woman has been not just

the griot, not just the storyteller, but she has provided us with so much love in the form of

poetry. Let me welcome to the show, the best poet of our time. Nikki Giovanni. Oh, my God.

Thank you. I'm so glad to be here. All right. Good to finally see you. Thank you. All right. So you have a new book. It's called A Good Cry and I was going through it and it almost did happen. I see what you're working with. I see how you're trying to make people cry with this. You have a tribute to Ruby D in here. You have a piece that's called Space Our Frontier. I want to talk to you

a little bit about that. But what was the genesis of you actually writing this? Well, my mother died.

And when your mom dies, there's so much to do. And, you know, right shortly after that, my sister died.

And shortly after that, my aunt died. So all of a sudden, I go from being one of the babies in the families to be in one of the oldest.

And my last aunt died, so I am actually the oldest person in my family.

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