Giovanni's grandmother Louvenia proved to be a great influence in Nikki's life.

In doing so she practiced the self-determination her parents had taught her. She decided, on her own, to escape the tensions between her mother and father by moving back to Knoxville and living with her grandparents, Louvenia and John Brown Watson. The struggle of Giovanni's father against poverty took its toll, and he became fairly abusive. Giovanni practiced these values as she excelled in school, and later tested as performing at a genius level. But as the poem 'Nikki-Rosa' suggests, there was a richness of family life in the Giovanni home while her parents instilled the importance of education and determination in life. Despite better job opportunities in Ohio, Giovanni's family lived in relative poverty. Her family moved less than a month after her birth from their home in Knoxville, Tennessee to Cincinnati, Ohio. She was born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr., on June 7, 1943, and nicknamed Nikki-Rosa by her older sister, Gary. These lines, often the most quoted of the poem, serve as a theme throughout all of Giovanni's poetry, whether writing about the Black Revolution or about being a woman, or remembering her childhood and fanmily. In Nikki Giovanni's signature and perhaps most popular poem, 'Nikki-Rosa,' she writes that, although she was poor, 'Black love is Black wealth,' and while whites may only see the poverty she experienced they would This essay will compare the backgrounds of Nikki Giovanni and Rita Dove and their contributions to literature and, in doing so, reveal how they as poets help to reshape African-American history. Both poets clearly possess a true passion and voice for writing, making their lives and works worthy of attention and discussion. Giovanni's and Dove's successes are comparable and their paths similar, although they worked at different periods in contemporary literature.

Their poems are written in very different styles but involve similar themes. Nikki Giovanni and Rita Dove, two contemporary poets of great distinction, are examples of self-defined African-American women who found a voice through writing. Their unique contribution to American poetry brought black women power and a voice-a voice that began with such poets as Phillis Wheatley and thrives today. And through these stories, African-American women continue the tradition of recording history and the changing times with perspectives that reflect the struggles and survival of African-Americans. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in literature, where experiences, analyses, and understandings are put on paper.

Throughout the centuries, African-American women have acted as agents in their own history, and in doing so defined themselves, for themselves, their communities, and the larger society.

Nikki rosa by nikki giovanni analysis