The Night Nikki Giovanni Changed My Existence

She was a savant, a deity

Image from the HBO Documentary entitled: “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”

Nikki Giovanni was a gift.

In college, I was regular. Had a few friends, a few classes, a few interests, a few lack of sobrieties. The regular. And one of my interests — or fascinations — was space. Space exploration, NASA, the cosmos, our Solar System, neighboring galaxies, special and general relativity, gravity, space time, etc.

Just a hobby.

I never dove into deep academia about the subject(s). Like, I’m not studying astrophysics on the weekends. Way too much work and brain power. I’ll just pick up this Brian Greene book or attend a Neil deGrasse Tyson lecture. Just spoon-feed me the theoretical physics, astrophysics, and engineering into digestible, bite-size pieces, so I can convince others that I have a vast wealth of knowledge about our universe. Even if my knowledge only extends to the equivalent of the coverage network offered by our “beloved” health insurance companies.

Almost 20 years ago, my stepmother called me with a proposition. It was to go with her to a lecture at Jackson State University, the same university I was enrolled in at the time. I was lukewarm on the idea. Then my stepmother mentioned the guest lecturer would be Nikki Giovanni. I was still lukewarm. I knew of Nikki Giovanni, but didn’t KNOW OF…