Nikki Giovanni: Last News

Ava Duvernay‘s Origin and Matthew Heineman‘s American Symphony were among the top winners at the Virginia Film Festival, the four-day Charlottesville event that ran from Oct. 25-29.

HBO Documentary Films has acquired U.S. and Canada television and streaming rights to Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance.

Charna Flam Sundance prize winning directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson have signed with Range Media Partners At the 2023 festival, Brewster and Stephenson won the grand jury prize for U.S. Documentary for their feature ”Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.” Harvard-and Stanford–trained psychiatrist, Brewster, and Columbia Law School graduate Stephenson decided to pursue filmmaking together, and by 2006 the two founded Rada Studio. The studio has provided creators the opportunity to think radically about storytelling and work to disrupt nonfiction spaces. The pair works together to build reality, fiction, immersive and hybrid stories that embrace and deliver compelling narratives, which are all created by, for, and about the Black and Brown communities.

Cotton: The Soft Dangerous Beauty of the Past.The series of 35 large-scale photographs was presented as an exhibition in 2018 at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.Dowell’s haunting and often surreal images situate cotton both in the past and in the present of the African-American experience, and evoke the journey from rural Southern fields to the North, specifically the concrete canyons of New York City.Five years later, Dowell’s photography has inspired a new musical work by rising classical composer Damien Geter, one that was imagined, curated, and commissioned by Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest recital series to commemorate its 20th anniversary.Cotton is an intensely moving song cycle by the openly gay, Black composer that responds to Dowell’s imagery but also to original lyrics from eight luminary poets, “nationally renowned voices of the 21st century” also commissioned by Lyric Fest for Cotton: Charlotte Blake Alston, Nikki Giovanni, Afaa Michael Weaver, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Lauren Alleyne, Alora Young, Glenis Redmond, and Trapeta Mayson.Three days after its world premiere later this month in Philadelphia, Washington Performing Arts presents the D.C. premiere of Cotton at the Kennedy Center as the organization’s inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg Memorial Recital.Legendary mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, a favorite artist of the late Supreme Court Justice who performed at her funeral, will be joined by up-and-coming baritone Justin Austin and accompanied by pianist and Lyric Fest director Laura Ward, for a multimedia performance enhanced with projections of Dowell’s images, plus video readings from the commissioned poets reading their works during the performance.One night only.

Oscar-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson is joining the Sundance documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project as executive producer and voice of Giovanni’s poems throughout the film.

Carson Burton Vineyard Theatre has announced the casting and design team for the upcoming premiere of “Lessons in Survival: 1971.” Carl Clemons-Hopkins will play novelist James Baldwin alongside Theatre Award Winner Crystal Dickinson as renowned poet Nikki Giovanni.“Lessons in Survival: 1971″ follows a 1971 interview of Baldwin conducted by Giovanni. Their conversation on America’s first “Black Tonight Show” proved to be a profound dialogue on race and liberation in America.

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, podcaster, and curator of worlds. His ability to find parity in the disparate, along with his exquisite command of the English language, has made him one of the 21st century’s most celebrated cultural critics.

We knew this battle was about to bless us when Jill Scott started streaming live from her Instagram account with a bit of gospel playing in the background. Eventually sitting down in her seat, skin glowing, jumbo braids adorned her head like a crown and a glass of wine in hand, Jilly from Philly greeted all us with her signature smile. It felt like warm honey, a good hug.