Friends of Florence County Library Present a Virtual Evening with Nikki Giovanni

The Friends of Florence County Library will present “A Virtual Evening with Nikki Giovanni” with two sessions. A pre-recorded presentation by Giovanni will be posted to the library’s website for viewing starting November 12th. And on Tuesday, November 16 at 7:00 PM, Ms. Giovanni will participate in a live question and answer session on Zoom, with Dr. Louis Venters of Francis Marion University serving as moderator. This programming was supported with funding from a Growth Grant from South Carolina Humanities. Funding for the Growth Grants has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Links to both sessions will be made available on the Florence County Library website on November 12th and prior to the live event on November 16th.

Yolanda Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Giovanni is the author of numerous children books and poetry collections, including Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (William Morrow, 2013), Bicycles: Love Poems (William Morrow, 2009); and Acolytes (HarperCollins, 2007), among others. Her honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1970, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Dedication and Commitment to Service in 2009, three NAACP Image Awards for Literature in 1998, the Langston Hughes award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters in 1996, as well as more than twenty honorary degrees from national colleges and universities. She is currently University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, where she has taught since 1987.

The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c) 3 organization is governed by a volunteer 21-member Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and/or supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually.