BLACKSBURG, Va. – A team of Virginia Tech faculty and students is helping people understand the late Nikki Giovanni’s poems in a new and immersive way, seven months after the poet and retired English professor’s passing.
According to Virginia Tech, they will be using Giovanni’s poetic words to paint an experience in images, music in surround sound, motion graphics and movement to honor her and place viewers in the middle of her poetry.
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This immersive experience will debut with recordings of Giovanni reading two of her poems, “Ego Tripping” and “Nikki Rosa,” on June 8 in the Cube at the Moss Arts Center from 1 to 6 p.m. The presentation is free and open to the public. It also coincides with a celebration of life for Giovanni planned for the same day from 2 to 4 p.m. in the center’s Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre.
Meaghan Dee, associate professor of graphic design at Virginia Tech, who has created other immersive poetic experiences, began talking with Virginia Fowler, Giovanni’s partner, about the idea before Giovanni died last December.
For Charles Nichols, associate professor of music composition and creative technologies, the experience has involved deep listening. After tracking down past recordings of Giovanni reading and performing her poems at all stages of her life, he has replayed her words over and over for the past few months as he composed instrumental music that matched the word beat.
For “Ego Tripping,” a celebratory poem about the power of the Black experience and Black women, Nichols developed a quick bebop beat. For “Nikki Rosa,” a poem inspired by Giovanni’s childhood, he composed an intimate, neighborhood jazz tune.
“Usually when I am writing music for a person, I am thinking about that person, so now I’m in commune with Nikki Giovanni and her words as she is speaking them,” he said. “That’s been powerful for me.”
The immersive experience offers an inspiring window into Giovanni’s work and will help viewers reflect on their own lives, said Gena Chandler, associate professor in the Department of English and a close friend of Giovanni’s. Chandler met with Dee and the rest of the creative team a few times as they planned the experience.
“It redirects our understanding of ourselves. That’s what makes her poetry so powerful,” Chandler said. “She was a truth teller. The loss of her voice is sad because of her fearlessness in speaking truth to power.”