Spirit to Spirit: Nikki Giovanni
In this challenging artist profile, the boundaries between what is usually regarded as essentially “personal” (in this case the Black woman and the poet) and the “political” (the Civil Rights activist) are broken down to reveal the interconnections of those aspects which together characterise Nikki Giovanni's life and work.
Through performance footage, intercut with interviews, archive footage and stills, the documentary shapes a rich mosaic of themes related to art, race, sex and humanity that infuse Nikki's work. Nikki reflects on the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and its impact on her and the US as a whole; motherhood, gender, race and the role of poetry in her life.
Description source: Cinema of Women Catalogue Supplement (1989) compiled by Jenny Wallace.