The poet Nikki Giovanni, author of Black Joy, passes away at age 81.

Nikki Giovanni, the eloquent and iconic poet, activist, children's book author, and lecturer who wrote sensuously and irresistibly about sex, love, gender, politics, and race, passed away on Monday in Blacksburg, Virginia. Her age was eighty-one. Her wife, Virginia C. Fowler, stated that complications from lung cancer were the reason for her hospital death.