Literary icon Nikki Giovanni is set to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Roanoke College.

Nikki Giovanni, who recently retired from her role as a professor of English at Virginia Tech, has been honored with the title of University Distinguished Professor Emerita by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

Nikki Giovanni is hanging her hat up after 35 years. The world renowned poet and activist has been an icon in the Virginia Tech community as both a professor and inspiration.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers first started performing 150 years ago to raise money for their university.

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Amanda Gorman, the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate, delivered a moving message on Wednesday during the Inauguration of President Joe Biden. “It really just choked me up,” said Nikki Giovanni about the young woman’s words. Giovanni, a world-renowned poet and a university distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, said that Gorman’s poem is what the nation needed to hear. With the world’s eyes watching, Giovanni said that Gorman delivered the poem with grace. She did wish that the late poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1950, could have been around to hear Gorman’s poem.