Acclaimed poet and literary force Nikki Giovanni, who was at the forefront of the Black Arts Movement and known around the world for her defiant but endearing prose about race, gender, sex and love, has died.

Giovanni, 81, died Monday with her partner Virginia “Ginney” Fowler by her side, according to a statement from her friend and author Renée Watson.

“We will forever be grateful for the unconditional time she gave to us and to all her literary children throughout the writing world,” fellow poet Kwame Alexander told US media.

Known for her work on civil rights and social issues, Giovanni was called “one of the most important intellectual artists of the 20th century” by The New Yorker.

Giovanni – who was born Yolanda Cornelia Giovanni Jr. in 1943 – received many awards in her decades-long career, including seven NAACP awards.

Their approach to race and gender in the 1960s, although timely, came in the wake of the civil rights movement and was not immediately unanimously welcomed.

She self-published her first two books, Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgment, in 1968 and quickly became a leading voice in the Black Arts Movement.

In the early 1970s, some of New York’s most famous arts performance centers, including Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic Theater, were sold out.

Many see her interview with James Baldwin on Soul! – filmed in London and broadcast as a two-part special – as a pivotal moment in Giovanni’s career.

Several people reflected on this interview as they paid tribute to Giovanni on social media on Tuesday.

“Nikki Giovanni really gave me a different perspective on the strength of black relationships and black masculinity,” one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter, attaching a clip of the Baldwin interview.

“I listen to this conversation with James Baldwin every week (because of her). I will miss her very much.”

Giovanni, whom Oprah Winfrey named one of 25 Living Legends, served as an English professor at Virginia Tech University for 35 years before retiring in 2022.

She is the author of more than 30 books, from poetry to children’s books. Her latest work, titled “The Last Book,” is scheduled to be published in 2025.

Giovanni grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, before graduating cum laude in 1967 from Fisk University, a historically black college in Tennessee.

She is survived by her son, granddaughter and wife Virginia Fowler.