In her legendary career, artist and activist Nikki Giovanni has established herself as a writer who can entertain and challenge, and a voice for social justice who can inform and inspire in times of national crisis. Controversial, revolutionary, ethereal, or illuminating, her poems about race, Black lives, violence, gender, and family move readers of all ages and backgrounds.

With BICYCLES, shes collected poems that serve as a companion to her 1997 LOVE POEMS. An instant classic, that bookromantic, bold, and eroticexpressed notions of love in ways that were delightfully unexpected. In the years that followed, Giovanni experienced losses both public and private. A mothers passing, a sisters, too. A massacre on the campus at which she teaches. And just when it seemed life was spinning out of control, Giovanni rediscovered lovewhat she calls the antidote. Here romantic loveand all its manifestations, the physical touch, the emotional pull, the hungry heartis distilled as never before by one of our most talented poets. In a time of national crisis or personal crisis, this is a collection that will open minds and change hearts as only the best art can.

“If there was a need for poetry that galvanized and inspired, there was also a demand for poetry that comforted and unified and Ms. Giovanni provided on both counts.” The Washington Post