Nikki Grimes
Nikki Grimes
Nikki Grimes

Nikki’s Jam, the Videos

What’s New?

Nik­ki Grimes is inter­viewed about banned books by Joy Reid on The Rei­d­Out on MSNBC.

Nik­ki Grimes record­ed this video about banned books for Radio France.

Nik­ki intro­duces her pic­ture book, South­west Sun­rise, which is illus­trat­ed by Wen­dell Minor.

Poems Out Loud

Nik­ki reads “Jabari Unmasked” from One Last Word, one of her favorite books. All the poems in One Last Word are Gold­en Shov­el poems. Sev­er­al of the lines are bor­rowed from “We Wear The Mask” by Paul Lau­rence Dun­bar, one of her favorite poets from the Harlem Renaissance.

Nik­ki shares two poems from Mar­cel Dixon, one of her favorite char­ac­ters from Between the Lines. Between The Lines is the com­pan­ion to Bronx Mas­quer­ade. Thank you to Pen­guin Books for allow­ing me to share these poems!

Join me on the PJ Par­ty on the Trol­ley read­ing Bed­time for Sweet Crea­tures, an oppor­tu­ni­ty pro­vid­ed by Wild Rum­pus Books for Young Read­ers in Min­neapo­lis, Minnesota.

Writing Prompts

Nik­ki reads poems “Truth,” “A Safe Place,” and “The Sculp­tor” from One Last Word, one of her favorite books. All the poems in One Last Word are Gold­en Shov­el poems where sev­er­al of the lines are bor­rowed from her favorite poets from the Harlem Renais­sance. Cov­er illus­tra­tion by Christo­pher Myers. Thank you Blooms­bury for allow­ing me to share this book!

Nik­ki shares the inspi­ra­tion and tech­niques used to write paired poems for A Pock­et­ful of Poems. She explains how she used haikus to write free verse poems that cap­ture Tiana’s live­ly spir­it and urban out­look. A Pock­et­ful of Poems is illus­trat­ed by Java­ka Step­toe. Thank you, Houghton Mifflin!

From a Child’s Heart is a col­lec­tion of poems from Nik­ki Grimes inspired by pic­tures from Bren­da Joy­smith. In this writ­ing prompt, Nik­ki chal­lenges writ­ers to look at an inspi­ra­tional pho­to or piece of art and cre­ate their own poem!

Nik­ki Grimes shares poems about one of her favorite cakes, Pineap­ple Upside Down Cake. Here are five steps to cre­at­ing your very own poem about your favorite food!

Reading Out Loud

Nik­ki reads “New Kid,” chap­ter 1 from Make Way for Dya­monde Daniel. Make Way for Dya­monde Daniel is the first book in a series of chap­ter books about a great girl, unlike any oth­er girl you’ve ever met, or maybe she is just like you! (To hear the full record­ings of the Dya­monde Daniel books in Nikki’s own voice, pick up the audio­books by Record­ed Books at your local inde­pen­dent bookstore.)

Nik­ki reads “Lone­ly Girl,” chap­ter 2 from Make Way for Dya­monde Daniel, the first book in a series of chap­ter books about a great girl, unlike any oth­er girl you’ve ever met, or maybe she is just like you! Thank you Pen­guin Books for allow­ing me to share this! (To hear the full record­ings of the Dya­monde Daniel books in Nikki’s own voice, pick up the audio­books by Record­ed Books at your local inde­pen­dent bookstore.)

Nik­ki reads chap­ter 1 “Rich,” from Book 2 in the Dya­monde Daniel series. Rich is the sec­ond book in a series of chap­ter books about a great girl, unlike any oth­er girl you’ve ever met, or maybe she is just like you! (To hear the full record­ings of the Dya­monde Daniel books in Nikki’s own voice, pick up the audio­books by Record­ed Books at your local inde­pen­dent bookstore.)

Nik­ki reads “Sur­prise,” chap­ter 2 from Rich, a Dya­monde Daniel Book. Rich is the sec­ond book in a series of chap­ter books about a great girl, unlike any oth­er girl you’ve ever met, or maybe she is just like you! (To hear the full record­ings of the Dya­monde Daniel books in Nikki’s own voice, pick up the audio­books by Record­ed Books at your local inde­pen­dent bookstore.)

Guest Appearances

Nik­ki is inter­viewed by librar­i­an Kather­ine Litwin on Read­ing for Young Peo­ple, a pro­gram by The Poet­ry Foundation.

Nik­ki was a recent guest on Sree Sreeni­vasan’s “@Sree’s Dai­ly Covid19 Show #46: Poet­ry Night,” in cel­e­bra­tion of Nation­al Poet­ry Month.

Nik­ki Grimes inter­viewed on Speak On It, Chica­go Pub­lic Library