Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

We welcome you to the Challenger Planetarium for a very special screening of the 2023 Sundance-award winning documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.

This screening is part of "Going to Mars with Nikki Giovanni and Fred Moten," featuring talks and conversation at Florida State University October 10th and 11th. All events are free and open to the public. For the schedule and more information please visit: .

This award-winning documentary travels through time and space to reveal the enduring influence of Nikki Giovanni, one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators. Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project reckons with the inevitable passing of time through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings, and visually innovative treatments of Giovanni’s poetry. Confluential Films and Rada Studio, in association with JustFilms | Ford Foundation; in association with Bertha DOC SOCIETY. Writers and directors, Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson; producers, Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson, and Tommy Oliver; executive producers, Codie Elaine Oliver and Taraji P. Henson; editors, Terra Long, Lawrence Jackman, and Regi Allen; with the voice of Taraji P. Henson.

-HBO.com

Nikki Giovanni is one of this country’s most widely read poets and one of America’s most renowned poets world-wide. Her poem, “Knoxville, Tennessee,” is arguably the single literary work most often associated with that city.

Giovanni has received numerous awards in the course of her career, including seven Image Awards from the N.A.A.C.P., more than two-dozen honorary degrees, the first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, the Langston Hughes Medal for Poetry, and the Carl Sandburg Literary Award; additionally, Oprah Winfrey recognized her in 2005 as one of twenty-five “Living Legends.” She continues to teach, write, and publish books, the most recent of which is A Good Cry. Her newest collection, Make Me Rain, was released in October of 2020.

This event is co-sponsored by the Florida State University Civil Rights Institute and the Department of English, with additional support from the African American Studies Program and the Frances Cushing Ervin Chair in American Literature.

Host or Publisher Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee