It’s an encore on the Hill for Nikki Giovanni.

Giovanni, a renown writer, activist and poet, will lecture at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Van Meter Hall.

The event is free and open to the public.

Giovanni lectured at Western in 1999 for Black History Month.

The Campus Activities Board decided to bring Giovanni back after continued interest from students and the lecture and special event committee.

Monica Burke, associate director of Diversity Programs, said she read some of Giovanni’s works in college and went to see her last lecture at Western.

“It was enlightening,” Burke said.

Burke said she particularly liked how Giovanni talked about modern hip-hop and rap.

“She made people look at the hip-hop culture and rap in a new light; from a different perspective, in a sense of poetry,” Burke said.

Azurdee Garland, assistant to CAB, said she expects a diverse population to attend the lecture.

“People are gonna get a good show,” Garland said.

Giovanni, who is an English professor at Virginia Tech, has published 26 books.

In 1998 and 2000, Giovanni won the NAACP Image Award for Literature. This year, she is nominated for a Grammy in the spoken word category for “The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection.”

But the lecture at Western will not be a poetry reading, Garland said. Giovanni will talk about about the importance of being a female African-American leader.

Garland said she also expects Giovanni to read some excerpts from her latest book “Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems.”

Garland said the last lecture was so successful there was only standing room.

“We filled Van Meter and people were standing against the walls,” Garland said.

The lecture is sponsored by CAB with support from the Office of Diversity Programs and the women’s studies program.

A book sale and signing will follow the lecture.

Reach Marlene Brueggemann at [email protected].