First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others thinking and writing about public education.“I am a space freak …” the writer Nikki Giovanni, who died this week at age 81, told the New York Times in 2021. “I got to sleep on the side of the bed facing the outside wall, so there was a window, and I would look out at the stars. I thought if I ran into a Martian and the Martian said, ‘Who are you?’ what would my answer be? The only answer could be ‘I am an Earthling.’ I realized — and have continued to realize — that it would be illogical if I were to tell the Martian I’m a Black woman. That’s because a Martian doesn’t know what Black is, and they don’t know what a woman is. So we know that race is illogical.”When I am feeling pessimistic about Black history education, I dream of Mars because of Nikki Giovanni. I started dreaming of this Afrofuture decades ago, as I looked out my own bedroom window, silently coping with the racism that I experienced at my suburban high school.Abigail Henry (Courtesy photo) I never had a Black teacher in school. My Dad was my first Black teacher. Nikki Giovanni was my second. Her poetry opened doors for me emotionally and academically in ways I did not find in the classroom. Put simply, she ignited my Black freedom dreaming.She was a Black teacher for me throughout all chapters of my life. I received my first poetry collection from my father, “The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni,” when I was in high school. It includes the poem “My House,” which, for me, is the definition of Black joy. This collection also contains “A Poem of Friendship,” which I frequently gifted to others for high school graduation. A few years ago I passed along my copy of the book, the one that my dad gave me, to a socially justice-minded senior at her graduation.As much as I craved it, I did not read any Black literature in school until I was a high school senior. Giovanni’s writing was my own traveler’s guide to understanding and responding to anti-Blackness. I looked up the references in her poems and began to teach myself the Black history I was not learning in school.Your shortcut to understanding public schools across the U.S.Whether you're an educator, parent, or informed taxpayer, our free national newsletter is for you. Get a weekly digest of everything you need to know about public education this week.Giovanni traveled with me to the next chapter of my life, the University of Virginia. Because Professor Giovanni taught at our rival school, Virginia Tech, I had the opportunity to meet her, to hear her recite her poetry, and to sign my books. I can vividly remember how she made me laugh and how she connected me to a greater cause. She called me to public service.I saw her again when I was visiting my sister in Boston. This time I was captivated by the story behind her poem “Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea.” The title Afrofuturistic poem is one she created to recite at NASA. The poem is a metaphor for the legacy of the slave trade. Giovanni be