Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni is a big fan of telling the truth.

The professor of writing, poetry and literature at Virginia Tech University shared poems and opinions with a large crowd of NIU students Thursday in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

Giovanni, a supporter of the space travel program, said more people should be able to travel in space than those who already have the opportunity.

“The reason that not many people care about space travel is that nobody knows anyone that goes, so they think, ‘Why should I care?’”

Giovanni proposed a “10 percent solution” as a resp onse.

“There should be a lottery system set up where every tenth person should go into space,” Giovanni said. “That way, everyone would know someone [who] traveled in a space shuttle.”

People living on Earth need to have the challenge of finding and accepting new life, she said. In order to do this, they should turn to the history of African-American people.

Giovanni compared the fear of finding new life in space to the struggle African-Americans faced in their venture into slavery in the new world.

“The Africans knew it was going to be an unpleasant trip, but their curiosity kept them alive, and they let their imagination maintain them,” she said.

In her poem “Quilting of the Black Eyed Pea,” Giovanni said travelers to Mars should ask African people for advice.

“They should ask, ‘How did you calm your fears?’ and ‘How did you find comfort in the most unusual places?’”

Giovanni read a poem she wrote in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., expressing how he came into the public eye during a time when people didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

Her poem called “20 reasons to love Richard Williams” discusses Williams’ talent as a tennis coach, father and human being.

“It’s not an accident that he acts as crazy as he does,” Giovanni said. “He’s just trying to do what he can to keep his girls safe.”

Students were thrilled to see a speaker such as Giovanni come to NIU.

“I was happy to see a positive black person come to NIU,” said Chasity Maxie, a senior communication major.

Others thought Giovanni’s speech was effective.

“I never heard her speak before, and I thought that it was really insightful because she has a totally different view of life than everyone would expect,” senior communication major Sarah Dudan said.