Everything Happens with Kate Bowler Nikki Grimes on Complicated Childhoods, Forgiveness, and Extraordinary Grace
Nov 25, 2025
Nikki Grimes, a celebrated poet and author of children's literature, shares her journey from a tumultuous childhood to finding beauty in survival. She delves into the profound lessons her experiences taught her about faith and forgiveness. Grimes discusses how her empathy blossomed from hardship and how she learned the importance of recovering joyful memories. She also reads poignant selections from her poetry, exploring themes of grace versus luck, the distinctions between joy and happiness, and the eye-opening perspectives children have on spirituality.
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Childhood Marked By Instability And Sensitivity
- Nikki Grimes recalls instability: foster care, a paranoid schizophrenic mother, and movement between homes as a child.
- She says early sensitivity led her to notice and comfort other hurting children.
Recovered Childhood Memory Of Ice Skating
- While writing her memoir Nikki recovered a lost positive memory about ice skating after speaking with an old friend.
- She highlights how memory preserves some scenes and loses others, even good ones.
Foster Family Gave a Model Of Belonging
- Nikki describes the Buchanans, a foster family who showed her love, church, and belonging during a hard season.
- That experience gave her hope and a model of a different possible life she could carry forward.
