“As a child, I was just fascinated by the world around me, and I always felt weird,” said Jaki Shelton Green, now 71 and North Carolina’s first African American poet laureate. “I would sit and think to myself, ‘Is there another girl sitting on the steps a thousand miles away, looking at the same clouds?’ I would write letters to these imaginary people. Writing was a wonderful way of capturing and saving these cloudbursts, these thoughts about the world and about people around me.”

Governor Roy Cooper today announced that poet, teacher, and community arts advocate Jaki Shelton Green will serve as NC's ninth poet Laureate and the first African American to serve.

“Jaki Shelton Green brings a deep appreciation of our state’s diverse communities to her role as an ambassador of North Carolina literature,” Governor Cooper said. “Jaki’s appointment is a wonderful new chapter in North Carolina’s rich literary history."

Green is the first African American and the third woman to serve as the state’s ambassador for poetry and the spoken word. She will be installed during a public celebration later this summer. Green succeeds Shelby Stephenson, who was named poet laureate Feb. 2, 2015.

A native of Orange County, Green has been active in North Carolina’s literary and teaching community for more than 40 years. She has penned eight books of poetry, co-edited two poetry anthologies and written one play. She is a 2014 North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee and was the recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2013.

“Jaki is an award-winning poet with a strong commitment to use poetry as a platform for building bridges across race, religion, age, gender, and identity,” said Susi H. Hamilton, secretary, N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “What a welcome addition she is to the tradition of poet laureates in North Carolina.”

Green currently teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies. Over the last 40 years, she has taught poetry and facilitated creative writing classes at public libraries, universities and community colleges, public and private schools and with literary organizations across the U.S.

“I am deeply touched to be named poet laureate,” Green said. “To serve as North Carolina’s representative for poetry and the spoken word is a tremendous honor.”

She plans to focus her efforts on the creation of documentary poetry, working with North Carolina communities to explore the ways they document their unique regional histories and significant historical events.

As a community arts advocate, Green has created and facilitated programs that serve various audiences and populations, including the incarcerated, homeless, chronically and mentally ill, victims of domestic violence, public and private schools, literacy programs, immigrants, and community economic development and social justice nonprofits.

Article excerpt sources:
Source http://bit.ly/NCpoetlaureate2018
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../shelton-green-poet.../...
.

Jaki Shelton Green is the owner of SistaWRITE and co-partner with Dream Yourself Awake and Vertikal Creative Ventures providing writing retreats and travel excursions for women writers in Sedona Arizona, Ocracoke North Carolina, Agadir Morocco, and Tullamore Ireland.

Awards include 2019 NC Humanities Council Caldwell Award, 2019 American Academy of Poets Laureate Fellowship, 2018 Tar Heel of the Year Finalist, 2018 Indies Arts Award, 2018 NC Literary and Historical Association R. Hunt Parker Award, 2018 Phi Beta Kappa Award, 2017-2018 Duke University Faculty Travel Grants, 2017 Certification of Teacher Excellence presented by the Kingdom of Morocco Ministry of National Education, 2016 Kathryn H. Wallace Award for Artists in Community Service, 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame Inductee, 2014 Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2010 Fine Arts Emerald Award (Raleigh LINKS), 2009 NC Piedmont Laureate appointment, 2007 Sam Ragan Award for Contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina, 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature (the highest award the state can bestow for significant contributions in science, literature, fine arts, and public service), 2003 North Caroliniana Society induction. Jaki Shelton Green is the recipient of two NC Emerging Artist Grants, the African American Writer’s Collective Distinction Award, NC Writers Network Blumenthal Award, 2002 Omega Iota Finer Womanhood Award (Zeta Phi Beta Sorority) Delta Arts Award (Delta Sigma Theta Sorority)
.

Poetry Collections & Books

• Masks (Carolina Wren Press, 1981)
• Dead on Arrival (Carolina Wren Press, 1983; reissued by Blair)
• Swiss Time (Mud Puppy Press, 1990)
• Conjure Blues (Carolina Wren Press, 1996)
• singing a tree into dance (Carolina Wren Press, 2003/2004)
• Breath of the Song: New and Selected Poems (Carolina Wren Press, 2005)
• Feeding the Light (Jacar Press, 2014)
• I Want to Undie You (Jacar Press, 2017; also published in an English/Italian bilingual edition by Lebeg Publishers)
- The Communion of White Dresses, Jacr Press, 2024


Plays and Co-Edited Anthologies

• Blue Opal (Play)
• Poets for Peace (Co-edited anthology)
• Immigration, Emigration, Diversity (Co-edited anthology)

Audio & Spoken Word

- I Want To Undie You, cd, Soul City Sounds and Clearly Records
• The River Speaks of Thirst (LP poetry album, Soul City Sounds and Clearly Records, 2020)
.

Jaki Shelton Green website: https://jakisheltongreen.com/books/