Jaki Shelton Green, High School Poet Laureate Program in Orange County Schools 2023

In January 2023, poetry clubs are starting at all three Orange County Schools high schools -- Cedar Ridge, Orange, and Partnership Academy. By April 2023, a high school Poet Laureate will be named at each high school and one poet laureate to represent Orange County Schools.

Poet Laureates have a passion for reading and writing poetry and seek to raise student awareness to a greater appreciation for reading, writing, and speaking poetry.

We are excited to have Orange County's own Ms. Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina's first African American poet laureate and the third woman named to the post, partnering with all our OCS high schools and students to create this program. Features include a "poetry intensive" and much more, to cultivate interest poetry as an art form and all the expressive possibilities of exploring our place, our history, and our dreams.