An Evening with North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green

Photo Credit: Sandra Davidson.
Filmed and edited by Beth Davison.

Presented by BRAHM, Bill & Judy Watson, NC Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts and Hellbender Bed & Beverage.

About the Speaker
Jaki Shelton Green, ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina appointed in 2018, is the first African American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina Poet Laureate and reappointed in 2021 for a second term by Governor Roy Cooper. She is a 2019 Academy of American Poet Laureate Fellow, 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame Inductee, 2009 NC Piedmont Laureate appointment, 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature. Jaki Shelton Green teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies and the 2021 Frank B. Hanes Writer in Residence at UNC Chapel Hill. Additionally, she received the George School Outstanding Alumni Award in 2021. Her publications include: Dead on Arrival, Masks, Dead on Arrival and New Poems, Conjure Blues, singing a tree into dance, breath of the song, published by Blair Publishers. Feeding the Light, i want to undie you published by Jacar Press, i want to undie you English /Italian bilingual edition published by Lebeg Publishers. Juneteenth 2020, she released her first LP, poetry album, The River Speaks of Thirst, produced by Soul City Sounds and Clearly Records and released a CD, i want to undie you in 2021. Jaki Shelton Green is the owner of SistaWRITE providing writing retreats for women writers in Sedona Arizona, Martha’s Vineyard, Ocracoke North Carolina, Northern Morocco, and Tullamore Ireland. 2021, The Arts Club of Chicago premiered a commissioned body of work in collaboration with Flutronix for the Black Is Series. April 2022, the poem will be performed by Flutronix and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

AWARDS
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).

Jaki Shelton Green is the author of eight collections of poetry: Dead on Arrival, Dead on Arrival and New Poems, Masks, Conjure Blues, singing a tree into dance, breath of the song, published by Carolina Wren Press and Blair Publishers. Her other publications; Feeding the Light, I Want to Undie You are published by Jacar Press. Her poetry has been published in over eighty national and international anthologies and featured in magazines such as Essence and Ms. Magazine.

2020 Shaw University Ella Baker Women Who Lead Award
2020 St. Andrews University Fortner Award
2020 Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing
2020 Northern Orange County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Achievement Award
The INDY’s 19 People of 2019
2019 Spirit House Griot Cultural Alchemist Award, Orange County Baha’i
2019 Light of Unity Award
2019 NC Humanities Council Caldwell Award
2019 American Academy of Poets Laureate Fellowship
2019 Aura Galleria Our Minds Our Voices Woman of Distinction Award
2019 Antioch Baptist Church Durham African American History Award
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 Carolinianan Society induction.