To celebrate National Poetry Month, the State Archives of North Carolina, in collaboration with the North Carolina Arts Council, will host "History in Verse," featuring N.C. Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green.
The virtual program on documentary poetry is set for Thursday, April 7, at 7 p.m. This online event will explore Green’s own work in documentary poetry — poetry that captures a historical moment by combining primary source materials with verse. Green will discuss the relationship between poetry and historical events and read some of her own work.
In addition, the program will present poems written by ordinary and extraordinary North Carolinians across centuries that have been discovered in the North Carolina State Archives. Archivists will discuss the historical context of these poems and explain how they found their way to the archives.
Jaki Shelton Green, the state’s ninth poet laureate, was appointed in 2018 and again in 2021 by Gov. Roy Cooper. She is the first African American and the third woman to serve. This year, the North Carolina Museum of Art appointed Green to be its first poet in residence. She was one of 13 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellows in 2019 — the first year that the Academy of American Poets awarded those fellowships. She was inducted into the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame in 2014; appointed N.C. Piedmont Laureate in 2009; and received the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2003. Green teaches documentary poetry at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies and was the 2021 Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the George School, in Newtown, Pennsylvania, in 2021.
Among her publications are the poetry collections "Dead on Arrival," "Masks," "Dead on Arrival and New Poems," "Conjure Blues, singing a tree into dance, and breath of the song," all published by Blair; and "Feeding the Light" and "i want to undie you," published by Jacar Press.
Green owns SistaWRITE, which provides writing retreats for women in Sedona, Ariz.; Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; Ocracoke, N.C.; northern Morocco; and Tullamore, Ireland.
All are welcome to attend the State Archive’s free virtual event. Register here on Zoom.
About the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDNCR) is the state agency with a vision to be the leader in using the state's natural and cultural resources to build the social, cultural, educational and economic future of North Carolina. NCDNCR's mission is to improve the quality of life in our state by creating opportunities to experience excellence in the arts, history, libraries and nature in North Carolina by stimulating learning, inspiring creativity, preserving the state's history, conserving the state's natural heritage, encouraging recreation and cultural tourism, and promoting economic development.
NCDNCR includes 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, three science museums, three aquariums and Jennette's Pier, 41 state parks and recreation areas, the N.C. Zoo, the N.C. Symphony Orchestra, the State Library, the State Archives, the N.C. Arts Council, the African American Heritage Commission, State Preservation Office and the Office of State Archaeology, and the Division of Land and Water Stewardship. For more information, please visit www.ncdcr.gov.