Jaki Shelton Green, a 2014 inductee to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, was installed as North Carolina’s ninth Poet Laureate in a ceremony on Raleigh on Monday, February 18.
Jaki is the first African American and the third woman to serve as the state’s “ambassador for poetry and the spoken word.”
If you’ve never seen Jaki speak or give a reading, though, we highly encourage you to get out to one of her many events this year.
The ceremony was Standing Room Only, and filled very quickly, so if you weren’t able to be there in person, you can watch the complete ceremony here.
She’s dynamic in front of a crowd, offering a quiet, insistent strength. Plus, her poetry both cuts to the Truth and offers its readers, or listeners, a way up and out of the turmoil we so often find ourselves in.
She’s almost certainly going to be somewhere near you, and soon. Don’t miss her!
The North Carolina Arts Council has put together a master calendar for Jaki’s upcoming events this year.
