Jaki Shelton Green

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. Some of her recognitions include North Carolina State University 2026 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, 2022 Forbes Magazine 50 Over 50 Lifestyle List, 2021 UNC Chapel Hill Frank B. Hanes Writer in Residence, 2021 recipient of the George School Outstanding Alumni Award, 2020 Kathryn H. Wallace Award for Community Service, 2020 St. Andrews University Ethel Fortner Award, 2020 Northern Orange County Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Achievement Award, 2020 Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award, 2019 Academy of American Poet Laureates Fellow, 2019 North Carolina Humanities Council Caldwell Award, 2019 Woman of Distinction Excellence in Humanities Award, 2014 Induction into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, 2009 North Carolina Piedmont Laureate appointment, 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature.

Jaki Shelton Green recently retired as professor of documentary poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies. Her publications include Dead on Arrival, Masks, Dead on Arrival and New Poems, Conjure Blues, singing a tree into dance, and breath of the song, published by Blair Publishers. Feeding the Light, i want to undie you, The Communion of White Dresses published by Jacar Press, and i want to undie you, English /Italian bilingual edition published by Lebeg Publishers of Rome Italy. 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 across the United States, Northern Morocco, the Loire valley in France, and Ireland. She has been involved with numerous public art collaborations and projects including the NC Freedom Park, Dix Park Conservancy, City of Asheville Riverwalk Project, Mint Museum of Charlotte, North Carolina African American Heritage Commission Africa to Carolina public art installation.

Her poetry has been commissioned, performed, choreographed, and translated into symphonies, film, and paintings by visual artists, dance companies, and musicians including Flutronix, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, The North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, The Art Project of Chicago, The New York City Girls Choir, Wichita Falls Texas Symphony, Lexington Kentucky Philharmonic Orchestra, Duke University Black Music Lab Project, the Miami City Ballet, the Justice Project Theater, Murmurations Dance Company, Choreodance Company, Elon University Dance Department, Chuck Davis African American Dance Company at the Kennedy Center, DancaNova at Naropa Institute, Two Near the Edge Dance Company, North Carolina State University Dance Department, North Carolina Central University Dance Department, North Carolina State University Craft Center, Gregg Museum of Art and Design, and Theatre Charlotte. Other collaborations include 2026 Artist in Residence at the Durham NC Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the Moroccan Ministry of Education, the History Museum of Charlotte, the Blowing Rock Arts and History Museum, Poet Laureate in Residence at the North Carolina Museum of Art (2021-2024), poetry editor for WALTER Magazine.