N.C. Poet Laureate to visit Black Mountain

Local library to host evening with Jaki Shelton Green

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
September 26, 2023

N.C, Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green will speak in the Black Mountain-Tyson Public Library at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 3. The free event is sponsored by the Friends of the Black Mountain Library. Photo courtesy of N.C. Poet Laureate

An evening of literature and poetry with the sitting N.C. Poet Laureate will come to the Swannanoa Valley, from 6 - 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 3, when the Black Mountain-Tyson Public Library welcomes Jaki Shelton Green.

The free event, sponsored by the Friends of the Black Mountain Library , will include readings and recitals from Green, the first African-American to hold the office since it was created in 1935. Appointed by Governor Roy Cooper in 2018, Green was reappointed for a second term in 2021.

The N.C. Literary Hall of Fame inductee, who teaches Documentary Poetry at the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies, is visiting Black Mountain for the first time.

“I know Black Mountain, and I’ve been through it many times, but I have never been to Black Mountain,” she said. “I am so honored to be there, knowing the history of that particular part of the state. Growing up as a writer, I always felt that was where the energy was.”

A native of Alamance County, raised in rural Orange County, Green began writing as a child before publishing eight books of poetry in a professional career that has spanned nearly five decades. In her term as the ninth N.C. Poet Laureate, she released her debut poetry album —The River Speaks of Thirst — on Juneteenth, 2020.

“As the literary ambassador for the State of N.C., my role is to promote, enhance, expand people’s appreciation, and hopefully love of the literary arts,” Green said. “I am always excited to go to spaces I have not been to.”

Her voice was shaped as she grew up in the era of de-segregation while coming of age in a rapidly evolving South.

“I’m a product of the 1960s and 70s, and I claim it; I was at Woodstock,” Green said. “Those were very important years in my life, as a rural brown Southern girl. I was involved in the civil rights movement, as one of those first children of color who crossed into an integrated school. It was a very interesting time to witness the South become more of who she is, and becoming a place that was making space for a lot of people.”

She left her native state to attend a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, and began publishing her work in the early 1970s, as she moved back to N.C. Green soon divorced her late ex-husband and became a single mother of two children.

“I had to find a job quickly, and I did, but I would write into the wee hours of the morning,” Green said. “I did all my mom duties, getting the kids ready for school and doing homework and the baths, and that was really my path to writing.”

Art, she added, strengthened her survivalist instincts.

“I was young, and somehow I was driven to be a good mom, but to also remember I had a voice and needed not to repress it,” Green said.

Friends of the Black Mountain Library, the nonprofit organization that supports the local branch, was “reaching for the stars” when reaching out to the N.C. Poet Laureate, according to Black Mountain-Tyson Public Library Manager Melisa Pressley.

“Jaki Shelton Green has obviously always been on our radar, and we felt like we were really going for it when asking her to come to our little town and library,” Pressley said. “We were thrilled when she agreed to speak.”

The branch is welcoming the poet laureate as attendance is approaching pre-pandemic levels, according to the manager.

“I think it’s really important that we bring diverse offerings to our community,” Pressley said. “While it wasn’t intentional, I would like for us to hear more from those marginalized voices, and not just in the State of N.C., but in our community, and not just during Black History Month.”

Green’s visit also coincides with the growing popularity of of the Dark City Poets Society, which was founded in 2020 by Pressley and Clint Bowman, and gathers in the the library for monthly critique meetings.

“This event will take place at the time when he normally hold our monthly meeting, so instead of having that, we’ll have a reading and Q&A with Jaki Shelton Green, which we imagine will be even more beneficial to our poetry,” Bowman said. “Meeting her and having the opportunity to gain insight from such an accomplished write will be great for our local poets.”

Thriving literary groups like DCPS are a valuable tool for emerging artists, according to Green.

“Right now, more than ever, our communities need this medicine of writing, listening to others and finding ourselves in each other’s writing,” she said. “I applaud communities that are creating and sustaining these spaces for writers.”

Seating for Green’s appearance, which will be hosted in the Black Mountain Library Education Room and will include a reading followed by a book signing, will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more information, contact the branch at 828-250-4756.