Jaki Shelton Greenspent her childhood with her nose in a book knowing there was a great big world that awaited her. A native of Orange County, North Carolina, Green was a fidgety child and her grandmother’s solution was to give her a writing pad. This simple gesture meant to keep her still in church, blossomed into a lifelong journey.
Frank Stasio speaks with North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green.
Green was appointed North Carolina’s first African-American poet laureate. It’s a goal she never aspired to. Instead, Green’s goals were to write more, writer stronger and interface with more people, but she says she will serve with integrity.
Green joins host Frank Stasio to share stories of her journey from an awkward bookworm in rural Orange County to finding her voice at a boarding school in Pennsylvania’s Amish country; from the light of motherhood to the loss of her daughter; from meeting her husband at a furniture store to the day she woke up and asked him to divorce her. We will meet poet and writer Jaki Shelton Green North Carolina’s newly appointed poet laureate and an instructor of documentary poetry at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. This program originally aired August 13, 2018.
Jaki Shelton-Green has a number of upcoming appearances throughout the state. Find all details here.
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