Hometown Hero: Jaki Shelton Green

This week’s Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Jaki Shelton Green, the new poet laureate for North Carolina.

“Jaki Shelton Green brings a deep appreciation of our state’s diverse communities to her role as an ambassador of North Carolina literature,” Governor Roy Cooper said in a release announcing the designation. “Jaki’s appointment is a wonderful new chapter in North Carolina’s rich literary history.”

Green, an Orange County native, has been active in teaching, writing and advocating literature for over 40 years. An author of eight poetry books and one play, she is currently an instructor at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. She is also an active community arts advocate, having facilitated creative writing classes and created programs for incarcerated, mentally ill and homeless citizens across the country.

“I was absolutely floored and just very, very grateful,” Green told 97.9 The Hill WCHL’s Ron Stutts. “Tears of joy. It was one of the best things that had happened to me in my professional career, period.”