Story via David Menconi, Down on Copperline, Orange County Arts Commission
Orange County resident Jaki Shelton Green has been busy the past five years as North Carolina’s Poet Laureate, putting on programs, teaching workshops and reading events across the state. And even though she was not exactly looking for another outlet on top of all that, Green nevertheless has found one in recent years: recording artist.
Green made her on-record debut in 2020 with “The River Speaks of Thirst,” an album of her poetry set to music. Next came 2021’s “I Want to Undie You,” based on Green’s cathartic 2017 book-length poem in remembrance of her late daughter Imani, plus collaborations with the Grammy-nominated classical flute duo Flutronix. And her latest musical work emerged this past June on Chapel Hill musician Phil Venable’s mini-album “Bringing the Light,” which features Green on its aptly named centerpiece track “The Climb” – 10-plus minutes of Green’s spoken-word voice accompanied by free jazz.
Freedom is a recurrent theme throughout Green’s poetry and music, especially on her “The River Speaks of Thirst” album. Soothing and sonorous, her voice draws you in even as it deals with some very difficult subjects – slavery on “This I Know for Sure,” lynchings on “I Wanted to Ask the Trees” and, of course, the death of her daughter on “I Want to Undie You.”
“Phil (Venable) is bugging me to do an experimental jazz poetry album,” Green says. “My first reaction was, ‘Yeah, give me a couple of years.’ But I’ve been thinking about this, trying to brainstorm content. It’s a sweet challenge to me, an invitation to stretch into something a little different. What we’re envisioning is newly written material that allows his music to drive my writing in an almost call-and-response, with poetics driving the music. I’m always excited to explore what happens when my poetics are translated to another art form.”
Turning poetry into music is entirely within artistic character for Green, whose written words have always moved with definite rhythms. She grew up surrounded by music, primarily records from a juke joint that her family owned and operated. Hearing the likes of Nina Simone, Arthur Prysock, The Last Poets and James Brown left a definite mark on her sensibility.
While Green’s life and work has taken her all over the world, she has deep roots here and always returns home. A native of Orange County, Green lives in Mebane, just five miles up the road from where she was born and raised in Efland. But she did have to leave North Carolina for a stretch of her teenage years, when she went away to a Quaker school in Pennsylvania on a scholarship. That was when she became serious about writing.
“I loved to write, but I was in culture shock up there,” Green says. “Writing was discovery and affirmation of who I was, understanding that I had a voice. Writing became serious. I felt seen and heard by teachers for the first time, because I always felt different. I remember when I was about 13 asking my mom if she was sure they’d brought home the right baby, and I still remember the pained look in her eyes. But she stood up straight and said, ‘I am sure you are our daughter. But obviously this life is not good enough for you. We won’t apologize for giving you the best we can. It’s your job to make it the different you want it to be.’ I always felt like I belonged somewhere else, seeing and experiencing a bigger world.”
Green went on to become one of the most universally acclaimed writers North Carolina ever produced, with accolades including the North Carolina Award in 2003, the Sam Ragan Award in 2007, Piedmont Laureate in 2009 and, in 2014, induction into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Governor Roy Cooper appointed her North Carolina Poet Laureate in 2018, succeeding Shelby Stephenson, as the first person of color to hold the post.
Being Poet Laureate keeps Green so busy that, ironically enough, she has difficulty finding time to just write. But 2024, which will probably be the final full year of her tenure, should see the release of her first new book since becoming Laureate.
“My goal is to get a book out next year, of poems I’ve already written,” Green says. “It’s one of the things that nags at me. I just need to go through the computer and pull a manuscript together – it can’t be that hard! But once I start that, I’ll start editing, too. I can’t do that and new commissions at the same time, because my brain won’t do that. I just don’t cross-pollinate well.”
(images via Samantha Everette, Orange County Arts Commission)
Chapelboro.com has partnered with the Orange County Arts Commission to bring more arts-focused content to our readers through columns written by local people about some of the fantastic things happening in our local arts scene! Since 1985, the OCAC has worked to to promote and strengthen the artistic and cultural development of Orange County, North Carolina.
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