Jennifer Bartell Boykin
Jennifer Bartell Boykin is the Poet Laureate of the City of Columbia. She received the MFA in Poetry from the University of South Carolina. Her debut book of poetry, Traveling Mercy, will be released in November 2023 under the name Jennifer Bartell. An alumna of Agnes Scott College, Jennifer is an English teacher and is […]
Fred Joiner
Fred Joiner is a poet and curator based in Chapel Hill, NC. He is 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. His work has appeared in Callaloo, Gargoyle, and Fledgling Rag, among other publications. Fred has read his work nationally and internationally. Joiner has received awards and fellowships from the D.C. Commission on the Arts […]
Asiah Mae
AsiahMae, stylized A$iahMae, (they/she) is a Black, non-binary Southern poet, humorist and cultural worker with roots in Georgia, South and North Carolina. A multi-hyphenated artist, their background spans across film, curation, production, performance and language arts. A$iahmae is a Watering Hole Fellow and their work has been featured in The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston […]
D.J. Rogers
Durham Poet Laureate. DJ Rogers, a poet, spoken word artist, editorialist, and essayist, was selected to serve as Durham’s first poet laureate. Born and raised in the Triangle, Rogers has been teaching poetry and facilitating workshops for nearly a decade in and around Durham. He has been published in Black Nerd Problems Magazine and Freezeray […]
adrienne maree brown
adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E Butler scholarship and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is […]
Regina Carter Garcia
Regina YC Garcia resides in Greenville, NC and is a Poet, Language Artist, Presenter, and English Professor at Pitt Community College. She holds a BA in Speech Communication with a Concentration in the Oral Interpretation of Literature from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a Masters in Education with a […]
Ashley Lumpkin
Ashley Lumpkin is a Georgia-raised, Carolina-based writer, editor, actor, and educator. She is the author of five poetry collections: {} At First Sight, Second Glance, Terrorism and Other Topics for Tea, #AshleyLumpkin, and Genesis. Her book “I Hate You All Equally.”, is a collection of conversations from her years as a classroom teacher. A lover […]
Jay Ward
Junious ‘Jay’ Ward is a poet and teaching artist from Charlotte, NC. He is a National Slam champion (2018), an Individual World Poetry Slam champion (2019), author of Sing Me A Lesser Wound (Bull City Press 2020) and Composition (Button Poetry 2023). Jay currently serves as Charlotte’s inaugural Poet Laureate and is a 2023 Academy […]
Josephus Thompson
Josephus Thompson is a poet, teacher and lecturer who founded The Poetry Project, where he works in both the educational and corporate setting focusing on “Education through Correlation.” He uses poetry as a catalyst for literacy, leadership and service. As the host of 90.1FM’s The Poetry Café, his voice is heard weekly over the airwaves […]
Destiny Hemphill
Destiny Hemphill (she/her) is a chronically ill poet, living on the unceded territory of the Eno-Occaneechi band of the Saponi Nation (Durham, NC). A recipient of several fellowships including Callaloo, Tin House, and Kenyon Review’s Writers Workshop, she is the author of motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life (Action Books, 2023), a two time finalist […]