RALEIGH — The North Carolina Museum of Art will welcome Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina’s ninth Poet Laureate, as its inaugural poet in residence.

Beginning in spring 2022, Green will host a series of events, including movie screenings, poetry readings and workshops, and other performing arts events through 2023. Throughout the residency, Green will highlight her work and the work of North Carolina poets to help cultivate the next generation of poetry writers. Her programming will create deeper connections to the People’s Collection through the written word.

“Jaki Shelton Green’s contribution to the arts of North Carolina, the country, and the world, cannot be understated,” said Valerie Hillings, Museum director. “We are excited to experience the new connections she will bring to the People’s Collection through poetry.”

“I am honored to be named the poet in residence at the North Carolina Museum of Art,” Green said. “This engagement represents the museum’s latest innovative and nontraditional effort for using the literary arts to change the way visitors interact with the collections.

“Poetry is also a form of display for ideas, just like a museum chooses the best and most expressive aspects of an object to exhibit in order to give the most accurate portrayal of that object. In addition to my support of the museum’s mission to create diverse and remarkable performing arts and film experiences, I am very excited to use the great vehicle of poetry to help multigenerational public audiences explore their own thoughts and feelings about the natural, social and cultural artifacts on display at the North Carolina Museum of Art.”

Green, ninth poet laureate of North Carolina, is the first African American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina poet laureate. She is a 2019 Academy of American Poet laureate fellow, 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame inductee, 2009 NC Piedmont Laureate appointee, and 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature. Shen teaches documentary poetry at the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies and was appointed the 2021 Frank B. Hanes Writer in Residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Additionally, she received the George School Outstanding Alumni Award in 2021. Her publications include “Dead on Arrival,” “Masks,” “Dead on Arrival and New Poems,” “Conjure Blues,” “singing a tree into dance,” and “breath of the song,” published by Blair Publishers. On Juneteenth 2020 she released poetry album, “The River Speaks of Thirst,” produced by Soul City Sounds and Clearly Records. She is the owner of SistaWRITE, providing writing retreats for women writers in Sedona, Arizona; Martha’s Vineyard; Ocracoke, North Carolina; Northern Morocco; and Tullamore, Ireland.

“At world-class museums, the written word and spoken word are intertwined in ways that allow us to examine, challenge, and experience the power of art,” said Moses T. Alexander Greene, Museum director of performing arts and film. “As Jaki Shelton Green is a regionally, nationally, and internationally respected poet, her residency will attract and empower our visitors to engage with the collection and our special exhibitions in invigorating and meaningful ways.”

Green has hosted movie screenings, introduced poetry readings, and will host poetry workshops at the NCMA.

On April 8, Green will hold a special in-person conversation with former NC poet laureates Joseph Bathanti (2012–14) and Shelby Stephenson (2015–18).

This discussion centers on the power of poetry and the written word to illuminate, educate, entertain, and transform the minds and hearts of people of all ages and from all walks of life. The poet laureates share stories of how they cultivated appreciation of literature in its diversity throughout the state during their tenures.

Green will hold a reading and book signing at the museum on April 16.