Spoken word workshop and reading features a slam champ and a “vulgar genius”

Join poets Khalisa Rae and Eric Thompson as they perform their work and discuss their accomplishments as poets and performers who raise up Black Southern narratives.

Rae and Thompson lead a workshop from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Hill Library’s Fishbowl Forum. In “Poetry from Page to Stage: Learning to Make Your Writing/Poetry Leap off the Page for a Powerful Stage Performance,” you'll learn the basics of how to perform your poetry and bring it to life for your audience. Registration for the workshop is required.

Then, the pair performs from 7:00-8:00 p.m. in the Hill Library’s North Forum and talks about the journeys they have made as writers, artists, and organizers.

Rae and Thompson are co-organizers of Griot and Grey Owl, a Black Southern writers conference November 10-12, 2023 in Durham, NC. Writers will gather to connect with renowned Southern workshop facilitators stationed at historical locations, attend panels with renowned Southern authors, and take field trips tethered to the thriving Black Wall Street scene. The conference’s goal is that, after a weekend of writing in Durham, attendees will leave energized, empowered and inspired to take the seeds learned at Griot and Grey Owl back to their own communities and plant them.

Khalisa Rae is a Durham-based, Vulgar Genius Award-winning poet, author, activist, and culture journalist, and serves as Senior Writer at Jezebel. She is best known for her community activism and nonprofit management as the co-founder of Poet.she (Greensboro), the Invisibility Project, and Athenian Press- QPOC writer’s collective, resource center, and bookstore in Wilmington, NC. With fierce rebellion, her poignant words, commitment to community, and writing mentorship have impacted thousands. Rae’s acclaimed debut poetry collection, Ghost In A Black Girl’s Throat, was published by Red Hen Press in 2021.

Eric Thompson, known as LB (lyrically blessed), is a multi-talented writer and lyricist that hails from the city of Wilson, NC and an NC A&T alum where he was a part of the spoken word group Couture Word. Thompson has won the Southern Fried Regional Poetry Slam and the Bull City Slam and placed in a top ranking at the National Poetry Slam in Oakland. He is the coach and mentor of the UNCG collegiate poetry team and is currently working on his first CD and chapbook project entitled, “Voices in My Head.”