07/12/2023
We’d like to introduce two of the poets you can hear at Garden Spot this Friday, July 14 at 6pm: Cortland Gilliam and Mtende Roll. Come a little early and get your pre-reading dinner or stay after for cocktail!
Cortland Gilliam is a poet, educator, cultural organizer and doctoral candidate in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his academic work, he studies cultures of school discipline and histories of Black youth contributions to liberation movements of the late twentieth century. Within community, he serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, a nonprofit dedicated to making and preserving local history in Chapel Hill and Carrboro's Black neighborhoods. Relatedly, his creative work explores the hues and textures of racialized experiences, identities, and histories. Cortland's poetry has been published in Gulfstream Magazine and the Triangle Poetry Twenty-Twenty-One anthology. Most recently, Cortland has been appointed as Chapel Hill's second Poet Laureate.
Born and raised in South Africa, Mtende Roll is a Multipassionate being. Her academic journey led her to Economics, providing a sturdy foundation for her professional ventures in the realms of Construction and Real Estate with her husband as well as freelance Coding. Alongside her technical expertise, Mtende carries a fervent commitment to Racial and Social justice. A continuous theme in her life is that she expresses the intricacies of her thoughts and experiences through the powerful medium of spoken word poetry.
