Four headlining poets uplift the immense unheard within us. This ain’t your great-grandma’s poetry book.
Join us for a special showcase of community-nominated, contemporary poets and spoken word artists.
Experience words that make you rethink what your body and soul have in store for you. We are all caught in routines, in rigid expectations and rules and orders that serve one part of us, and not all of us. Toni Morrison said “sometimes you don’t survive whole. Sometimes you just survive in part.” And what does that demand?
Come for the groundbreaking works of local word-artists, leave with renewed purpose that leads you through a world of uncertainty. Our obedience has been difficult on our bodies, the bodies of those we love, and the bodies of those we have forgotten how to love. It’s time to reset, honor and celebrate needing something different than we thought.
Eden Unheard, a 2026 Triangle Poetry Festival experience, accompanies a full weekend of other great programming at Triangle Poetry Festival, celebrating the artists, the heart-leading advocates, and the movers in the margins.
Featured Poets:
Destiny Hemphill – NEA Creative Writing Fellow
Nominated by Chris Vitiello – Poet Laureate of Durham & Poetry Fox
Destiny Hemphill is a chronically ill ritual worker and poet, living on the unceded territory of the Eno-Occaneechi band of the Saponi Nation (Durham, NC). She is a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow and has received other fellowships for her poetry from Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, Callaloo, Tin House, Kenyon Review’s Writers Workshop, and Torch Literary. She is a co-editor for Poetry as Spellcasting (North Atlantic Books 2023) and the author of the poetry collection motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life (Action Books, 2023), which was a finalist for the National Poetry Series Award, Lambda Literary Award, and Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Prize. Her work has also been featured in Poetry Magazine, Southern Cultures, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series. She served as an inaugural Poetry Coalition Fellow, a Kenan Visiting Writer in Poetry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and an inaugural Tin House Reading Fellow. You can find her at destinyhemphill.com.
Khalisa Rae Thompson – Co-Founder of Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference
Nominated by Third Angle Poets
Khalisa Rae Thompson is an award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural organizer based in North Carolina. She is the author of two poetry collections: *Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat* (Red Hen Press) and *Real Girls Have Real Problems*. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and publications, including PANK, Rhino, Southern Humanities Review, The Tishman Review, LitHub, and Driftwood Press, among others.
Khalisa’s work has received multiple national and regional honors, including Pushcart Prize nominations, an APPY Award, and a feature on NPR’s Due South. In addition to her writing, she is the co-founder of the Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference, a nationally recognized gathering celebrating Black Southern stories and authors. Her work centers the complexities of faith, race, and identity in the American South. Her novel in verse and an essay collection are forthcoming.
Eric “LB” Thompson – Co-Founder of Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference
Nominated by Third Angle Poets
Eric Thompson, known on stage as LB (Lyrically Blessed), is a nationally touring slam poet, writer, and lyricist. An alumnus of North Carolina A&T State University, he has competed in national poetry slam competitions for over a decade as a member of the Bull City Slam Team. Winning titles at the South Fried Regional Poetry Slam LB is the author of To the Voices in My Head and co-founder of the Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference. He continues to perform widely while developing new literary and performance projects.
Brooke Bailey Peters – Slam Poet and a Mother
Nominated by Press Play Poetry
Brooke Bailey Peters is an artist and a mother in the thick of figuring out where those two identities intersect. Her writing can be found in Book Riot, Crab Fat Magazine, The Quotable, Certain Circuits, and Lavender Review. Her other writing can be found under a pseudonym that cannot be publicly printed lest someday her children find it.
Space is limited. Get tickets to Triangle Poetry Festival now.
About the Hosts:
Sam Canney bridges relationships with revolution. Featured in Cloudscent Journal’s Best-of-the-Issue, Pinhole Poetry, and Sonora Review, among others, Sam is a poet, founder and co-director of Third Angle Poets — facilitating community change through poetry and mutual aid. He graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and is a Brooklyn Poets Fellow.
Founded in 2024, Third Angle Poets is a collective of seasoned arts organizers from across the Triangle. We create one-of-a-kind interactive events for poets and changemakers to share their voice, hone their craft, and collaborate for social good – including the quarterly Poets’ Playground series and Triangle Poetry Festival. By showcasing poetry, we seek to foster vulnerability and trust. By catalyzing conversations between artists and activists, we help meet the immediate- and long-term needs of our community—while fueling our souls.
Triangle Poetry Festival is a Third Angle Poets Production.
About Third Angle Poets at Boxyard RTP:
Founded in 2024, Third Angle Poets is a collective of seasoned arts organizers from across the Triangle. In partnership with Boxyard RTP, Third Angle creates one-of-a-kind interactive events for poets and changemakers to share their voice, hone their craft, and collaborate for social good – including the quarterly Poets’ Playground series and Triangle Poetry Festival. By showcasing poetry, we seek to foster vulnerability and trust. By catalyzing conversations between artists and activists, we help meet the immediate- and long-term needs of our community—while fueling our souls.
Note: By participating in this event, you consent to the recording of your likeness, image, and/or voice and authorize Boxyard RTP to use photographs, video, and audio recordings containing your likeness, image, and/or voice in any medium for any purpose.
Got questions? Send us an email at hello@boxyardrtp.com.
Location
900 Park Offices Drive, RTP, NC 27709
900 Park Offices Drive, RTP, NC 27709