Poets’ Playground: Return to Cinders

Reclaim the warmth of your genesis through this interactive poetic experience, designed to refuel what has been emptied and spark what has been extinguished. 

We’ll hear poems about old, worn ways of being that are no longer serving us in this new world, write out and burn what’s left to let go of, and repurpose our commitments to live with greater compassion for each other, and ourselves.

Join us on Saturday, December 20 for:

✍🏽Letting go through poetic immersion: A guided ignition point to melt what’s frozen and reconnect you to your source, facilitated by Cortland Gilliam, Former Poet Laureate of Chapel Hill (2023,2024), PhD. Educator. Cultural organizer. 

🎤Sharing new possibilities, open mic style: A sky of sparks where voices rise and breathe new life into old embers. 

🔥Making room for something new, now: Gather around the fire to share and experience creative rebirth with one another.

Hosted by DS Will.

Ages 16+. This is a safe space forged from the very fires that ignite us. All proceeds support our community of artists and changemakers.

Presented by Poets’ Playground by way of Third Angle Poets.

Featured Artists

Cortland Gilliam – Facilitator

Cortland Gilliam is a poet, educator, and cultural organizer with a Ph.D in Cultural Studies and Literacies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his academic work, he studies cultures of school discipline, civics education, and histories of Black youth contributions to liberation movements of the late twentieth century.

Within the 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 takes an interest in 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 Poet Laureate for the 2023 and 2024 years.

DS Will – Host

DS is a creative, community leader, and founder of Press Play Poets, dedicated to amplifying voices through creative expression. He was awarded the 2024 Arts in Action Award by the non-profit organization BrainStemology and served as the Department Head of Poetry at The Raleigh Film and Art Festival from 2020 to 2023, where he created initiatives such as Voices2Reel to highlight youth talent. He serves as the Marketing Chair at Third Angle Poets Collective.

Presented by Poets’ Playground.

Poets’ Playground is a community arts program powered by Boxyard RTP. Our mission is to create space for poets and changemakers to freely share their voice, hone their craft, and collaborate on community-building initiatives. Hosting at least four events each year, we bring in local organizations and independent poets to deliver workshops, readers panels, poetry book fairs, open mics and more — all in a single day.