CARRBORO, NC -- Dr. Amanda Bennett, a poet, cultural critic, and public humanities practitioner, has been selected to be the ninth Poet Laureate for the Town of Carrboro. Bennett will be the first Black woman to serve as Carrboro Poet Laureate.
About Carrboro Poet Laureate Dr. Amanda Bennett
Dr. Amanda Bennett (she/her) is a poet, cultural critic, and scholar of Black feminist thought whose work centers care, testimony, and collective imagination. She is the author of Working the Roots (Querencia Press, 2025). She currently serves as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Grant Operations Management and Creative Engagement with the Arts & Humanities Grant Studio at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Bennett’s work is grounded in public humanities, bringing scholarly insight into everyday community spaces through poetry, deep listening, and collaborative cultural practice. For over five years, she has hosted community poetry workshops and open mics across North Carolina centering care, healing, and collective imagination. She created and led the series Poetry as Pedagogy: Finding Healing and Community through Writing, featuring nationally recognized poets such as Crystal Simone Smith and Chet’la Sebree, and developed the Black Feminist Summer School through her education consulting collective, define&empower.
Her poetry and criticism appear in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Triangle Poetry Twenty Twenty One, Jellyfish Poetry, Murder Journal, and Feminist Making, Sensing, and Doing, among others. She has performed at venues including Charis Books & More in Atlanta and Epilogue Books and Attic 506 in Chapel Hill.
Bennett also writes Woo in the Real World, a Substack that explores the intersections of spirituality, scholarship, and everyday life, reflecting her belief that poetry is a living practice of care, communion, and transformation.
About the Poet Laureate for Carrboro
A team of the local poetry community, including members of the Carrboro Poets Council and current and past local poets laureate, reviewed applications and conducted interviews with finalists. The recommendation was made to the Recreation, Parks & Cultural Resources Advisory Board and approved at its December meeting.
Established in 2002, the central duty of the poet laureate is to engage in activities that enhance the presence of poetry in the social and civic life of Carrboro. These activities include working with the Town of Carrboro Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department staff on the West End Poetry Festival (held annually in October), Carrboro Day, outreach to local schools, and weekly readings at Carrboro Town Council meetings. The Poet Laureate works in conjunction with the Carrboro Poets Council (a subcommittee of the Recreation, Parks & Cultural Resources Advisory Boards). The Poet Laureate receives an annual honorarium in the amount of $3,000.