—David Menconi, Down on Copperline
Dasan Ahanu, the poet and spoken-word artist who recently became the 2023 Piedmont Laureate, grew up under his given name, Chris Massenburg. But once he reached the point where he began live readings and performances in front of audiences, that birthname just didn’t feel right. So he adopted a stage name, one with a subtext.
“’Dasan’ comes from Native American, and the translation I subscribe to is ‘Ruler,’” he says. “And ‘Ahanu’ is ‘Someone who laughs.’ Put them together, and I say the name means someone who commands with a sense of humor. I started using it because I did not feel my own name was artistic enough. I felt a lot of anxiety about reading in front of people for the first time. Creating that name helped ease the anxiety.”
From uncertain beginnings as a shy young writer, Ahanu put in years of work on large as well as small stages, becoming a polished and confident writer and performer – just the right combination for Piedmont Laureate. Under the auspices of multiple arts organizations in the Triangle (including Orange County Arts Commission), the Piedmont Laureate program promotes awareness and appreciation for the literary arts with readings, workshops and other events in Orange, Wake and Durham counties.
The program has been going since 2009, with supervising arts councils selecting a Laureate each year in a different specialty. Ahanu is the third poet to be Piedmont Laureate, following 2017’s Mimi Herman and current North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green in 2009. Other areas covered are playwriting, creative non-fiction, children’s literature and various types of fiction. After taking office in January, Ahanu will spend the early spring months planning out programs across the three-county area for late spring, summer and fall.
“I want to gather poets and artists together to talk about what it means to navigate from performing to publishing and in-between,” he says. “Things like writing practices, self-care and other issues beyond the poems, conversations about stories and story-telling. How can we share and help folks navigate all that? The page and stage are treated as very disparate things, which is something I want to address and demystify. They’re both important.”
Indeed, Ahanu has long been one of the most visible poetry artists on the local scene, behind the scenes as well as at the microphone. He has long worked the artist’s balancing-act hustle of doing multiple projects simultaneously, like the hip-hop festival he co-curated last year for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Carolina Performing Arts’ Creative Futures Initiative. He was also involved in launching a Poet Laureate program in Durham, which naturally led to his application to be Piedmont Laureate. It’s already been a gratifying experience.
“I’ve really appreciated this recognition that I am a poet and spoken-word artist,” he says. “Navigating the literary community in North Carolina can be a tug of war, so I hope me being in this role can help other poets facing the same thing. There have been moments where I did not feel like I was considered, especially trying to work with institutions on funding things. Me being in this position can help ease some of that. Maybe some people can see opportunities for themselves they may not have felt were there for them before.”
For information about the Piedmont Laureate program, see piedmontlaureate.org. Listings for upcoming events will appear at piedmontlaureate.org/readings-events.
A featured piece of Dasan Ahanu’s work:
