Orange Co. Arts Commission

Promoting and strengthening the artistic and cultural development of Orange County, North Carolina

Hillsborough’s Last Fridays Return with Exciting New Poetry Programming


—Arshia Simkin, The Underline

An exciting new season of Hillsborough’s Last Fridays programming, which will include a robust poetry component, will begin this March and last through November, 2023. According to Iva Beveridge, Programs & Marketing Director of the Hillsborough Arts Council, Last Fridays “are town wide celebrations of community.”

Courtesy of Hillsborough Arts Council

The current poetry component was initially added as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic: prior to the pandemic, Last Fridays used to be a more traditional “concert on the lawn”-type celebrations at town center with vendors and a musical act. However, in an effort to prevent mass congregation during the pandemic, the Arts Council got creative and came up with a more decentralized option: the Art Walk, which allowed attendees to circulate at among different venues. The Art Walk has included a poetry/prose showcase, which features 2-4 performing poets who would pop up at 2-4 different along the route to present five minutes of spoken word poetry. Art Walk programming is currently ongoing; the most recent Art Walk took place on February 24, and, according to the Hillsborough Arts Council website, includes “select venues offering new openings, live music, and continued opportunities to stay connected with community on the last Friday of each month, 6-9 PM.”

Courtesy of Jennifer Daniels

Jennifer Daniels, a local poet, educator, advocate, and consultant is spearheading the new poetry component—an initiative currently called the “Poetry Prose Showcase.” She will help bring a spoken word performance showcase with booked poetry talent to the Last Fridays and the Art Walk events. Daniels has had experience hosting open mics, poetry events, and workshops, and her own poetry book, A Mirror of Thoughts is forthcoming. Per her website, Daniels say, “I am an artist to the core. My spoken word and writing is my avenue because it has given me the ability to freely express my most intimate thoughts and experiences on topics which are often deemed as taboo.”

“The poetry component has been a really beautiful vehicle for diversity…Its’s opened a lot of different doors for us to meet artists of lots of different background,” Beveridge said. The Hillsborough Arts Council and Daniels hope that the initiative will provide—among other benefits— “a platform for established writers to share their works” as well as “empower new poets” and “amplify the power of language to paint, electrify, and bridge worlds.”