—Arshia Simkin, The Underline
You may think of town meetings as rather staid, dry affairs, but the Carrboro Town Council opens every meeting with a poem, selected by the current Carrboro poet laureate, Liza Wolff-Francis. The poems range from Wolff-Francis’ own work to invited poets who get to share their poems to published pieces, such as Niki Giovanni’s “Possum Crossing.” “It’s kind of a fun thing because I think it centers the meeting and gets things going in a cool way,” Wolff-Francis said.
In January 2023, Wolff-Francis became Carrboro’s 8th poet laureate and she will serve until December 31, 2025. As poet laureate, her mandate is to bring poetry to the people. In service of this mandate, Wolff-
Francis holds poetry workshops for the public and helps organize the annual West End Poetry Festival which takes place from October 17 to 19. The festival, which is free and open to the public, will feature readings, a poetry slam, a writing to music and sharing event, an open mike, and more. “Every year, I am so grateful to be there,” Wolff-Francis said.
In addition to her official duties as poet laureate, Wolff-Francis has her own poetry projects, including a recently published July 2024 book of poetry, called 48 hours down the shore. Wolff-Francis explained that the book gets its title from a regional colloquialism—generally used in Pennsylvania and New Jersey—that refers to going to the beach. The book focuses on a two-day period during which Wolff-Francis herself went with some friends to Atlantic City to write poetry and includes “a lot of reflections on women in this country, on the climate crisis, on capitalism, the state of America—and just kind of this wandering through this moment in time, down the shore,” Wolff-Francis said. The book also addresses fraught topics such as gun violence, immigration, and global situations, such as the 2022 outcry at the Iranian murder of a young woman over an alleged headscarf violation.
Wolff-Francis will be hosting a book launch party for 48 hours down on the shore on Friday, September 20, at 7 p.m. at Steel String Brewing, which is open to the public.
For Wolff-Francis, community is essential to her work and living in Orange County has been especially conducive to cultivating that community. “I have met so many amazing people who are also poets and artists and writers…Orange County is where it’s at as far as the arts,” she said. She also marveled at how quickly poetry can allow people to move beyond small talk, so that deeper personal connections can be formed more quickly; in general, “art does that. It connects us,” she said.
As a writer who focuses heavily on nature poetry and eco-poetry—that is, poetry which is focused on the environment and climate crisis—Wolff-Francis also pays careful attention to North Carolina’s ecology: “the water, the rain, the storms—whether it’s the mountains, the forests, the beach, the daily weather…down to the minuscule—the smaller details—the cardinal, the different wildlife—the deer,” she said
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Wolff-Francis recalls first becoming interested in writing when she was about eight or nine-years old: her mother had just given her a “Romana Quimby” diary and she recalls answering the prompts that were in the diary. She continued to be passionate about writing; in high school, she recalled instructing a friend of hers who asked how to write a poem. When the friend expressed hesitation, Wolff-Francis recalled confidently telling her: “Anyone can write a poem…and I was telling her then—you know—my fifteen-year-old self was like,” Wolff-Francis put on a mock-authoritative voice, “‘let me tell you how to write a poem.’” She is amused by her youthful confidence, but the sentiment remains true for her.
For Wolff-Francis, there is no right response to her poetry: she hopes that her writing will make readers think, feel moved, experience wonder, take action, feel a sense of connection, or even feel inspired to write their own poems in reaction to what they have read.
Learn more about Liza Wolff-Francis on her website lizawolff.com; on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/liza.wolfffrancis ; on Instagram @lizawolfffrancis ; learn more about her book 48 hours on the shore at https://kelsaybooks.com/products/48-hours-down-the-shore
