A Q&A with Fred Joiner, Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow
Photo courtesy of Fred Joiner.
This week, we jumped on the phone with Fred Joiner, a Chapel Hill-based poet and Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Joiner is a longtime poet and curator, and he has work forthcoming from the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University in Virginia, as well as from a Carolina African American Writers Collective anthology. But in addition to his work as a writer and poet, Joiner is also an invaluable member of the writing community. He’s the poet laureate of Carrboro, he runs scholarly salons and is planning workshops in Orange County, and he currently serves as chair of the advisory board of the Orange County Arts Commission.
We talked to Joiner about a topic that’s very important to us at Redbud: how can you create a sustainable and lasting artistic and literary community?
Redbud: You started your career in Washington, DC. Can you tell us about the work you did there to build literary community?
Joiner: As an undergraduate, I took a class at American University, and that’s where I started learning about the literary history in DC, and so that set me searching for literary community there. The poetry scene was scattered all over the city, so I started hanging out on U Street Northwest, which is where I got in touch with all of the literary scenes. There was a performance literary scene, theater performers that also used poetry, spoken word artists and performance artists, page poets--the whole spectrum. That’s where it started.
When I moved into DC proper, I moved into a neighborhood called Anacostia and there was an arts group that wanted to put up an art gallery in my neighborhood. I went to them and said, I want to do poetry readings at this art gallery and they said, we have this organization we want to connect you with. They connected me with a guy named Jon West-Bey, the founder of the American Poetry Museum. We started working together in 2006/7, on a reading series called Intersections, in this art gallery. It was bringing art to a neighborhood that didn’t have a robust arts infrastructure. That started to blossom into other kinds of experiences and other kinds of opportunities. We worked with almost every major arts organization and museum in DC, in partnerships and collaborative projects, from the Phillips Collection to some of the Smithsonians. We added literary and poetic visual art to what they were already doing.
That kind of visibility just kept blossoming. During that time, I was working with a community development organization called ARCH Development Corporation. They were the ones who owned the gallery that we were doing our readings in. We did a project with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and from there, we did a project with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and that one project turned into a collaboration that continued for five years. I went to Northern Ireland once or twice a year every year between 2007/2008 and 2012/2013. We were doing peace and conflict resolution through the arts.
All this stuff was happening at the same time. Really, it came out of me wanting to do something in my community, and that is what fed these other projects and opportunities that came about.
Redbud: In your experience, how can the arts revitalize an area?
Joiner: It’s not just about art. It’s about creative energy, creative impulse. It sends a message to people that somebody has put energy and effort into a particular object or neighborhood, and that energy, that effort, is valuable. Time is valuable. People’s energy is valuable. That creative energy that the arts represent, they represent somebody’s essence.
I think of it like this. You have art projects, and as you continue to do them, you’re starting to create an ecosystem, and as an ecosystem continues to grow, and is fostered, then now you have actual infrastructure. It grows into something permanent, lasting, sustainable. Those are valuable because of the energy, the life force, the effort. And truly, the money, right? People actually take their own money, their own resources, they make sacrifices in other areas to make art. It’s not always cheap.
We have value. Writers and poets have value outside of our little creative writing box. It’s creative thinking, not just creative writing. Take Camonghne Felix, Elizabeth Warren’s strategist, who just got nominated for a National Book Award. We’re not just reading for pleasure. We’re creative thinkers. That should communicate a kind of intrinsic value in what we do.
Redbud: You now live and work in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. In your experience, what are the issues facing Chapel Hill arts, and how are they different than the issues in DC?
Joiner: I think they’re similar challenges, but living in a densely populated global and urban center like DC, things can move a lot faster than they tend to here. Density and proximity are huge challenges here. When I was working in DC, I could get off work, host a reading, go to dinner, go to a museum and concert, and all of that I could do just because things were close. Here, I have to get in my car to go and do all of that, primarily because some of the same stuff is going on, but it’s spread out.
It’s also very provincial here. People in Durham stay in Durham. People in Chapel Hill stay in Chapel Hill. That’s a problem. If you want to build a real arts infrastructure, everyone needs to be connected and engaged. We need to get people to think differently about what’s local.
When I first got to DC, there were challenges around arts infrastructure. Certain parts of the city had robust arts infrastructure and support and others didn’t. It’s similar here. You look at Chapel Hill, and because of the university, it has a certain kind of arts infrastructure. I do think now we’re starting to see a lot more collaboration between the town and the university. I think that change is coming, so that’s good.
One of the advantages here is that even though it’s getting less affordable, it’s still much more affordable than some of the markets to the north and to the south. But a challenge here is housing and facilities for artists. If we had more robust ecosystems and infrastructure, I think we would be able to keep more artists living here. I’d love to see housing and resources for creatives to live and stay and work, all in close proximity to one another. I think that’s a necessity, if we want to grow this area. Affordable housing is housing for creatives. We need space for creatives, more support and visibility for creatives.
I do think North Carolina is one of the literary capitals of the south, but I don’t think we get that reputation. Take the I-40 corridor from Wilmington to Asheville. You have the Black Mountain School of Poets, you’ve got Warren Wilson, you’ve got all the schools between Warren Wilson and Chapel Hill. There’s amazing stuff happening.
How do we create an environment to do more of that? To keep people here? How do we continue to create infrastructure that keeps people here? That makes people who think of North Carolina think of creative stuff?
Redbud: So tell us about the work you’re doing in Chapel Hill for the arts.
Trying to convince my friends who are writers and creative people to come here and live here, to get them jobs here. That’s on a personal level.
On a professional level, one of the things I’m excited about is that we just got permission from the Board of Commissioners of Orange County to move forward with building an arts campus in Hillsborough. It’s a former mill, the Eno River Mill, and the first phase of the project is artist studios, to bring in artists to work in the building. But we have a grand plan that moves from studios to larger working studios to gallery and performance space and ultimately to live-work space.
We’re also trying to rethink how we think about what is creative. For example, when we think of a restaurant, we think of chefs, and we think of them as creative people. But I think of the farmer as a creative person as well. The person who actually puts the thing in the ground and gets it to the point where it can be used as raw material to make a dish. That person is just as much a part of creativity as the chef. As we redefine what creative is, we can start to reimagine and rebuild different kinds of arts communities. I think we’re working on that, on reframing the discussion around creativity. One of the things I would love to see is the county support a farm-to-table restaurant in the northern part of the county, a space for different kinds of chefs, a residency there. We could engage the creative impulse in other parts of the county, not just in southern Orange, where we are.
Redbud: Presumably, readers of this post will be artists and writers or supporters of those creative fields. If you could give advice to our readers about how to deepen the arts community in this region, what would you say?
Joiner: Talk to your elected officials. Be civically engaged. Go and seek out local artists. When Hillsborough was doing its art walk, or when we have the Orange County Open Studios, go support those artists. See what they are doing, see what they’re working on, buy their work.
Stay in touch with the Orange County Commission; we are growing and we’re changing, and while I can’t elaborate on the record more specifically, I will say that I think that some of the changes will make it easier for the average person to feel like they’re making a difference.
Seek out other organizations, like Triangle ArtWorks. Stay engaged with what’s happening politically in Raleigh.
Also, create. Go to workshops, go to readings. Chapel Hill has had Flyleaf for a long time, and now we’re about to open a bookstore right on Franklin Street, Epilogue. Support those businesses that support the creative community.
Also, depending on what kind of financial resources you have: think about investing in property ownership. If you’re a person of significant means, think about buying a building or a house and using it to house artists and creative people. All those things are really important. There are a multitude of ways to support the arts and artists and creative people. Donate land, donate resources. Donate your time.