A Celebration of Writing with Melody Dalili & NSA

Join Melody Dalili and the Writers of NSA as they share their writing. The event will be held on Wednesday, November 13, at The Vanderbilt Bookstore across from Centennial Park. Parking is available in the garage behind the bookstore. Melody Dalili, 2024 Tennessee Youth Poet Laureate, is a poet, motivational speaker, sister, and student. After years of devoting her time to writing, she was named the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Knoxville in 2022. During her term, she advocated for civic issues such as homelessness, racial injustice, child abuse, and suicide prevention. She also initiated the “Poet-trees” project in 9 Knoxville libraries, hoping to make poetry more accessible (and less intimidating!) for children. Dalili is currently attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is planning on majoring in Biology and double minoring in Poetry and Painting. At UNC, she is also a Carolina Covenant Scholar and part of the North Carolina Fellows Program. Towards the latter portion of her freshman year, she was named the Youth Poet Laureate of Tennessee. When Dalili is off the stage, she can be found offering cool shark facts or “whippin’ up” a tasty bowl of chow mein.

The Tennessee Youth Poet Laureate program is a program of Southern Word, Urban Word, and the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth. Contact info@southernword.org for booking inquiries.

Registration is encouraged but not required.

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