Director of the Craft Center, Co-Curator

Carol Fountain Nix is an entrepreneur, designer, academic leader, and calligraphic artist whose work explores the intersection of text and image. Blending calligraphy, painting, and design, she transforms words into visual poetry—expressive forms that carry memory, emotion, and meaning. Her practice moves between precise letterforms and bold, gestural strokes, often layered with paint, ink, and collage to create dynamic visual narratives.

Nix is also Director of the NC State University Crafts Center, where she fosters a creative community that champions experimentation, imperfection, and personal expression.

Associate Professor of English & Creative Writing (MFA Creative writing students)

Meg Day is a deaf, genderqueer poet and the author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street, 2014), which won the Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award and was a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. They are also the co-editor of Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master (Pleiades, 2019). A recipient of the 2015–2016 Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship and a 2013 NEA Fellowship in Poetry, Day’s work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere.

Day is the 2024 Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence, the 2025 SouthArts North Carolina State Fellow, and serves as Associate Professor of English & Creative Writing in the MFA Program at NC State.

Associate Director, African American Cultural Center and Artist

Quashon Bunch is an emerging scholar and dedicated advocate for educational equity, currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Higher Education, Opportunity, Equity, and Justice program at NC State University. He holds a B.A. in Sociology and an M.Ed. in Adult Education, which ground his understanding of social dynamics and the transformative power of education. His research examines Black male leadership and college engagement, with a focus on how these factors shape the development and success of Black men in higher education. He is committed to fostering student-centered, supportive environments that empower growth and leadership.

A proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Quashon’s involvement reflects his passion for mentorship and his dedication to uplifting the next generation of Black leaders. His academic pursuits and commitment to social justice underscore his mission to expand opportunities for marginalized communities and to advance higher education through experiential learning.

Poet Laureate and Artist

Jaki Shelton Green, the ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina, is a 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, a 2014 inductee into the NC Literary Hall of Fame, the 2009 Piedmont Laureate, and the 2003 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature. A lifelong resident of northern Orange County, she recently retired from teaching Documentary Poetry at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies.

Green is the author of ten poetry collections, as well as a poetry LP and CDs. She is the founder of SistaWRITE, which offers writing retreats for women across the United States, Europe, and Northern Africa. She also serves as poetry editor for WALTER Magazine and was named to Forbes’ 50 Over 50 Lifestyle List in 2022.

Artist

Willson’s work is deeply rooted in the natural world. Growing up in a rural coastal area of North Carolina, she spent much of her childhood outdoors, surrounded by vines, Spanish moss, old trees, and briny marshes—landscapes that became touchstones of home. Using a random weave method, she creates sculptural works that meld chaos with structure, evoking the textures and rhythms of wild spaces.

Studio Manager: Photography, Mixed Media, Lapidary
NC State University Crafts Center and Artist

Katy Walls is a Raleigh-based multimedia artist, analog photographer, and collaborator who works almost exclusively with reused, recycled, and repurposed materials. Her practice is often described as cyclical, as she transitions through and revisits mediums over time, guided not by pattern or schedule but by lived experience.

Walls’ work explores the human condition in its intersections with culture, politics, and upbringing. Provocative and original, her fluid process resists confinement to a single genre. While often framed as experimental or avant-garde, her art also draws influence from pop art, neo-dada, and postmodernism. Ultimately, her work seeks to dismantle preconceived ideas, challenge stereotypes, and invite viewers to reimagine their own experiences within a larger collective context.

Artist

Originally from the Northwest with a B.A. from Stanford University, Ernst has published illuminated books, and lived and traveled extensively in Asia and Europe. Now working in ceramics, she draws images from the deep well of past experience, always starting from a strong “mind’s eye” vision. Her ceramic pieces have been shown in various exhibitions in the Southeast; she has gallery representation in St. Louis, Raleigh, and Denmark; and her work is held in private collections in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. A catalog of her ceramic work was published by the Turkish Women’s Cultural Association in Istanbul in December, 2009. Ernst has also published articles and has lectured at Duke University and UNC, as well as in Malaysia, Kuwait and Qatar. She was a founding member of FRANK Gallery in Chapel Hill, and served for four years as the President of the Orange County Artists Guild

Ayomide Bayowa, Alie Davis, Grace Guy, Gwen Moon, Eli Shaw, Cela Xie, Fern Trujillio, Fern Drusina.