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N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary D. Reid Wilson announces the appointments of Kerry Bird as director and Quinn Godwin as associate director of the newly created North Carolina American Indian Heritage Commission.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Vonda Martin is the new division of parks and recreation grants and outreach manager, the division announced Friday. Martin succeeds Chris Schmidt, who has served as interim grants and outreach manager since 2018.

The grants and outreach manager supervises the program and staff who administer the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF), the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and development of the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan.

Joe Shimel is the new east district superintendent of North Carolina state parks, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. Shimel succeeds Sarah Kendrick, who served as acting superintendent beginning in 2020. Kendrick will return to her post as superintendent of Hammocks Beach State Park.

A district superintendent is the chief of operations and administration of a park district with wide-ranging responsibilities for staffing, planning, law enforcement, and visitor services.

The North Carolina State Capitol is hosting legal scholar Seth Barrett Tillman on Thursday, May 5 at 6 p.m. for "New Thinking on Jacob Henry," a virtual talk about North Carolina's first Jewish legislator.

Jacob Henry was our state's first Jewish legislator and was elected to serve in the General Assembly during a time when a Protestants-only religious test for public service was enshrined in our state constitution. Legal scholar Seth Barrett Tillman will be looking at Jacob Henry and the legal and historical questions posed by his service in the North Carolina General Assembly.

To celebrate National Poetry Month, the State Archives of North Carolina, in collaboration with the North Carolina Arts Council, will host "History in Verse," featuring N.C. Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green.

The virtual program on documentary poetry is set for Thursday, April 7, at 7 p.m. This online event will explore Green’s own work in documentary poetry — poetry that captures a historical moment by combining primary source materials with verse. Green will discuss the relationship between poetry and historical events and read some of her own work.

Students at the state’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) will have the opportunity to learn and earn this summer through a 10-week paid summer internship within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced today that Will Summer has been named as the next director of the N.C. Division of Land and Water Stewardship and Executive Director of the N.C. Land and Water Fund (NCLWF). Summer served as the interim director for the past seven months and as deputy director since 2017.

Stokes Early College High School (SECHS) in Walnut Cove, N.C. is the recipient of this year’s grant from Horne Creek Farm’s “Instructional Heirloom Apple Orchard for Schools” program. The school will receive four apple trees grafted from those in the Southern Heritage Apple Orchard (SHAO) to establish a min orchard at the school.

The North Carolina Arts Council has awarded the