Latest News
March 19, 2026
2026 Community Gathering featuring Ada Limón
The Winston-Salem Foundation’s 2026 Community Gathering: Poetry, Place, Possibility will take place on Monday, May 18 and will feature a keynote and conversation with Ada Limón, award-winning author and the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. The Community Gathering will be held at the Benton Convention Center and will begin at 5 p.m. with a community social followed by the keynote address at 6 p.m.
During the community social, which will include drinks and refreshments, there will be an interactive creative station hosted by Sawtooth School for Visual Art where attendees can make a special takeaway piece inspired by Ada Limón’s poetry. The evening program will begin with a newly commissioned poem reading by local poet and writer, Jacinta V. White.
“Our gathering of people from throughout the local community will feature a powerful keynote and conversation with poet Ada Limón,” the Foundation’s President LaTida Smith said. “Her poetry reminds us that storytelling and shared language can be tools of hope and resilience, nourishing our collective ability to carefor our world and for each other.
“Please join us for an evening of connection, creativity, and possibility in service of the place we call home,” she added. “I believe everyone will leave the event inspired to help create a Winston-Salem where everyone has an important voice to be heard.”
The Foundation is partnering with Bookmarks to sell Limón's books at the event.
Individual tickets to the Community Meeting are $25. The Foundation is accepting event registrations at wsfoundation.org/register. If cost is a barrier, there are a limited number of complimentary tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis at wsfoundation.org/comp.
In addition, The Foundation is accepting sponsorship registrations. To become asponsor, please register online at wsfoundation.org/sponsor by Tuesday, March 31.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ada Limón is the author of seven books of poetry, including “Startlement: New & Selected Poems; The Hurting Kind,”which was a finalist for the Griffin Prize; “The Carrying,” which won the National Books Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Jean SteinBook Award; and “Bright Dead Things,” which was named a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Award. Limón is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was named a 2024 “Time Magazine” Woman of the Year. She is the author of two picture books, “In Praise of Mystery” as well as “And, Too, The Fox,” and was the editor of the anthology “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World.” Her closing talk as the U.S. Poet Laureate, “Against Breaking,” will be available in book form from Scribner in April 2026.
AN ANNUAL TRADITION FOR 30+ YEARS
What began as a low-key afternoon event in 1992 launched atradition that continues today: the Foundation's annual Community Gathering. Held in early May each year, the much-anticipated, often sold-out event brings together hundreds of corporate, government, education, and nonprofit leaders, as well as interested individuals and community members. Since its inception, annual attendance has grown to more than 1,000 guests who fill the Benton Convention Center to network and visit, learn more about the Foundation, and take away new insights from thought-provoking keynote speakers. Past gatherings have focused on diverse topics such as social capital building, economic mobility, racial equity, unconscious bias, and local food systems.