RI Center for the Book

Meet the RARI Honorary Chair for 2026

This year’s Honorary Chair is Charlotte Abotsi, poet and Special Projects Manager at Providence Arts, Culture + Tourism.

2026 RARI Honorary Chair, Charlotte Abotsi
2026 RARI Honorary Chair, Charlotte Abotsi is a poet and arts administrator raised in Providence, RI. Her work as a poet has been featured in HufPost and Mic.com, and her poems have been published in Wax Nine journal and The Chicago Reader. Abotsi has received fellowships from the Pink Door Writing Retreat, the Incubator for Community-Engaged Poets, Tin House, DreamYard's Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium, AIR Serenbe, Define American, and Undocupoets. She previously co-curated season two of the poetry based web series Ours  Poetica for the poetry foundation. With deep roots in creative arts, organizing, Abotsi has been a longtime volunteer, mentor, and teaching artist with the Providence Poetry Slam at AS220. She currently serves as a special projects manager for the City of Providence Department of art, culture, and tourism.
"It is a deep honor to be named the 2026 Honorary Chair for Reading Across Rhode Island with the incredible RI Center for the Book. It will be my joy to learn of the programs and curriculums built around the 2026 selection, Happy Land by Dolan Perkins – Valdez! A powerful tale of lineage that rethinks the traumas of enslavement. This is a novel I look forward to discussing more in depth with my neighbor statewide. Rhode Islander read with me! Let's get on the same page!" spoken by Charlotte Abotsi

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