Dionne Hunter (she/her)
Dionne D. Hunter is an award winning performance poet, author, creative producer, cultural curator, and community arts advocate whose work explores identity, legacy, resilience, representation, and the ways creativity can help people reconnect with themselves and one another.
A United States Navy veteran with leadership experience spanning corporate and public service environments, Dionne brings a distinctive perspective to conversations about leadership, power, creativity, and the systems we build around people. Her own journey has led her increasingly toward models of leadership rooted in listening, intuition, collaboration, care, accountability, and the belief that strength and vulnerability can exist together.
She is the founder and producer of A Night of Artistic Renewal, a multidisciplinary arts platform bringing poetry, music, dance, visual art, and storytelling together around themes of human connection, healing, and transformation.
Dionne was named the 2024 AMG Heritage Award Spoken Word Artist of the Year, received second place in the 2025 Jaki Shelton Green Performance Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for Charlotte’s inaugural Poet Laureate. Her work has appeared on international stages, in film festivals, on public television, and throughout community spaces.
At the heart of her practice is a simple question: How can we use our voices, creativity, lived wisdom, and relationships to build Stronger women. Stronger connections. Stronger communities. Inspired by The Power of the Arts.
Co-Facilitator of: The Poetry of Intersectional Matriarchy: New (Timeless) Systems for Supporting Life and Creativity
If not patriarchy... what else instead?
Let's poetically co-create the answer to this question.
Dionne Hunter + Lisa Ann LA Marks Markuson (with special interdisciplinary guests) will facilitate a live workshop for participants to experience the gentle healing power of matriarchy and the balancing of feminine and masculine elements of all individuals and systems.
Dionne + LA will share through poetry and discussion their distinct backgrounds and journey into matriarchal creative leadership. Different generations. Different circumstances. Different dreams. United through the power of matriarchy and poetry.
Then, they will lead the group in an individual and collective visioning and intuition exercise. Participants will discover their gifts and their potential for positive impact through their work, play, and creativity, and come away with a clear poetic mantra or empowerment statement that can become each of our north stars as we bring about peace, clarity and transformation in our forthcoming age of ascendant matriarchal leadership in society.
Prepare to awaken a new part of your heart and deepen your confidence in the truth that our time is now.