Meet Our Team

Marlanda Dekine is a poet and licensed social worker. She is the author of Thresh & Hold, winner of the New Southern Voices Poetry Prize from Hub City Press. She is also the author and recording artist of I am from a punch & a kiss. A socially-engaged practitioner, Dekine is the first Poet Laureate of Georgetown County Libraries and an alumnus of the Obsidian Foundation UK.

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Through poetry and facilitated dialogue, Dekine is a listener who guides people and communities into the depths of cultural transformation. She has worked alongside unsheltered people, children who survived severe abuse, people living with mental illness, and children and families navigating statewide mental health systems.

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A dynamic performer, her honors include Grand Slam Champion of the Soul Sista Poetry Slam, Queen of the South Poetry Slam Champion, Individual Artist Fellowship in Spoken Word and Slam Poetry, a Co-Recipient of the Mary L. Thomas Award for Civic Engagement, and a Peace & Dialogue Award from the Atlantic Institute. Dekine’s poetry has appeared in Poem-a-Day, Orion, Poetry, Callaloo, Oxford American, and other journals, and is anthologized in This Is the Honey and What Things Cost.

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Dekine is the founder of Speaking Down Barriers and Dekine Cultural Strategies. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Furman University, an M.S.W. from the University of South Carolina, and an M.F.A. from Converse University. She studied for one year with New York University's Low-Residency MFA Program in Paris before transferring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.