Breaking Silence
JANICE MIRIKITANI
San Francisco's New Poet Laureate
Copyright © 2000 Poetry Flash

Janice Mirikitani, poet, activist, and Executive Director of the Foundation at San Francisco's Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in the Tenderloin district, became San Francisco's second Poet Laureate on March 30, 2000, carrying on the precedent of poet laureate as strong activist set by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. She delivered a warmly received inaugural address at Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library's Main Branch to an enthused crowd including her husband, the Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide; Lawrence Ferlinghetti; San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown&emdash;who created the Poet Laureate post after being asked about his City's support of cultural activities on a trip to Seoul, Korea. Bouquets of flowers, letterpress broadsides, and girls from Glide who had taught Janice jump rope rhymes were everywhere. Writer Jewelle Gomez, previous director of The Poetry Center at SFSU was a member of the laureate search committee along with fellow poets Genny Lim, and CPITS's Grace Marie Grafton. Susan Hildreth, Acting City Librarian, James Kass of YouthSpeaks, Bob Booker of the North Beach Festival; Janice King and P.J. Johnston, of the Mayor's Office, were also on the committee.

Jewelle Gomez wrote in the event's program: "Janice Mirikitani is a Sansei or third generation Japanese American born in California, interned as an infant with her family in Rohwer, Arkansas during World War II.Anthologized widely for two

decades in the United States, Japan and Great Britain, [she] has published three volumes of poetry: Awake in the River (1978),Shedding Silence (1987), and We the Dangerous (1995). She has also edited several anthologies of poetry, prose, and essays.

"Janice Mirikitani has embodied the best spirit of San Francisco for many years. She's written about all the things that affect our life and shape the culture of this city from immigration to jazz.

"Additionally, her work with the Glide Memorial Foundation has been one of [our] best marriages of art and social consciousness and is the type of image San Francisco has always fostered. Because of that social consciousness she is one of the best known San Francisco poets in the world.

"She is a poet who is able to galvanize an audience with her words, and at the same time not isolate herself in an academic tower. She is beloved by so many different communities in this City; her value as the Poet Laureate is almost unmatchable."