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Lawrence Ferlinghetti. October 1998 – February 2000. Appointed by Mayor Willie Brown, Lawrence served as San Francisco’s first Poet Laureate. In this role, he wrote an ongoing poetry column, Poetry as News, in the San Francisco Chronicle. Through City Lights Foundation, he initiated a series of commemorative books of poems by each successive Poet Laureate.
Janice Mirikitani. March 2000 – March 2002. Also appointed by Mayor Brown, Janice worked extensively with youth and teen programming and produced workshops at the Library to bring an appreciation of poetry to young people. Janice is best known for her passion in working with poor people and attention to issues of social justice.
devorah major. April 2002 – April 2004. devorah initiated an 18 month program, “City Reflections: War & Peace on our Streets,” in which she engaged the public in writing poems meaningful to them on topics of social justice. Selected poems were published in the San Francisco Chronicle and in the Library’s publication, At the Library.
Jack Hirschman. January 2006 – January 2008. Jack is the first Poet Laureate appointment of Mayor Gavin Newsom. Partnering with the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, the Mayor’s Office of Protocol and the Library, Jack Hirschman initiated Poets 11, soliciting poems and readings from participants in each of the eleven San Francisco Supervisorial Districts, and implemented the International Poetry Festival in July 2007.
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