Performance: Kim Shuck's Poem Jam Celebrates Sinister Wisdom

San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck invites writers published in the latest issue of the multicultural lesbian literary & art journal Sinister Wisdom to read their work. Readers include Barbara McBane, Carla Schick, Lily Kaylor Honoré and Yeva Johnson.

Kim Shuck was San Francisco’s seventh Poet Laureate. Her poetry draws on her multiethnic background which includes Polish and Cherokee heritage, and her experiences as a lifelong resident of San Francisco. Her most recent book of poetry, Pick a Garnet to Sleep In, was published in 2024. Her book of essays, Noodle, Rant, Tangent, was published in 2022. In her term as Poet Laureate, she hosted scores of free poetry and art workshops for all ages at neighborhood libraries and schools and worked closely with San Francisco Public Library and the San Francisco Arts Commission to launch major citywide initiatives to honor Native American Indigenous Peoples' heritage.

Barbara McBane is a Gimpy Pinko Kinky Commie Queer Salp Greybeard. Let’s unlabel. But first, let's overthrow capitalism, toss out patriarchy, de-colonize, revolutionize, pantherize, re-organize, dream, circle, respeak, repair where we can and support divine Life in all its glorious forms. Let’s Yes.

Carla Schick has been a queer activist for liberation before they had words.  Carla says: “Language came to me through the gift of poetry. I am fortunate to be able to share my work in person around the Bay Area, and in various journals such as Sinister Wisdom, Forum, Fourteen Hills, About Place and online at a Gathering of the Tribes and The Write Launch.” Carla's works have been anthologized in Colossus: Body and Moonstone Press books. Carla was a 2023 recipient of the SF Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award and received their Certificate in Poetry from Berkeley City College.  

Lily Kaylor Honoré earned an MFA in 2024 from New York University, where she was adjunct creative writing faculty and the fiction editor of Washington Square Review. Honoré previously received San Francisco State University's William Dickey poetry fellowship. A third-generation Californian, proudly raised by a single mother in the East Bay, Lily has lived in San Francisco's Mission District since the Gay Nineties. Publications include MQR's Mixtape, Adroit, Foglifter, Mantis and Through Lines Magazine. More @museumoflily.

Yeva Johnson is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and musician, whose work appears in Bellingham Review, Obsidian, sin cesar, Sinister Wisdom and elsewhere, and who explores interlocking caste systems and possibilities for human co-existence in our biosphere.  Yeva’s debut chapbook, Analog Poet Blues, published in 2023, is available from Black Lawrence Press.

Sinister Wisdom is a multicultural lesbian literary & art journal that publishes four issues each year. Publishing since 1976, Sinister Wisdom works to create a multicultural, multi-class lesbian space.