An Evening with San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim
Mon, Apr 6 / 6:00 PM PDT Commonwealth Club 110 The Embarcadero San Francisco, CA
The star of the evening is Genny Lim, San Francisco’s current poet laureate—an acclaimed poet, playwright and performer whose work reflects the rhythms, struggles and resilience of the city we call home. Appointed poet laureate in 2024 by London Breed, Lim is the city’s first Chinese American poet laureate. Drawing inspiration from her upbringing in Chinatown and North Beach, her poetry invites us to listen more deeply—to one another and to San Francisco itself. The evening will also feature remarks from Commonwealth Club World Affairs Board Member Claudine Cheng, with a moderated conversation led by Dion Lim, former ABC7 news anchor.
Enjoy an intimate evening featuring: a live poetry experience with Genny Lim, accompanied by musicians Chris Trinidad Collective and Unpil Baek, a Bay Area-based pianist anchored in improvisation and cross-genre collaboration; reflections on poetry as connection, healing and civic voice; and time to mingle with fellow members over light refreshments. Come for the poetry. Stay for the conversation. Join us for an evening designed to inspire, connect and remind us why shared cultural experiences matter. No-host bar and lite bites.
Sunday, March 22, at 2pm Golden Sardine 362 Columbus Avenue North Beach, San Francisco
Join Feather Press for the next book release party for Tender Hearts Club, Love Poems Anthology on Sunday March 22, at 2pm at Golden Sardine, 362 Columbus Ave, North Beach SF. Featuring all new poets and a special winemaker takeover from Dario Serrentino pouring wines from Il Mortellito Winery, Sicily, Italy.
Featuring poets: Al Averbach, Char Lacsina, Jennifer Barone, E.K. Keith, Gail Mitchell, Genny Lim, Heather Romero-Kornblum, Kelechi Ubozoh, Natasha Dennerstein, Patrick Cahill, Paul Corman Roberts, and Peggy Morrison.
This anthology of love poetry gathers love in all its forms. Tender Hearts Club: Volume One is a gathering of voices that refuse to let love be diminished. These poems do not ask love to be easy. They let love be honest, messy, radiant, and real.
OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, March 21, 6pm Public Atrium in Bldg 12 at Pier 70 1070 Maryland @ 22nd St
San Francisco’s current Poet Laureate Genny Lim will be featuring this Saturday, March 21 at 6pm for the Ferlinghetti event Kick-off in the public atrium of Bldg 12 at Pier 70, 1070 Maryland @ 22nd St. Presented by 3RD ST CREATIVE ARTERY, the event also features Mauro Aprile Zanetti, one of Ferlinghetti’s final collaborators, and a performance by long-time Ferlinghetti Day friends, The Conspiracy of Beards, a 30-member male choir that performs dynamic, original, a cappella arrangements of the poetic songs of Leonard Cohen.
The exhibit and reception are part of festivities related to Ferlinghetti Day, an annual literary walkabout on March 24th, in honor of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s birthday.
The primary intention of 3RD ST CREATIVE ARTERY is to highlight and amplify the efforts and output of artists, makers, movers, and shakers who have a connection to San Francisco’s 3RD ST through engaging exhibits, curated events, and creative programming. A cornerstone of our offering will be exhibiting the visual artwork of Lawrence Ferlinghetti who has deep and long-standing ties to the area, as he maintained a light-filled art studio at Hunters Point Shipyard for almost 40 years. We’ll also feature books, objects, and artifacts from his personal library.
2025 Leonard Cohen Festival photo by Jon Bauer and Static & Blur
CONSPIRACY OF BEARDS, THE CRUX & SF Poet Laureate GENNY LIM
November 7, 2025, 7:30PM Blue Shield Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
The San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival, founded in 2018, is an annual celebration dedicated to honoring the poetry, music, and spirit of the legendary songwriter, poet, and author. Presented each November by Conspiracy of Beards—San Francisco’s renowned 30-member male choir devoted to Cohen’s work—the festival has grown from its early beginnings into a multi-day, multi-venue event that draws poets, musicians, artists, and audiences from across the Bay Area and beyond.
The festival emphasizes fresh interpretations of Cohen’s work, encouraging artists to reshape his words and melodies through their own creative lenses. This open, inventive approach results in a diverse program of performances, readings, and collaborations that keep Cohen’s timeless themes of love, longing, humor, and spirituality alive for new generations.
Together, the festival and the choir invite audiences to conspire in celebration of one of the 20th century’s most enduring and influential voices. The result is a vibrant gathering that honors Cohen’s legacy with creativity, reverence, and joy.
San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim will open the evening, accompanied by cellist Kathryn Bates.
San Francisco’s Conspiracy of Beards perform their new show, The Unified Heart of Leonard Cohen, celebrating Cohen’s words, music, and contemplations on “The Order of the Unified Heart,” the symbol of two hearts intertwined that appears on the cover of the 1984 poetry collection Book of Mercy. This book inspired the 1985 album Various Positions, which includes some of Cohen’s most iconic songs, including “If It Be Your Will,” “Dance Me to the End of Love,” and “Hallelujah.”
The Crux is a mad scientist’s music laboratory, where songs are presented as theatrical experiments with odd and beautiful intensity: lullabies to drink your morning coffee to, gospel songs for the faithless, pirate shanties for people who get seasick, and swing music for the graceless. The Crux has appeared as chain-rattling klezmer folk punks, an unhinged revival service, a theatrical film-noir jazz combo, and more. This band is a true North Bay institution with a revolving cast of musicians assembled and coaxed into action by regional impresario Josh Windmiller. The Crux will present Cohen’s New Skin for the Old Ceremony and other favorites.
2025 Leonard Cohen Festival photos by Jon Bauer and Static & Blur
Genny Lim is the ninth San Francisco Poet Laureate and recipient of two lifetime achievement awards from PEN Oakland and the city of Berkeley. She has also served as a former SF Arts Commissioner. Lim’s award-winning play, Paper Angels, the first Asian American play to air on PBS’s American Playhouse in 1985, has been performed throughout the U.S., Canada and China. She is author of five poetry collections, Winter Place, Child of War, Paper Gods and Rebels, KRA!, La Morte Del Tempo, and co-author and translator of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, winner of the American Book Award. Lim has worked with past Jazz legends, such as Max Roach and long-time collaborators, Jon Jang, John Santos, Francis Wong and Del Sol Quartet. Their recent show, Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora recently premiered at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco. This marks Genny’s second appearance at the Leonard Cohen Festival.
Cellist Kathryn Bates’ boundless energy for sharing musical experiences has shaped a career that continues to explore the intersections of tradition and innovation. Praised for her “beautifully rounded sound” by the New York Times, Kathryn’s performances are hailed as “electrifying” (Boston Globe), characterized by a dancer’s sense of rhythm and captivating theatricality. As the New Fromm cellist of the Tanglewood Music Center from 2008-2010, she was called the “revelation” (Sequenza 21) of the Elliott Carter 100th Birthday anniversary celebration. In 2010, Kathryn joined the renowned San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet.
SF Poet Laureate Genny Lim and cellist Kathryn Bates
Genny Lim reads her poem, “Facing the Moon,” along with Clara Hsu’s reading of her Cantonese translation of the poem.
Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora, featuring poetry written by SF Poet Laureate Genny Lim, premieres on October 19, 2025at 2pm at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco.
Voices of mothers and daughters, across continents and generations, anchor this multimedia performance with new music by Chinese-diaspora composers Theresa Wong, Vivian Fung and Meilina Tsui. Del Sol Quartet centers the collaboration, building on their transformative Angel Island Project, with a theatrical visual experience by Olivia Ting and Mark Hellar. The musicians’ own histories, gathered through Genny Lim’s interviews, build connections between the musical sounds and Lim’s poetry.
Genny Lim, Poet Laureate, accompanied by J. Raoul Brody
Fri., August 8, 2025, 7PM Mile High Theater 7024 Crable Street Frazier Park, CA 9322
Genny Lim accompanied by J. Raoul Brody. Genevieve (Genny) Lim is an American Poet, playwright, and performer. She is the ninth poet laureate of San Francisco.
Fringe of the Woods Festival features a diverse lineup of acts and performances every year, over the course of 3 days.
“Not In Our Name / No En Nuestro Nombre” A Collaboration between Muralist Juana Alicia with Poetry by Genny Lim
Program Highlights
Francis Wong – composer, saxophonist, activist, and educator
Alexandro Murguía & devorah major – former San Francisco Poets Laureates
Chun Yu – Chinese/American poet and translator (reading in Chinese)
Mo Sati – Palestinian American poet
On-site Activation: The San Francisco Poster Syndicate will live-print and distribute free political posters, facilitating community engagement through art as activism.
This inaugural event unites poetry, mural art, and community solidarity into a powerful public statement. Not in Our Name / No en nuestro nombre calls on individuals to witness, engage, and amplify a message for peace, justice, and human dignity.
Our mural and poem, Not in Our Name, is an urgent call to demand a permanent Cease Fire to end the genocide in Palestine. The large scale poetic mural (15 feet by 25 feet) by internationally renowned muralist Juana Alicia and Genny Lim, SF Poet Laureate, is mounted in San Francisco’s celebrated Mission District’s Clarion Mural Alley Project in Clarion Alley at the Valencia corridor between 17th and 19th Streets. The mural stands alongside a length of vibrant, global social justice murals, created by artist activists. Since the October 7th attack on the Nova Music Festival almost two years ago, there has been no let‑up in the bombardment of Gaza and the West Bank, with over 60,000 Palestinians killed, more than half of whom were children and women. With hospitals and schools destroyed, starvation looming without any sufficient food or medical supplies allowed access, famine and disease, is inevitable. To date, there is no significant movement towards a cease fire and, in fact, the war threatens to spread with Israel’s attacks on Iran, Syria and Lebanon, which elicited retaliatory attacks.
As artists and poets, we use the tools of our craft to help raise social consciousness. Our crew of dedicated volunteers, led by activist, David Solnit, former SF Supervisor, Eric Mar, peace activist, Catherine Cusic and Tirso Araiza, among others, with the generous moral and material support support by CAMP, is a labor of love in tribute to all the victims of this horrific genocide. We believe that all war is an aberration, an abomination and a sign of moral decay. We believe that dialogue and honest cooperation are the only way to achieve true and lasting peace. Not in Our Name is a plea for peace and hope. It is a call to action. A message to all individuals with a moral conscience to defend the human rights and dignity of all human beings and the sovereignty of all nations by speaking truth to power and injustice.
Installation Team
The mural was installed by volunteers under the leadership of David Solnit, with support from Eric Mar, Catherine Cusic, Tirso González Araiza, Jade Mar, Yasmin Madriz, Yano Rivera, Denisse Ogata, Christopher Statton, Megan Wilson, and others. Poetry translations were provided by Carmen Hynds May & Alan Hynds (Spanish) and Carol Khoury (Arabic). Graphic design and video documentation by Andi Wong.
About Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP)
The Mission of Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) is to support and produce socially engaged and aesthetically innovative public art, locally and globally as a grassroots artist-run organization based in San Francisco’s Mission District. CAMP is a community, a public space, and an organizing force that uses public art (murals, street art, performance art, dance, poster projects, literary events) as a means for supporting social, economic, racial, and environmental justice messaging and storytelling. Over the past 30 years CAMP has produced over 900 murals and worked with many talented artists and community-based organizations and activists. In addition to its overall mural programming, CAMP’s projects/programming has included 1) the Redstone Labor Temple Project, highlighting San Francisco’s labor history (1997); 2) international exchange & residency projects with Yogykarata, Indonesia – Sama-Sama/Together (2003-2006) in collaboration with Intersection for the Arts and Bangkit/Arise (2018-present) in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum; 3) In Honor Of …, drawing attention to political prisoners in Iran in collaboration with Artists’ Television Access (2019); 4) Wall + Response, featuring 16 Bay Area poets responding to the social, political, and racial justice narratives of four mural projects on Clarion Alley (2020-22); and Manifest Differently, working with 38 artists & poets to interrogate the doctrine of ‘Manifest Destiny’(2023).
Reading by Genny Lim & Nellie Wong, with Hyeyung Sol Yoon
Weds., April 19, 2025, 2pm – 3:30pm Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room Main Library, 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102
SFPL’s Humanities Center celebrates National Poetry Month with a reading by Genny Lim, San Francisco’s 9th Poet Laureate. Cherry blossoms have long been a symbol of life’s brevity. Lim, together with poet Nellie Wong, will address themes of life, death and renewal in the historical and personal contexts of their poems, accompanied by Del Sol String Quartet violinist Hyeyung Sol Yoon.
March 20th, 5:00 PM PT Free to attend (donations appreciated)
Please join Eth-Noh-Tec on March 20th at 5PM PT for “Women Warriors of the Word,” an evening of authors and a poet who will share their writings that address our resilience against many odds. There will be a chance to ask questions, to listen to each other, and in this way, create a community even for this hour and a half we will be with each other on Zoom.
Mindful Musings: “Women Warriors of the Word,” with Nancy Wang, Ayn Gailey & Genny Lim
Genny Lim, San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, a fierce woman warrior of words, writes with blazing truth and deep minings of who we are as women, as human beings, as Asian Americans, as people of color, the carriers of life. She is warm, funny and even sings!
Ayn Gailey, another woman warrior of words, has written for Elle, Latina, Showtime and Kinfolk and is in the throes of completing her debut novel. Her memoir was adapted into the movie A Nice Girl Like You in 2020. She is hapa – half Taiwanese and half Mexican with a perspective of growing up in a world that decides who you are and who you aren’t. Her writings are delicious and give us a view into a world that many of us are not privy to.
Nancy Wang, the third woman warrior of words, will read a chapter of her newly published Red Altar novel that will celebrate resilience confronting racist violence that occurred in 1906 and today reverberates into our communities once again.
The Palestinian Village, Wadi Foquin is located in the Bethlehem District of the West Bank, and is threatened by land takeover with the presence and expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement of Betar Illit. With accelerated violence and military presence in the village during the last year, Friends of Wadi Foquin organized a “Protective Presence Trip” to the village in January 2025. Rev. Yoshii was among five persons who made the trip, and will provide a report back from the visit.
For those who prefer attending program online on a live zoom broadcast, on Feb 23rd at 1pm, log in to this zoom ink: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89849603176
Since 1982, Eastwind Books of Berkeley has been a major source for Asian American literature, Asian Studies, Ethnic Studies, Language Learning, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Martial Arts books. https://www.asiabookcenter.com/
The Friends of Wadi Foquin support community development projects in the village, organize annual trips to the region, and provide advocacy on behalf ot the village. .
Rev. Michael Yoshii is Pastor Emeritus at the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda where he served as Sr. Pastor from 1988 to 2020. He is also Co-Chair of the Friends of Wadi Foquin, a partnership initiated in 2009 at the Alameda church with the West Bank Palestinian village of Wadi Foquin. Yoshii’s life experience encouraged him to work to support Palestine. During WWII, Yoshii’s Japanese American parents were forced to leave their home and were incarcerated in a U.S.interment camp by the U.S. government until the war ended.
Genny Lim, the 9th San Francisco Poet Laureate (2025), opens the program with poetry. Lim is the first Chinese American given this honor in San Fancisco. She is co-author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940.
Noura Khouri will be joining the conversation with Rev. Yoshii on the present situation and beyond. Khouri is a U.S. born Palestinian human rights activist and community organizer based in Oakland, California. Over the past two decades, Noura has dedicated herself to advocating for Palestinian rights, serving as a campaign strategist and organizer. She has lived and worked in occupied Palestine and Egypt, gaining firsthand experience in the role and impact of US foreign policy on the region.
