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.
Sunday, February 2, 2025 3:00pm – 5:00pm Koret Auditorium
San Francisco Main Library 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102
An afternoon of poetry, youth performances and music to mark the inauguration of San Francisco’s 9th Poet Laureate, Genny Lim, at the San Francisco Main Library.
Hosted by City Librarian Michael Lambert, the event featured performances by youth poets from Youth Speaks, a youth chorus from Clarion Children’s Theater, past San Francisco poets laureates Kim Shuck, devorah major and Alejandro Murguía with live art by Adrian Arias, and a reading by writer Kevin Simmonds.
Genny Lim, Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Photo: Kit Castagne
Lim was appointed as the city’s poet laureate in September 2024 by then Mayor London Breed. As part of her required duties as laureate, she will host an inaugural event to celebrate her poetic vision for San Francisco.
Lim is the first Chinese American appointed to the city’s three-year poet laureate position. She was born and raised in San Francisco’s Chinatown and North Beach neighborhoods and is a graduate of San Francisco State University and Columbia University. Her writing has been widely awarded and published.
Wednesday, January 8, 2025 5:30 PM – 9:00 PM Grant Avenue (between Sacramento & Jackson, Ross Alley & Commercial Street) FREE and open to the public
San Francisco, the oldest Chinatown in the United States, celebrates with an evening of food, culture, and community at the Chinatown Night Market & Community Festival, held in honor of Daniel Lurie’s inauguration as the 46th mayor of San Francisco on Wednesday, January 8.
Web Gallery
2025 Mayoral Inauguration Celebration in Chinatown: Francis Wong and Genny Lim perform at Edge on the Square
2025 Mayoral Inauguration Celebration in Chinatown: Francis Wong and Genny Lim perform at Edge on the Square
2025 Mayoral Inauguration Celebration in Chinatown: Francis Wong and Genny Lim perform at Edge on the Square
In Your Ear is a cool fusion of jazz and Latin music, giving voice to musicians deserving wider recognition, and showing that jazz and Afro-Caribbean music are separate, but “branches of the same tree” as the late Afro-jazz pioneer Mario Bauza used to stress. Hosted by Art Sato.
Passing Through: An Evening of Poetry and Music Inspired by, Loved by, and Left Behind by Leonard Cohen November 8, 2024, 7:30PM Swedish American Hall
A November celebration of the words, music, and spirit of Leonard Cohen in San Francisco. Hosted by San Francisco’s Conspiracy of Beards, a choir of men that sing the songs of Leonard Cohen, the SF Leonard Cohen Festival is a multi-artist, multi-event celebration of the poetry, literature, and music of the late singer, songwriter, author, and poet.
The three-night festival began on November 8th with works inspired by, loved by, and left behind by Cohen and performed by the city’s poets, including 2024 Poet Laureate Genny Lim, Alejandro Murguía, Tess Taylor, and Gregory Pond, and local musicians Middle Harbor Songbirds, Ruby Lee Hill, Josh “Yosh” Warren, and the female choir, Conspiracy of Venus.
“What makes him so special, his songs are like journals of his life. And because they’re so deeply personal and intimate, they become universal, because everyone can identify with his struggles, his conflicts, his love affairs, his heartbreaks, his grappling with his spirituality, and his self-criticism as a human being.”
— GENNY LIM on LEONARD COHEN
Genny Lim at the 2024 San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival. Photo by Jon Bauer
Genny was among the artists featured in this piece by PBS News Hour special correspondent Mike Cerre, who went to the annual Leonard Cohen Festival in San Francisco to hear why Leonard Cohen’s music and poetry is celebrated by older and younger generations.
Join us for an evening of beautiful music and cultural performances as we raise funds for the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund.
Today, the situation in Haiti could not be more dire. Government backed paramilitary groups continue to terrorize opposition neighborhoods. Six hundred thousand people have had to flee their homes in the wake of this violence. Food insecurity now threatens nearly 5 million people, including 2.4 million children, in a country of 12 million.
Donations to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund go directly to grassroots organizations in Haiti that are the hope for Haiti’s future. Your funds support internal refugees who have been driven from their homes as well as those fleeing Haiti. They help sustain grassroots women’s organizations, mobile health clinics and literacy programs in Haiti’s poorest communities. Your donations will help support the University of the Dr. Aristide Foundation (UNIFA), which has opened a new teaching hospital under the most challenging conditions. And your funds will aid the growth of independent community-based media, so critical in a society where the rich control almost all sources of information.
5 poems about Palestine with Genny Lim (poet) and Hafez Modirzadeh (saxophone).
These poems were written ten years before Oct. 7, 2023 when the Hamas attacks on Israel triggered a retaliatory siege and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
I wrote the poems at the peak of Palestinian resistance, when peaceful demonstrations were violently met with sniper fire, tear gas and arrests by the IDF. Palestinian children were shot and killed or arrested for throwing stones at IDF and, often, storm troopers barged into Palestinian homes in the middle of the night and dragged family members out to prison, where they were interrogated and often beaten and issued long sentences without legal counsel.
These poems attempt to bear witness to the suffering and pain of the Palestinian people under Occupation.
— GENNY LIM
01 – Fifth Sun.mp302 – The Rose.mp303 – Koan1.mp304 – Gaza.mp305 – The Valley1.mp3
Includes “Gaza” which was used on “In Your Ear”, Apex Express and Raza Chronicles on KPFA.
Sat., October 15, 2022 Noon to 4:30 p.m. • Free Festival Main Stage • Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park • Berkeley
Genny Lim read poems about Water, Wildfires and War and sang Jim Pepper’s “Witchi-Tai-To” and “Besame Mucho,” accompanied by the Barry Finnerty Trio, featuring Finnerty, Akira Tana on drums, with bassist Peter Borshay, on the Festival Main Stage at Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley, California.
Web Gallery
Barry Finnerty, Genny Lim and Akira Tana at the 2022 Watershed Poetry Festival
Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival is a collaboration of Robert Hass, Poetry Flash, Ecology Center/Berkeley Farmers’ Market, and Ecocity Builders. The Watershed Festival emerged from Robert Hass’s national Watershed initiative during his tenure as U.S. Poet Laureate, 1995-97, which explored connections between environmental awareness and the American literary imagination. The first two Watersheds were held at the Bandshell at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
Cornelius Art Center: Patio, 1928 St. Marys Road, Moraga, CA 94575
Critical Mass · Lewis Jordan and Music at Large · Bruce Ackley · Sandy Poindexter · Ollen Erich Hunt · Jimmy Biala · Genny Lim
On Critical Mass, Lewis Jordan (alto, baritone and poetry), Sandi Poindexter (violin), Bruce Ackley (soprano and tenor), Ollen Erich Hunt (bass), and Jimmy Biala (drums/percussion) use improvisation and poetry to access a space of sincerity, engagement, and free expression. They are joined by Genny Lim on the title track.
With a unique interdisciplinary approach to poetry and music, this Bay Area musical ensemble brings an open spirit of improvisation to their original compositions. Performances highlight solo instrumental voices (saxophone, violin, bass, and percussion) as well as collective interplay. This year, the group released its fourth CD, Critical Mass (Innova 073).
