| SFSU Public Affairs Press ReleasePublished by the Public Affairs Office at San Francisco State University, Diag Center. |
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 10, 2000---Poet and longtime community leader Janice Mirikitani has been named San Francisco's poet laureate for 2000. Nominated by Jewelle Gomez, former director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State, Mirikitani is the city's second poet laureate, succeeding Beat prodigy Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
"I am just amazed. San Francisco is such a great place for diversity, and I am thrilled to have a role in serving this city," Mirikitani said. She says her post as laureate represents "an opportunity to be able to in some small way make poetry more accessible to people of all communities."
Mirikitani spent two semesters (1965-1966) at San Francisco State as a graduate student in the English department. She was politically active on campus, involving herself in a variety of human rights demonstrations.
"It gives me goose bumps to think that it was over thirty years ago that I was at San Francisco State and we were fighting to make voices heard; that makes this recognition even more of an honor," she said.
San Francisco State University is a highly diverse community of 27,000 students and 3,500 faculty and staff. It is one of the largest campuses in the nationally recognized 23-campus California State University system. Founded in 1899, SFSU recently celebrated its 100th year of service to San Francisco, the Bay Area, California, and beyond.
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