We welcomed San Francisco-based poets Kim Shuck and Maurisa Thompson, hosted by Delma Jackson as a part of our ongoing Fall series on Black/Indigenous solidarity. Kim and Maurisa shared their art, honoring where we’ve been and imagining where we could go in relationship to our planet, our country, our communities, and ourselves. Their friendship, love for their natal city, and respect for each other’s work shone through their conversation, creating a memorable hour of poetry, art, and solidarity. Watch the recording here!

Kim Shuck is the 7th poet laureate of San Francisco. Shuck is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and was born and raised primarily in San Francisco. Shuck is widely anthologized and her work appears in many journals. Kim is also solo author of seven, soon to be eight books. Shuck has all kinds of awards, some degrees, all of the expected accomplishments, but these days spends most of her time deciding on day or night pajamas and building a book fort in her imagination.

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Maurisa Thompson was born and raised in San Francisco, and is a proud alum of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Pedestal, Cosmonauts Avenue, Poems for Our Children, En Vuelo: In Celebration of el Tecolote, and The Haight-Ashbury Journal, which nominated her for a Pushcart Prize. She is proud to have worked with various organizations and actions, including Librotraficante Bay Area Califas and Richmond’s RAW Talent. She is currently working on her first poetry manuscript, which combines history and folklore with her grandparents’ stories from Louisiana and San Francisco, and a middle-grade novel exploring police brutality, which won the support of a Walter Grant from We Need Diverse Books.