Remembering Janice Mirikitani, GLIDE Co-Founder and Former San Francisco Poet Laureate

Janice Mirikitani, a beloved local icon who was San Francisco’s second poet laureate and a co-founder of GLIDE, died last week at the age of 80. Known equally for her poetry and her fierce advocacy on behalf of San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents, Mirikitani played a pivotal role in shaping the community and work of Glide Memorial Church, alongside her husband Cecil Williams. As a poet, she poignantly blended her art and activism, publishing four books including “Shedding Silence” and “We, The Dangerous.” Mirikitani believed in “caring dangerously” saying in a talk at Glide Memorial Church in 2014 that “caring dangerously means that you dare to take the risk to open yourself up to somebody else.” We’ll reflect on the life and legacy of Janice Mirikitani.