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Virtual Poets: Kim Shuck’s Bird & Beckett zoom poetry series presents Al Frankie and Melissa Eleftherion, open mic follows
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09
Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713
Passcode: 244211
Al Frankie, also known as “The Conduit” on Substack, is a revolutionary canary poet who sounds the alarm on immigration, women’s rights, human rights and injustice in general. She used to write about heartbreak and fuckgirls and fuckboys. Her debut book of poetry Heartbreak PSA can be ordered through Bird & Beckett or any independent bookshop. It’s $13.99 and worth it.
In what she calls “The Age of Ashes,” she frequents open mics and climbs onto her soapbox while public soapboxes are still available. Some people also call her “a witch (politically, of course).” She never argues with them. In her free time, she is currently working on a four-part romantic fantasy series because, when all hope is lost, all a poet has left is to write about love. She also loves dancing.
Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a libraria, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, they are the author of four poetry collections: field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), Suture (Cooper Dillon, 2026) and Malocchia (White Stag, 2026) as well as twelve chapbooks including abject sutures (above/ground press, 2024).Melissa holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills College, and San Jose State University. A six-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, her work has been widely published & recently appeared/is forthcoming in Sixth Finch, Verse Daily, DIAGRAM, & South Dakota Review. Melissa served as Poet Laureate for the City of Ukiah (2021-2024), and now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library and curates the LOBA Reading Series.
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Kim Shuck conducts the twice-monthly Virtual Poets series, with featured readers followed by an open mic on the 2nd Monday of each month and an all-open mic session on the 4th Monday of each month.
Kim embraces the fool and jester qualities of being a modern poet and artist. She is a devotee of San Francisco, whose hills she wanders nearly always on foot. Her maternal grandparents met at the Polish Hall on Shotwell and she spent many hours with her mother and grandmother wandering the Mission St. Miracle Mile, taking books out of the Mission Branch library and watching aquarium fish on the ground floor of what used to be Hale’s. She firmly believes in carrying a bubble wand, keys, pen and notebook and cats cradle string at all times.
Kim, whose poetry draws on her multiethnic background which includes Polish and Cherokee heritage, and her experiences as a lifelong resident of San Francisco, served as San Francisco’s seventh Poet Laureate, from 2017-2021. In 2019, she was awarded an inaugural National Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, and a PEN Oakland Censorship Award. Among her many books and chapbooks, Pick a Garnet to Sleep In, one in a long line of poetry collections,was published in 2024, and her book of essays Noodle, Rant, Tangent was published in 2022.
In her term as Poet Laureate, she hosted scores of free poetry and art workshops for all ages at neighborhood libraries and schools and worked closely with San Francisco Public Library and the San Francisco Arts Commission to launch major citywide initiatives to honor Native American Indigenous Peoples’ heritage.
Kim is assisted by Brett Benson, a heroic volunteer who keeps the Zoom going. When he’s not doing that, he’s a high school teacher down the Peninsula apiece, and runs an open mic at Le Promenade opposite the Balboa Theater in the Outer Richmond District.