Bird & Beckett presents featured poets and an open mic on the first Thursday of each month, hosted by Michael Koch and Jerry Ferraz.

James Cagney’s second poetry collection, Martian: The Saint of Loneliness is the winner of the 2021 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. His first, Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour Of Chaos Theory won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award in 2018. Both titles are available from Nomadic Press. For more information, please visit JamesCagneypoet.com.

Tureeda Mikell, is an Oakland native, award winning poet, MoAD 2022 Poet in Residence, original Black Panther alum, griot, story medicine woman, Qi Reader, author, and educator. She has published over 70 at-risk student anthologies from 5 bay area counties.  Hailed, activist for holism hell bent on asserting life, her works have been published and or traveled from Africa, France, UK, Australia, Japan, and China. Her book, Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine was nominated for the California Book Award and she was commissioned to co-produce and curate EastSide Arts Alliance, Patrice Lumumba Anthology; both published by Nomadic Press.

An open mic will follow the featured poets.