Zoom links below! Join us to hear the featured poets and read one of your own in the open mic!

Roopa Ramamoorthi is a scientist and poet who lives in Berkeley. Her poetry, essays and short stories have been included in 80 publications including Perspectives on NPR and various anthologies including best of 60 years of Spectrum and the Vona anthology Dismantle. Her writing also appears in India Currents, Ursa Minor, Berkeley Daily Planet and other journals. Most recently she conducted poetry workshops with people living with rare diseases and the collection Rare Sounds was published by the Ipsen Foundation. She enjoys outdoor Zumba and yoga and walking and of course reading and listening to other poets.

Vincent Calvarese has been published in poetry, fiction, non-fiction and visual art. A San Francisco native, he now calls Coachella Valley his home as well as his muse.

Kim Shuck

Twice a month, poet Kim Shuck presides over an online reading on Bird & Beckett’s behalf. On the second Monday of each month, two poets are featured, followed by an open mic. The fourth Monday of the month is all open mic.

Kim’s commitment to poetry as a personal and communal art is unequaled. She served for four years through 2022 as San Francisco’s seventh Poet Laureate, one chapter in a rich life of art and service.  She is as well known for her beadwork as for her poetry. She is an anthologist and instigator as well as an artist. Her focus on the individuals within the social constructs is unwavering, and her insight into those constructs is unflinching.

We’re lucky to have her trust and willingness to use Bird & Beckett as one channel for her work.