Biography of janice mirikitani

American writer (1941–2021)

Janice Mirikitani (February 5, 1941 – July 29, 2021) was an American poet and activist who resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of her adult life.

She managed the Glide Memorial Church with her husband, Cecil Williams. She was noted for serving as San Francisco's poet laureate from 2000 until 2002.

Early life

Mirikitani was born in Stockton, California, on February 5, 1941, and was Sansei (third-generation Japanese American).^[1][2] Her parents, Shigemi and Ted Mirikitani, worked as chicken farmers in San Joaquin County.^[3][4] In 1942, during the World War IIincarceration of Japanese Americans, she and her family were sent to the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas.^[5] Following the war, the family moved to Chicago.^[6]

After her parents divorced, Janice was brought back to a chicken farm at Petaluma, California, with her mother, where they would b