Poetry night at Minnie’s Can-Do Club

FLASHBACK | BARRY GARELICK

A few weeks before the Vietnam war ended, I met the poet ruth weiss without knowing who she was. The meeting occurred at Minnie’s Can-Do Club in the Fillmore district of San Francisco on one of the weekly open-mic poetry nights. A melange of all sorts of people with all sorts of poems put their names on a first-come, first-up list. Minnie, a small-framed no-nonsense black woman who owned the bar and who called everyone “honey,” ran the show. My name was on the list that night and I waited along with others through many poems — some bad, some good. 

The troops would soon return home, and there were indications that the countercultural values that were part and parcel of the ’60s and the war were also starting to fall. Many people in their 20s now felt lost; living with a vague feeling that the present was failing to live up to what their past seemed to promise. For me, and probably many others, the promise was largely one of being discovered, of having remarkable magical encounters and wonderful friends. Many at Minnie’s were waiting to be discovered; some were already discovered, though not largely known, and part of a past that was rapidly becoming forgotten.

The night I met ruth was also the night Jack Micheline had rushed in with a poem he had just written and told Minnie he just had to read it right then and there. Minnie knew Jack so she moved him to the head of the line. Those waiting their turn grumbled (softly), but it was Minnie’s place, and she called the shots.

READ MORE: “Discoveries,” by Barry Garelick
FROM THE ARCHIVES: “Minnie’s Can-Do Club“

FAREWELL: Carol Ayers, author of the book Minnie’s Can-Do Club, died on July 14, 2025. Her obituary noted that she “documented the people and the street before it disappeared into a collection of high-priced boutiques.” CAROL AYERS (1945-2025)