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653 Chenery Street in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
Open to walk-in trade and browsing Tuesday to Sunday noon to six
phone: 1-415-586-3733 email: [email protected]
Bird & Beckett, a privately owned bookshop, weighs in: The contemporary suffering and persecution in Gaza, and in the West Bank, has been extreme and continues, though you’d hardly know it from the newspapers lately. What Hamas did on 10/7/23 is unforgivable and indefensible from where we stand. However, it is obvious to us that the actions of the right wing extremists in government in Israel over a period of two years are vastly disproportionate and overshadow the crimes Hamas committed. We hope you’ll come out to show solidarity for the Palestinian people and that you’ll donate to support individual families in Gaza as winter approaches. Donations can be made anytime, not just at the event. What the individuals and families that will be beneficiaries of this fundraiser think about Hamas is nothing we can know or weigh in on. We believe that their humanity is unquestionable and that their…
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Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, published in 1962, helped spark the environmental movement, offering us a comprehensive understanding of the intricate and fragile relationships between living beings and the oceanic environment. Her previous three books, now called the Sea Trilogy, convey truly unfathomable mysteries, both scientifically accurate and poetically charged. Her childhood in the Alleghanies, her career at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in the years of the great depression, her heroic support of her family, her intrepid warrior-spirit as an educator with a bully pulpit, facing down the established scientific consensus at the time, even as she battled ill health, are a few of the things that make her story so inspiring. Walker Brents III addresses topics literary, mythological and mystical once a month save the summer months when he travels the western states for family and intellectual sustenance.
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Friday, November 21st – 6pm to 8pm – Foster/Vincent Guitar Duo! A twenty dollar bill works wonders to support the Jazz Happy Hour that’s been continuous since the fall of 2002, 23 years and counting… byob… bring the kids… the kids and student musicians get in free this evening. Or if your biological clock is set a bit later, come out 8:30pm for the Joel Behrman Quartet with Dahveed Behroozi, Marcus Shelby and Sylvia Cuenca. A twenty works for that one as well! Students pay $10 for the late show, and the kids should be in bed by then! On Saturday, the 22nd, our 7:30pm show features a quintet led by multi-reed genius Hal Richards, with Henry Hung on trumpet, Rumi Abe on piano, Ron Belcher on bass and Dan Foltz on drums. The Sunday 5pm show features country noir guitarslinger/songwriter Maurice Tani and his band! Click through to read…
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Touring out of Minneapolis, Cody Steinman is a prolific jazz guitarist/composer showcasing material from his new album, “Stray Bullet Blues,” with pianist Adam Hersh and drummer Benjamin Ring, both up from Los Angeles, and local hero Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass. $20 cover charge / byob. Students $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Sample Cody’s wares here– https://codysteinmann.bandcamp.com/ Renowned as an outstanding composer and improviser, Cody Steinmann has worked with Ben Williams, JD Allen, Javier Santiago, Russ Johnson, Nic Cacioppo, Solomon Parham, Anthony Fung, Max Gerl, and Fode Bangoura. Cody’s genre-defying style, technical prowess, and deep emotional expression resonates deeply in the receptive ear.
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Just one show Friday the 28th instead of our typical Friday double header, but you’ll get two swinging sets, starting at 7:30pm, and a twenty gets you the evening when The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band takes the stage. Long a staple of Bird & Beckett’s bookings, this quartet has its roots in the earliest days of our steady weekly jazz programming. We’ve never missed a Friday (save two during the pandemic) in 22 years. 230 Jones Street was the address of the Musicians Union Local 6 headquarters back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when these musicians were getting their start as professional jazz musicians and enjoying the rabble rousing of agitating for fair pay while living the gigging life. The four musicians in this band — Tony Johnson leading the charge from the drum kit, Charlie McCarthy on sax and flute, Sam Cady on…
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Here at Bird & Beckett Books, we’ve always relied on the kindness of neighbors and strangers to make it all work; and we’ve always found that strangers don’t stay strangers long! Your tax-deductible donations to our 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, FEIN 261906810, are the secret sauce. Book sales and cover charges at the shows are crucial, but only go so far to fill the cornucopia of culture that you’ll find here at Bird & Beckett! You can donate through our website using PayPal. Or if you prefer, you can drop off or mail us a check made out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” — write “tax-deductible donation” in the memo line. Cash is fine if you prefer. Use your donor-advised fund if you have one. See if your employer offers a matching donation. You can also donate on a recurring, monthly basis…
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The posts that follow show you what’s come and gone. Search the videos on our youtube channel or facebook page to find evidence of what you remember, or what you missed! Then, make sure you catch the next thing that catches your fancy. The live streams are great, but live music in a room with folks you know or ought to get to know, that’s irreplaceable…
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Brian Shepperd, a formerly incarcerated, currently recalibrated man and the author of Confessions of a Compassionate Felon convenes a conclave of friends to share spoken word, poetry, chapter & verse reading from their own books. Read more at th3rdbridge.com
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Allan Harris, vocals & piano Adam Shulman, piano Doug Miller, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Students, 10. Allan Harris returns! Earlier this year, in March, Allan was here at Bird & Beckett with a fantastic date based on “The Poetry of Jazz.” A cd of that music, recorded live in Ann Arbor, Michigan with a quintet including Sylvia Cuenca on drums, was released in July and now he’s coming back with a superb trio for an exquisite night of music.
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Vince Lateano has been a mainstay of San Francisco jazz culture since he rousted out of the Army in 1965! His trio with bassist Peter Barshay and pianist Ben Stolorow has been making beautiful music together for years. Come and enjoy one of Bird & Beckett’s long running, and truly great, jazz residencies. Every third Sunday from 5 to 7pm. Often, the trio invites a friend to join them, and this time out, saxophonist Bob Kenmotsu joins the band. BYOB and a twenty for the combo. Student? $10. Kids are free. Just pinching pennies? Pay what you can! Thanks for supporting the musicians!
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Rumi Abe, piano. Armen Krakirian, trumpet. Joshua Thurston-Milgrom, bass. Miles Turk, drums. $20 cover charge at the door (cash please). byob. Students, $10; kids free. For a seat reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Rumi Abe has made a big mark in a very short time on the San Francisco jazz scene. Hailing from Japan, she brings a vast store of talent and experience, and a great feel for the Black music that many know to be America’s greatest treasure and gift to global culture. This one thing we can all be proud of and grateful for! Here’s evidence of Rumi’s contribution from a show with Hal Richards’ quintet just a few months ago:
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Bänoo Zan & Cy Strom, co-editors of Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution, have invited poet Summer Brenner to join them in a reading of poems from their recently published anthology, which marks a world-historical moment: the first ever feminist revolution. Woman Life Freedom is the slogan chanted by the demonstrators in Iran. This anthology echoes that cry. Its poems are reflections on the present moment, denunciations of injustice, examinations of the poets’ own consciences, laments for the fallen, bitter curses, prayers, celebrations of life and visions of a better future. Forty poets and translators living on four continents are represented. The poems are ordered by theme: Beginnings, Defiance, Struggle, Witness and Futures. The introduction by Cy Strom sets the scene with a brief look at the situation in Iran and touches on themes of poetry, the arts and revolution; the afterword by Bänoo Zan, titled “Against the…
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Robert Heirendt brings his “Name & Form” Ensemble to celebrate it’s just-released album. You’ll encounter original conceptions/compositions for mbira and saxophone, based on the meeting of traditional Zimbabwean trance music with modern improvisational jazz. The evening will feature Robert on mbira (Zimbabwean kalimba) and two alto saxophonists, Randy McKean and Dan Plonsey, with special guest Linton Hale on bansuri flute. Read more here! $20 cover, cash at the door, please. BYOB. Students $10. For a reservation, call the venue at 415-586-3733.
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Bring something to sip and a twenty for each band to either or both shows! Call ahead for a seat reservation — 415-586-3733. We’re a bookshop during the day and a venue for music and poetry in the evenings, with events four to six nights a week, especially through the weekends. Eric & the In Crowd – 11/14 at 6pm; $20 suggested, students $10, kids free This weekend we have pianist Eric Shifrin’s continuing 2nd Fridays Happy Hour residency, now in its 4th year. Eric & the In Crowd has a vast and varied repertoire and a terrific roster of musicians to draw on, and this week, two of Eric’s key collaborators — bassist Ari Munkres and drummer Mark Lee — are on hand to entertain you with a big bouquet of songs that start with the letter A. Go figure! Better yet, come & enjoy one of San Francisco’s…
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Three distinguished poets present poems “during a time of upheaval.” Xochi Candelaria hails from San Juan Bautista and has taught at City College of San Francisco since 2008, with two books of poems and publication in a number of magazines to her credit. “When I entered the poetic field of Xochiquetzal Candelria’s words, I did not want to leave. I remain compelled by the bravery, by the audacity of images, by the stunning leaps.”–Joy Harjo Carrie Mei-Lin Mar, the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer, has published one volume of her poems with another, Water Guest, due out this year. Born in San Francisco, she teaches health education at a local high school. “Mar writes with a fine lyrical precision and a stirring range of feeling to connect the world of the reader to the world of the poem. In each of these pages you’ll find something human, something of yourself, as…
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.
The BBCLP is a [Read More ]
The Independent Musicians Alliance
Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.
https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/
Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site
