653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six
Live Streams every weekend!
Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
Parakeet, a year-long intensive writing program that helps writers finish their books, is run by Beth Pickens, a Los Angeles-based consultant for artists and arts organizations. She is the Managing Director of LA-based queer press, Dopamine Books, which is led by legendary writer Michelle Tea. Pickens is the author of Make Your Art No Matter What (Chronicle Books, 2021). Her previous book is Your Art Will Save Your Life (Feminist Press, 2018). Her popular podcast, “Mind Your Practice,” is widely available, as is her artist service platform, Homework Club. Today’s reading at Bird & Beckett brings together five writers in the program to read their work: Michelle Ott is a visual artist and writer working on Outer Space is Closer Than Antarctica, an illustrated memoir (with science) about the four seasons she spent working at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Her artists’ book, Current Occupant, was recently acquired by the Smithsonian Postal History…
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Thursday, 11/21 at 7pm, Walker Brents gives another in his long-running series of talks on topics of his choosing, always at once timeless and timely. These are mostly caught in the live stream, though you’re welcome to grab a chair and join us in person if you like. No charge, but donations really help us pay Walker for his work; so if you see your way clear to do so, please donate! Friday, 11/22 at 6pm, the Tony Johnson Quartet holds forth, playing bebop, hardbop and classic jazz standards from across the spectrum as befits their mood. Bob Kenmotsu, tenor sax; Keith Saunders, piano; Eric Markowitz, bass; Tony Johnson, drums. $20/byob. Friday, 11/22 at 8:30pm, the Gurkestra, a small combo flexible in repertoire with a personnel handpicked by its leader, the baritone saxophonist Charlie Gurke. $20/byob. Check this out: El Diablito Saturday, 11/23 at 7:30pm, Rachael Magidson’s West Coast Jazz…
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Good news! In mid-September, we signed on with a fiscal sponsor–the 501(c)3 nonprofit Jazz in the Neighborhood–and are now offering tax-deductibility for your donations to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (“BBCLP”). Write your check to Jazz in the Neighborhood and note “BBCLP deductible donation” in the memo line, then drop it off at the shop or mail it to us. We’ll forward it to Jazz in the Neighborhood. Cash is fine if you prefer. Or donate through Paypal, once or on a recurring basis. Bright moments ahead, thanks to you! The BBCLP makes it possible for Bird & Beckett to present live cultural events, paying a guaranteed fair wage to the musicians and at least a modest stipend to our featured poets, and also to pursue our publishing activities. Where it stands now: In 2024, Bird & Beckett celebrated a quarter century in business since our doors opened…
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Hungry to hear some of Bird & Beckett’s past live streams? On the home page you can scroll down to read the individual posts for the shows we’ve mounted in the past several months, a hint of what’s gone down since the pandemic lock-down began. In more amazing times, it would take you right back to the very first show of the current period, back on March 12, 2020, but that beautiful skein is no longer quite so easily accessed. Still, the evidence is there for those who dig. The March 12, 2020 show that signaled the shift was a Thursday evening performance by New York saxophonists Jessica and Tony Jones, both alumni of the Berkeley High jazz program, with NYC bassist Stomu Takeishi and local hero Deszon X. Claiborne on drums. The quartet’s booking for the night before at the Backroom over in Berkeley had been cancelled. A few…
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Bird & Beckett’s events open to the public have been back since mid-June 2021. Mask up if you’re inclined, and do come in! (Not vaxxed? Please get vaxxed and be safer!) Jazz, poetry & more live in the shop and live streamed Come to 653 Chenery if you’re in town! Doors open at 7:20 for our 7:30 shows. $20 cover for trios and quartets $25 for quintets, $30 for sextets, etc. Cash at the door please! BYOB and BYOglass, and pack out what you pack in! Please feel free to wear a mask in the shop. We trust the science and its processes, and we trust SF’s DPH to keep us up to date on best practices! Advised best practices as of early September 2021 was to wear a mask indoors around people. If that makes you a little more comfortable being inside this winter, then do feel free. Sure…
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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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The Journal of the Plague Years: A Reading Maxine Chernoff –poet, novelist, UCSF creative writing chair Christine Kiessling –art historian Mike Medberry –essayist, solar installer, environmentalist Hailey Nicole Warner –frontline worker Susan Zakin –journalist, author, magazine founder The Journal: A few days after the Covid-19 pandemic sent us into lockdown, journalist and author Susan Zakin was on the phone with Salon magazine founder David Talbot. They both thought it was ridiculous that so many good writers were venting on Facebook, writing for free simply because they were burning to have their say. Encouraged by Talbot, Zakin posted a rudimentary website. The first story was about Andrew Cuomo. (Remember when he was a hero?) Talbot had planned to combine his efforts with hers, but decided to concentrate on books and film scripts. But others responded to an online magazine that channeled the best of ‘70s journalism updated for the hypertext age.…
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Ben Stolorow, piano. Peter Barshay, bass. Vince Lateano, drums. featuring Earnest East, vocals. $20 suggested cover charge; byob. Teens and students, $10. Kids free. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. The Vince Lateano Trio plays on the third Sunday of each month at Bird & Beckett, putting a fresh twist on jazz standards drawn from a deep well of tradition. Always a pleasure. And listening to Ernest East in their company is always a pleasure as well: https://www.facebook.com/bird.and.beckett/videos/1108323980914940 https://www.facebook.com/bird.and.beckett/videos/912107907077344
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Phillip Greenlief, saxophone. Lisa Mezzacappa, bass. Jason Levis, drums. $20 cover charge. byob. Teens and students $10. Kids free. Three titans of the Bay Area’s avant garde jazz world reunite in a project seventeen years on. Phillip Greenlief writes, “Several years ago (2007, if i am not mistaken), I wrote nearly 40 fragments while watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy: L’AVVENTURA, LA NOTTE, L’ECLISSE, featuring the great Italian actor Monica Vitti. The music was inspired by the films in a big way, and in particular i was interested in the way Antonioni uses setting as a character, or how the environments might reflect or influence the narrative. “Once I developed the fragments into compositions, I contacted Lisa and Jason … for many years they had worked as DUO B, and so it was irresistible to chose a bass and drum unit that had already established a deep rapport and a creative approach…
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Joyce Todd McBride, piano and compositions. Jeff Kaszubinski, saxophone. Todd Larson, bass. Jeff Pera, drums. $20 cover charge, byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. A vibrant Bay Area jazz ensemble, Dream Kitchen delivers a captivating blend of improvisation, modern jazz, and Latin rhythms. Led by the soulful piano and compositions of Joyce Todd McBride, the group’s original compositions and dynamic performances showcase their collective musical expertise and passion for pushing the boundaries of modern improvisation. Performance highlights include a live quadraphonic recording at The Dome Center for Art, Music and Dance in 2023. Their performance is best experienced live and in the moment in Bird & Beckett’s cozy bookshop listening environment, but it will also be streamed live on the shop’s Facebook page and YouTube channel for those stuck at home or in an airport lounge somewhere in the wilds of America, or anywhere really… Joyce Todd McBride grew up in…
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Scott Foster, guitar. Charles Thomas, bass. Mark Lee, drums. $20 suggested cover charge. Pay what you can. Teens & students – $5-10. Kids free. Bird & Beckett is your spot to decompress from the week’s travails, whether it’s the weather, the political climate, or just the work week that might have made you feel a bit wan, weak or overheated. Bird & Beckett’s favorite guitarist, Scott Foster, has a super trio for you this Friday, with bassist Charles Thomas and drummer Mark Lee joining him to play a little Bird, some Monk, some Scofield, bebop, blues and all the things that make jazz a special and inspiring American music. Use our Friday happy hour shows, 6-8pm each and every week, to connect with your neighbors and friends, and to recharge your spirit to go forth into a weekend of relaxation, release and rejoicing in the things that make living on…
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Samir Gupta, tabla. Parag Chordia, sarod. Ferhan Qureshi, tabla . $20 cover charge; byob . This evening, we are pleased to present a solo tabla set by Sameer Gupta followed by a second set of instrumental raga by sarodist Parag Chordia, accompanied by Ferhan Qureshi on tabla. For those who can’t make it to the shop to hear the concert live, it will also be streaming online. Just revisit this site at showtime and find the video screen near the top of the home page. Enlarge it and watch the show! Listen on a real sound system if you have one. It’ll enhance your enjoyment, we assure you. Keep in mind, if you will, that the work of musicians isn’t and shouldn’t be free, nor is our effort to bring it to you. Donate!
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Join us in the shop Tuesday night for a much needed reading by two fine, productive and relevant American poets. Together, they have just released a chapbook, DEER /A-WI (Mammoth Press, 2024). Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09, is author of House of Grace, House of Blood, archive-based poetry from the University of Arizona Press. Other recent publications are The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival (University of Nebraska Press); Wing (Red Mountain); and Casino Bestiary (Spartan). Low is a founding board member of Indigenous Nations Poets, former board president of AWP, and literary programmer for The 222 an arts organization in northern California. At Haskell Indian Nations University she founded the creative writing program. She teaches for Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies. She blogs, reviews, and co-publishes Mammoth Publications, which specializes in Indigenous American authors. American Book Review wrote of her Jackalope (Red…
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Mitch Polzak is one swingin’ cat! Wait ’til you hear him smoke that pig with lightning speed. His trio is the toast of rockabilly festivals, county fairs, bars and clubs throughout the Bay Area and the Central Valley. He’s raved on in Nashville and Memphis, and in Valencia, Spain, With Joe Goldmark, the king of the pedal steel, on Mitch’s Bird & Beckett date, you’re in for an elegant display of virtuosity. Tim Wagar on bass and Kenny Owen on drums back it up flawlessly. You’re gonna like this band, if you don’t already. Visit Mitch’s site and get ready for a fabulous winter afternoon of rip-roarin’ rockabilly and country classics: http://www.mitchpolzak.com/ Who says we don’t love America! The orange one can blow that notion right out his oh never mind… Byob and a twenty for the band!
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Independent reporter Denise Sullivan brings the SFLives series to Bird & Beckett for a Sunday morning livestream, which you can find on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. You can also tap on the shop’s window at 9:55. and we’ll usher you to a seat in the half-light of the shop. This month’s guest is San Francisco writer Ben Terrall, celebrating issue number 10 of his publication, “Namaste, Motherfucker!” Terrall writes on film noir, international affairs and domestic drama with wit and wisdom. Besides his amazing output in the form of Namaste, Motherfucker!, his work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, InThese Times, CounterPunch, Noir City, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and other fine outlets. He thanks his parents for nurturing his movie and book addictions from an early age. The SFLives Project is a series of candid conversations between Denise and many of the artists, activists…
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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." We've been doing that very thing for more than a decade and a half, 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 through our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, send or drop off a check made out to our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood, with BBCLP in the memo line. Our mailing address is:
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.
TAKE OUR SURVEY
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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
