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!

Sunday, July 10th – 2 pm
A Celebration of Whitman McGowan!

UKfrontcoverJoin Margery Snyder and friends of Whitman McGowan to celebrate his masterwork, UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE (Viridiana, 2015), collected performance texts 1985 – 2012, published one year ago, just a few months before he died in October 2015.

As his CDs revealed his gift for fruitful collaboration with musicians & other artists, so this book shows off the interplay between Whitman’s words & the amazing images created by his scratchboard illustrator & Espresso Bar compadre Bruce Litz. It’s a beautiful book, with many of Whitman’s best-remembered rants, songs & monologues—and even if you know his stuff, you’re sure to discover a few new or forgotten gems.

We’ll be reading (or chanting) some of Whitman’s best pieces, listening to his recordings & generally letting the memories of Whitman’s unique presence & performance bounce around the bookstore. Please join us!

Uncommon KnowledgeRead the SF Chronicle article by Steve Rubenstein on Whitman after he passed away.  Rubenstein writes, “Whitman McGowan, a San Francisco coffeehouse poet, assembled words like the parts of an antique pocket watch and made each one fit precisely and do his bidding. He performed in dark clubs to devoted audiences who were as passionate about the English language as he was.
He was funny, loud, bold, oversize, profane, tender and always honest.”

whitmanrelaxingatthecoast

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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project

Our events are put on under the umbrella of the nonprofit 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 501(c)(3) non-profit...
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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

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