Rural blues from the San Francisco masters of the form HowellDevine Joshua Howell, harp, guitar, vocals Pete Devine, traps, washboard, percussion, jug Joe Kyle, Jr., bass

  Maxine Chernoff will read her poems from Camera (2016) and Under the Music, forthcoming 2019. She has won an NEA grant and the PEN Translation Award, and has been a visiting writer at The American Academy in Rome. Neeli Cherkovski has been a key post-beat poet and essayist, from his days in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s to his long tenure in San Francisco. His latest book of poems, Elegy for My Beat Generation, was published earlier this year by Lithic Press.   [arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wj8t40CP2M” /]

Sunday mornings while you’re browsing, you’ll hear Jerry Ferraz playing his guitar, singing the occasional song. Not a concert setting, but you’re welcome to find a seat — whether to listen more closely or to peruse a book.  Jerry has been sighted around San Francisco since he was a kid growing up in Eureka Valley in the 1950s. Early on, he began toting a half-pint guitar, serenading children and bus riders, workers at construction sites, passersby. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, he was known in poetry circles all over the city, and since the early days of the bookshop,  he’s run our twice-monthly poetry series. Of Burmese descent, Jerry’s spirit and sensibilities derive in equal parts from poetic and philosophical traditions of the far east, from the lyric traditions of the 12th century troubadours of Provence and the Languedoc in the south of France, from the terrain and culture of…

A musical journey, composed and presented by Danny Bittker (diverse woodwinds) along with a caravan of wonderful Bay Area musicians: Jesse Foster-vocal and percussion; Lee Heuermann-vocal, flute; Scott Foster-guitar; Alex Baum-bass; Jason Levis-drums; Mara Fox-trombone; Cote Reese-piano; Danny Bittker-reeds Exciting and compelling sound and rhythm; something old new borrowed and yes….blue

Joe Cohen, saxophone Scott Foster, guitar Adam Gay, bass Omar Aran, drums The moon isn’t just for June anymore!      Let Scott’s quartet fly you there tonight!

Litquake comes to Glen Park, courtesy of Bird & Beckett! Calle 24 Showcase! A dozen poets associated with the reading and writing series that convenes regularly at the Mission District’s United Booksellers (Alley Cat Books and Adobe Books) read from their collective chapbook at Bird & Beckett, the Glen Park bookstore with a mission to present and preserve the City’s vital literary arts, culture and music. With San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck, Josiah Luis Alderete, Simon Crafts, Flavia Elisa, Thea Matthews, Linda Noel, Raul Ruiz, Denise Sullivan, Ricardo Tavarez, and special guests.

Kim Shuck, San Francisco Poet Laureate, reads in the company of Lee Slonimsky. An open mic follows, hosted by Jerry Ferraz.

Dan Neville presents Música del Pacífico (Colombian marimba) featuring Ali Cuama & Adrian Sabogal Join us for a rare opportunity to see Colombia’s “Música del Pacífico” performed live, featuring one of the true masters of the music, Ali Cuama. Ali comes from a lineage of master marimba players from Buenaventura, Colombia, and will be joined by fellow Colombian educator and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Sabogal. Accompanying them will be Bay Area’s Dan Neville on percussion and Gabe Case, known as straight-lace no-chase, on the bass. Música del Pacífico is a music that has thrived in the jungles of rural Pacific Coast Colombia, and until recently has remained unknown to the world. It is a style of music that features the marimba, as well as several types of drums and percussion that are specific to the Pacific Coast region. We are excited to present traditional material from these regions, as well as our…

Joe Goldmark, pedal steel guitar. Mitch Polzak, lead guitar and vocals. Hank Maninger, bass guitar and vocals. Kenny Owen, drums. $10-20 suggested donation. $5 for students/musicians/fixed income.

$10-20 suggested donation; $10 suggested for students / musicians / low income. San Francisco’s Canadian Jazz All-Stars! Nicest, slammin’-ist jazz band you can imagine!! Darren Johnston, trumpet Mike Zilber, saxophone John Wiitala, bass Tim Bulkley, drums Darren Johnston plays a burnished trumpet and wears many hats… that is to say, plays in a panoply of configurations, usually leading, always playing that horn, often singing, doing a lot of the composing. He can’t be pigeonholed and he’s always been a delight. Watch for him here on New Years Eve, too!

“Poetry brings sanity to an insane world,” say the editors of the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal. “We’re maybe the sort of utopia of an old Chinese poet writing poems and dropping them into the stream.” The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal is still going strong! This issue is Volume 38, Number 1! Chock full of nuts! Sanest folks on the planet! Help us  & save us! Among the local contributors in this issue are Cesar Love, Sue Doro, Brian K. Turner, Andrena Zawinski, Stephen Kopel, Rocio Ramirez, Will Walker, Alice Rogoff, K.R. Morrison, Melen Lunn, Raina Hunter, Grace Marie Grafton, Eileen Malone. Come celebrate, but BYOB! The State forbids us to intoxicate you with anything but good literature (and music, when time allows).

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project & the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with the support of Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund and you!, present The Matt Renzi Quartet $20 cover charge; $10 for students / musicians / low income Matt Renzi – saxophone, clarinet Leonard Thompson – piano David Ambrosio – bass Russ Meissner – drums At Bird & Beckett tonight, Matt Renzi will be joined by pianist Leonard Thompson, bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Russ Meissner. Renzi’s jazz activity spans the country and the Atlantic. He maintains working trios in both New York (where his trio with Ambrosio and Meissner is based) and Rome. Renzi continues to work with both trios but is now based in San Francisco, where he was born and raised. Renzi’s father, the late Paul Renzi, was principal flautist with the San Francisco Symphony for 60 years, from 1944 when he was…