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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]
Sunday, March 9th – 4:30-6:30 pm
Betty Wong & CMC Friends
in a transcultural musical celebration of the Year of the Horse!
Happy New Year! Â Celebrate with us the Chinese Year of the Horse — and the advent of Daylight Savings Time: Â come and enjoy a multicultural concert featuring faculty and friends of San Francisco’s Community Music Center! Yi Ming Li, guqin (ancient Chinese zither) Peter Frentzel, shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) Betty Wong, huluxi (Chinese folk…
“Basic Mysteries”
David Meltzer seminar
on poetry & poetics
Tuesday, March 4th – 7-10 pm
Call the bookshop for reservations – 415-586-3733. $40 tuition David Meltzer, a poet whose roots are in the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat eras, will explore some of the “basic mysteries” of poetry & poetics in three sessions spaced over five weeks. David’s thoughts on the poetic calling range from the discipline’s roots in oral culture…
Sunday, March 2nd – 4:30-6:30 pm
Jinx Jones & His Jazz-A-Billy All-Stars!
which way west? Sunday concert series
Jinx Jones, king of the hollow body geetar, master of countless genres, avatar of the swing to rock from pure country to hard bop, visits Bird & Beckett as winter fades away with his jazzy little trio that’ll take you from Bob Wills to Thelonius Monk via Charlie Pride, Hank Williams, Hank Garland, Wes Montgomery,…
Sunday, March 2nd – 2 pm
Writers Bill Berkson & Elizabeth Block
read new poetry
Bill Berkson is a poet, art critic & corresponding editor for Art in America, who for many years taught literature & art history at the SF Art Institute. Director of Letters and Science at the Art Institute from 1993 to 1998, he taught art history, critical writing & poetry & directed the public lectures program…
poems are angels
a solo reading by
Diane di Prima
Saturday, March 1st, 6:30 p.m.
second of two readings
by popular demand!
reservations required–
call the bookshop!
For this fundraising evening to help poet Diane di Prima meet some of her ongoing medical expenses, she will read work from a recent collection,entitled “Poems Are Angels” and we’ll also offer for sale a limited edition broadside produced for the evening as well as several pieces of her art. Diane will also read some…
Sunday, February 23rd, 4:30 pm
Classical guitar concert
Ross Thompson,
with students Harry Trump and others
Ross Thompson, San Francisco-based composer and concert guitarist, is widely known throughout the Bay Area as a passionate interpreter and inspired creative force in the classical guitar tradition. He has received numerous commissions for original music and has released five recordings, including the acclaimed Winter’s Book. He recently served as the composer-in-residence for the California Shakespeare Festival, and…
Sunday, February 16th – 4:30 pm
Violin & Piano Sonatas
Violinist Drew Cranfill and pianist Manu Petaia perform a program of sonatas by Bach, Mozart and Brahms, in solo and duo format.
Sunday, February 16th, 2:00 pm
Third Verse: Jesse Nathan,
Benjamin Paloff, Alissa Valles
A reading and discussion of new work by poets, translators and editors Jesse Nathan, Benjamin Paloff, and Alissa Valles. Jesse Nathan’s poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, the Nation, jubilat, and elsewhere. He’s a founding editor of the McSweeney’s Poetry Series, and the former managing editor of the Best American Nonrequired Reading. Nathan…
Sunday, February 9th,
two extremes of beauty!
rock n’ roll plus a string quartet!
1 pm – The Optimals
4:30 pm – The Temescal Quartet
At 1:00 pm, some neighborhood youths will strap on guitars & all the rest for a set of rock ‘n’ roll — They’re The Optimals & they’re ready to take on the world… At 4:30, we’ll bring it right down to the sweet spot where The Temescal String Quartet will set the bookshop atmosphere vibrating with…