Sunny with a chance of culture…

Thursday, 10/11 – 7 pm: The Bird & Beckett Political Book Discussion Group meets to consider George Lakoff’s handbook for progressives:  The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic.

Friday, 10/12 – 5:30 to 8:00 pm: jazz in the bookshop features The Jimmy Ryan Quintet, celebrating ten solid years of Friday evening neighborhood jazz parties, with a nod to the late, much missed, Mary Goode.  If anyone other than the musicians was a cornerstone of the jazz tradition at Bird & Beckett, it was Mary!  Jimmy’s quintet features Henry Hung, trumpet; Danny Grewen, trombone; Scott Foster, guitar; Bishu Chatterjee, bass and Jimmy himself on drums.

Sunday, 10/14 – 2 pm: House of the Unexpected, a collection of poetry by Julie Rogers, will be the centerpiece of a reading by Julie and her husband, the iconic beat poet David Meltzer, whose new collection, When I Was a Poet, was recently published as City Lights Pocket Poets #60.

Sunday, 10/14 – 4:30 to 6:30 pm: which way west?, our Sunday afternoon concert series, deviates slightly in form, as Gerry Fialka reinvents the great book by Mezz Mezzrow (and Bernard Wolfe) called Really the Blues.  Gerry will be joined by jazz musicians to dive into Mezz’s wonderful, pulpy look at the jazz life he led in the 30s, 40s and 50s in the company of the greats — Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, etc., etc.

Monday, 10/15 – 7 pm: POETS!, our twice-monthly series (1st & 3rd Mondays) features Christopher Bernard and Philip Fried, hosted by our resident troubadour, Jerry Ferraz.  Open mic follows.

ruth weiss’ Desert Journal

Tuesday, 10/16 – 7 pm: poet ruth weiss reads from her newly republished classic work Desert Journal, in the company of two New Orleans poets, Dave Brinks and Megan Burns, whose Trembling Pillow Press has brought out ruth’s book.  They’ll be reading from their own books as well:  Dave’s is The Secret Brain: Selected Poems 1995-2012 (Black Widow Press, 2012), while Megan’s is Memorial + Sight Lines (Lavender Ink, 2008). Besides working as poets and operating their own press, Dave and Megan also publish culture/literary mags (“Entrepot” and “Solid Quarter”) and host the long-running weekly poetry series called 17 Poets! – doing more than their part to make the New Orleans literary scene one of the most vital in the country.

As for ruth, she’s simply one of the handful of truly key beat era poets working today– and work she does!  She has three books coming out almost immediately from various European publishers and just returned from an appearance at the Sprachsalz Festival in Innsbruck, Austria.  We’re always proud to host her readings in San Francisco!