BIRD & BECKETT CULTURAL LEGACY PROJECT
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project presents twenty-odd events every month in the bookshop, including at least 3 live concerts each week, plus poetry readings, talks, and all manner of cultural happenings.
See below for info on our next several events, or click here to view our extended calendar for details on events a bit further out.
Seating is limited! For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. BYOB.
Copies of Julien Poirier’s Mansions My Mouth Made (Bird & Beckett, 2025) can be had over the counter at the bookshop and via post through the online store of Impart Ink, where the thing was designed, printed, and assembled: 32 pages, hand-sewn in wrappers printed letterpress from Onyx type on Canson papers in a variety of hues. Yours will be 1 of only 100 copies ever to exist in this world, so don’t wait, or it may be too late… Come to the reading at Bird & Beckett February 12th! Julian will be joined by fellow poet Tongo Eisen-Martin, activist and San Francisco Poet Laureate Emeritus, 2021-2024.
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Henry Hung, trumpet. Scott Foster, guitar. Charles Thomas, bass. Mark Lee, drums. byob, and a twenty for the band! A note from Scott, as we approach this date — the last in his long-running 6pm Third-Fridays happy hour shows (though not the end of Scott’s Third-Fridays residency at Bird & Beckett, which will continue with a 7:30pm start time in May, et seq.). Says Scott, “For close to 25 years, happy hour Fridays at Bird and Beckett has been part of our lives. In fact it has changed my life in so many ways by giving me the opportunity to grow as a musician — from the very earliest days, as the youngster amidst the masters learning repertoire and details about the music, to more recent opportunities to challenge myself by putting together bands that have stretched me into new musical landscapes. In the end, it has always been about the…
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Poetry + Live Music! _____ Thursday, February 12, 7:30pm: Julien Poirier + Tongo Eisen-Martin [poets: book release] {free} _____ Friday, February 13, 6:00pm: Eric & the In Crowd [2nd Fridays residency] {$20 cash / byob; students $10; kids free} _____ Friday, February 13, 8:30pm: Kahil El’Zabar & the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble [On tour] {$35 cash / byob; students $10 standing room} _____ Saturday, February 14, 7:30pm: Threetles [Valentine’s Day Trio] {$20 cash / byob} _____ Sunday, February 15, 5:00pm: Vince Lateano Trio w/Chris Aschman [3rd Sundays residency] {$20 cash / byob; students $10; kids free} _____ Reserve a seat by calling the bookshop at (415) 586-3733. We’ll hold your reservation until the music starts. No advance ticket sales; plan to pay with cash at the door, and byob. _____ MORE DETAILS: Thursday, February 12, 7:30pm – doors open at 7pm free / byob Julien Poirier + Tongo Eisen-Martin…
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Poetry twice! Jazz thrice! Chamber Music eince! _____ Tuesday, February 3, 7:00pm {free}: Kim Shuck & Friends [poetry] _____ Thursday, February 5, 7:00pm {free}: Tehmina Khan & Florencia Milito [poetry with open mic] _____ Friday, February 6, 6:00pm {$20}: Jimbo Trout & the Fishpeople [ec;ectic] _____ Friday, February 6, 8:30pm {$25}: Alon Nechushtan Quintet [jazz] _____ Saturday, February 7, 7:30pm {$20}: Benny Amón’s New Orleans Pearls [trad jazz] _____ Sunday, February 8, 1:00pm: The Lowell Ensemble presents “A Musical Tour of Glen Park” A fundraising concert for Glen Park Beautiful and its project to beautify the pedestrian overpass on Bosworth at Glen Park Elementary School! info here: https://www.glenparkassociation.org/youre-invited-a-musical-tour-of-glen-park-to-benefit-glen-park-beautiful/ _____ Reserve a seat for our shows by calling the bookshop at (415) 586-3733. We’ll hold your reservation until the music starts. No advance ticket sales; plan to pay with cash at the door, and byob. NB: To attend the Glen Park Beautiful…
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Matt Renzi, reeds Jesse Levit, saxophone & EWI Alon Nechustan, piano Sam Bevan, bass Isaac Schwartz, drums $25 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. For reservations, call 415-586-3733. Alon Nechushtan’s music has brought him to corners of the globe from the Yokohama ‘Rejoicing Sounds’ Festival in Japan with his contemporary orchestral compositions, to the Manila Cultural Center of the Arts with his Clarinet Concerto for the Philippines Philharmonic Orchestra, to the Sao-Paolo Brazil Jewish Music Festival with his groove based Quintet TALAT, to Toronto and Montreal with his Words Beyond Trio and Tel Aviv New Music Biennale with his Compositions for Large Ensemble. And to Bird & Beckett with these compositions and this fine quintet. Alon has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Central Park Summer Stage, The Blue Note Jazz Club with his projects as a band leader of various groups and as an in-demand sideman. The Kennedy Center, in 2015 commissioned from Alon a…
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JimBo Trout, guitar and vocals Steve Neil, bass Ken Owen, drums $20 suggested cover; byob. Students $10; kids free. No reservations typically necessary, but feel free to call if you need more than a couple of seats – 415-586-3733, JimBo knows hundreds of tunes and his trio can handle whatever he pulls out of his hat. Nothing but good times, ranging freely over musical territory that includes bluegrass, swamp-blues, swing, honky-tonk country, cowboy, folk, ragtime, jazz, Latin, early rock+roll, jug band, New Orleans, and old-time mountain music. Here’s video of his last show at Bird & Beckett:
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Bird & Beckett hosts an open mic for poets on the first Thursday of each month, with two featured poets leading off at 7pm followed by the open at 8pm. Bring three minutes worth of poetry to read, or just come to enjoy the work of the poets! BYOB. No reservations required. Michael Koch and Jerry Ferraz host. Tonight’s featured poets are Tehmina Khan and Florencia Milito. Tehmina Khan is a community-based poet raised by immigrant scientists. She has spent her adult life writing, teaching, resisting, and mothering. Tehmina has taught science to preschoolers, citizenship to octogenarians, and poetry translation to elementary school students; now she teaches writing at UC Berkeley and Poetry for the People City College of San Francisco, where she defends everyone’s right to learn and to speak. Tehmina lives, writes, rides her bicycle, creates community, and loves on Ohlone lands, within a multigenerational family web. Florencia Milito is a bilingual poet, writer, translator, and…
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Kim Shuck is joined by friends and fellow poets! BYOB and raise a toast to a key figure in the poetry world in the Bay Area and far beyond!
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Poetry – Fiction – Jazz x5 Tuesday, January 27, 7:00pm: Nellie Wong Memorial Reading [Poetry reading] {free} _____ Thursday, January 29, 5:30pm: Novelists Tara Dorabji & Betty Shamieh moderated by Sabina Khan-Ibarra [Author Event] {free} _____ Friday, January 30, 8:30pm: Vaughn Cannon Quartet {$20}. _____ Saturday, January 31, 5:30pm: Erik Jekabson Quintet {$20}. _____ Saturday, January 31, 7:30pm: Dawn Lambeth w/ Marc Caparone, Mikiya Matsuda & Jeff Hamilton {$20} _____ Sunday, February 1, 5:00pm: Next Gen Jam w/ Urban High School Bebop Combo {$} _____ Sunday, February 1, 7:30pm: Craig Handy Quartet featuring Sylvia Cuenca {$20} _____ Scroll down for details! Reserve a seat by calling the bookshop at (415) 586-3733. We’ll hold your reservation until the music starts. No advance ticket sales; plan to pay with cash at the door, and byob. _____~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~Five great jazz dates Friday to Sunday!~~~ All great! Details below! Call…
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Kevin Gerzevitz, piano. Ari Munkres, bass. Tim Bulkley, drums. $20 cover; byob. Students, $10. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Pianist and composer Herbie Nichols was a marvelously singular musician and wrote many beautiful and often complex tunes much admired by modern jazz musicians and aficionados, though relatively obscure to the popular jazz audience, including House Party Starting and Serenade (recorded by Billie Holiday as “Lady Sings the Blues”). The trio pays tribute in two sets of music.
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Tango No. 9 has been making audiences swoon for two decades with their exquisite and charming sets, and we’re overheated with excitement every time they hit the stage in our cozy little bookshop. The group comprises violinist Catharine Clune, pianist Joshua Raoul Brody and trombonist Greg Stephens, together with the dashing Zoltan DiBartolo, who vocalizes those Argentinian, Spanish and Italian tunes that stir the soul. From Astor Piazzola’s Buenos Aires and Paris to your own fog shrouded city of love, they deliver music that is haunting, inspiring and soulfully satisfying. Byob, and a twenty for the band! For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733.
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Remembering the good times, and still living them… There’s jazz every Friday at Bird & Beckett, these days with a 6pm jazz happy hour and an 8:30 extra show. If you’ve just caught wind of what goes on here, then come on down. You’ll find a gem in the rough you only imagined might still exist in the magical city that is San Francisco. It’s drummer Tony Johnson’s 230 Jones Street Band tonight in the 6pm Jazz Happy Hour, with Charlie McCarthy on saxophone, Sam Cady on piano and Chuck Bennett on bass, veteran players who came up with bebop and who’ve played all the styles that bebop took off from and spawned in the decades since swing was king. And at 8:30pm, Tango No. 9 takes the stage with their unique take on Argentina’s marvelous musical export, with Catharine Clune on violin, Greg Stephens on trombone, Joshua Raoul Brody…
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Funk – Jazz – Tango – Jazz – Jam Session _____ Thursday, January 22, 7:30pm: Fog City Groove [Soul/Funk/Worldbeat] {$20} _____ Friday, January 23, 6:00pm: 230 Jones Street Band [Hard Bop]{$20} _____ Friday, January 23, 8:30pm: Tango No. 9 [Tango Nuevo y Más] {$20} _____ Saturday, January 24, 7:30pm: Kevin Gerzevitz Trio [plays Herbie Nichols] {$20} _____ Sunday, January 25, 5:00pm: Jam Session/Vince Lateano Trio [jazz] {$20} _____ Reserve a seat by calling the bookshop at (415) 586-3733. We’ll hold your reservation until the music starts. No advance ticket sales; plan to pay with cash at the door, and byob. _____ Thursday, January 22, 7:30–9:30pm {$20, $10 for students; kids free} Fog City Groove Soul/Funk/Worldbeat Shelley Sorenson, vocals/flute; Lisa Hartmeyer, tenor sax; Lear Blitzstein, bari sax; John Brixie, keys; Matt Flynn, guitar; Brian Bishop, congas; John Sweet, bass; Tom Misage, drums Friday, January 23, 6:00–8:00pm {$20, $10 for students; kids…
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Thursday, January 15, 7:30 – 9:00pm {no charge, donations welcome} Walker Talks…a live streamed rumination from the darkened shop. Walker Brents III on the mythopoeic California of Ursula Le Guin. Walker addresses topics in poetry, mythology & folklore, philosophy and more, once a month. Find Walker’s talks on our YouTube channel or Facebook page; or at showtime, right at the top of this website. Audiences in the store are welcome (knock on the window for admission, and bring $5 or $10 for Walker), but this is primarily a live streamed program. Friday, January 16, 6:00 – 8:00pm {$20 suggested cover charge; pay what you can. $5 for students; kids free} Scott Foster Combo The Masters Series Charlie McCarthy, saxophone Scott Foster, guitar Luke Schwartz, guitar Scott Foster, long considered our favorite guitarist, has been a consistent presence on the Bird & Beckett stage for nearly a quarter century, since…
Read MoreLive Streaming every show!
Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress, or visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
Better yet, come on down to the shop and join the performers in our one-of-a-kind space!
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
Donate!
Your tax-deductible donations to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project help us pay the performers and cover a myriad of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Make a one-time or recurring donation via Paypal, by clicking below, or make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
