653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
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Tuesday to Sunday
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Live Streams every weekend!
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Hot tamales, and they’re red hot, yes, we got ’em for sale! Well, no we don’t, but we got books! Start thinking about Paris! Brand new Lonely Planet France guide just reached the shelf… come in and pick up a copy… get that new Portual guide while you’re at it. If you tell the guy at the register that you were prompted by this post, he’ll offer you 10% off. Merde!, it ain’t Amazon, but it pays your California sales tax, anyway… and you’re doing your neighborhood and your neighbors a favor by throwing business our way.
Read MoreSpeaking of Amazon… Must we? unless it be the river… But back here at home, that giant big box store on the internet continues to throw its weight around. On April 6, they threatened to pull their distribution center out of South Carolina if the state insists on making them collect and remit sales tax. So what else is new? Discounts on Amazon are great and all, but shopping in the neighborhood ensures that you’ve got one to shop in… and the sales taxes you pay keep the streets paved, the sewers clear and the schools open… If you’re still buying your books on Amazon, we’re not sure why you’re looking at our site… but if you’ve gotten that monkey off your back, well heck, we love you to pieces!
Read MorePoets Monday night… and, then, the night train to Lisbon…arriving Wednesday… MONDAY (4/4) – 7:00 to 9:00 pm POETS! Hosted by Jerry Ferraz Jason Morris and Patrick James Dunagan Patrick James Dunagan‘s new book is There Are People Who Say That Painters Shouldn’t Talk: A GUSTONBOOK, just published by the Post-Apollo Press. His work has been published in many magazines, including AMERARCANA 2011: A Bird & Beckett Review. Next month he’ll be at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in NYC. This month, we’ve got him… as for Jason Morris? He writes, he thinks, he tends bar. Pours whiskey, takes money, pays the rent, writes poems. He is the editor of Push Press and author of Spirits and Anchors and the Golden West Notebook. An open mic follows; always erratic, always interesting, it’s worth your while. WEDNESDAY (4/6) – 7:00 to 9:00 pm Bird & Beckett Book Club…
Read MoreWhat Was Communism? We sure as hell ain’t sure… but they’re contemplating the question big time at Kolkata’s Seagull Books. (That’s Calcutta to you!) Specifically, they’re wondering why it’s so abruptly gone by the boards — and whether that implies the death of the associated ideals. Seven volumes in Seagull’s “What Was Communism” series examine the overall mystery, and the individual circumstances in six countries: the USSR, Yugoslavia, China, Cuba, Indonesia and India. The writers (Tariq Ali, Boris Kagarlitsky, Slavenka Drakulic, Mo Yan, Piero Gleijeses, Max Lane and Mahasweta Devi) wonder if the idea of communism has really been so thoroughly discredited that nothing is to be learned from it — and ponder these specific cases for answers, or at least for deeper questions. Series editor Ali muses, “The Communist system lasted 70 years and failed only once. Capitalism has existed for over half a millennium and failed regularly. Why…
Read MoreBooks and Bookstores = Nostalgia? or the Future of Your Ever-Lovin’ Mind??? A reader of our website wondered if it was doing a disservice to one of the local shops we mightily admire to imply that they were “on the ropes” — by which we meant struggling to keep their balance and survive an economic (and real estate) environment that’s forcing them to find a new storefront on terribly short notice. Point made, and taken! We invite your testimonials on the ways your favorite bookshops are managing to forge ahead, or maybe even finding ways to blaze ahead, despite the challenges of the day… This assumes that you yourself are still throwing your business the way of the bricks and mortar establishments and intend to continue to do so… email us at [email protected]!
Read MoreHrabal Rouser…Bop Stop… Voudoun Verite…a String Thing… 4 events, Thursday to Sunday Maybe you wouldn’t think it to look at his picture here, but it’s Bohumil Hrabal’s birthday at Bird & Beckett… On the third Thursday of each month at 7pm, we read from the works of favorite writers born in the month at hand… and Hrabal, who wrote I Served the King of England, Closely Watched Trains and many another great book is definitely one of our favorites. Join us March 24 at 7 pm! Blanche is coming! Then, Friday evening it’s our regular jazz thing, this week with the Chuck Peterson Quintet… that would be Howie Dudune sharing the reed honors with Chuck, with Glen Deardorff on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on drums, with singer Dorothy Lefkovits doing what she does best! Sweet and swinging and thoroughly boppish. Saturday, we sell books. Mention you…
Read MoreHot off the press, on our shelves for your perusal… Three novels we’d be more than happy to read, if only we had the time… maybe you do? Mention reading about any of them in this post, and we’ll knock 15% off the price. Or click on the image and buy it through our online store…
Read MoreGet Lost Books…Cover to Cover…Modern Times…even Borders! Gone or on the ropes… Stacey’s…Cody’s…Black Oak Books! Just a memory… You don’t miss your water…’til your well runs dry! Can I get a witness!? Send your thoughts to [email protected] and we’ll see if we can use them to make the point in a way that resonates with all those who still think that Amazon’s just the slickest way to get a book!
Read MorePEOPLE POWER! language & voice! BIG EASY PIANISTICS! 3 EVENTS: SUNDAY, MARCH 20th 1:30 pm- A worldwide reading in solidarity with jailed dissident poet Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. 3 pm- POET! Mary Winegarden reads from “The Translator’s Sister” 3/20 – 4:30 & 5:30 (2 sets) – which way west? concert Macy Blackman and the Mighty Fines Answering a call by the Berlin International Literature Festival for worldwide simultaneous readings, we…
Read MoreB&B at the Balboa-Philip Guston: A Life Lived + Discussed The Balboa Theatre (Balboa at 37th Avenue) has invited Bird & Beckett to collaborate with them from time to time to present book events paired with films! And so, with great anticipation, we offer you as our first event: Monday, March 14 – 7 pm Bill Berkson + Clark Coolidge in dialogue on the artist Philip Guston, with a rare screening of the 1980 documentary “Philip Guston: A Life Lived.” Program introduced by Patrick James Dunagan UC Press has just published Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures and Conversations, edited by Clark Coolidge, noted poet, musician and a collaborator with Guston in 1991 on the book Baffling Means: Writings/Drawings. Bill Berkson, who himself collaborated with the artist on the 1975 book of poems, Guston: Enigma Variations, is a poet, art writer and corresponding editor for Art in America who for many…
Read MorePoet David Gitin reads from“the journey home” Sunday, March 13th 2 pm Gitin came of age in Buffalo, NY — where he came to know such giants in American poetry as Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Ed Dorn, John Wieners, Robert Kelly and Diane Wakoski. He traveled out to San Francisco in the late ’60s… co-founded Poets Theater with Jim Wilson at the Straight Theater in the Haight-Ashbury…with broadcasts on KPFA…a few brief months…di Prima, Whalen, Geo. Hitchcock… took the tools at hand to publish Bricoleur, whose first issue came out in late 1969 with poems by Michael McClure, David Meltzer, Janine Pommy Vega, Clark Coolidge, Clifford Burke, Charles Amirkhanian, George Oppen, poems from Biafra, from Nahuatl poets, and others… (hear an audio interview on the occasion of the publication of this first issue at http://www.archive.org/details/C_1969_11_29)
Read MoreThe Buru Quartet read it! Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006) The sequence of novels comprising This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps and House of Glass were composed orally while Pramoedya was imprisoned on the Indonesian island Buru, in the Malay Archipelago, where the Suharto regime held thousands of political prisoners. Denied writing materials, Pramoedya told these stories to his fellow prisoners; only later were they written down, smuggled out and eventually published — and banned by the Indonesian government. They reveal much about the human reality of colonial oppression, and Pramoedya’s life speaks volumes about the nature of authoritarian regimes.
Read Morelorin benedict scat vocal scott r. looney piano bishu chatterjee bass bryan bowman drums an afternoon of spontaneous music interrupting the expected sun., mar. 6 4:30/5:30 which way west? a weekly concert series at Bird & Beckett
Read More3 poets – 1 reading Sunday Mar. 6, 2pm Rebecca Foust – Dean Rader – Melissa Stein fresh voices, award winners all, speaking with assurance & grace…
Read MoreYou can help us beat Amazon to kindling! Our sales were 22% lower this February than last… and this, despite a supposedly recovering economy. Thank goodness for the strong community that’s grown up around the bookshop; we’ve got a lot of faith that that’s what will pull us through. Ultimately, nothing will beat the power of individuals pulling together as a group when they recognize their role in keeping their neighborhoods vital. Bird & Beckett is proud to be a community hub in San Francisco, and one that’s particularly keen on giving writers, musicians and others a venue through which to reach the rest of us. But we’re also a bookstore; we need to sell books to stay viable. And, in fact, we’re very keen on helping to keep the physical book itself viable and central to the culture. For some purposes, e-readers have their place, we don’t doubt. And…
Read MorePreviously perused & priced right ALL USED BOOKS 20% OFF THROUGH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27th AT BIRD & BECKETT! It may soon be a bookworld without borders, but let’s do keep it a bookworld, shall we? Throw your kindle on the fire and pull up a comfy chair… adjust your reading light just so… pour a cup of tea. You can paddle up the Amazon another day… Through the end of the month, sneak off to Bird & Beckett to shop for a real live used book and we’ll knock 20% off the tab… Join us Friday evening for jazz in the bookshop with Chuck Peterson’s 230 Jones Street Local 6 Literary Jazz Band… Sunday afternoon, come for Walker’s retelling of Dostoevski’s “The Idiot”… and later that day, hear Pakistani vocalist Riffat Sultana with Ferhan Qureshi on tabla and Shiraz Ali Khan on guitar. Ah bliss!
Read MoreDon’t let the old-time pass you by! Alex Caton & Pete Winne fly in from Virginia to play Bird & Beckett Sunday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 pm on the final day of this year’s Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival. Fiddle, banjo, guitar & sublime Appalachian vocal harmonies bring old-time and sacred tunes to life. From Bird & Beckett, hop BART to Freight & Salvage in Berkeley to catch the Festival’s closing show: SF’s own, sublimely wonderful Crooked Jades, backed by Portland’s Water Tower Bucket Boys, following Central Valley young’un & old soul Frank Fairfield . Here at Bird & Beckett, we hosted Seattle-based Cahalen Morrison & Eli West last weekend, and it was a smash success. Cahalen’s an amazing songwriter and their vocal & instrumental blend is heartstoppingly gorgeous. And Monday, we caught San Francisco’s own Emily Bonn & the Vivants at Amnesia, and were floored by their classic country spunk.
Read MoreThinking about North Africa Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian author of dozens of important and compulsively readable books and Nobel prize winner in 1988, is known for his masterwork, the three-volume Cairo Trilogy, completed in the 1950s; however, after a hiatus of several years, numerous books followed until his death in 2006. Bird & Beckett patrons are invited to email us at [email protected] (using the subject line “books, ideas, insights”) with your assessment of any of his books and the insights they provide into modern Egyptian life, economics and politics. We’d also like your feedback on the work of other writers, so that we can all broaden our view — fiction, history, economics, politics; it’s all important.
Read MorePOETS! hosted by tru-bop master Jerry Ferraz Jerry Ferraz, a native of this soil – Eureka Valley born – a wandering bard of the San Francisco back lanes – painter of the zen comedy, has kept Glen Park and Bird & Beckett on his peripatetic route for many years, tuning the space twice a month for pairs of featured poets and a revolving and ever expanding cast of open mic denizens. Read his poem “Dharma Dream Walk” and others at www.sfheart.com/sfpoets/jerry_ferraz.html Tonight at Bird & Beckett, Monday, Feb. 7, 7-9pm, Jerry presents Robert Anthony and Larry Maykel. Sign up for the open mic at 7pm; open starts at 8. Carlota del Portillo and Priya Kailath sponsor the series, allowing us to pay a small honorarium to the featured poets; your addition of a dollar or two to the pot allows us to honor them, and their art, more fully.
Read MoreTango No. 9 Today, Sunday, Feb. 6, 4:30 to 6:30 pm Two sets of classic, nuevo and original tangos from San Francisco masters of the genre, with vocalist Zoltan DiBartolo!
Read MoreBeckett / Pinter / Wine – PUS plus B&B Saturday, Feb. 5th, 7:30 to 9:30 pm. Wine tasting, food from Destination Bakery, The Cheese Boutique, Canyon Market, Monterey Deli and more, and performances of short theatre pieces by two Nobel prize winning playwrights dear to our hearts, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. Proceeds benefit both PUS (Performers Under Stress) and Bird & Beckett.
Read MoreMoh Alileche: Flag of Freedom Moh Alileche, hailing from the mountainous Kabylia region of Algeria, is a renowned Amazigh (Berber) player of the 12-stringed mondol. Based for the past two decades in the Bay Area, he brings his ensemble back to Bird & Beckett on Sunday, Jan. 30 at 4:30 pm as part of the store’s ongoing Sunday concert series dubbed “which way west?”.  Â
Read MoreRockpile Revisited Sunday, January 30, at 2:00 pm, the poets’ roadshow known as Rockpile rolls into Bird & Beckett. David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg spent several months crisscrossing the country in 2009 with numerous forays out in 2010, converging with poets and musicians in a couple dozen localities, making art from their moment-to-moment experiences.
Read MorePiano Marathon a huge success! From Si Perkoff’s opening Monk tune to Macy Blackman’s killer closing set that encapsulated the whole history of New Orleans piano styles, from Jelly Roll Morton to Dr. John and Henry Butler — with stops along the way for brilliant turns at the piano by Don Alberts, Jon Jang, Randy Craig, Steve Shapiro, Betty Wong, Shirley Wong, Dorothy Lefkovits, Nora Maki, Allison Lovejoy, Rebecca Whittington and Bonnie Knight…
Read MoreNoon to 9 Piano Marathon on Saturday 1/22/11- A Bird & Beckett Benefit! Bring your checkbook! This Saturday, a cavalcade of pianists will coax beautiful music from the Yamaha P22 studio upright piano that we’re raising the money to buy from Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company. If 100 of you put up $25 apiece, the job will be done! More’s the better! No donation is too small, too big or unappreciated! Since its early years on Diamond Street, Bird & Beckett has kept a piano on the premises- some good, some not so good, but none as wonderful as the one we’ve borrowed at no cost from Piedmont Piano this past year. Now, they’d like us to buy the thing, and we’d love to do it! Betty Wong, who plays at 4 pm Saturday, just gave it a workout and told us it “plays like butter”- she urged us, “don’t let…
Read MoreFaust’s Deal with the Devil – Sun. 2:30pm On the fourth Sunday of each month, Walker Brents III plumbs the depths of subjects literary, mythological and historical…Â always a fascinating excursion into the realm of human imagination… Through the years, Walker has gained a loyal audience for his monthly talks at Bird & Beckett… for reasons that will become abundantly clear once you grab a seat and open your ears… This month: Walker takes a look at the classic deal with the devil through the lens of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. 2:30 pm, Sunday, 1/23/11
Read MoreNancy Wright Trio @ which way west? 4:30 to 6:30 this Sunday, January 23, in our weekly concert series, we present a wonderful organ trio, with Wayne Delacruz at the keys and Kent Bryson on the skins, led by the fabulous tenor player Nancy Wright… you heard her here before (with Macy Blackman’s band called the “Mighty Fines”), now hear her in an intimate setting that recalls moments in the best fire-lit lounge in which you’ve ever sipped a highball…
Read MoreRudy Mwongozi w/Paula Hackett Rudy Mwongozi left Oakland for NYC a few years ago, but he’s here on a visit, and we’re thrilled to have him back on Sun., Jan. 16 at 4:30 at the Bird & Beckett piano — a might better piano than before, we might add — one we’re saving up to buy (come back Jan. 22 to help us pull that off!) Rudy’s a marvel & plays every part of the instrument, digging into those keys and strings like no one else. Today, he’ll be joined by his good friend and collaborator, Paula Hackett, a poet who Rudy backed to terrific effect on her cd, “Roulette.”
Read MoreOR: The Otis Review Editor & poet Paul Vangelisti will be up from Los Angeles for this reading, joined by Neeli Cherkovski, Art Beck and Michael Rothenberg. Sunday, January 16 at 2 pm.
Read MoreScholars of the Arab Empire Dr. Wajih Ibrahim Saadeh has synthesized his knowledge of the development of Arab thought, its roots and its influence on Western ideas in a series of books. His lecture on Sunday, Jan. 16, at 1 pm will set forth an overview of Arab philosophy and its effect on the European enlightenment.
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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!
Your donation to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project helps us pay for a multitude of operating expenses necessary to present, promote and preserve local music, poetry, and more.
Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!
The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project was created in 2007 "to present, document and archive the creative work of significant living writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, for a neighborhood audience and future generations." We've been doing that very thing for more than a decade and a half, continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
Due to lapses in tax filings during and post-pandemic, the BBCLP's status as a registered nonprofit was suspended at the beginning of April 2024 while we reapply, which is expected to take about six months. Donations made after April 1st will not be tax-deductible until nonprofit status is restored.
However, we continue to present a full slate of programming live music and poetry, and producing literary chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support in the interim. If a tax-deduction is not a major reason for your support to date, we hope you'll continue to ride with us while we navigate these next several months.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above, drop off a check at the bookshop, or drop one in the mail to:
Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the 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 [Read More ]
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
