San Francisco writers, predominantly writers of color, have some things to say in this volume about the state of things. Timely and crucial work by “ordinary people,” many of whom are already known as important voices in the struggles that are going on around us as of this historical moment. Editor Shizue Seigel established a workshop “Write Now” a decade ago that has brought out the voices of an impressive legion of clear thinking and engaged citizens of this city that has always held so much promise, and is coveted by capitalistic forces that despite their best efforts can’t stifle our aspirations, accomplishments and promise.  

Jacqueline Berger’s fourth book, The Day You Miss Your Exit, was published by Broadstone Books in February. Her previous books include The Gift That Arrives Broken, winner of the 2010 Autumn House Poetry Prize, and Things That Burn, selected by Mark Strand as the 2004 winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize. Her poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writers Almanac and has been published in numerous anthologies and journals, including The Iowa Review, American Poetry: The Next Generation, On The Verge, Old Dominion Review, Rhino, River Styx, and Nimrod. She directs the Master of Arts in English program at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont and lives in San Francisco. Thomas Centolella has published four books of poetry: Terra Firma, Lights & Mysteries, Views from along the Middle Way, and Almost Human. His poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Parthenon West Review, Ploughshares,…

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with financial support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, present Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F a series of six concerts beginning April Fools Day and concluding May 20th   April 21st animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics John Shiruba, electric and acoustic guitars and preparations read more on Phillip Greenlief here: https://www.bayimproviser.com/artist/117/phillip-greenlief   The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists: — April Fool’s Day, Ouroboros Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums — April 18th, Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 poets and 1 pianist –  April 20th,  Drummer Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass — April 21st, animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text…

we’ll tellya more soon… both great players, and sympatico to boot. if you know, you know, and if you don’t, and you come, you’ll find out. hallelujah, eh linda?      

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with financial support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, present Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F a series of six concerts beginning April Fools Day and concluding May 20th   April 18th: Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 Poets working with 1 Pianist   The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists: — April Fool’s Day, Ouroboros Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums — April 18th, Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 poets with 1 pianist –  April 20th,  Drummer Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass — April 21st, animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics John Shiruba, electric and acoustic guitars and preparations — May 5th, Dark Metals David Boyce, saxophones/EFX David Ewell, bass Cairo McCockran,…

“Ken Fowser’s fluid phrasing and melodic approach to improvising developed as a result of his exposure to the rich musical legacy of the Philly Sound, following in time with the rhythmic footsteps of John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Philly Joe Jones, Benny Golson and The Heath Brothers.” “Bruneau plays with clarity, exuberance and swagger…with a sophisticated harmonic palate…soul and beauty…brash or pretty…he’s a natural jazz musician.” Touring out of New York City, saxophonist Ken Fowser and trumpeter Josh Bruneau will be coming into Bird & Beckett Tuesday night fresh off a five-night run at The Black Cat in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District — fully tuned up and wailing. From here, it’s the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver, Philly, then back to NYC where they’ll take up where they left off with a weekly Friday night booking at The Django, a jazz cave in Tribeca’s Roxy Hotel. Fowser and Bruneau are…

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project and the Jazz Philanthropists Union, with financial support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, present Alternative Acts: Seeking Truth Above #F a series of six concerts beginning April Fools Day and concluding May 20th   April 20th: Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 Raffi Garabedian, tenor sax Zach Ostroff, bass Scott Amendola, drums   The “Alternative Acts” series is devoted to improvised and other avant garde musical approaches by locally based artists: — April Fool’s Day, Ouroboros Sheldon Brown and Joseph Noble, reeds; Andrew Joron, theremin; Clark Coolidge, drums — April 18th, Dalachinsky:Cherkovski:Coolidge:Earl 3 poets with 1 pianist –  April 20th,  Drummer Scott Amendola’s 3-in-1 with Raffi Garabedian, saxophone and Zach Ostroff, bass — April 21st, animals and giraffes Phillip Greenlief, saxphones and Bb clarinet Claudia La Rocco, text and voice Danishta Rivero, voice and electronics John Shiruba, electric and acoustic guitars and preparations — May 5th, Dark Metals David Boyce,…

  Don Alberts, an extraordinary bop-influenced jazz pianist and a prolific writer in many veins – whether music, poetry, fiction,  or cultural history, leads a dynamic trio that loves to swing and is ready to go in any direction afforded by the modern jazz idiom! Drummer Ron Marabuto and bassist Larry Epstein are fully up to Don’s plans for an evening of jazz and be-bop-Bud Powell, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie and a slew of Don’s originals.  

New music for jazz sextet by the Lisa Mezzacappa Six, inspired by Italo Calvino’s stories on the history of the universe – developed in a series of salon performances at Bird & Beckett beginning tonight and concluding Saturday, November 3rd. Aaron Bennett, tenor saxJohn Finkbeiner, guitarMark Clifford, vibesTim Perkis, electronicsLisa Mezzacappa, bassJordan Glenn, drumsBookstore Residency & Work-in-Progress Salons4 Thursdays at 7:30pm April 19/May 24/July 5/Sept 13 $10 Suggested Donation Concert FinaleSaturday, Nov 3 at 7:30pm $20 cover chargeBay Area bassist and composer Lisa Mezzacappa visits with her sextet for a five-concert residency beginning April 19th and ending November 3rd, to develop a new suite of music inspired by Italo Calvino’s extraordinary “Cosmicomics” stories. Over a series of Thursday evening salons, Lisa and her colleagues will explore new music drawn from Calvino’s supremely imaginative play on incidents in the history of the universe and the invisible forces at work in the…

Randy Newman anyone? The Kinks? Whatever the Hillbilllies want to do!! C’mon out!    

Dineh man, editor, poet. Chickasaw woman, two-spirit, language warrior. Cherokee laureate. Who wouldn’t want to come to Bird & Beckett for that!? (Sorry, but airline problems have interfered with Jenny Davis’s travel plans, and she won’t be able to make the reading on Sunday! So Kim has recruited EK Keith to pinch hit! No tragedy, that! EK is a local hero, a wonderful poet and a deep soul! A teacher by day, a bohemian by nature, we all love EK!) The poems in Bojan Louis’s poetry collection, Currents, explore American identity and the powers of myth, faith, doubt, and the environment, and the music of these poems resonate with strains of the English, Spanish, and Diné languages. Louis, who has worked as a construction worker and electrician, moves fluently between the literal and symbolic dimensions of work, as he writes in the poem “Electricity”: “Any laborer gathered for a tear-out /…

Noel Jewkes, saxophone Grant Levin, piano Aaron Cohn, bass Mark Lee, drums Bird & Beckett’s Saturday night “jazz club” series kicked off in July of 2014 with a quartet led by the phenomenal young pianist Grant Levin and featuring veteran saxophonist Noel Jewkes. After nearly four years of consecutive Saturdays, we present these wonderful musicians once again this Saturday night, in two sets highlighted by a generous number of originals and arrangements by Mr. Jewkes!  Noel Jewkes has set the standard among San Francisco jazz saxophone players for decades, since moving here from Utah where he grew up in a musical family — playing Salt Lake City clubs and area resorts and traveling widely through the region with his uncle’s big band. Starting out here as a jazz player in the early 1960s, he didn’t shy away from the late 1960s rock and roll scene – playing in the all-girls-but-one…

Denise Perrier is celebrated from Havana to St. Petersburg and here at home for her elegant contralto, for her phrasing and swing, for her unparalleled interpretation of tunes drawn from the jazz canon and the Great American Songbook — the timeless popular music that poured out of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and the little offices and garrets of songwriters across the land from the teens and ’20s through the 1950s. Her place among the top rank of San Francisco’s jazz vocalists is unquestioned. Fortunately for us, her affection for the Bird & Beckett stage and audience brings her out to Glen Park, to our intimate room with 35 seats and space for a dozen more avid standing room guests… Tonight, pianist Grant Levin, bassist Ruth Davies and drummer Daria ‘Shani’ Johnson provide the rhythm section, and vocalist Larry Smith will sing a few tunes as well. Kim Nally & Jerry…

  Ritmojito features vocalist Sandra Aran, with Richard Nelson Hall on piano, Dean Muench on bass and Dan Foltz, drums. Superbly crafted songs with deep latin jazz grooves, salsa to ska to samba. This is a date you won’t want to miss!