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 to the invention/ mythologies of writing systems, the book and the page, and the return to orality.  Some of the material covered comes from his book, Two Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook.  Other material is from lectures originally given in the graduate Poetics Program at New College of California — exploring divination, the prophetic, Kabbalah, & the possibility & impossibility of language.

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 there from 1984 to 2007. He is the author of many books of poetry & prose including Portrait & Dream: New & Selected Poems, published by Coffee House Press in 2009.  Bill will read from his latest poetry collection, Snippets (Omerta, 2014). Elizabeth Block is the author of the novel A Gesture Through Time, written under fiscal sponsorship of Intersection for the Arts, in San Francisco.  She is the recipient of a Doris Roberts/ William Goyen fiction fellowship from the Christopher Isherwood foundation and many other awards and residencies. Also a filmmaker, her films have traveled…

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 poems at random from the notebooks she fills while at concerts and readings, stimulated by the moment and the surroundings — these are the journals she identifies by their covers… the black notebook, the cork notebook, and so on. Diane’s February 1st event sold out!  However, Diane has agreed to read again one month later – on Saturday, March 1st – so reserve now. All of the seats and much of the available standing room has already been reserved by folks who couldn’t squeeze into Diane’s first reading, so call now if you want to…

Tonight, poet QR Hands “trades fours” with improvising pianist Walter Earl. Trading fours is a jazz tradition, where members of an ensemble take turns stepping up to the mic for short solo bursts over the length of the standard jazz chorus.  Take our word for it, it’s energized and exciting & these two individuals are guaranteed to take it to a level that will leave you wanting more… but inevitably, we’ll take a break around 8 pm, and will follow that with our open mic, which traditionally kicks off with a song or poem by m.c. Jerry Ferraz, who can be uncanny in his channeling of the bardic wanderers of yore, and concludes with a tale or a poem by resident storytelling mystic Walker Brents III. Our featured performers, QR Hand and Walter Earl, are both fascinating & hugely talented.  You won’t be disappointed.  Worth coming out in the cold…