653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six
Live Streams every weekend!
Refresh your browser to catch a show in progress!
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But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
which way west? Sunday concert series. All ages welcome! No cover charge, but your generous donations make it possible for us to pay the musicians. Sunday, Jan. 27 – 4:30-6:30 pm: The Bay Area Jazz All-Stars. Mark Levine is widely known (with a couple of Grammy nominations) for his Latin jazz work, but he’s no less a superb straight-ahead player who studied early on with Hall Overton and Jaki Byard and has done solid work with the likes of Woody Shaw, Blue Mitchell, Joe Henderson, Harold Land and Dave Liebman. For this date, he’s assembled a quintet that can easily cover all that territory, call it jazz of the Americas, if you will. He’s dubbed this group the Bay Area Jazz All-Stars, and it features Chuck MacKinnon on trumpet, Al Bent on trombone, John Wiitala on bass and Ron Marabuto on drums. All of these players have been among the…
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7 p.m. – Two accomplished writers take entirely different ends of the spectrum as their starting point in memoirs of humor, insight and no small measure of narrative grace. Lucille Lang Day’s Married at Fourteen tells the tale of her young life and its trajectory, while Herbert Gold’s Not Dead Yet takes up the other end of the spectrum. Both sparkle with wit and feisty independent spirit. It’ll be a Saturday evening to remember in Glen Park’s literary center as these two accomplished writers and kindred spirits hold forth at Bird & Beckett, reading from their latest books. Make time to stay for the book signing and casual conversation to follow. Lucy Lang Day writes, “I started seriously looking for a husband when I was twelve. I’d had enough of being a child, enough of being told what to do. I was unhappy at school; I resented homework; I didn’t…
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Seven events over eight days… and one more on Super Bowl Sunday (before the game!) Friday, the 25th, 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.: Come down to the shop after work for The Chuck Peterson Quintet, summoning up the golden days when West Coast jazz hipped the fans to driving bebop solos on a pillow of laid back but rich harmonic invention… This is the group also known as The 230 Jones Street, Local 6 Literary Jazz Band, led by flute player Chuck Peterson with the able reedman Howard Dudune fronting a rhythm section comprising Glen Deardorff on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on drums. Saturday, the 26th, 7:00 p.m.: Writers Lucille Lang Day and Herbert Gold read from their memoirs, Married at 14 (Day) and Not Dead Yet (Gold). Gold has been an important writer since the 1950s, long associated with the Beats, but that’s far from all.…
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Sunday, Jan. 27 at 2:30 p.m. A talk on the poet in the time of America’s greatest trial, his work amidst the intense misery of the hospital wards bringing him face to face with the suffering wrought by the national suicide then in progress. The experience was inevitably incorporated into his evolving poetic persona, resulting not only in several unchallenged literary masterpieces but also spawning a new species of mythical-spiritual being, arising not from classical civilization but out of an American democracy which persists imperfectly yet recognizably to the present day. Walker Brents III gives a monthly talk on topics ranging from bits of mythology to the lives and works of writers and philosophers to historical chapters, with brilliant insight and a unique frame of reference that has gained him an avid and devoted audience.
Read MoreMonday, Jan. 28th at 7:00 p.m. Poets from the West Coast and the East Coast converge in Glen Park. Lee Slonimsky has published one book of poems in free verse, Talk Between Leaf and Skin (SRLR Press, Austin TX, 2002), but has been working primarily in traditional forms and meter for the past several years, especially with the sonnet. His book Money and Light contains 22 sonnets. Orchises Press published his sequence of about 60 sonnets on the life of Pythagoras, Pythagoras in Love, in 2007. His journal credits include Best of Asheville Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, The Carolina Quarterly, The Classical Outlook, Iambs & Trochees, The Lyric (for whom he also judged the quarterly contest for the Fall 2004 issue), The New York Times, The Raintown Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. His wife, Carol Goodman, is an acclaimed mystery writer who has been making some use of his sonnets…
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Poets! is an ongoing Bird & Beckett poetry series, hosted by Jerry Ferraz, which presents featured poets followed by an open mic. We’re moving this series from its twice-a-month Monday schedule to a once-a-month “Third Thursdays” schedule. So mark your calendars! Click here for an overview of the series. 7:00 p.m. Tonight’s reading in our ongoing monthly “Third Thursdays” poetry series will be an all-open-mic in honor of Dan Harrington. As you’ll read below, Dan was a fascinating and unique person — a long-time friend of our series host Jerry Ferraz — who often showed up at our readings over the years with a banjo or guitar to deliver a rough and lovely song that he’d been working out — usually a chestnut from the folk annals by the likes of Woody Guthrie, but sometimes an original drawing on his deep abiding affection for the wilderness trails or his compassionate observations…
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which way west? Sunday concert series. All ages welcome! No cover charge, but your generous donations make it possible for us to pay the musicians. Sunday, Jan. 20 – 4:30-6:30 pm: Mike Lipskin & Dinah Lee with Paul Mehling & Jerry Logas. Mike Lipskin is a 50-year veteran Stride Jazz pianist who has an original sound within that idiom. Early on, Lipskin gained the stamp of approval of giants including Willie “The Lion†Smith, Eubie Blake, Dick Hyman and Jay McShann. He will be making swinging jazz combinations with stellar guitarist Paul Mehling, leader of the Hot Club of San Francisco, Dinah Lee, distinctive jazz vocalist, and reed man in the Lester Young tradition, Jerry Logas. This will be a rich and satisfying program of lovely, irresistible songs from the classic American Songbook of the 20s, 30s and 40s together with engrossing jazz instrumentals. Lipskin has appeared at Carnegie Hall…
Read More2:00 p.m. Mary Burger is a writer and artist living in Oakland. Her book Then Go On was published in 2012 by Litmus Press. Earlier books include Sonny (Leon Works, 2005) and A Partial Handbook for Navigators (Interbirth, 2008.) With Robert Glück, Camille Roy, and Gail Scott she co-edited the anthology Biting the Error (Coach House Books, 2004.) She is the founding editor of Second Story Books, publishing contemporary cross-genre writing. Mary is also a studio artist at The Compound Gallery & Studios in Emeryville, where she makes prints and mixed media works. Denise Newman has a new chapbook out from Omerta Press called Film Studies and is the author of three prior collections of poems, The New Make Believe (The Post-Apollo Press, 2010), Wild Goods (Apogee Press, 2008), and Human Forest (Apogee Press, 2000). Her translation of The Painted Room by the Danish poet Inger Christensen is distributed by Random…
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which way west? Sunday concert series. All ages welcome! No cover charge, but your generous donations make it possible for us to pay the musicians. Sunday, Jan. 13 – 4:30-6:30 pm: Misisipi Mike & Friends. Country picker & singer/songwriter Mike Wolf, aka Misisipi Mike, has more friends than there are double consonants in the English language, and plenty of ’em are fine musicians of the Americana ilk. Count on a lovely afternoon of new tunes and chestnuts and a parade of able instrumentalists & crooners at Bird & Beckett this Sunday! Mike is one of the most prolific and creative forces on the San Francisco country music scene, fronting a number of bands and filling key support roles in many others, while writing reams of great songs and creating a huge catalog of show poster art of striking originality for other bands on the scene — proudly and capably carrying…
Read MoreThis winter/spring, watch for some major jazz musicians in our Sunday “which way west?” series… always 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Never a cover charge, but don’t neglect to help us pay the musicians — unless you’re flat broke! All ages welcome! In between the dates we’ll describe below, you’ll hear country music (Misisipi Mike on Jan. 13), Americana (during the SF Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival bookings on Feb. 10 and 17), Hindustani (North Indian) classical music (vocal/tabla and violin/tabla on Mar. 24 and 31), etc. None to be missed! But here’s a run-down of the spectacular Sunday jazz bookings we’ve got in store for you in the next several months: January 20th: Mike Lipskin, a 50-year veteran stride piano player — who early on gained the stamp of approval of several giants of the style including Willie “The Lion” Smith, Eubie Blake and Earl “Fatha” Hines, will bring in singer…
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Bird & Beckett is proud to have served the Glen Park neighborhood since 1999 in at least two significant ways — as a bookshop bursting at the seams with a broad and interesting selection of the best new and used books we know how to find, and as a cultural community center where we can bring audiences together with writers and musicians in an ambitious schedule of 15 to 20 events each month. You can help us in our primary mission by buying books — for yourself, for your loved ones, for your friends, or to donate to schools and other institutions that would benefit from your largesse. And you can aid our success as a cultural center by joining the many folks who generously make tax-deductible contributions to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” — a 501(c)3 organization we’ve established in order to underwrite our efforts in that…
Read MoreA double shot of Avotcja love on the first Sunday of 2013! Poetry at 2 p.m.   –    Modupue at 4:30 p.m. 2:00 pm – With Every Step I Take: Avotcja is joined by Q.R. Hand and Eliza Shefler to celebrate her book of selected poems just published by Bill Vartnaw’s Taurean Horn Press. 4:30 to 6:30 pm – Avotcja & Modupue: Modupue is a fantastic aggregation of musicians with a flexible roster that for this date will include Yancy Taylor on vibes, pianist Jon Jang and bassist Eugene Warren. Avotcja is a national treasure, without a doubt — and an unrivaled cultural figure in these parts. She’s a pioneer, an individualist and a fierce champion of the many engaged musicians and poets that she perceives to dig deep into their art, rooted in a diverse and vibrant progressive community unique to the Bay Area and universal in its essence. Avotcja…
Read Morewhich way west? concert series. Every Sunday afternoon, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Never a cover charge, but it’s your generous donation at the show that makes it possible for us to pay the musicians. All ages welcome. The musicians joining guitarist Ray Scott in this quartet are all top flight Bay Area jazz professionals with decades of experience, ranging from countless small combo sessions in the region’s clubs and bars, to larger aggregations backing world class artists in concert halls throughout Northern California and on tour. Ray’s flowing guitar lines and strong rhythm is shot through by the fleet saxophone work of Charlie McCarthy, grounded by Chuck Bennett on bass and Mark Rosengarden on drums. At Bird & Beckett this Sunday, you’ll hear two sets of high caliber straight-ahead jazz reflecting their decades of professional and artistic experience. We’re convinced their best work can be heard when playing with friends and…
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Sunday, December 16th – 4:30-6:30 p.m. which way west? Sunday concert series. Never a cover charge, but your generous donations help us pay the musicians. All ages welcome! Top musicians from the region’s highly regarded trad jazz scene celebrate the holiday season at Bird & Beckett — playing the music of early New Orleans created by the likes of Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds and Johnny St. Cyr — along with a handful of seasonal chestnuts! Chris Bradley, cornet; John Hunt, trombone & vocals; Dwayne Ramsey, clarinet, tenor sax & vocals; Duncan James, guitar; Si Perkoff, piano & vocals; Michael Kenny, bass; and Greg Gotelli, drums. What a band! Free cookies, mulled wine & cider, & holiday discounts on books!
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Eyepopping and seductive… the Brits do it again! Last week, we featured London’s Laurence King Press, turning out sharp & useful books for graphic artists, architects, fashion designers, photographers — but Nobrow showcases young artists taking their art school training into creative territory like no other. Nobrow’s signature printing and bookmaking techniques sprang from the necessity of low finance and a hunger to spawn a booklist and put young talent on display– and so their books, varied as they may be, are unmistakable and — as far as we’ve seen — always intriguing. Take No Man’s Land by French artist/writer Blexbolex — a split-second scramble through a jungle of confusion, fear, desperation and self-delusion in the brain of “a hard-boiled detective (who) finds himself on the wrong end of a death sentence” as it refuses to yield to the inevitability of the bullet ripping through his cranium. You’ll have to wait a couple of…
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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
