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!
Visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room with the music & the musicians!
Friday, June 15 – 5:30 to 8:00 pm The Third Quartet jazz in the bookshop every Friday evening without fail! On the third Friday of each month, a quartet made up of series founders Chuck Peterson (tenor sax), Scott Foster (guitar) and Don Prell (bass) augmented by drummer Ron Marabuto or Omar Aran (this month it’s Omar) holds forth from the Bird & Beckett stage while the neighborhood parties on! Frank Phipps (marching trombone) sits in for Chuck this week. Folks who made it to our “Big Bash at the Clubhouse” a few weeks ago and who stayed to the end will recall the lovely bass & trombone duo performance that Don and Frank gave us to wrap up a really lovely afternoon. If you didn’t hear that, then you have all the more reason to get down to the store this evening for a reprise… In any case, the…
Read MoreSunday & Monday 2 days – 6 poets – 4 jazz musicians Sunday, June 17 – 2:00 pm Poets! Matthew Keuter has published in journals across the U.S. and U.K. The Short Imposition of Living, a book length collection of poetry, is available from Rain Mountain Press. His plays have been produced in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado and New York City. Matthew edits the little mag called Mudfish: A Journal of Art & Poetry. Jennifer Kulbeck is a poet, letterpress printer, collector of stray pastimes, people and household objects from garage sales and street corners, and graduate student in the creative writing program at SF State. Daniel Suarez in a first generation Cuban-American. born and raised in Chicago, who now resides in San Francisco. He is currently in the process of translating the poetry of Robert Creely into Spanish and the poetry of Jose Lezama Lima into English. His poems can…
Read MoreSunday, June 10 – 2:30 pm Poet Alice Rogoff Barge Wood A reading of new work by a key local poet, co-editor of the Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal. “The golden leaves form fan shaped piles on the sidewalk while a woman sleeps hugged to the pavement.” — from the poem, “Ginko Leaves Falling in the Tenderloin” Barge Wood, Alice Elizabeth Rogoff CC. Marimbo, Berkeley, 2012. Sunday, June 10 – 4:30-6:30 pm Maurice Tani: 77 El Deora which way west? Sunday concert series | all ages welcome. your donations help us pay the band! Pure country music in a honky tonk vein, shading into some dark and swirling “hillbilly noir” — from one of the very best alt-country performers/composers on the local scene. If you like George Jones with your George Dickel and Patsy Cline with your PBR, that’s a good starting point… then be prepared dive ever deeper into the heartbreak and…
Read MoreFriday, June 8 – 5:30 to 8:00 pm The Jimmy Ryan Quintet jazz in the bookshop Fridays in Glen Park Jimmy Ryan has been our drummer of choice at Bird & Beckett since the Friday evening series started in October 2002… first with the late guitarist Henry Irvin’s band (featuring vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits), then with the regular Friday crew, which was led by Chuck Peterson on tenor sax with Scott Foster on guitar and Don Prell on bass. All four of these core instrumentalists, and Dorothy as well, continue to keep the jazz flame burning each week at Bird & Beckett. We’ve never missed a Friday session since the beginning– so we’re coming up on 500 consecutive Fridays very soon indeed. Now Don leads a band, “SeaBop” on the first Friday of the month, Jimmy leads one on the second Friday (which features Scott on guitar, bassist Bishu Chatterjee or…
Read MoreMonday, June 4 – 7:00 pm Tinker Greene & Carrie Hunter POETS! PLUS AN OPEN MIC 1st & 3rd Monday of each month Hosted by Jerry Ferraz Tinker Greene moved here in 1980. Originally from Vermont, he has spent time in New York City, followed by a decade in BurlingtonVT where he served a lively poetry community as a coordinator. In San Francisco, Tinker has photographed, hiked the wilderness, and more recently, issued a series of well-received chapbooks of his own poems, which he distributes for free. He will be reading new work. Carrie Hunter received her MFA/MA in the Poetics program at New College of California, edits the small chapbook press, ypolita press, and is a member of the Black Radish Books publishing collective. Recent poems appear in Big Bell, TH.CE, and in the video journal Jupiter 88. Chapbooks include Vorticells (Cygist Press), A Musics (Arrow as Aarow), Angel,…
Read MoreSunday, June 3 – 2:00 pm Luxorius! Opera Omnia: Or, a Duet for Sitar and Trombone Art Beck reads from his new book of translations Art Beck has devised an extended set of translations of the poems of Luxorius, the 6th century (c.e.) provincial Roman poet who lived in North Africa during the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Beck first published some of these translations in the early 1980s, but has expanded and extended these to book length. This stuff is anything but dry, folks! Do come! Read Neeli Cherkovski’s review in Big Bridge magazine here: http://www.bigbridge.org/BB16/prose/prosencherkovski2.htm Sunday, June 3 – 4:30 to 6:30 pm Joe Warner Trio young players – classic jazz! which way west? Sunday concert series all ages welcome. your donations help us pay the band! jazz trio with pianist Warner, bassist Gary Johnson and drummer Alex Nash. Warner, not yet 20…
Read MoreSunday, May 27 – 4:30 to 6:30 pm Tango No. 9 feat. vocalist Zoltan diBartolo which way west? Sunday concert series – all ages welcome! – $10 suggested donation per adult Tango is a deeply mesmerizing music — and dance form, of course — finding its deepest roots in Argentina while exerting a global influence bordering on mania, inspiring practitioners around the globe. San Francisco’s own Tango No. 9 is undoubtedly among the finest exemplars of the art form worldwide, plying their trade here at home with complete dedication for fifteen years and more… Today’s engagement, T9’s sixth appearance on the Bird & Beckett stage, is anticipated with particular pleasure and excitement…Â Isabel Douglass, an infinitely soulful and lovely accordionist of immense versatility, found herself a few seasons ago drawn to the road as a member of Rupa and the April Fishes, and we’ve since mourned her absence from the…
Read MoreThursday, May 24 – 7:00 pm The Monthly Eminent Authors’ Birthdays Open Reading a long-standing Bird & Beckett tradition, recurring on the fourth Thursday of each month Have a favorite writer born in May? Come down to Bird & Beckett this Thursday evening to share aloud a bit of his or her work with fellow devotees of the book. We have long lists of fine writers and their birth months, if you’d care to come down and take a look to see who might be a likely candidate for your attention. And please, we hope you’ll endeavor to read to us from a real book if humanly possible. Bird & Beckett is, after all, a book store and we particularly treasure that lovely form in which writing has been shared since the good blacksmith Gutenberg invented movable type. Consider too, that if you buy a book to take home, it…
Read MoreSunday, May 20 – 2:00 pm The Rix Journal: Small-Town Vermont to Gold Rush era San Francisco Historian Lynn Bonfield discusses the document and her work Lynn Bonield, former director of the San Francisco Labor Archives, now divides her time between Glen Park and Peachham, Vermont, where she was first drawn by the story of the Rix family — having chanced in 1972 upon the unique Gold Rush era journal of husband and wife Alfred and Chastina Rix among uncatalogued materials in the stacks at the San Francisco Historical Society. The journal has just recently been beautifully published as New England to Gold Rush California: The Journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix, 1849-1854, edited with commentary by Lynn, from the Arthur W. Clark Co. imprint of the Unversity of Oklahoma Press. Beginning on their wedding day in Peacham on July 29, 1849, Alfred and Chastina kept a dual journal, alternating the task of bringing it up to…
Read MoreThursday, May 17 – 7 pm “Amerarcana 2012″ Bird & Beckett’s Annual Literary Journal A Reading & Celebration! The 3rd issue of our own “little magazine” has arrived, and it’s exquisite in content and design, just like the first two! Come & get it at the AMERARCANA 2012 RELEASE READING: Thursday, May 17th from 7:00 pm — with readings by contributors Bill Berkson, Duncan McNaughton, David Meltzer, Jackson Meazle, Jason Morris, Erik Noonan, Cedar Sigo, Tisa Walden & editor Nick Whittington. Less likely to appear are Justin Desmangles, Joanne Kyger, Sarah Menefee, Jeffrey Joe Nelson, Will Skinker & Colter Jacobsen. Certain not to appear is Rodrigo Lira, as he no longer walks this earth, but who knows, perhaps his translators Rodrigo Olavarria & Thomas Rothe will show… Regardless, it’s sure to be a grand event, with wine & words aplenty. Amerarcana is a proud production of the Bird & Beckett Cultural…
Read MoreSaturday, May 19th – 4:30 to 6:30 pm Big Bash at the Clubhouse a benefit for Bird & Beckett! Call or email the bookshop to reserve your Big Bash ticket now! 586-3733 / [email protected] Just $10 each. Proceeds benefit your cherished neighborhood bookshop! Get in the mood for a massive good time by clicking on that black “Streampad” bar way down at the bottom of this screen — it’s an 8 min. segment of an historic show by Jack Ruby Hi Power at Keystone Berkeley on Aug. 1, 1982 — a concert produced by the same folks who bring you Bird & Beckett… read more about it by clicking here to visit our blog…and while you’re there be sure to click on the poster to go into the matter at greater depth at the site called Who Cork the Dance. There you can download 78 min. of the show if…
Read MoreSunday, May 6, 2pm “enclosure” a talk by Dan Richman The fencing of common grazing land in England in the 17th and 18th century accelerated the creation of a landless working class, and today we still mourn and suffer from the loss of the “commons.” Dan Richman considers the history and its implications today. A taker of long walks, a philosopher of sorts, an observer of natural life in the built landscape, and a writer of plays, novels, essays and poems, Dan has long been a contributor to the Bird & Beckett intellectual commons, with his occasional staging of short plays, participation in our poetry readings, and talks on a variety of topics. Sunday, May 6, 4:30 to 6:30 pm Macy Blackman & the Mighty Fines rockin’ new orleans R&B which way west? Sunday concert series all ages welcome – donation requested Still we roll on! Macy’s been rolling out…
Read MoreSunday, April 29 Come to the Glen Park Festival! An all-day frolic al fresco on Diamond Street from Bosworth to Chenery. Crafts booths, food vendors, your occasional politician and a stage full of terrific musicians entertaining you & your 1,000 close personal friends-to-be! Music on the Fest stage starts at 10:00 a.m. when our honorary Glen Park mayor & major domo Misisipi Mike introduces the kick off act, Gayle Schmitt and the Toodalla Ramblers doing a special set for the stroller set. At 11:30, Misisip’s own Midnight Gamblers flower in the noon-day sun with a good-natured honky tonk set to get the grown-ups up & hollerin’. Neighborhood politico-musico’s District 8 follow at 1:00; and then Jinx Jones & KingTones take the stage at 1:45 for a coronation rave-up. World emperors Pangea play at 3:15, globalizing the whole deal. The cosmos in a microcosm, on the best block in the best…
Read MoreFriday, May 4 to Monday, May 7 Jazz in the bookshop every Friday, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm This week: Don Prell’s Seabop Ensemble. Sunday at 2pm, Dan Richman considers the phenomenon of “enclosure”… the loss of the commons, the building of borders, fences and walls around the world we once inhabited together; and at 4:30 pm on Sunday, our which way west? concert series features the rockin’ New Orleans R&B of Macy Blackman & the Mighty Fines. Then, on Monday starting 7, its an evening of poetry, with featured readers Bill Vartnaw (Poet Laureate of Sonoma County!) and Patty Trimble– open mic to follow. The whole show is hosted by Jerry Ferraz, peripathetic bard & a San Francisco native… it’s a twice-a-month affair at Bird & Beckett– the first & third Monday of every month.
Read MoreSunday, April 22 – 2 pm John Trudell Poet, Musician, Activist John Trudell is an acclaimed poet, national recording artist, actor and activist, with an international following that reflects the universal language of his words, work and message. Today at Bird & Beckett, he’ll read poems and lyrics collected in his book Lines from a Mined Mind. Trudell (Santee Sioux) was a spokesperson for the Indian of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971. He worked with the American Indian Movement (AIM), serving as Chairman of AIM from 1973 to 1979. In February of 1979, a fire of unknown origin killed Trudell’s wife, three children and mother-in-law. It was through this horrific tragedy that Trudell began to find his voice as an artist and poet, writing, in his words, “to stay connected to this reality.” In 1982, Trudell began recording his poetry to traditional Native music and…
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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
