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!
Monday, April 16 – 7:00 pm Poets Jeanne Powell & Nancy Keane followed by an open mic POETS! First & Third Monday of each month, hosted by Jerry Ferraz Jeanne Powell’s collections of poetry include My Own Silence and Word Dancing. A much admired poet and cultural critic, Jeanne has made a significant impact on the San Francisco poetry scene by hosting a long-running spoken word series — “Celebration of the Word†— which took place weekly in San Francisco for ten years, and by publishing numerous local and more far-flung poets as well under her imprint, Meridien PressWorks. Her “Living Treasures” project was a particularly valuable effort, that brought out the books of four poets over age 70. Read more on Jeanne at http://redroom.com/member/jeanne-powell. Nancy Keane — poet, publisher, artist and proprietor of one of the truly great and storied watering holes in San Francisco — hosts a legendary…
Read MoreHappy Birthday, Sam! April 13 is Samuel Beckett’s putative birthday– so this Friday, let’s toast the great man and his good works! Scott Baker & Val Fachman, fond thespian interpreters of his words and fresh back from Paris, will hold forth at the break between jazz sets this evening to share a few of Sam’s poems in his original French and his own English translations of same! Guinness & Jamesons the drinks of choice! Friday, April 13, 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm Jimmy Ryan Quintet Jazz in the Bookshop Every Friday! Henry Hung (trumpet), Danny Grewen (trombone), Scott Foster (guitar), Bishu Chatterjee (bass) & Jimmy Ryan (drums). Jimmy Ryan got his start in L.A. in the ’50s, got to San Francisco in the early ’60s, and has been a key member of the Bird & Beckett Friday night jazz series since the beginning, as has guitarist Scott Foster. This fine…
Read MoreComing up Saturday, May 19th Bird & Beckett’s Big Bash at the Clubhouse Once every couple of summers, we take our show up to the “clubhouse” on O’Shaughnessy to raise a little dough! It sustains us down in Glen Park, where we do 18 events a month, the lion’s share of them under the auspices of the venerable Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project. This will be our fourth “Big Bash” — each one a terrific community party, with bands, food, drink… and you! $10 tix will be available in advance (but not just yet). Stay tuned for our entertainment line up, though we can tell you that it will be focused on the folks that have poured through the public high school that sits up on the rim of Glen Canyon, The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. Many young musicians and writers whose talents have been developed at the…
Read Morethis weekend at Bird & Beckett… Friday – 5:30 to 8:00 pm jazz in the bookshop 3/30 – The Dave Parker Trio Jerry Logas, baritone and tenor saxes, flute and clarinet Charles Hamilton, trombone Dave Parker, bass Remember the halcyon days of the Red Rock Lounge? That was Ric Lopez’s elegant little corner bar at Diamond & Chenery before Le P’tit Laurent took its place… and Friday nights in Glen Park always sizzled with jazz from a fiery quintet that featured Dave Parker on bass along with Jerry Logas on saxes and the late trumpeter Mike Pitre. Dave’s group holds down regular gigs now at the Purple Onion in North Beach and Farmer Brown’s in the Tenderloin– and once in a blue moon we lure the band back into Glen Park for a reprise of those early days. Sunday – 2:30 to 4:00 pm Poetry Anthology Release Reading 4/1…
Read MoreComing up in April at Bird & Beckett which way west? Sunday concert series always 4:30-6:30 pm Two Sundays of solo piano — Joe Lasqo on April 1st Joel Forrester on April 8th (Easter Sunday) April 1: Joe Lasqo merges Indian and Middle Eastern music with jazz and “Stockhausen meeting the sound of one hand clapping.” You can always catch him on Wednesday afternoons at Viracocha on Valencia, where he plays intently as the world goes by, and on April 12 he’ll be at El Valenciano on that same fine street. Then there’s the occasional gig at the Turquoise Yantra Grotto, which we’ll be happy to hip you to if you just ask… But you’ll hear Joe best on our little stage a week from this Sunday. His “Turquoise Sessions” cd (shown above at left) is a killer excursion across a vast and expansive terrain. April 8: As for Joel…
Read MoreBird & Beckett goes to the movies… at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco’s Richmond District… we’ll see you there! Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: Classic & Contemporary Bengali Movies from Tollywood! Friday, March 16th to Tuesday, March 20th Before there was Bollywood, there was Tollywood– Tollywood, home of Bengali-language filmmaking, has long been the proving ground of many talents later usurped, exploited and made rich & famous by the Mumbai-based, Hindi-language Bollywood machine. Its nickname came about in 1932, when a writer in American Cinematography magazine named it for the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata (Calcutta) in which most of the Bengali-language movie production offices are based. Last Day! Tuesday 3 flicks for 5 bucks! 5:00 pm Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The adventures of Goopy & Bagha) directed by Satyajit Ray, 1968 with Tapen Chatterjee and Robi Ghosh A delightful children’s fantasy filled with humour, adventure and magic, and at once a…
Read More Monday, March 19, 7 pm Poets! Arisa White & QR Hand Open Mic Follows Youth and experience go hand in hand… Arisa White’s debut poetry collection is Hurrah’s Nest. QR’s life in poetry is sketched out in the book Whose Really Blues. Hurrah’s Nest: A vivid and varied collection that addresses family loyalties, dysfunction, violence, and differences, Hurrah’s Nest is White’s imaginative and emotionally honest exploration of growing up the second oldest, first daughter of seven siblings. Childhood experiences are looked at with rawness, sensitivity, and crafted with precision: be it the cutting of her dreadlocks, mother’s abortion, drug trafficking, or her sister’s developmental disability, the language is tender and startling. Hurrah’s Nest—from the confusion of our lives—asks us to make meaning and good from what we’ve bargained and haven’t bargained for. Arisa is a Cave Canem fellow, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of…
Read MoreBird & Beckett goes to the movies… at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco’s Richmond District… we’ll see you there! Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: Classic & Contemporary Bengali Movies from Tollywood! Friday, March 16th to Tuesday, March 20th Before there was Bollywood, there was Tollywood– Tollywood, home of Bengali-language filmmaking, has long been the proving ground of many talents later usurped, exploited and made rich & famous by the Mumbai-based, Hindi-language Bollywood machine. Its nickname came about in 1932, when a writer in American Cinematography magazine named it for the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata (Calcutta) in which most of the Bengali-language movie production offices are based. Day 3! Sunday Dedicated to Gautam Chattopadhyay 2:00 pm – Moner Manush 5:00 pm – Nobel Chor 7:00 pm – Live Music – “Bengal & Beyond” 8:15 pm – Nagmoti  ♦view the full schedule here ♦view details on the films here 2:00 pm Moner…
Read MoreMeanwhile, at the bookshop… Sunday, March 18th 2:30 pm: Writer Jonah Raskin Marijuanaland Jonah Raskinhas written extensively on American cultural history, particularly its more radical and humanist aspects – with books on Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsberg and the wine industry in Sonoma, an anthology of Jack London’s political writings, among others. He’s also written on the novelist B. Traven and much more. With personal roots in his parents’ American communist underground of the 1940s, his own involvement in SDS in the 1960s, his participation in the academic world of Sonoma State University throughout the 1970s until quite recently, and his contemporary assessment of that journey and what makes sense to him today in terms of political and social engagement, Jonah’s insightful take on the marijuana industry, subculture, mythos, economics and politics of Northern California, including the war waged on it, will be thought provoking and enlightening. His advice on engagement for social change is this: “Be visible.…
Read MoreSaturday, March 17th, at the Balboa Theatre… Bird & Beckett presents day 2 of  “Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: Contemporary and Classic Bengali Films from Tollywood” A Five-Days Festival of Films at the Balboa Theatre March 16-20  ♦view the full schedule at this link  Saturday, March 17th: 3:30 pm – Antaheen directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury 6:00 pm – Ami Aadu directed by Somnath Gupta 8:30 pm – Iti Mrinalini directed by Aparna Sen Each of the films screening today excels in its cinematography, editing and sound work, as well as the directorial excellence and ambition that brings out fine performances in Bengali cinema’s best actors– seasoned professionals and newcomers alike. Bengali cinema is surging forward on several fronts– with new and newly revived production companies backing filmmakers and technical talent bristling to launch projects that will engage international audiences and hold their own domestically against the Bollywood machine. We’re…
Read MoreFriday through Tuesday March 16th -20th! Bird & Beckett goes to the movies… at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco’s Richmond District… we’ll see you there! Opening Night Friday! 7pm – The Japanese Wife 9:15 pm – Aparajita Tumi Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: Classic & Contemporary Bengali Movies from Tollywood!  ♦view the complete schedule at this link ♦view details on the films here Before there was Bollywood, there was Tollywood– Tollywood, home of Bengali-language filmmaking, has long been the proving ground of many talents later usurped, exploited and made rich & famous by the Mumbai-based, Hindi-language Bollywood machine. Its nickname came about in 1932, when a writer in American Cinematography magazine named it for the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata (Calcutta) in which most of the Bengali-language movie production offices are based. But why is Bird & Beckett throwing a Tollywood film festival? It’s no small thing that we get…
Read MoreMark your calendar! Bird & Beckett goes to the movies… at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco’s Richmond District… March 16-20. Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: Classic & Contemporary Bengali Movies from Tollywood! ♦view the schedule at this link Before there was Bollywood, there was Tollywood– so dubbed in 1932 for the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata (Calcutta) in which most of the Bengali-language movie production offices are based. Tollywood has long been the proving ground of many talents later usurped, exploited and made rich & famous by the Mumbai-based Bollywood machine. Why is Bird & Beckett throwing a Tollywood festival? It’s no small thing that we get to give Bay Area moviegoers a peek at Aparjita Tumi, the brand new feature film by award-winning director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (Antaheen won Best Film at India’s National Film Awards in2009).   Aparajita Tumi was shot last summer entirely on location in the Bay Area,…
Read MoreSunday, February 25 2:30 pm – Walker Talks! on the German poet Holderlin Once a month, Walker mesmerizes us with his fascinating meanderings amidst the meanings of writers, philosophers, mythologies and mysteries… how he does it, we don’t know, but he’s gained a following that hangs on the gossamer threads of thought that he spins. Holderlin? Come and find out… 4:30 pm – WordWind Chorus Brian Auerbach, Q R Hand Jr. and Lewis Jordan (shown left to right here) are joined by Julian Carroll in an acapella jazz poets aggregation that will set you on your ear. Four voices augmented by Lewis’s saxophone weave an intricate web of word strands to create heady music indeed. Founding WordWind member Reginald Lockett, who left us a few years ago, had this to say about Q R: “Q R Hand’s poetry traverses the terrain of form, music and language. This is an inspired,…
Read Moregirlchild Join debut novelist Tupelo Hassman for a book launch party, with live music Saturday Feb. 18th 7 pm to 9 pm Read the New York Times review here! The author: Tupelo Hassman The book: Girlchild (Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2012) The band: Buckeye Knoll “Life is a crazy risk, a foolish venture, a journey hardly worth attempting by poor daughters raised by poor daughters who have no maps or guidebooks (and no teeth, either), who receive no justice that doesn’t hurt about the same as the injustice it means to remedy. This story is your worst white nightmare. Tupelo Hassman’s GIRLCHILD is a triumph and a philosophical treatise on survival.” –Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Critics Circle and National Book Award Finalist American Salvage Author Alan Kaufman in conversation with publisher & writer Brenda Knight on his new memoir, Drunken Angel — Sunday, February 19th…
Read MoreSunday, February 12, 2:00 pm Judith Sender & Ramon Sender Ramon and Judy Sender will be reading from their books. Judy — a writer and artist, or a wrartist, as she terms it — will read some excerpts from her new book, “Transitions Visible and Invisible.â€Â Her earlier book, “Lines: Whimsical and Other Wise,†has long been available through Bird & Beckett. Both books feature her drawings and poems, and express her multifariously whimsical take on things. She is a retired SFUSD teacher and since, 2001, she has co-curated with her husband, Ramon, the “Odd Monday Series”, first at Noe Valley Ministry and now at the venerable Phoenix Books. Ramon Sender has a long-standing reputation as an important west coast musician, writer and artist. In 1961, with Morton Subotnick and Pauline Oliveros, he co-founded the groundbreaking San Francisco Tape Music Center, home to the late artist Bruce Conner and musician Bill…
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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
