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!
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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Put your holiday season in high gear with a few Parlor Tricks!!! Sunday, December 9th – 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Bird & Beckett’s weekly which way west? Sunday concert series. Never a cover charge, but your generous donations help us pay the musicians! All ages welcome. Picture a snowy New York Sunday morning in 1904, Christmas coming on. As the electric streetlights wink off, Reverend Edward Martin Waller makes his way from home to church, and the weary and slap-happy denizens of the city’s syncopated Saturday night frenzy trail home to their beds. The brand new subway system, now in operation for all of six weeks, slumbers fitfully beneath the city streets. Steam power — that formerly modern lurch into an entirely new pace of life — has given way in turn to a new magic as tentacles of vast electrical distribution systems riddle the city, powering the nickelodeons and…
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The visual arts are the domain of this British publisher, whose half dozen “100 Ideas” books are chock full of game-changing innovations that shifted paradigms in photography, fashion, graphic design, architecture, art, etc. Surprising, the little things we take for granted!  (paperback, $29.95 ea.) A terrific book on graphic designer Saul Bass (remember that credit sequence from Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest”?) has been on our shelves for several months (hardcover $75), and a bunch of solid new titles on typography, architecture and more are here now. Of particular appeal is Sketchbooks: The Hidden Art of Designers, Illustrators and Creatives, revealing the inner workings and private inspiration of “creatives” in advertising, design, graphic design, fashion design, art, street art and illustration, with pages from their notebooks as well as profiles and interviews. Stunning & fascinating page after page. (paperback, $19.95) We also dig Jun Kaneko: The Magic Flute which takes you deep inside the creative process that led to…
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Beautiful books… children’s books, but are they? If it takes the eyes of children to take us into these rich and gorgeous artifacts, so be it. Tara Books is: Gita Wolf, a former academic rash enough to start a publishing house V. Geetha, an historian and political activist with a soft spot for popular culture C. Arumugam, a fine bookmaker with the motto ‘Nothing is Impossible’ Jennifer Abel, a former Tara intern who now represents Tara in North America Lavanya K, our bubbly book advocacy coordinator Nia Murphy, our resident designer from the UK. Shamim Hameed, lifesaving and very professional accounts manager Nancy Prabha, handles office administration and is utterly indispensable Ramya, ever reliable, assisting in the accounts department Ranjith, packs books, makes deliveries and is generally indispensable Senthil Kumar, a great help with both administrative and marketing needs Designers Rathna Ramanathan, London – has steered Tara’s design philosophy Natasha…
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Sunday, December 2nd – 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. which way west? Sunday concert series. No cover charge, but your donations help us pay the band! All ages welcome. Why do we love this music so much, and Tango No. 9′s deeply soulful takes on it in its many guises? Carlos Suarez, a dear friend of Bird & Beckett (who spoke eloquently of Jorge Luis Borges at the shop the afternoon of November 18), wrote the following for his friends in Tango No. 9 on the occasion of the release of their first CD, “All Them Cats in Recoletaâ€, back in 2001 as this divine band began to find its way into the music… perhaps it explains something for us… El Jazz, The Tango by Carlos Suarez I am asked quite often – and I don’t like it – since I am Argentinian and apparently such coincidence makes me an expert, “Yeah, but… They…
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Jerry Ferraz, native son & troubadour, hosts this last session of the year in our ongoing poetry series. Monday, December 3rd, beginning at 7 p.m. Two of our favorite poets, and a few surprises are in store for you! And you’re welcome to bring your own work to read in the open mic segment… Paula Hackett brings a sheaf of poems published in her classic chapbook, Roulette— the same poems that she recorded and released in a CD of that name with the astonishing accompaniment of pianist Rudi Wongozi. The poems themselves reveal a musical pulse rooted in her many years of close collaboration with her brother John on jazz lyrics — some set to music by the likes of legendary drummer Max Roach, a founding father of bop, and others written to fit the music of some of our most honored jazz composers, including Roach, Cedar Walton, Teddy Edwards,…
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Monday, November 19, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. Three poets introduce their new chapbooks. Sorry, no open mic tonight. Nicholas James Whittington, poet and editor/publisher of Bird & Beckett’s Amerarcana annual literary review, is bringing out a trio of chapbooks under the Bird & Beckett imprint — Jack of Diamonds and the Queen of Spades by Jackson Meazle, Stances by Erik Noonan, and Scoria by himself, Nicholas James Whittington. If you’ve been reluctant to embrace the poetry reading as an entertainment, you may want to slip in to Bird & Beckett and hear what these three have to offer — the energy, intellect & charm brought into play just might change your thinking… Bird & Beckett is proud of its long-time commitment to poetry and the poets among us. Jackson Meazle lives in San Francisco. He has two chapbooks out this year, HH, a book of Heinrich Heine translations, and Jack of Diamonds and the…
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Friday, November 23rd – 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. jazz in the bookshop – every Friday without fail, since October 2002! Never a cover charge, but your generous donations make it possible for us to pay the musicians. All ages welcome! This week, it’s the 230 Jones Street, Local Six Literary Jazz Band, also known as The Chuck Peterson Quintet, led by the tenor sax man who founded our series ten short years (and 520+ consecutive Fridays) ago! Chuck is joined by his close friend and erstwhile mentor Howard Dudune on reeds, guaranteeing a cooking front line. They’re ably backed by compatriots Glen Deardorff on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass and Tony Johnson on bass — and joined by the marvelous vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits. Dorothy was singing on the stage of Harlem’s Apollo Theatre back in the halcyon 1950s, when the guys in the band were getting their start as professional…
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Sunday, November 25th – 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. which way west? Sunday concert series. No cover charge, but your kind donations help us pay the musicians. All ages welcome! The art of the jazz trio, performed by guitarist Widelock together with bassist Fred Randolph and drummer Jim Kassis. Decades ago, famed Brazlian guitarist and composer Luis Bonfa named Widelock as “a giant of the twelve string guitar… one of my favorite guitarists.â€Â We’ll attest that Widelock’s skill, sensitivity and ingenuity have only continued to grow since that time. The David Widelock Trio’s superb cd called “Skating on the Sidewalk†was recorded in 2009 with bassist Randolph and drummer Kassis, featuring Widelock originals as well as covers of Tom Waits’ “Sixteen Shells from a 30-06″ and Leadbelly’s “Black Bettyâ€. The trio’s work is just the latest phase in an adventurous career — in which the guitarist has engaged in the exploration…
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Sunday, November 25th — 3:00 p.m. Shall We Play That One Together? The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland A book event with biographer Paul de Barros. Marian McPartland has done more to edify jazz lovers than anyone alive, we’d have to say, with her radio interviews — collaborations, really — with jazz pianists heard weekly around the world through the magic that is NPR (one more reason we’re ecstatic that President Obama romped to victory on Nov. 6!). McPartland is a very fine pianist and has an insatiable thirst for insight into the work of her peers, with whom she has ceaselessly and eagerly interacted in her 65+ years in the business. The young, proper, ambitious and talented English pianist Marian Page met and married Chicagoan Jimmy McPartland (a key American “trad” jazz cornet player 11 years her senior) while barnstorming with the USO through the…
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Sunday, November 25th — 1:00 pm (note early start time) Walker Brents III investigates the writings and thought of Joseph Campbell, whose influence on the creative work of filmmakers, poets and novelists over the past half century has been profound and pervasive. A seminal late 20th century sage, Campbell wrote and lectured tirelessly, synthesizing global mythologies and in the process pioneering a new zeitgeist. Inevitably, our conception of his work has become limited to a few simplified aspects — the arc of the hero being the prime example. But so much more is to be found in Campbell’s thought. “Walker Talks” is a monthly series of talks by Walker Brents III on subjects ranging from bits of mythology to the works of poets and philosophers, and beyond. On the fourth Sunday of each month, barring the summer months.
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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.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations through our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, send or drop off a check made out to our fiscal sponsor, Jazz in the Neighborhood, with BBCLP in the memo line. Our mailing address is:
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
