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!
POETS! hosted by tru-bop master Jerry Ferraz Jerry Ferraz, a native of this soil – Eureka Valley born – a wandering bard of the San Francisco back lanes – painter of the zen comedy, has kept Glen Park and Bird & Beckett on his peripatetic route for many years, tuning the space twice a month for pairs of featured poets and a revolving and ever expanding cast of open mic denizens. Read his poem “Dharma Dream Walk” and others at www.sfheart.com/sfpoets/jerry_ferraz.html Tonight at Bird & Beckett, Monday, Feb. 7, 7-9pm, Jerry presents Robert Anthony and Larry Maykel. Sign up for the open mic at 7pm; open starts at 8. Carlota del Portillo and Priya Kailath sponsor the series, allowing us to pay a small honorarium to the featured poets; your addition of a dollar or two to the pot allows us to honor them, and their art, more fully.
Read MoreTango No. 9 Today, Sunday, Feb. 6, 4:30 to 6:30 pm Two sets of classic, nuevo and original tangos from San Francisco masters of the genre, with vocalist Zoltan DiBartolo!
Read MoreBeckett / Pinter / Wine – PUS plus B&B Saturday, Feb. 5th, 7:30 to 9:30 pm. Wine tasting, food from Destination Bakery, The Cheese Boutique, Canyon Market, Monterey Deli and more, and performances of short theatre pieces by two Nobel prize winning playwrights dear to our hearts, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. Proceeds benefit both PUS (Performers Under Stress) and Bird & Beckett.
Read MoreMoh Alileche: Flag of Freedom Moh Alileche, hailing from the mountainous Kabylia region of Algeria, is a renowned Amazigh (Berber) player of the 12-stringed mondol. Based for the past two decades in the Bay Area, he brings his ensemble back to Bird & Beckett on Sunday, Jan. 30 at 4:30 pm as part of the store’s ongoing Sunday concert series dubbed “which way west?”.  Â
Read MoreRockpile Revisited Sunday, January 30, at 2:00 pm, the poets’ roadshow known as Rockpile rolls into Bird & Beckett. David Meltzer and Michael Rothenberg spent several months crisscrossing the country in 2009 with numerous forays out in 2010, converging with poets and musicians in a couple dozen localities, making art from their moment-to-moment experiences.
Read MorePiano Marathon a huge success! From Si Perkoff’s opening Monk tune to Macy Blackman’s killer closing set that encapsulated the whole history of New Orleans piano styles, from Jelly Roll Morton to Dr. John and Henry Butler — with stops along the way for brilliant turns at the piano by Don Alberts, Jon Jang, Randy Craig, Steve Shapiro, Betty Wong, Shirley Wong, Dorothy Lefkovits, Nora Maki, Allison Lovejoy, Rebecca Whittington and Bonnie Knight…
Read MoreNoon to 9 Piano Marathon on Saturday 1/22/11- A Bird & Beckett Benefit! Bring your checkbook! This Saturday, a cavalcade of pianists will coax beautiful music from the Yamaha P22 studio upright piano that we’re raising the money to buy from Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company. If 100 of you put up $25 apiece, the job will be done! More’s the better! No donation is too small, too big or unappreciated! Since its early years on Diamond Street, Bird & Beckett has kept a piano on the premises- some good, some not so good, but none as wonderful as the one we’ve borrowed at no cost from Piedmont Piano this past year. Now, they’d like us to buy the thing, and we’d love to do it! Betty Wong, who plays at 4 pm Saturday, just gave it a workout and told us it “plays like butter”- she urged us, “don’t let…
Read MoreFaust’s Deal with the Devil – Sun. 2:30pm On the fourth Sunday of each month, Walker Brents III plumbs the depths of subjects literary, mythological and historical…Â always a fascinating excursion into the realm of human imagination… Through the years, Walker has gained a loyal audience for his monthly talks at Bird & Beckett… for reasons that will become abundantly clear once you grab a seat and open your ears… This month: Walker takes a look at the classic deal with the devil through the lens of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. 2:30 pm, Sunday, 1/23/11
Read MoreNancy Wright Trio @ which way west? 4:30 to 6:30 this Sunday, January 23, in our weekly concert series, we present a wonderful organ trio, with Wayne Delacruz at the keys and Kent Bryson on the skins, led by the fabulous tenor player Nancy Wright… you heard her here before (with Macy Blackman’s band called the “Mighty Fines”), now hear her in an intimate setting that recalls moments in the best fire-lit lounge in which you’ve ever sipped a highball…
Read MoreRudy Mwongozi w/Paula Hackett Rudy Mwongozi left Oakland for NYC a few years ago, but he’s here on a visit, and we’re thrilled to have him back on Sun., Jan. 16 at 4:30 at the Bird & Beckett piano — a might better piano than before, we might add — one we’re saving up to buy (come back Jan. 22 to help us pull that off!) Rudy’s a marvel & plays every part of the instrument, digging into those keys and strings like no one else. Today, he’ll be joined by his good friend and collaborator, Paula Hackett, a poet who Rudy backed to terrific effect on her cd, “Roulette.”
Read MoreOR: The Otis Review Editor & poet Paul Vangelisti will be up from Los Angeles for this reading, joined by Neeli Cherkovski, Art Beck and Michael Rothenberg. Sunday, January 16 at 2 pm.
Read MoreScholars of the Arab Empire Dr. Wajih Ibrahim Saadeh has synthesized his knowledge of the development of Arab thought, its roots and its influence on Western ideas in a series of books. His lecture on Sunday, Jan. 16, at 1 pm will set forth an overview of Arab philosophy and its effect on the European enlightenment.
Read MoreA Re-Coronation of Norton I, Emperor of These United States and Protector of Mexico Sunday, January 9, 2011, at 4:30 pm, join us for a Re-Coronation of Norton I, Emperor of These United States and Protector of Mexico, on the occasion of the 131st anniversary of his death. During his 21-year reign, the good Emperor abolished the political parties, dissolved Congress, and called for alterations in the existing laws of the Union that might ameliorate the evils under which the country did labor, and to thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in the stability of our great land.
Read MoreCelebrate the New Year with Bird & Beckett $35 buys a convivial evening of music, food and- at midnight-Â free champagne, plus the company of neighbors and friends. Don Prell (bass) and Raymond Scott (guitar) will kick off the evening at 8:00 pm, and then the Chuck Peterson Quintet will swing it on through ’til the new year begins. So long 2010, hello 2011!
Read MoreStacy Schiff’s new biography of Cleopatra and Stephen Sondheim on Stephen Sondheim Two terrific books on the shelf in the bookshop (and orderable through our online store): Stacy Schiff’s biography of the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra: A Life has received raves in the press (see the New York Times review here) and from bookshop patrons as well. As for Finishing the Hat, Steven Sondheim’s “Collected Lyrics with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes”, it’s bound to give any fan hours of pleasure… Both come highly recommended!
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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
