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!
Coming 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…
Read MoreComing up now at Bird & Beckett!  Jazz in the bookshop on Friday… and every Friday always 5:30 to 8:00 pm never a cover charge, but we always implore you to contribute what you can to help us pay the musicians, who deserve far more than they ever receive. They give us so much; this is our chance to give them a little something back! The Third Quintet! Friday, Feb. 17, series founders Chuck Peterson (sax), Scott Foster (guitar) and Don Prell (bass) are joined by drummer Omar Aran for two sets of bebop with a west coast lineage… Chuck and Don both got their start in the music in the early 1950s and have been playing jazz at a high level ever since. Scott and Omar have been top players for only a couple decades each… You’ll dig it. Sundays before and after, The San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival…
Read MoreJazz in the bookshop a tradition in the neighborhood every Friday evening since 2002 Kids always welcome & always free! $10 suggested donation per adult This Friday, February 3rd, it’s Don Prell’s Seabop Ensemble, featuring series stalwart Don Prell, a Los Angeles native who started his jazz career in the 1950s and was soon a core member of Bud Shank’s renowned quartet — traveling internationally and recording albums on Pacific Jazz, Contemporary and other key record labels associated with the “West Coast Jazz” of the late 50s and early 60s. On the first Friday of each month at Bird & Beckett, Don shanghais a seasoned crew of jazz pros, drawing from a pool of talent unmatched by any city in the country outside of New York… Tonight, you’ll hear the powerful & lyrical tenor player Jerry Logas, young bop titan Michael Parsons on piano, and Ulf Bjorkbom, Swedish wonder of the…
Read MoreDecember 18th – Sunday, 4:30 to 6:30 pm Kids welcome & free! $10 suggested donation per adult Chelm Feelharmonic Klezmer Band which way west? sunday concert series Providing just a bit of a counter to all that Xmas mania, trombonist Rick Elmore, a musicological genius if we’ve ever known one, has collared some top local players with decades of musical collaboration under their collective belt for a klezmer & yiddish music extravaganza at Bird & Beckett! Mandolinist Gerry Tenny has been a cornerstone of the Yiddish music scene here for decades, and he joins Rick and Mike Perlmutter on clarinet, plus accordionist Ilya Cremer, fiddler Mike Hayes and cellist Leo for a roaring celebration of Jewish music and culture, two days in advance of Hanukkah (which begins this year on December 20 and runs to the 27th). Rick started at age 10 in 1964, and…
Read MoreFresh Print Some new books to please the avid reader: Patti Smith is an icon and a touchstone for hundreds of thousands of us… from the arrival of “Horses” in 1975 to the 2010 release of her memoir, Just Kids, and her HSBG appearance that same year, and the many stops along the way… In 1992, a talismanic little book bearing her name and called Woolgathering appeared on the counter at places like City Lights & Moe’s, on cafe tables at the Trieste, in squalid rooms at the Chelsea Hotel… places where the tribe tended to gather to muse, to share a meal, to conceive of new modes of expression… Woolgathering was one in a series of small (3″x4″) handmade books put out by Raymond Foye & Francesco Clemente’s Hanuman Books, printed at Kalakshetra, near Madras (now Chennai), India, under the supervision of George Scrivani. Like Patti herself, the gem-like…
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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," 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.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it 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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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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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
