Ashia Ajani’s position as poet-in-residence at the San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora was announced just days ago, and her poetry debut Heirloom is newly published by Write Bloody Publishing. Speaking from both a place of restoration and vengeance, Heirloom explores concepts of spiritual nourishment, physical and emotional sacrifice, environmental injustice, sexuality, waste colonialism, abolition, and Black migration; these poems seek to address the trauma felt from environmental injustice and the familial wounds that are passed down as a result of historical neglect. A descendant of W.E.B DuBois’s concept of “sorrow songs,” Heirloom analyzes our environmental pasts and presents in order to inform our environmental future. Through bird song, jazz, symbiosis, land loss, insect interactions, travel, desire and a whole lot of love and reverence for the unspoken, Heirloom reveals the ingrained connections between Blackness and ecological survival. Ashia is an Oakland resident, a Black storyteller and an environmental…

The intensity of individual, mob and institutional attacks on working journalists and their media outlets is unmistakable in our current age. World Press Freedom Day pushes back. So, too, does the work of many thousands of individuals locally and worldwide who take the tools of journalism in hand to accurately report the news they encounter in their day-to-day lives in order to responsibly and effectively inform their communities on issues of immense immediate importance. After the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020, the city of Portland, Oregon – one of the whitest towns in America – erupted in 200 days and nights of protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement against racism and police violence. In the same moment, activists and observers – including everyday people who started out simply pointing their phones at the rapidly escalating police violence – launched a…

Join your friends from Bird & Beckett this Sunday, April 30th at Keys Jazz Bistro–Broadway at Kearny in North Beach–for a five-hour cavalcade of great San Francisco jazz musicians coming together in the Independent Musicians Alliance to build labor solidarity and jamming to fill the coffers of the IMA’s “Musicians Assistance Fund.” The IMA, born a scant year ago and growing like Topsy through grit, hard work and determination, is giving the City’s freelance musicians a collective voice, while the Fund is easing its members’ manifold economic stresses by making grants to members for rehearsals, gig cancellations, instrument repair, storage, cartage, travel and parking, and quite a lot more. Bird & Beckett and Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Mario Guarneri came together to stake the IMA to $8k to get the fund rolling and $5k+ has been given out in the past six months. This Sunday, we want to raise $5k…

Drummer Tony Johnson’s 230 Jones Street Band kicks off the weekend at 5:30pm Friday the 28th, with Bob Kenmotsu, saxophone; Si Perkoff, piano; and Chuck Bennett, long-time veterans of the San Francisco and New York jazz scenes. $20 donation appreciated, byob. Find your happy hour at Bird & Beckett every Friday right up to 8pm, then grab a taco at La Corneta or a beer at Glen Park Station and return at 9pm for the late set. Friday, 9-10:30pm: “Those who drink the water must remember those who dug the well.” Guitarist and LifeForce Jazz Recording Artist and Producer Brother Khalil Abdullah returns to Bird & Beckett for a night of gratitude and remembrance; a night of celebrating and honoring the roots of this beautiful music called jazz. Br Khalil is joined by an incredible band featuring Murray Low on piano, Mark Heshima Williams on bass, and Deszon Claiborne on…

Amoranalysis is literary deconstruction for the purpose of interpreting and emanating Amor. So says Ben Bac Sierra… novelist, CCSF writing teacher, lowrider, San Francisco native… He continues, We do not know what life is or where or when it begins or ends, nor do we know what death is or where or when it begins or ends. We have no idea of time. All we know are moments upon moments, and we do not even know that. We fantasize about words and meaning, while it is all vanishing in front of us. Life. Death. I don’t understand those things, and, ultimately, I don’t care about those things. I know Now, even though I don’t know Now. I am here, and the best of all of this right Now is in Amor. A state of being, a miracle, that puts you in the moment forever, which is only the specific moment.…

Enjoy a classic jazz trio, led by drummer Vince Lateano–a key player on the San Francisco jazz scene since the mid-1960s. Veteran bassist Peter Barshay and the fine young pianist Ben Stolorow join Vince on the third Sunday evening of every month for a deep and pleasurable swing through jazz standards, bop, blues and bossa. Nothing gives us more pleasure than this trio. Byob and fifteen bucks for the band! No reservations needed. Support live jazz & its finest practitioners in a real bookshop!

Sam Cady, piano Charlie McCarthy, saxophone Chuck Bennett, bass Mark Lee, drums Sam Cady’s a fine piano player, writer and arranger, a puckish, thoughtful philosopher & buddhist and a pleasure to hear, and he’s in great company with these fine musicians, all familiar and well appreciated from the many times they’ve crossed the Bird & Beckett bandstand. We all miss Mary, very much so, but we have a treasure in Sam. Come out for a late taste of jazz. 9pm start! Bring a twenty for the band and something to wet your whistle.

Craig Handy, saxophone Peter Horvath, piano Essiet Okon Essiet, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums $20 cash cover charge collected at the door. For a reservation, call 415-586-3733. Reservations are honored until showtime. BYOB if you want to have something to sip. By all rights, jazz is the people’s music. A sliding scale if needed is available upon request, and, on request, reduced admission is $10 once the second set starts and $5 after 9pm. No economic, imperative? $20 for one tune or the whole evening. Syl demonstrates the invaluable nature of an underfunded art. San Jose native and New York-based Sylvia Cuenca is a key player in the San Francisco Bay Area jazz world, and her ability to draw fantastic talents into Bird & Beckett and other local clubs makes this a dynamic and exciting crossroads where you’ll hear one of America’s proudest cultural traditions, the varied musical strains that make…

Catch a key player in the Bay Area’s Latin Jazz scene in a return to Bird & Beckett with his quintet! Marco Díaz – piano , trumpet Charlie Gurke – saxes Julio Pérez – percussion Ahkeel Mestayer – percussion Saul Sierra- bass ~~~ BYOB and $25 for the quintet, and enjoy live music at Bird & Beckett! ~~~  

Johnny Lonely has a repertoire of originals, standards, and songs improvised off audience suggestions that paint a picture both tragic and hilarious. Johnny (a figment of Brian Lohmann’s tragi-comic imagination) and accompanist Joshua Raoul Brody (a Bird & Beckett regular, known for his work in the Rick & Ruby Show, The Residents and so much more) have collaborated for decades, co-founding BATS Improv and Pulp Playhouse, doing opera in Carnegie Hall with Overtone Theater, regaling tourists in a Las Vegas casino, and touring Europe. Tonight, they’re joined by Andrew Higgins on bass and Ed McClary on drums. This is your chance to host Johnny and his pals in your living room away from your living room, the sweet li’l bookshop in Glen Park that morphs into a comfy music lounge with shocking regularity. $20 cash cover charge for this quartet date.  BYOB, lol. Reservations: 415-586-3733 Regarding Johnny Lonely’s plaintive talent,…

Piano professor & all around good time guy Eric Shifrin has been calling the in crowd to assembly all over this town for decades — in bars and boites, saloons and salons, dives, diners and, as it turns out, the deep piney woods of Santa Cruz. If you come out to Glen Park tonight, you’re sure of a big surprise! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIeyEnOH2hs Eric & the In Crowd entertain the Bird & Beckett regulars every 2nd Friday, 5:30-8:00pm. Now, them’s some happy hours and more! Eric Shifrin, piano Gino Raugi, guitar Dan Seamans, bass Mike Strunk, drums The halcyon days of Santa Cruz in the ’70s, revisited by a wonderful aggregation of long-time friends & bandstand colleagues, plus some special guests. And you! At Bird & Beckett you’re always in with the in crowd! Remember, you’ll never go wrong on Fridays if you byob and a twenty for the band. In any…

Renowned guitarist Paul Mehling is in with the In Crowd tonight, along with Dexter Williams on bass! A return engagement! ~~~ BYOB and a twenty for the trio, and enjoy live music at Bird & Beckett! ~~~ Enjoy this video from last August, and make plans to spend a 2.5 hour happy hour at Bird & Beckett the 2nd Sunday of every month with Eric & the In Crowd.

  Who doesn’t know “Time Has Come Today,” the massive hit single by The Chambers Brothers that made the charts in the fall of 1968? Co-written by Lester’s brothers Willie and Joe Chambers, it’s seared into the collective memory of the nation and the world, busting out as it did in the turmoil of the Vietnam era and having been in well over 100 movies and commercials over the years The scandal that Lester never received a dime in royalties from 1967 to 1994 will be part of the tale that he and his co-writer Tee Watts will share with you at Bird & Beckett. It is also a celebration of Lester’s 83rd birthday and he is cutting the price of the book for this event from $30 to $20 as his gift to the public. Masks mandatory (we have one to give you) when Lester is in the room.…

Before Kim Shuck was the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco, she was an open mic host and she just can’t shake the habit. On the 2nd Monday of every month Shuck invites two poets to feature longer readings of their work before a no-intros/one-poem-per-reader open mic. On the 4th Monday the rules are the same but it’s all open mic. Find the zoom link below and join us with your favorite poem. This month, the featured poets are Heather Bourbeau and Vince Montague. Heather Bourbeau’s poetry and fiction have appeared in 100 Word Story, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, Meridian, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and SWWIM. She has written in Madagascar, read in Tunisia, and worked in Liberia. While drinking strong tea, she wonders where she will explore next. Her collection Some Days The Bird is a poetry conversation with the Irish-Australian poet Anne Casey (Beltway Editions,…