Dark Days and a Black Dog, performed by esteemed actor Andrea Snow and directed by Jael Weisman (both Obie Award winners) from the book by Emily Keeler, evokes seven heartwrenching, darkly comic years in the writer’s life, at once shocking and breathtakingly familiar.   Emily Keeler is a four-time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship who has worked as a dancer, choreographer and writer in San Francisco and New York since the 1970s.   Debuted by the company at Bird & Beckett in January, Andrea’s performance of Emily’s work under Jael’s direction brought gasps of delight and shudders of recognition. We’re more than pleased to revisit this work en route to its discovery by theater audiences far afield.   _________________________________ From the first audience: “Thank you, Andrea, for your bravura performance…. The poems are guided by the poet’s dogged presence in the phenomenological world; the…

Enjoy a classic jazz trio, led by drummer Vince Lateano–a crucial presence 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 a twenty for the band!   Check out this video of a recent performance by the  trio… Vince Lateano Trio at Bird & Beckett, November 2022   This is not the time to leave town, though it might just be the right weekend for a visit from afar! To get to Glen Park from Vince Lateano’s North Beach beat, ride  MUNI’s T-Line (the Central Subway) to Powell Street from the Bayview or from Chinatown’s Rose Pak Station at Stockton & Washington, and grab…

Bossa Nova crooner Masha Campagne and her project Voz Da Lapa celebrate passion & saudade of Brazilian Samba & Bossa, honoring creativity & artistic modernization of Tom Jobim, Gilberto Gil, and other Brazilian legends. JazzTimes magazine noted that “Brazilian stylist Campagne is blending the wistfulness of Astrud Gilberto with the robust liquidity of Flora Purim” praising her spellbinding, sensuous vocals full of rich fire, deep soul, creativity and flair. Campagne is one of the most lauded voices in the Bay Area, with three internationally acclaimed CDs to her credit. Her recent 2022 engagements included SFJAZZ &  SJZ BoomBox stages. Official Website: www.mashacampagnemusic.com No Fundo Do Rio Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.ALU4KyLJT9k Masha Campagne -Vocals/Percussion Gaea Schel – Flute William Bohrer – Guitar Percussion – TBA

Guitarist Scott Foster makes jazz new each and every time out, and always swings. Every third Friday, he presents a fresh ensemble at Bird & Beckett. This week Scott is joined by featured artist Kevin Rayhill on piano, and great jazz players well familiar to Bird & Beckett audiences — Jim Peterson on sax, Dan Seamans on bass and Bryan Bowman on drums. Kevin was a regular fixture on the local jazz scene in the ’90s, playing at 42 Degrees and other venues, and has been keeping it going as a solo pianist lately. This is a reboot of the kind of thing he was getting to back then, with some really interesting material from modern jazz composers and including some of his own originals. $25 contribution requested to help us pay the quintet! byob, a twenty and a five! but as always, pay what you can.

Francis Wong, saxophones William Roper, tuba Scott Oshiro, flute & electronics Jordan Glenn, drums with poet Lynn Huang Francis Wong and William Roper go way back, and take it forward with two young lions. $20 cover charge (cash please) reservations, call 415-586-3733  

In Narrow Escapes, memoirist Louise Nayer takes the reader on a journey filled with danger and romance. Haunted by a terrible accident and adrift in love, the writer travels through Morocco, to New York City and finally, on a solo journey, to California, thousands of miles from her home. Set in the early 70s at a time of cataclysmic change in America, Narrow Escapes resonates with those who find themselves needing to release themselves from a difficult past in search for joy and home. https://www.spuytenduyvil.net/narrow-escapes.html Author Louise Nayer is a long-time educator and author of six books.  Burned: A Memoir was an Oprah Great Read and won the Wisconsin Library Association Award. She received six California Arts Council grants as a poet and has taught for years in community colleges, senior centers and nursing homes. She now teaches at OLLI UC Berkeley and at the Writer’s Grotto where she is…

Alchemy! Not as it seems, this ancient art. Neither is it otherwise. Is it what science was before science became what it is? Yes and no. Were the ancient alchemists really believing they could turn lead into gold? If so, what were their actual raw materials? Regardless of the answers to such questions, Walker Brents III will be offering a way to imagine the wealth of concepts contained in the various symbols of its theory and practice. For two decades, Walker has delved into diverse subjects in his monthly live streamed talks from Bird & Beckett, which you can find at the appointed time on our Facebook page or YouTube channel. Your donations to support Walker and this project are always welcome and appreciated.

On the second and fourth Monday of each month, San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita Kim Shuck hosts an online poetry series, with featured poets and an open mic on the 2nd Monday and an all-open mic format on the 4th Monday. Information on how to participate follows at the bottom of this post. This evening’s featured poets are Lourdes Figueroa and Yeva Johnson. Lourdes Figueroa is an oral poet. Her poems are a dialogue of her lived experience when her family worked in el azadón in Yolo County. The words el azadón are used by the ones who work in the fields — the work of tilling the soil under the blistering sun. She is the author of the chapbooks yolotl and Ruidos = To Learn Speak, completed during her Alley Cat Books Residency. Her chapbook Vuelta was recently published by Nomadic Press. She works and lives in Oakland with…

America’s favorite honky tonk band, The Seducers, resident at Bird & Beckett since the Great Riptide Fire of 2015, returns for its regular odd-months second Sundays booking — a Bakersfield to Nashville rave-up that never fails to please. Joe Goldmark, pedal steel master, is captain of the ship, though his charismatic second lieutenants Mitch Polzac on lead guitar and vocals and Hank Maninger on bass guitar and vocals vie for power and influence on the quarterdeck,\ while Chief Poetry Officer Kenny Owen keeps the fire burning and the turbines spinning from the drumkit. Sail on to Seduction!

Two musicians who have long inhabited the liminal spaces of the San Francisco bohemia perform from the Bird & Beckett stage this afternoon. Poet and troubadour, guitarist and painter Jerry Ferraz, born in San Franciscan in 1950, grew up in Eureka Valley, the watershed from Twin Peaks that feeds the Castro District. He wandered the City from a young age, first just taking in the evolution of the culture and soon offering his own poetry and song to whoever he encountered in the cafes, bars, galleries and streets, channeling ancient traditions of France’s Languedoc region, the rural blues of the American South and the dust bowl folk music of the Southwest. He was on the first bill of poets to perform in the bookshop the year we opened, 1999, and has grounded our poetry series ever since. For a few years now, on many a Sunday he’s been found playing…

SF Lives Live Talks–Journalist Denise Sullivan + guest live streamed every 2nd Sunday at 10 a.m. San Francisco journalist Denise Sullivan conducts a monthly series of conversations (the second Sunday of each month from 10-11 a.m.) with The City’s activists, educators, arts and cultural leaders and workers, the everyday people who help make this place we call home, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books and viewable on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page and YouTube channel. This month Denise is in conversation with Mike Shriver. Shriver has been involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy, activism, program development, organizational development and public policy efforts for over 30 years. He served on the Board of the National AIDS Memorial Grove and was honored with its Lifetime Achievement Award, is an honorary trustee of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and is one of the organizers of Burrito Project SF. He was a…

Dewayne Oakley, bass violin Raja, vocals Ralph Nelson, guitar Rob Rhodes, drums BYOB and a twenty for the band! Reservations, call 415-586-3733 The blues speak to all of us, and we’ll let the Dewayne Oakley Blues Ensemble speak for itself. Enjoy these videos, and then come to the show. There’s nothing like being in the room with the musicians and their music. And having Raja along for the ride on this date makes us more than  happy. Video  

    Reed and flute player Masaru Koga, who left the Bay Area for New York a few years ago, returns to Bird & Beckett joined by pianist Frank Martin, bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and drummer Sylvia Cuenca for an intimate and open conversation in jazz. $20 cover charge, byob. Reservations – (415) 586-3733

2nd Fridays jazz happy hours are the province of Eric Shifrin and a deep pool of talent he’s cultivated over decades on the San Francisco scene. Tonight, his “Peninsula Project!” from the gutters of North Beach to the gilded shelves of the bookstore. BYOB and some dough for the musicians. A twenty fits the bill very well, but pitch in what fits your economics. Stay for a tune or a set or the whole 2-1/2 hour happy hour! Whatever takes the workweek stress away. Eric & the In Crowd will make it easy and oh, so pleasurable. Eric Shifrin, piano & vocals Rick Brown, trombone Carl Herder, bass Garry Williams, drums