Bart Schneider’s new book from Kelly’s Cove Press, The Daily Feast, is a joyous and savory collaboration between old friends, Sonoma painter Chester Arnold and Berkeley poet Bart Schneider. All the work focuses on food and drink, from oysters on the half shell to dirty martinis, with an afterword by legendary Napa chef and restaurateur Cindy Pawlcyn. Read Jonah Raskin’s review & profile of the poet/publisher at this link.   Also on hand, short story writer Daniel Coshnear, whose collection Occupy and Other Love Stories was brought out by Kelly’s Cove in 2012. Dan Coshnear lives in Guerneville, California with his wife and two children, works at a group home for the homeless and mentally ill, and teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension and in other North Bay facilities. He is author of Jobs & Other Preoccupations (Helicon Nine 2001) and Occupy & Other Love Stories (Kelly’s Cove Press 2012) and a novella, Homesick, Redux (Flock…

                    Featured poets Preeti Vangani and Charlie Getter Preeti Vangani is a poet and personal essayist. Born and raised in Mumbai, she is the author of Mother Tongue Apologize (RLFPA Editions), her first book of poems (selected as the winner of RL India Poetry Prize.) Her work has been published in BOAAT, Gulf Coast, Threepenny Review, among other journals. She is the Assistant Poetry Editor for Glass Journal, a Poet Mentor at Youth Speaks, and holds an MFA (Writing) from University of San Francisco. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211  

Americana noir from a master songwriter, with bassist Mike Anderson, Henry Salvia on piano, and special guest vocalist Pamela Brandon. $20 cover charge; byob. Can’t make it to the shop with your cover charge? Donate ten or twenty and watch it in the stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page!  

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 lesser-known workers, the everyday people who help make this place we call home, live streamed from Bird & Beckett Books. December 11 at 10 a.m., Denise and photojournalist Mabel Jiménez will have a conversation from our stage in a live stream viewable on the Bird & Beckett Facebook page and YouTube channel. Mabel Jiménez is an award-winning journalist and documentary photographer with over 15 years of experience in nonprofit local media. She worked for over a decade at El Tecolote bilingual newspaper, most notably as the publication’s Photo Editor. During the Trump era, Jiménez documented the refugee crisis at the U.S./Mexico border, receiving awards for reporting and photography. In 2021, she documented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on San…

Jazz standards and hard bop favorites arranged by Omar Aran in the classic jazz trio style. Adam Shulman, piano Eric Markowitz, bass Omar Aran, drums $20 cover charge, byob. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Catch the show live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page if you can’t make it down to the shop to hear them in person. Donate to help recompense the musicians!

John Calloway, flute and percussion Hafez Modirzadeh, saxophone Tony Stead – piano Saul Sierra – bass Dillon Vado – drumsJohn Calloway, master musician and educator, is unable to join us tonight due to a positive virus test with minor symptoms, but will return with his ensemble on February 4th, so please mark your calendar and wish him well! He will be well represented tonight by the stellar rhythm section he assembled for this date with his estimable colleague Hafez Modirzadeh stepping in on reeds. Do join us for two splendid sets of music. $20 cover charge, byob. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30 show. For a reservation, call the shop at 415-586-3733. Catch the show live streamed on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel or Facebook page if you can’t make it down to the shop to hear them in person. Donate to help recompense the musicians!

Tonight at Bird & Beckett! 7pm. If you can’t make it to the shop, catch the live stream on Bird & Beckett’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. We are pleased to host Carol Gigliotti, author of The Creative Lives of Animals, offering “intimate glimpses of creativity in the lives of animals from elephants to alligators to ants.” She’ll present her book in dialog with Calder G. Lorenz, her son and the author One Way Down (or Another), “a novel content to follow its narrator’s lead, not looking for trouble but sometimes finding it, thriving instead on the strength of his rich inner dilemmas.” (Seattle Book Review). Less interested in artificial intelligence than in the creativity of sentient beings other than homo sapiens, and already know something of trees and mushrooms? Then this is the place to be Thursday evening! Take a listen to this NPR Morning Edition interview with Carol aired on…

Trombonist Grachan Moncur III emerged from the Benny Golson-Art Farmer Jazztet, steeped in hardbop, to become one of the more original improvising composers of the mid-’60s New York jazz scene. With evocative titles like Gnostic, Esoteric, Love and Hate, Frankenstein, Air Raid and Ghost Town, his pen and his bone discovered new solutions to jazz problems of the era. New forms, old forms, no form. Bay Area stalwarts Mezzacappa, Ewing and Glenn are joined by Rova’s Bruce Ackley, and led through Moncur’s wonderland by East Bay treasure, vibraphonist Dave Casini. The music is swinging, compelling and drenched in fresh shades of blue. The casual fan of early to mid-1960s jazz knows well the names and the work of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams. Most have a pretty good handle on Cecil McBee as well, or should… We dare say many likely don’t fully register the name of the…

On December 4, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Roots, Jazz & American Music B.Mus. degree program fields the B105 Seminar Jazz Ensemble coached by drummer Akira Tana. Remarkable talent on display! Come down to the shop, or tune in to the live stream on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Your donations support the musicians and the stream. Thanks for that! The first Sunday of each month, Bird & Beckett proudly presents a jazz combo comprising students from a local college or high school opening the program, followed by a student jam session led by a professional trio. Co-produced and underwritten by Jazz in the Neighborhood and Bird & Beckett, the students in the combos receive a small stipend and the professional musicians receive a guaranteed fair wage. Your contributions are much appreciated. Your ears as well! All young and youngish students aspiring to a career in jazz —…

Oakland-based ensemble The TOaG Quartet brings a dazzling breadth of improvisational music, all composed in response to and reflecting on the tumultuous last several years – which hit professional creatives especially hard. Described as “Swinging and Funky,” “Beautiful and Groovin,” “Dark and Spacey,” and “Raw but Refined,” The TOaG Quartet, under the direction of bassist Benjamin Lee, is fronted by saxophone phenom Eli Maliwan, whose technical and creative prowess is unmatched. Powerhouse drummer Ricky Carter commands the rhythm section with a seamless blend of fury and subtlety, alongside veteran guitarist DV Wright – whose soundscapes are as stunning as his screaming solos. $20 cover charge; BYOB. Call the store at 415-586-3733 for a reservation. Doors open at 7:20 for the 7:30pm show. Our events are live streamed on our YouTube channel and Facebook page. Your kind donations while watching online help us pay the musicians and support the stream. $10…

Ed Cherry is one of the greats of jazz. He’s been on that course since the late 1970s, and is solidly in his prime. Tonight, he leads a trio in the intimate space that is Bird & Beckett. $20 cash cover charge. BYOB. Doors open at 7:20pm for the 7:30pm show. Call for reservations – 415-586-3733 Nothing beats being in the room, but the date will also be live streamed on the Bird & Beckett YouTube channel and Facebook page; and if you partake substantially of it, we hope you’ll support the stream by donating per the information on the screen. $10 is nice. Ed Cherry moved to New York from New Haven, Connecticut in 1978 to play guitar with Dizzy Gillespie for the better part of a decade and a half, from 1978 to 1992, performing in Gillespie’s quartet and big band, and with Diz’s United Nation Orchestra, which…

Regarding Daniel Wolff”s new book from Four Way Books, More Poems About Money: Poet Rosanna Warren calls it “an angry and ingenious collection… [that] indicts global capitalism in a fury of word-play, rhymes, squint-eyed sonnets, and puns.” Author Jonathan Galassi describes the work as “razor-sharp, deeply witty, sardonic meditations.” This Wolff’s fourth collection; his poetry has appeared in many literary magazines including The Paris Review, the American Poetry Review, The Three Penny Review, and Raritan. From prologue: “What do global combat and property ownership have to do with sex and sea turtles? According to Daniel Wolff—as it turns out, everything. More Poems about Money looks at the economic times we live in, from boom to bust, from the suburbs to the warzone, in a voice that ranges from humorous to desperate. Grappling with monetary value and how it infringes on self worth, Wolff asks simultaneously timeless and timely questions—Who has…

The Potrero Hillbillies — Joshua Raoul Brody, Joe Cunningham and Christopher Gray — dig into the songbook of one of the key bands of old, weird America. $20 cash cover charge, byob Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Live streamed on the Bird & Beckett YouTube channel and Facebook page.$10 suggested donation per the directions on the screen (paypal, venmo, cash app) if you tuned in for a full set.

Jump rhythm & blues! Karina Denike, vocal Tom Griesser, sax Michael McIntosh, piano Joe Kyle, Jr., bass Randy Lee Odell, drums $25 cash cover charge ($20-25 sliding scale) BYOB Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Live streamed on the Bird & Beckett YouTube channel and Facebook page. $10 suggested donation per the directions on the screen (paypal, venmo, cash app) if you tuned in for a full set.