Tongo Eisen-Martin, a child of the Bay Area, seemed to emerge full blown on the Bay Area poetry front in 2015 with his debut Someone’s Dead Already from Bootstrap Press and a cascade of uncanny readings, hands in pockets, gaze fixed in the middle distance of his mind. But by that point he had already achieved deep hip hop/spoken word credibility and had gone full on into prison work that had taken him nationwide for years. City Lights’ Pocket Poets series followed up with Heaven is All Goodbyes in 2017, #61, and as a brilliant poet he’s been a presence to be reckoned with nationally since. View the live stream at this link. Donate to give Tongo a decent payday at this link.

Eric Shifrin plays solo from the Bird & Beckett stage over the facebook! Click here to go there in one simple step, or go to facebook, search for “bird & beckett books,” click on “videos” – scroll down a bit and watch for the screen with the little red square that says “LIVE” Join us (just the pianist & the proprietor) for one hour-long set by Eric “Mr. Fingers” Shifrin. He’s a San Francisco original who’s wowed ’em in saloons and hotels, dens and dives, in high-toned places and low-down spaces, boites and ballrooms, clubs and concert halls. Eric has played Bird & Beckett countless times over the past twenty years… you know him from dates with “Eric and the In Crowd” and with “EaR Candy,” his quartet co-led with the late great Ralph Carney, and he’s always pleased us with his vast talents, superb technique and great good humor.…