653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood

1-415-586-3733
[email protected]

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Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six

 

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Coletti & Beckman – poets

Monday, August 20 – 7:00 pm POETS! Ed Coletti & David Beckman open mic follows two featured poets, 1st & 3rd Monday of each month hosted by San Francisco troubadour Jerry Ferraz Born in New York, Ed Coletti moved to Santa Rosa when he returned from the Vietnam War.  A graduate of Georgetown University, he completed an MFA in creative writing under Robert Creeley at San Francisco State University.  He has a long publishing history; most recently he published Jazz Gods in 2010 and his latest collection of poems When Hearts Outlive Minds was published in 2011 by Conflux Press. David Beckman has written poetry, plays and novels, and has read his work in numerous Bay Area venues including Maxine Hong Kingston’s 2006 peace event in Santa Rosa.  His chapbook “Times Three” appeared in 2008. Both poets will be traveling down from the North Bay for this reading. Next weekend (Aug. 24-26): (click on…

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Aug. 19 – Husain Resan + Kopel/Hiemstra & August 8-12: Jimmy Ryan Quintet, Joe Pachinko, Bright Side Band

Sunday, August 19th – 4:30 to 6:30 pm Pasha Band (Husain Resan Ensemble) Pan-Arabic music We’re fortunate once again to have some of the Bay Area’s fine middle eastern musicians grace the Bird & Beckett stage this Sunday in our “which way west?” weekly concert series.  Last December, you may have been lucky enough to hear the Ayjal Ensemble perform here (view a video of that performance at this link!); the Pasha Band includes three members of that ensemble:  Husain Dixon Resan is an oud and violin player, vocalist and composer who hails from Iraq.  He studied oud beginning at age 14 in Bayt al-Fann in Baghdad, and joined its music ensemble at age 16.  Coming to the U.S., he studied violin at City College, and has been a key component of the middle eastern music scene here in San Francisco for many years.  Joining Husain in the Pasha Band…

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Renee Gibbons + Craig Ventresco + + Seabop + Barbara Hunter

Sunday, July 29 – 2:30 pm Longing for Elsewhere Renee Gibbons reads from her memoir of a restless life Renee Gibbons — born in a Dublin tenement in the mid-20th century and for the past three decades a well loved figure in San Francisco’s North Beach bohemia — is widely known for the long-running column she wrote for the Irish Herald called “The Rambling Road.”  And a rambling road she’s certainly traveled since escaping Dublin for Paris at age 17, with the help of a Hollywood actor and a kind stranger. Somewhere along the way, she met and fell in love with a radical longshoreman aboard a ship traveling through the Panama bound for Egypt with her year-old daugher, Ashling. He became her husband and San Francisco became her base, but she has never stopped wandering the world, and has never lost her “longing for elsewhere.”   At the same…

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Poet A. D. Winans / Charles Hamilton Quartet

Sunday, July 22 – 2:00 pm Poet A.D. Winans & Friends Al Winans is a thoroughly engaged and committed poet, turning an unblinking stare on society and its lack of compassion for those aced out of the good life.  He’s also got a long record, with his Second Coming Press, of championing (and publishing) poets that come to their work honestly.  He’s got no patience for careerists. Read the terrific profile on him by Evan Karp that appeared in this Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle by clicking on this link. A raft of good friends and fellow poets will join Al this Sunday to read from his new collection, San Francisco Poems.  Guests will include Neeli Cherkovski, Nellie Wong, Ann Menebroker, Art Beck, Soheyl Dahi, Evan Karp, William Taylor, Jr, Paul Fericano, Trina Drotar, Bill Gainer and Bill Vartnaw. Sunday, July 22 – 4:30-6:30 pm Charles Hamilton Quartet which way west? Sunday…

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Noel Jewkes Quartet + The Third Quartet

Live Jazz on Sunday / Poets on Monday Sunday, July 15 – 4:30 to 6:30 pm The Noel Jewkes Quartet Noel Jewkes (reeds), Grant Levin (piano), Adam Gay (bass), Bryan Bowman (drums) — joined for a tune on each set by vocalist Marky Quayle Noel Jewkes has been a mainstay on the Northern California jazz scene since he blew in from the wilds of Utah in the early 1960s–his longest hiatus was probably a couple of weeks round about last Christmas, when he consented to a little heart surgery.  Soon enough, he was back on the bandstand.  His weekly sessions at Mauro’s Sausalito Seahorse Musica each Tuesday draws top musicians week in and week out, always glad to play with a man who’s long been considered one of the best musicians in the region. In Noel’s five decades here on the coast, he’s been called on to work with singers…

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Coming up – July 2 to July 8

Sunday, July 8 – 2:30 pm Look What the Cat Dragged in Again A CD release party for Whitman McGowan’s latest Whitman McGowan started his spoken word career reading poems at a back alley coffeehouse, The Espresso Bar in Pasadena, California, where he put poems for a dollar each on the menu. After moving north to San Francisco (where his UC Santa Barbara teacher Kenneth Rexroth previously held a famous salon) he became best known for crafting a pagan anthem, “White Folks Was Wild Once, Too.” The difficulty in obtaining copies of this, his newest and fourth album, from Viridiana Records, renders it instantly collectible. The spoken word is accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Don Kirby (known for accompanying Ravi Shankar on tanpura), plus Canadian musicians Johnny and Johnny and Margery Snyder on flute. It also incorporates the surprising recording debut of his alter ego Trungpa Bumbleché, who as a would be…

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Weekend of June 22-24 & June 29-July 1

June 29-July 1 6/29 – Friday – jazz in the bookshop Special Fifth Friday Booking! Mad & Eddie Duran Eddie Duran, born in San Francisco in 1925, had become one of the top jazz guitarists on the local scene by the late 1940s.  He got the call to play in Charlie Parker’s band at the Say When Club on Bush Street in 1952, sharing the bandstand with Chet Baker and Lawrence Marable, and has played and recorded with dozens of major figures along the way — including Stan Getz, Cal Tjader, George Shearing, Earl “Fatha” Hines and Jon Hendricks.  For four years through 1980 he was in Benny Goodman’s band — check out this link to a video of Eddie, bassist Al Obidinski and drummer John Markham onstage with Benny at Tokyo’s Budokan Hall, in a trio performance of Prelude to a Kiss while Benny and pianist Teddy Wilson look…

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Sunnylynn Thibodeau + Noel Black & Cralan Kelder

Monday, June 18, 7 pm POETS! plus an open mic! so bring your best… hosted by Jerry Ferraz — 1st & 3rd Monday of each month Noel Black lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, artist Marina Eckler, and their son Ursen.  Co-founder with Ed Berrigan of LOG Magazine and publisher of the Angry Dog Midget Editions in the late 1990s, he has since worked as a writer and producer for a wide variety of media outlets including The Stranger and WNYC.  He currently works as a producer for KRCC public radio.  He is the author of six chapbooks, including Hulktrans (Owl Press, 2008) and In The City of Word People (Blue Press, 2008).  His most recent book of poetry is USELYSSES (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011). Cralan Kelder was born in 1970 and grew up between California and The Netherlands.  An anthropologist by training, he has edited numerous literary magazines,…

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jazz + Loren Bell/Sharon Doubiago + Jinx Jones

Next weekend (June 22-24): Friday – jazz in the bookshop w/The Chuck Peterson Quintet Saturday – shop for books! Sunday – 2pm – Poets/Writers Loren Bell & Sharon Doubiago: The Things They Carried Sunday – 4:30pm – which way west? Sunday Concert Series Jinx Jones & the Jazzabilly All Stars

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Prell/Foster + Phipps & Aran

Friday, June 15 – 5:30 to 8:00 pm The Third Quartet jazz in the bookshop every Friday evening without fail! On the third Friday of each month, a quartet made up of series founders Chuck Peterson (tenor sax), Scott Foster (guitar) and Don Prell (bass) augmented by drummer Ron Marabuto or Omar Aran (this month it’s Omar) holds forth from the Bird & Beckett stage while the neighborhood parties on! Frank Phipps (marching trombone) sits in for Chuck this week. Folks who made it to our “Big Bash at the Clubhouse” a few weeks ago and who stayed to the end will recall the lovely bass & trombone duo performance that Don and Frank gave us to wrap up a really lovely afternoon. If you didn’t hear that, then you have all the more reason to get down to the store this evening for a reprise… In any case, the…

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Poets Keuter, Sherling & Suarez + Orion’s Joy of Jazz + Poets Black, Kelder & Thibodeaux

Sunday & Monday 2 days – 6 poets – 4 jazz musicians Sunday, June 17 – 2:00 pm Poets! Matthew Keuter has published in journals across the U.S. and U.K.  The Short Imposition of Living, a book length collection of poetry, is available from Rain Mountain Press.  His plays have been produced in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado and New York City.  Matthew edits the little mag called Mudfish: A Journal of Art & Poetry. Jennifer Kulbeck is a poet, letterpress printer, collector of stray pastimes, people and household objects from garage sales and street corners, and graduate student in the creative writing program at SF State. Daniel Suarez in a first generation Cuban-American. born and raised in Chicago, who now resides in San Francisco.  He is currently in the process of translating the poetry of Robert Creely into Spanish and the poetry of Jose Lezama Lima into English.  His poems can…

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Alice Rogoff’s Barge Wood + Maurice Tani: 77 El Deora

Sunday, June 10 – 2:30 pm Poet Alice Rogoff Barge Wood A reading of new work by a key local poet, co-editor of the Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal. “The golden leaves form fan shaped piles on the sidewalk while a woman sleeps hugged to the pavement.” — from the poem, “Ginko Leaves Falling in the Tenderloin” Barge Wood, Alice Elizabeth Rogoff CC. Marimbo, Berkeley, 2012. Sunday, June 10 – 4:30-6:30 pm Maurice Tani: 77 El Deora which way west? Sunday concert series | all ages welcome. your donations help us pay the band! Pure country music in a honky tonk vein, shading into some dark and swirling  “hillbilly noir” — from one of the very best alt-country performers/composers on the local scene. If you like  George Jones with your George Dickel and Patsy Cline with your PBR, that’s a good starting point… then be prepared dive ever deeper into the heartbreak and…

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Jimmy Ryan Quintet

Friday, June 8 – 5:30 to 8:00 pm The Jimmy Ryan Quintet jazz in the bookshop Fridays in Glen Park Jimmy Ryan has been our drummer of choice at Bird & Beckett since the Friday evening series started in October 2002… first with the late guitarist Henry Irvin’s band (featuring vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits), then with the regular Friday crew, which was led by Chuck Peterson on tenor sax with Scott Foster on guitar and Don Prell on bass.  All four of these core instrumentalists, and Dorothy as well, continue to keep the jazz flame burning each week at Bird & Beckett.  We’ve never missed a Friday session since the beginning– so we’re coming up on 500 consecutive Fridays very soon indeed. Now Don leads a band, “SeaBop” on the first Friday of the month, Jimmy leads one on the second Friday (which features Scott on guitar, bassist Bishu Chatterjee or…

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Tinker Greene/Carrie Hunter – poets

Monday, June 4 – 7:00 pm Tinker Greene & Carrie Hunter POETS! PLUS AN OPEN MIC 1st & 3rd Monday of each month Hosted by Jerry Ferraz Tinker Greene moved here in 1980. Originally from Vermont, he has spent time in New York City, followed by a decade in BurlingtonVT where he served a lively poetry community as a coordinator. In San Francisco, Tinker has photographed, hiked the wilderness, and more recently, issued a series of well-received chapbooks of his own poems, which he distributes for free. He will be reading new work. Carrie Hunter received her MFA/MA in the Poetics program at New College of California, edits the small chapbook press, ypolita press, and is a member of the Black Radish Books publishing collective. Recent poems appear in Big Bell, TH.CE, and in the video journal Jupiter 88. Chapbooks include Vorticells (Cygist Press), A Musics (Arrow as Aarow), Angel,…

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Luxorius – Joe Warner Trio

Sunday, June 3 – 2:00 pm Luxorius! Opera Omnia: Or, a Duet for Sitar and Trombone Art Beck reads from his new book of translations Art Beck has devised an extended set of translations of the poems of Luxorius, the 6th century (c.e.) provincial Roman poet who lived in North Africa during the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire.  Beck first published some of these translations in the early 1980s, but has expanded and extended these to book length.  This stuff is anything but dry, folks!  Do come! Read Neeli Cherkovski’s review in Big Bridge magazine here:  http://www.bigbridge.org/BB16/prose/prosencherkovski2.htm   Sunday, June 3 – 4:30 to 6:30 pm Joe Warner Trio young players – classic jazz! which way west? Sunday concert series all ages welcome. your donations help us pay the band! jazz trio with pianist Warner, bassist Gary Johnson and drummer Alex Nash. Warner, not yet 20…

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Tango No. 9

Sunday, May 27 – 4:30 to 6:30 pm Tango No. 9 feat. vocalist Zoltan diBartolo which way west? Sunday concert series – all ages welcome! – $10 suggested donation per adult Tango is a deeply mesmerizing music — and dance form, of course — finding its deepest roots in Argentina while exerting a global influence bordering on mania, inspiring practitioners around the globe. San Francisco’s own Tango No. 9 is undoubtedly among the finest exemplars of the art form worldwide, plying their trade here at home with complete dedication for fifteen years and more… Today’s engagement, T9’s sixth appearance on the Bird & Beckett stage, is anticipated with particular pleasure and excitement…  Isabel Douglass, an infinitely soulful and lovely accordionist of immense versatility, found herself a few seasons ago drawn to the road as a member of Rupa and the April Fishes, and we’ve since mourned her absence from the…

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On the literary side…

Thursday, May 24 – 7:00 pm The Monthly Eminent Authors’ Birthdays Open Reading a long-standing Bird & Beckett tradition, recurring on the fourth Thursday of each month Have a favorite writer born in May?  Come down to Bird & Beckett this Thursday evening to share aloud a bit of his or her work with fellow devotees of the book.  We have long lists of fine writers and their birth months, if you’d care to come down and take a look to see who might be a likely candidate for your attention. And please, we hope you’ll endeavor to read to us from a real book if humanly possible.  Bird & Beckett is, after all, a book store and we particularly treasure that lovely form in which writing has been shared since the good blacksmith Gutenberg invented movable type. Consider too, that if you buy a book to take home, it…

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Lynn Bonfield – Ventresco/Axelrod/Eggers – Tom Church/Dan Brady

Sunday, May 20 – 2:00 pm The Rix Journal: Small-Town Vermont to Gold Rush era San Francisco Historian Lynn Bonfield discusses the document and her work Lynn Bonield, former director of the San Francisco Labor Archives, now divides her time between Glen Park and Peachham, Vermont, where she was first drawn by the story of the Rix family — having chanced in 1972 upon the unique Gold Rush era journal of husband and wife Alfred and Chastina Rix among uncatalogued materials in the stacks at the San Francisco Historical Society.  The journal has just recently been beautifully published as New England to Gold Rush California: The Journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix, 1849-1854, edited with commentary by Lynn, from the Arthur W. Clark Co. imprint of the Unversity of Oklahoma Press. Beginning on their wedding day in Peacham on July 29, 1849, Alfred and Chastina kept a dual journal, alternating the task of bringing it up to…

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Amerarcana Reading + Nellie Wong + Social Media Panel + Blind Willies + Booker T. Washington

Thursday, May 17 – 7 pm “Amerarcana 2012″ Bird & Beckett’s Annual Literary Journal A Reading & Celebration! The 3rd issue of our own “little magazine” has arrived, and it’s exquisite in content and design, just like the first two! Come & get it at the AMERARCANA 2012 RELEASE READING: Thursday, May 17th from 7:00 pm — with readings by contributors Bill Berkson, Duncan McNaughton, David Meltzer, Jackson Meazle, Jason Morris, Erik Noonan, Cedar Sigo, Tisa Walden & editor Nick Whittington.  Less likely to appear are Justin Desmangles, Joanne Kyger, Sarah Menefee, Jeffrey Joe Nelson, Will Skinker & Colter Jacobsen. Certain not to appear is Rodrigo Lira, as he no longer walks this earth, but who knows, perhaps his translators Rodrigo Olavarria & Thomas Rothe will show… Regardless, it’s sure to be a grand event, with wine & words aplenty. Amerarcana is a proud production of the Bird & Beckett Cultural…

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Big Bash

Saturday, May 19th – 4:30 to 6:30 pm Big Bash at the Clubhouse a benefit for Bird & Beckett! Call or email the bookshop to reserve your Big Bash ticket now!  586-3733 / [email protected] Just $10 each. Proceeds benefit your cherished neighborhood bookshop! Get in the mood for a massive good time by clicking on that black “Streampad” bar way down at the bottom of this screen — it’s an 8 min. segment of an historic show by  Jack Ruby Hi Power at Keystone Berkeley on Aug. 1, 1982 — a concert produced by the same folks who bring you Bird & Beckett… read more about it by clicking here to visit our blog…and while you’re there be sure to click on the poster to go into the matter at greater depth at the site called Who Cork the Dance.  There you can download 78 min. of the show if…

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Dan Richman + Macy Blackman + Bill Vartnaw & Patti Trimble

Sunday, May 6, 2pm “enclosure” a talk by Dan Richman The fencing of common grazing land in England in the 17th and 18th century accelerated the creation of a landless working class, and today we still mourn and suffer from the loss of the “commons.” Dan Richman considers the history and its implications today.  A taker of long walks, a philosopher of sorts, an observer of natural life in the built landscape, and a writer of plays, novels, essays and poems, Dan has long been a contributor to the Bird & Beckett intellectual commons, with his occasional staging of short plays, participation in our poetry readings, and talks on a variety of topics. Sunday, May 6, 4:30 to 6:30 pm Macy Blackman & the Mighty Fines rockin’ new orleans R&B which way west? Sunday concert series all ages welcome – donation requested Still we roll on!  Macy’s been rolling out…

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Walker Brents + Bengal & Beyond

Sunday, April 29 Come to the Glen Park Festival! An all-day frolic al fresco on Diamond Street from Bosworth to Chenery.  Crafts booths, food vendors, your occasional politician and a stage full of terrific musicians entertaining you & your 1,000 close personal friends-to-be!  Music on the Fest stage starts at 10:00 a.m. when our honorary Glen Park mayor & major domo Misisipi Mike introduces the kick off act, Gayle Schmitt and the Toodalla Ramblers doing a special set for the stroller set.  At 11:30, Misisip’s own Midnight Gamblers flower in the noon-day sun with a good-natured honky tonk set to get the grown-ups up & hollerin’.  Neighborhood politico-musico’s District 8 follow at 1:00; and then Jinx Jones & KingTones take the stage at 1:45  for a coronation rave-up.  World emperors Pangea play at 3:15, globalizing the whole deal. The cosmos in a microcosm, on the best block in the best…

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Don Prell + Dan Richman + Macy Blackman + Bill Vartnaw

Friday, May 4 to Monday, May 7 Jazz in the bookshop every Friday, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm This week: Don Prell’s Seabop Ensemble. Sunday at 2pm, Dan Richman considers the phenomenon of “enclosure”… the loss of the commons, the building of borders, fences and walls around the world we once inhabited together; and at 4:30 pm on Sunday, our which way west? concert series features the rockin’ New Orleans R&B of Macy Blackman & the Mighty Fines. Then, on Monday starting 7, its an evening of poetry, with featured readers Bill Vartnaw (Poet Laureate of Sonoma County!) and Patty Trimble– open mic to follow.  The whole show is hosted by Jerry Ferraz, peripathetic bard & a San Francisco native… it’s a twice-a-month affair at Bird & Beckett– the first & third Monday of every month.

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John Trudell + Hindustani Classical Music

Sunday, April 22 – 2 pm John Trudell Poet, Musician, Activist John Trudell is an acclaimed poet, national recording artist, actor and activist, with an international following that reflects the universal language of his words, work and message. Today at Bird & Beckett, he’ll read poems and lyrics collected in his book Lines from a Mined Mind. Trudell (Santee Sioux) was a spokesperson for the Indian of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971. He worked with the American Indian Movement (AIM), serving as Chairman of AIM from 1973 to 1979. In February of 1979, a fire of unknown origin killed Trudell’s wife, three children and mother-in-law. It was through this horrific tragedy that Trudell began to find his voice as an artist and poet, writing, in his words, “to stay connected to this reality.” In 1982, Trudell began recording his poetry to traditional Native music and…

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Jeanne Powell & Nancy Keane

Monday, April 16 – 7:00 pm Poets Jeanne Powell & Nancy Keane followed by an open mic POETS! First & Third Monday of each month, hosted by Jerry Ferraz Jeanne Powell’s collections of poetry include My Own Silence and Word Dancing.  A much admired poet and cultural critic, Jeanne has made a significant impact on the San Francisco poetry scene by hosting a long-running spoken word series — “Celebration of the Word” — which took place weekly in San Francisco for ten years, and by publishing numerous local and more far-flung poets as well under her imprint, Meridien PressWorks.  Her “Living Treasures”  project was a particularly valuable effort, that brought out the books of four poets over age 70.  Read more on Jeanne at http://redroom.com/member/jeanne-powell. Nancy Keane — poet, publisher, artist and proprietor of one of the truly great and storied watering holes in San Francisco — hosts a legendary…

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Friday at Bird & Beckett – Jimmy Ryan + Daisy Rockwell

Happy Birthday, Sam! April 13 is Samuel Beckett’s putative birthday– so this Friday, let’s toast the great man and his good works!  Scott Baker & Val Fachman, fond thespian interpreters of his words and fresh back from Paris, will hold forth at the break between jazz sets this evening to share a few of Sam’s poems in his original French and his own English translations of same!  Guinness & Jamesons the drinks of choice! Friday, April 13, 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm Jimmy Ryan Quintet Jazz in the Bookshop Every Friday! Henry Hung (trumpet), Danny Grewen (trombone), Scott Foster (guitar), Bishu Chatterjee (bass) & Jimmy Ryan (drums).  Jimmy Ryan got his start in L.A. in the ’50s, got to San Francisco in the early ’60s, and has been a key member of the Bird & Beckett Friday night jazz series since the beginning, as has guitarist Scott Foster. This fine…

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Big Bash 2012

Coming up Saturday, May 19th Bird & Beckett’s Big Bash at the Clubhouse Once every couple of summers, we take our show up to the “clubhouse” on O’Shaughnessy to raise a little dough!  It sustains us down in Glen Park, where we do 18 events a month, the lion’s share of them under the auspices of the venerable Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project. This will be our fourth “Big Bash” — each one a terrific community party, with bands, food, drink… and you!  $10 tix will be available in advance (but not just yet). Stay tuned for our entertainment line up, though we can tell you that it will be focused on the folks that have poured through the public high school that sits up on the rim of Glen Canyon, The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. Many young musicians and writers whose talents have been developed at the…

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Dave Parker Trio, Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down, Joe Lasqo

this weekend at Bird & Beckett… Friday – 5:30 to 8:00 pm jazz in the bookshop 3/30 – The Dave Parker Trio Jerry Logas, baritone and tenor saxes, flute and clarinet Charles Hamilton, trombone Dave Parker, bass Remember the halcyon days of the Red Rock Lounge?  That was Ric Lopez’s elegant little corner bar at Diamond & Chenery before Le P’tit Laurent took its place…  and Friday nights in Glen Park always sizzled with jazz from a fiery quintet that featured Dave Parker on bass along with Jerry Logas on saxes and the late trumpeter Mike Pitre.  Dave’s group holds down regular gigs now at the Purple Onion in North Beach and Farmer Brown’s in the Tenderloin– and once in a blue moon we lure the band back into Glen Park for a reprise of those early days.   Sunday – 2:30 to 4:00 pm Poetry Anthology Release Reading 4/1…

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April Which Way West? Events

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…

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Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood – Day 4

Bird & 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…

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SUPPORT BIRD & BECKETT - DONATE TODAY!

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." We've been doing that very thing for more than a decade and a half, continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.

Due to lapses in tax filings during and post-pandemic, the BBCLP's status as a registered nonprofit was suspended at the beginning of April 2024 while we reapply, which is expected to take about six months. Donations made after April 1st will not be tax-deductible until nonprofit status is restored.

However, we continue to present a full slate of programming live music and poetry, and producing literary chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support in the interim. If a tax-deduction is not a major reason for your support to date, we hope you'll continue to ride with us while we navigate these next several months.

Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above, drop off a check at the bookshop, or drop one in the mail 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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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.

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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

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