“AVOTCJA’s poetry is music and Avotcja’s music is poetry. Both are as hot as fire and as soothing as snow flakes. And in both she brings the best of her talent in Spanish and English. Listen to her. Read her. Enjoy her. Celebrate her.”
• Camincha – Peruvian Poet/Novelist;
& Pacifica Poet Laureate, 2017-2021.

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Poet / Playwright / Essayist / Fiction Writer / Multi-Percussionist / Photographer / Teacher, Avotcja is a Bay Area icon and is renowned for her group Modúpue. At Bird & Beckett tonight, Modúpue will be a quintet with Avotcja joined by violinist Sandi Poindexter, saxophonist Francis Wong, bassist Heshima Mark Williams and talking drum master Baba Ken Okolulo.

Modúpue was named best jazz group of the year twice, in 2005 and again in 2010, by the Bay Area Blues Hall of Fame. Avotcja herself was named a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association. Her radio shows on KPFA – Bebop, Cubop & the Musical Truth (Tuesdays, 8-10pm), and KPOO – La Verdad Musical (Fridays, noon-3pm), have been soul satisfying for decades, expressing the boundless joy she always finds in the music. As for her poetry, no one taps deeper wells of humanity than Avotcja! We love her more than we can express.

Read here what Linda Tillery, Chuy Varela, Camincha, Greg Landau, Leslie Simon, Ishmael Reed, Lady Bianca, Elaine Cohen, Julian Carroll and Melanie Berzon have had to say in praise of Avotcja!

The cover charge for the quintet tonight is $25 cash or venmo, payable at the door. College and high school students – $10. Grade school and younger, free. No one turned away for lack of funds. Wheelchair accessible. Bring your own beverages, but please eat, out or home, before or after the show. Lots of good restaurants in the neighborhood and GPS is open again after the flooding that closed them down for a few months!