BBCLP – Bird & Beckett Books & Records

The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project

Established in 2007 to take over responsibility for an ever expanding slate of cultural programming at the bookshop (est. 1999), the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (BBCLP) helps sustain and nurture the diverse and interconnected artist communities that make up the San Francisco Bay Area’s shared culture, by presenting, documenting, archiving, and disseminating the creative work of significant musicians, writers, and other artists. Understanding working artists to be simultaneously creative visionaries, highly trained professionals, and blue collar laborers rooted in local and global communities and economies, the BBCLP encourages intergenerational and intercultural artistic exchange and mutual support through its programming and organizing efforts. The BBCLP collaborates with and supports the efforts of artists unions and other solidarity organizations to organize as a labor force and achieve a greater degree of economic stability, while also expanding access to the arts for audiences with financial hardships through sliding-scale admissions to its programs. Presented in the uniquely accessible and intimate space of a community bookshop, these programs emphasize contemporary local artists of color, seniors, youth, and under-the-radar performers, and celebrate these artists’ connections to larger networks and longer histories in the Bay Area and beyond.

The BBCLP presents several weekly concert series, poetry readings, and many other cultural programs, and also publishes the occasional small book and AMERARCANA: A Bird & Beckett Review.

The BBCLP depends on individual as well as institutional support. The bookshop and the BBCLP operate independently of each other; but the bookshop offers a courtesy discount to all those who've donated $50 or more in the past year.

Help us keep the arts alive and thriving!

If donating by check, make it out to the "Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” and drop it off or mail it to:

Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
653 Chenery Street
San Francisco, CA 94131.

One-time and recurring donations can also be made via Paypal, using the button below:

Membership Circles

Billy Berg Circle (up to $99) Named in honor of Los Angeles nightclub owner Billy Berg, who contracted with Dizzy Gillespie to bring a bop sextet including Charlie Parker (aka "Bird") to the West Coast in December 1945. Signifying the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project's commitment to presenting important performers and writers to appreciative audiences.

Sappho Circle ($100-499) Named for the Greek poet (ca. 600 B.C.), whose crystalline work has come down to us in time-burnished fragments through the efforts and care of countless scholars. Signifying the Cultural Legacy Project's commitment to keeping the creative contributions of our writers and musicians from being lost in the recesses of time.

Paulo Freire Circle ($500-999) Named for the revolutionary 20th century Brazilian educator and humanist, whose theories of pedagogy have been critical tools in the ongoing struggle for human liberation. Signifying the Project's commitment to the notion that education in our shared cultures makes us all stronger, more respectful of ourselves and each other, and more human.

Saraswati Circle ($1,000 & up) Named for the ancient Hindu goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. Signifying the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project's respect for the sacred nature of human endeavors in the creative realm.

THANK YOU

Saraswati Circle

Allison Arieff; Carlota del Portillo; Dan Lanir; Dow Street; Elizabeth Joyce; Georgina Rice; Jay Miller; Jean Conner; Jo Kaufman; Jodell Scott; Joe Mockus; Juliana Grenzeback; Keith Felton; Marianne Viau; Marty Bigos; Michael Shane; Nancy Wakeman; Ronnie Fuchs; Scott Baker; Simon Donovan; Susan Harloe; Susan West; Sylvia Hochede; Thomas Huber; Wes Lukaszek

Paulo Freire Circle

Adda Fleiner; Alberta Mischke; Angela Bennett; Angela Shukert; Anna Sears; Anonymous; Barbara Hauser; Betsy Eddy; Carmen Vega; Dan Liberthson; Debbie Degutis; Diane Carr; Donald Melville; Ellen Rosenthal; Evelyn Kelsey; Gail Bensinger; Gary Mankin; George Woyames; Harvey Hacker; Heather Shane; James O'Donnell; Janet Popesco Archibald; Jon Frank; Joyce Romano; Judith Bernhard; Kathryn Keller; Killian Murphy; Laura Trupin; Lawrence Cohen; Lida Guion; Linda Hmelo; Linda McGilvray; Lisa Mezzacappa; Mark Heydon; Mark Kartman; Michael Siegal; Nelson Barry; Phil Gravitt; Ralph Gutlohn; Rose Katz; Rosemary Hallacy; Tracy Wymer; Wilson

Sappho Circle

Al Mazzie; Alice Rogoff; Alison Chaiken; Anne Crawford; Arlene Eisen; Barbara Kobayashi; Beatrice Plack; Benson Fong; Christy Wise; Danny Yanow; David Anderson; Dennis Dybeck; Diane Douglas; Elizabeth DeCarli; Eric Wells; Harvey Ingham; James Stavoy; Janice Bressler; Jason Friedman; Jeanmarie Sganga; Jo Ellen Brainin-Rodriguez; Joe Cunningham; John Schott; John Watkins; Josephine Arce; Kathleen Hurley; Kym Sites; Lani Asher; Leslie Simon; Lisa Kadyk; Lisa Lozo; Lucy Friedland; Margaret Handler; Marijke Rosen; Mario Guarneri; Mary Lee McNeal; Nancy Mackowsky; Nicole Montalbano; Pat M; Patricia Chinn-Gambale; Paula Levine; Paula-Jo Husack; Philip Zeyliger; Richard Butterfield; Sara Scanlan; Sheila Arcelona; Sheila Balter; Steven Condiotti; Susan Palleschi; Valerie Lawrence; Wendy Poinsot; William Vartnaw

Billy Berg Circle

Alfred Randolph; Amy Markowitz; Anna Horrocks; Bob Siegel; Bonnie Miller; Charles Bernstein; Corliss Lee; Cynthia Doll; Daniel Grobani; Daniel Miller; Deborah May; Debra L. Montgomery; Elva Reyes-Espinoza; Francesca Pera; Franklin Greenwald
George Sottero; Hanna Hart; Ingrid Tyson; Isabel Sobozinsky-Wall; J Robert Kennedy; James Hoadley; Jeff DeMark; Jeff Gardiner; Jerry Logas; Joel Sachs; Joey Scuderi; John Alan Togashi; Julienne Fisher; Kenneth Frank; Kenneth Sisson; Kitty; Larisa Stillo; Larry Harmon; Leslie Finlev; Lester Bruens; Linda Cook; Lindsey Dupriest; Loretta Litke; Maureen OConnor; Nellie Wong; Norma Smith; Pamela Peniston; Philip Perkins; Ralph Whittington; Ruth Geos; Ruth Rosenblatt; Sigrid Hackenberg; Stacey Haysler; Stephen Lubin; Steve Ode; Suzanne Herko; Sydney Clemens; TS Gravel; Wen Xing

As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...

Thanks!

To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...

Our events are put on under the umbrella of the nonprofit 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.

The BBCLP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit...
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