653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
[email protected]
Open to walk-in trade and browsing
Tuesday to Sunday
noon to six
Live Streams every weekend!
Refresh your browser
to catch a show in progress!
Visit our Facebook page or
YouTube channel!
But nothing beats being in the room
with the music & the musicians!
Next weekend kicks off early, with a Thursday 4/18, 7:30pm live stream of Walker Brents III’s monthly excursion into topics in poetry, philosophy, mythology, literature and other areas of interest… this time out considering the poet Jack Spicer and “the Quest for Meaningful Speech,” a personal response to the compelling challenge of a cryptically precise poet. No matter how austere, how stripped and futuristic the language of the poetry, Spicer had an appreciation for the human community that was prescient, astringent, dangerously rich, and generous. The sources of his fascination are hydra-headed. Understanding him is akin to defending ancient springs. Jazz music ensues! Scott Foster invites Darren Johnston and Heshima Mark Williams back to the Bird & Beckett stage for a further musical excursion on Friday, April 19 at 6pm — building on a date a few months back. It’s our Friday-after-work jazz happy hour, the one that started in…
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Hungry to hear some of Bird & Beckett’s past live streams? On the home page you can scroll down to read the individual posts for the shows we’ve mounted in the past several months, a hint of what’s gone down since the pandemic lock-down began. In more amazing times, it would take you right back to the very first show of the current period, back on March 12, 2020, but that beautiful skein is no longer quite so easily accessed. Still, the evidence is there for those who dig. The March 12, 2020 show that signaled the shift was a Thursday evening performance by New York saxophonists Jessica and Tony Jones, both alumni of the Berkeley High jazz program, with NYC bassist Stomu Takeishi and local hero Deszon X. Claiborne on drums. The quartet’s booking for the night before at the Backroom over in Berkeley had been cancelled. A few…
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Bird & Beckett’s events open to the public have been back since mid-June 2021. Mask up if you’re inclined, and do come in! (Not vaxxed? Please get vaxxed and be safer!) Jazz, poetry & more live in the shop and live streamed Come to 653 Chenery if you’re in town! Doors open at 7:20 for our 7:30 shows. $20 cover for trios and quartets $25 for quintets, $30 for sextets, etc. Cash at the door please! BYOB and BYOglass, and pack out what you pack in! Please feel free to wear a mask in the shop. We trust the science and its processes, and we trust SF’s DPH to keep us up to date on best practices! Advised best practices as of early September 2021 was to wear a mask indoors around people. If that makes you a little more comfortable being inside this winter, then do feel free. Sure…
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The posts that follow show you what’s come and gone. Search the videos on our youtube channel or facebook page to find evidence of what you remember, or what you missed! Then, make sure you catch the next thing that catches your fancy. The live streams are great, but live music in a room with folks you know or ought to get to know, that’s irreplaceable…
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Independent reporter Denise Sullivan brings the SFLives series back to Bird & Beckett for a Sunday morning livestream. You can find it in the video screen at the top of this website, or watch it later on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. In Marxism & Witchcraft (“A Marxist Theory of the Apocalypse & and Ecological Critique of Marxism”), author David Kubrin examines how Marx and Engels’ repudiation of religion blinded them to the critical role played by curanderismo and shamanism in the resistance to colonialism which ultimately led the movement along a trajectory that was racist, Eurocentric, antagonistic to workers and married to programs of industrialism without any regard to environmental consequences and weakened the communist fight against encroaching fascism. By examining the ideological foundations of Nazism, Kubrin brings to light the cultural, strategic and spiritual terrain on which it’s critical to do battle in today’s struggle against neofascism…
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Kim Shuck’s B&B-sponsored online poetry series has been going strong, on Zoom and Google Meet, for several years now and attracts a broad community of poets. 2nd Mondays, Kim hosts two featured readers and conducts the open mic that follows. 4th Mondays, it’s all open mic. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 The featured readers this time out are Norma Smith and Ellyseo Metcalf. Read on! Norma Smith has lived in the East Bay for more than half a century. She has worked as a journalist, a translator-interpreter, community scholar-educator, event and conference organizer, and as an editor, writing coach, and workshop facilitator. Norma’s book of poems, HOME REMEDY, is available at https://blacklawrencepress.com/books/home-remedy/ Ellyseo (el-LEE-see-oh) Metcalf is another lost soul that read The Stranger in high school and never recovered. Unable to find meaning within the Marine Corps, religion, or education, he now scribbles pretentious blasphemy…
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The first Sunday of the month is a set aside for a jam session for young jazz musicians hosted by a professional trio, with a student combo from one of the area’s fine jazz programs opening the evening with a 45 minute set. This month, Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland sends us another great band, bursting with young talent. Then, drummer Akira Tana leads a jam session with his trio, open to student musicians from all directions. The art of the session is a key skill that aspiring jazz musicians take to with astonishing results. Always a pleasure to hear! No charge to attend, but audience donations at the show or sent to the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, our 501(c)3 nonprofit, help us keep this series going. Use the “Donate” button on this website or bring a check to the store! Be sure to let us know…
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Harvey’s back, and Bird & Beckett’s got him! The Los Angeles Times noted many years ago, that “Harvey Wainapel can be judged by the company he keeps.” He toured the world for a year as a member of Ray Charles’ group. Two of Brazilian jazz’s brightest stars, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, kept him traveling with their group on and off for six years. And modern sax master Joe Lovano utilized Harvey’s talents for tours in Europe and North America. He’s also performed and/or recorded with pianists Dave Brubeck, Kenny Barron & McCoy Tyner, drummers Mike Clark (Herbie Hancock) & Billy Hart (everyone!), the hr-Bigband (German Radio Big Band in Frankfurt) and Holland’s Metropole Orchestra. Wainapel has also presented his OWN work in clubs, festivals, workshops, and studios in 17 countries. Sax master Joe Lovano states “It’s a pleasure to listen to Harvey’s soulful interpretations.” Japan’s JazzLife calls Wainapel “a musician with his own unique and deep sound.” “The room is warm, the audience…
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Join us for an unforgettable evening of jazz with drummer Sheldon Alexander’s quartet. A sought-after sideman for many, many gigs, he’s also passionately developing his own unique projects. This night at Bird & Beckett will feature an exceptional combo, with the renowned guitarist Ilya Lushtak straight from New York City, alongside two musicians who have been key players in these parts for decades, Adam Shulman on the organ and Erik Jekabson on the trumpet. Prepare to be captivated by this extraordinary ensemble under the leadership of a rising star of the Bay Area music scene.
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Chinese American revolutionary feminist poet Nellie Wong, a Glen Park resident, grew up in Oakland’s Chinatown and came of age working in her parents’ restaurant there. Tracked into a working class path and following business classes at Oakland High School, she went to work as a secretary at Bethlehem Steel. In her 30s, in the late 1960s, Nellie enrolled at San Francisco State University, taking creative writing, ethnic studies and feminist studies classes and joining the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women, lifelong associations that continue to this day. Her development as a poet and her dedication to the struggle for radical social change took on a focused momentum in those years at San Francisco State which has continued for six decades. In her mid-80s, in tribute to her engagement in poetry and political struggle, students at Oakland High successfully petitioned for a building at the school to be named…
Read MoreNot a chance that we’ll cease and desist!… Tuesday to Sunday, we sell books noon to six each day… And along the way… Friday, April 5th, the weekend’s jazz begins! At 6pm, Zoot! a Sam Cady joint. With Charlie McCarthy, Ollie Dudek and Tony Johnson. Just great jazz, the monster under the bed! Zoot alors! And at 8:30pm, the Sheldon Alexander Quartet, with yet another great guitarist from NYC, Ilya Lushtak, plus trumpeter extraordinaire Erik Jekabson and the great Adam Shulman on organ! Sheldon is a young drummer with an incandescent future ahead of him and a great presence in the present that is Bay Area Jazz! Saturday, April 6th, 7:30pm, the fabulous Harvey Wainapel, from whom we’ve heard far too little since the events of early 2020, brings a fabulous quartet — reasserting his position as one of the very key reed players in these parts. He has the…
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Jam session on the last Sunday of each month from 5 to 7pm! All jazz players welcome. Audience, please donate to help us pay the Vince Lateano Trio to host the jam — Ben Stolorow, piano; Peter Barshay bass, Vince Lateano, drums.
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Noah Frank, trumpet Stephanie Woodford, piano Curtis Aikens, bass Martin Diller, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. The Noah Frank Quartet will present a mixture of original tunes, pop covers, and jazz standards. Noah has performed at NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, DC Jazz Festival, PDX Jazz Festival, Rockefeller Center, and many more.
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“Tal is an amazing guitarist and fabulous human making stunning music.” –Nora Stanley $15 cover charge, byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Tal Yahalom is an award-winning guitarist, composer and bandleader based in Brooklyn, New York since 2014. Drawing from a wide range of influences – spanning jazz and impressionistic classical music to Brazilian repertoire and South-American guitar traditions – Tal aims to create engaging storytelling, adventurous interplay and a deep sense of groove while expanding on the traditional roles and textural capabilities of the guitar. As a leader, he performs regularly with diverse solo programs, a chamber-jazz quintet (set to release its debut album in 2024), a collective post-rock trio KADAWA, and various trios which have featured Caroline Davis, Dan Weiss, Eivind Opsvik and Rogerio Boccato. Following three solo guitar EPs of original and improvised music, Tal released ‘Solo Standards’ in June 2023 – an ambitious and creative take on classic jazz…
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Robert Kennedy, organ Scott Foster, guitar Cody Rhodes, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. Robert Kennedy’s 2015 debut Hammond organ combo release Big Shoes spent nine weeks on the CMJ charts, peaking at #11, and his 2018 album Closer to Home, also with the organ trio, peaked at #5 on NACC’s jazz chart, #1 on RMR’s jazz chart, and #32 on JazzWeek’s Top 50. Arriving in the Bay Area in 1988 from the American South, Robert played piano in the Stanford University Jazz Band and studied jazz piano with the great jazz pianist, band director and educator Bill Bell. Robert was a founding member of the groups Hip Pocket Jazz Quintet and Double Funk Crunch, performed as pianist with the SFJAZZ Monday Night Band, and held the accordion chair in Mission Hot Club. He has had the pleasure of playing venues such as Yoshi’s, the Boom Boom Room, San…
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Janet Popesco Archibald, oboe & English horn Paul Ehrlich, viola Victoria Ehrlich, cello Zachariah Spellman, tuba Karen Hutchinson, piano Comprising musicians from the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Orchestras, the Lowell Ensemble will perform a fun & festive mix of Classical, Folk & Pop music, featuring Nadia Boulanger’s Trois Pieces and Schumann’s Pieces in Canonic Style for oboe, cello & piano, Astor Piazzolla’s Grand Tango for cello & piano, Jacobson’s Preludes for Tuba & piano, & everything from Bach to Bacharach. $20 cover charge; byob Reservations, call 415-586-3733
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Anne Breedlove Part-Time Nomads: Traveling the World by Bicycle Diane LeBow Dancing on the Wine-Dark Sea: Memoir of a Trailblazing Woman’s Travels, Adventures and Romance MJ Pramik Travels on the Edge: One Woman’s Journeys on a Runaway Planet Free. Seat reservations accepted by phone at 415-586-3733. Reservations honored until the event begins at 7pm. Three writers with a hunger for knowledge and experience of the wider world, their individual reasons and preoccupations and their unique insights converge at Bird & Beckett to read from their work and to entertain your own thoughts, insights and questions. ____________________ Anne Breedlove’s Part Time Nomads is part memoir, part travelogue and one hundred percent ode to taking on crazy challenges no matter your age or life situation. The book focuses on Anne and her husband’s evolution from weekend cyclists to fully loaded, self-contained international bicycle travelers. Averaging eight…
Read MoreOn the fourth Monday of each month, Kim Shuck hosts an open mic on Zoom. Here’s how to find it: Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 Meeting ID: 843 5026 5713 Passcode: 244211 When Monday Mar 25, 2024 ⋅ 7pm – 8:30pm (Pacific Time – Los Angeles) Location https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84350265713?pwd=eE84V3BYdWxiSFBHNHhmdUt1WTUzdz09 View map
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Never before has the Bird & Beckett stage proffered such wit and wisdom, pathos and bathos… Come to be entertained for a rewarding hour by six experienced & truth-telling women of great pluck, good humor & infinite grace. Free to all, reservations welcome (call the shop). No heckling allowed. Laughter and tears inevitable.
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Tom Griesser, saxophone Kevin Gerzevitz, organ Scott Foster, guitar Dan Foltz, drums $20 cover, byob Reservations, call 415-586-3733 Reservations are honored ’til showtime. “For the sound of today’s organ combo, look no further than B3B4.” -Pete Fallico, KCSM Radio Host and CEO of Jazz Organ Fellowship Four of our favorite players on the local scene have been thrilling audiences for years with their funky little combo called B3B4, offering a rich dive into the diverse and divine jazz organ repertoire built up in the 1950s & 1960s by the greats of the Hammond B3, including Jimmy Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff and countless others, and mixing in tunes that seem tailor-made for the purpose — including some of their own. Nothing but fun tonight!
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Dmitri returns! This time slinking & soaring through the Mancini catalogue! Reserve your seat now! (415) 586-3733 $20 cover charge; byob Matt Clark piano Ruth Davies bass Deszon X. Claiborne drums Dmitri Matheny, flugelhorn You know him, and you love him, but read up and drive deeper into the charm, beauty and talent that is Dmitri Matheny! Click here! https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/artist/dmitri-matheny Haven’t heard Dimitri Matheny live yet, but love jazz in all its beauty? You’re in for a wonderful show!
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Veteran drummer Tony Johnson, a master of swing, bebop and straight ahead jazz with 65 years on the San Francisco scene, has a monthly residency at Bird & Beckett. In the odd-numbered months (January, March, May, July, September, November), he brings his quartet with saxophonist Bob Kenmotsu, pianist Keith Saunders and bassist Eric Markowitz — first call, top flight jazz players all. In the even-numbered months, Tony leads the 230 Jones Street band, which of late featured the great Si Perkoff, may he rest in peace. Tony’s band will make a special nod to Si on their April 26th date. But tonight, it’s the quartet! Tony Johnson, a native Australian, slipped down from Canada and hit North Beach in 1959 while still in his early twenties, and immediately found work in the clubs there, recording in 1960 with vocalist Bev Kelly live at the Coffee Gallery in a band that…
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Walker Talks! A monthly exploration on a diversity of topics by Walker Brents III. Tonight, The Grail. (Basically a live stream — at show time, the talk will be live on Bird & Beckett’s Youtube channel and Facebook page, but you can also come in person if you like – call 415-586-3733.) Expressed in material analogy, the Grail is a sword or stone or spear or cup. Each of these has its own poetic history arising differently in culture after culture, in age after age. The unity shared by these analogical forms is one seen not with but through the eye, and has given rise to many forms of poetic speech, residing in one source—the faculty of human poetic vision. This is the vision which has from ancient times transformed the subject matter of the literary epic from heroic exploit to sublime character formation. This is not so remote as…
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Ben Stolorow, piano Peter Barshay, bass Vince Lateano, drums with guest vocalist Ernest East $20 suggested donation per adult, byob Kids free Teens & students $5-$10 Vince Lateano has been an integral part of the San Francisco jazz community since he arrived in 1965, fresh out of the Vietnam-era military, born and raised in Sacramento. He leads this trio every 3rd Sunday, and the trio hosts a jam session on the last Sunday of each month. Bassist Peter Barshay has worked with Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano, and has played everything from salsa and straight ahead to funk-fusion, avant garde and music derived from the Afro-Cuban and Brazilian traditions — he brings a wealth of experiences to every date. Pianist Ben Stolorow, since moving to the Bay Area from Los Angeles to attend UC Berkeley in 1994, has become one of the most in-demand…
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Charlie McCarthy, reeds David Udolf, piano Curtis Aikens, bass Akira Tana, drums $20 cover charge / byob Reservations: 415-586-3733 Charlie McCarthy is in a class by himself. The quartet will play several old standards and several originals, many of them quite new; and most of the old standards have been dressed up a bit for the occasion. Charlie, among the very greatest voices on reeds on the coast and renowned for decades, will front a terrific rhythm section — David Udolf on piano, Curtis Aikens on bass and Akira Tana on drums. “You won’t be disappointed,” says Charlie, signing off, “Keep swingin’, CMcC”. Jazz thrives at Bird & Beckett, a quarter century into 21st!
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Amos Hoffman, guitar & oud Noam Lemish, piano Miles Wick, bass Alex Aspinall drums $20 cover charge at the door (cash or venmo) byob reservations – 415-586-3733 The Amos Hoffman & Noam Lemish Quartet offers an inspired blend of jazz and Jewish folk melodies. Amos Hoffman is an internationally renowned oud virtuoso and innovator; Noam Lemish is a multi-faceted, world-class pianist-composer and professor at York University’s Department of Music in Toronto, Canada. For years, Amos and Noam have been collecting Jewish melodies from different parts of the world including Kurdish, Yemenite, Moroccan, Ladino, Russian and Israeli songs. The quartet’s lyrical and vibrant reimaginings of beloved Jewish melodies have been captivating audiences all across North America. In their work together, Hoffman and Lemish create a refreshing and compelling sound, filled with vibrant sonorities, unique instrument combinations and compelling arrangements. The renditions are simultaneously faithful to the songs’ origins and rooted in…
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The Saxophone Congress — three baritone sax players — Danny Bittker, Larry De La Cruz and Jim Peterson — with guitarist Scott Foster and drummer Dan Foltz perform music by Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman and Carla Bley! Jazz in the bookshop every Friday, 6-8pm. A weekly tradition since 2002. Scott Foster Ensemble residency every third Friday! $25 suggested donation for quintets, but pay what you can and byob. Kids under 12, free; teens and music students, $5-$10 sliding scale. Your cover charge at the show helps us guarantee a fair wage to the musicians that work here. Individual donations from a great many generous members of the Bird & Beckett community are also required to meet that commitment, and for those we are very grateful. If you can and haven’t, please join our supporters. Bird & Beckett will always be a work in progress… Thanks for being part of the…
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Hindustani Classical Music Mallar Bhattacharya, sarod Ferhan Najeeb Qureshi, tabla $20/byob Reservations: 415-586-3733 Live stream found on our YouTube channel and Facebook page / donations appreciated Mallar Bhattacharya is a sarodist of the Acharya Baba Allauddin Seni Gharana of Maihar, India. Mallar began his musical training at the age of three, learning both Western and Hindustani violin from his father Dr. Jahar Bhattacharya, a student of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Mallar became a disciple of Ustad Aashish Khan at age 15 and has also studied the music of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California for over 35 years, having learned directly from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and his archival material over that time. Mallar recently released a single of the raga Bhimpalasi, which is available on most streaming platforms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM-ybSLfMPs&list=OLAK5uy_mRKN1uCZmznjvmUZ0wCIpIf7mS3eMCo9o. Ferhan Najeeb Qureshi is a senior disciple of the legendary tabla master Ustad Tari Khan. Prior to…
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Tim Berne, saxophone Tom Rainey, drums Gregg Belisle-Chi, guitar $20 cover charge (cash or venmo) at the door, byob Tonight, the seats have all been spoken for, but some limited standing room audience will be accommodated. (NB: Reservations for our shows are taken by phone starting three weeks before the performance date, and are cut off once 30 seats have been reserved.) For four and a half decades, Tim Berne has recorded prolifically under his own name and alongside creative innovators of the jazz avant garde including his idol and mentor Julius Hemphill as well as Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Olu Dara, Herb Robertson, Hank Roberts, Mark Dresser, Ray Anderson, Michael Formanek, John Zorn and dozens more. He operates the Empire and Screwgun record labels and has recorded for Soul Note, Black Saint, JMT, ECM, Enja, Intakt and many others. His first recording on lp with…
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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 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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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
