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653 Chenery Street in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
Open to walk-in trade and browsing Tuesday to Sunday noon to six
phone: 1-415-586-3733 email: [email protected]
Three distinguished poets present poems “during a time of upheaval.” Xochi Candelaria hails from San Juan Bautista and has taught at City College of San Francisco since 2008, with two books of poems and publication in a number of magazines to her credit. Carrie Mei-Lin Mar, the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer, has published one volume of her poems with another, Water Guest, due out this year. Born in San Francisco, she teaches health education at a local high school. Of Camille Roy’s work, Robert Glück has said, “Camille Roy’s skittish predatory language stalks the inexplicable, then pounces. Her nasty, luscious stories and poems make up a dyke coming-of-age novel, set not in the American family, but in our traveling explosion of body-race-class-gender… Essential reading for anyone who likes to see great writing meet the jumpy side of life.”
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Bring something to sip and a twenty for each band to either or both shows! Call ahead for a seat reservation — 415-586-3733. We’re a bookshop during the day and a venue for music and poetry in the evenings, with events four to six nights a week, especially through the weekends. This weekend we have pianist Eric Shifrin’s continuing 2nd Fridays Happy Hour residency, now in its fourth year. Eric & the In Crowd has a big roster, and this week, two key collaborators — bassist Ari Munkres and drummer Mark Lee — are on hand to entertain you with a big bouquet of songs that start with the letter A! Go figure! Better yet, come & enjoy one of San Francisco’s most mischievous piano geniuses! Sings up a charming storm, too! As for Ari and Mark, they’re the two coolest sidemen you’ll encounter here in Bagdhad by the Bay.…
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Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution, edited by Bänoo Zan & Cy Strom, is an anthology that marks a world-historical moment: the first ever feminist revolution. Woman Life Freedom is the slogan chanted by the demonstrators in Iran. This anthology echoes that cry. Its poems are reflections on the present moment, denunciations of injustice, examinations of the poets’ own consciences, laments for the fallen, bitter curses, prayers, celebrations of life, and visions of a better future. Forty poets and translators living on four continents are represented. The poems are ordered by theme: Beginnings, Defiance, Struggle, Witness, and Futures. The Introduction by Cy Strom sets the scene with a brief look at the situation in Iran and touches on themes of poetry, the arts and revolution; the Afterword by Bänoo Zan, titled “Against the Tyranny of Home: A Call for (Self-)Critique,” argues that honesty and accountability are needed to…
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Rumi Abe, piano. Armen Krakirian, trumpets. Joshua Thurston-Milgrom, bass. Miles Turk, drums. $20 cover charge at the door (cash please). byob. Students, $10; kids free. For a seat reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Rumi Abe has made a big mark in a very short time on the San Francisco jazz scene. Hailing from Japan, she brings a vast store of talent and experience, and a great feel for the Black music that many know to be America’s greatest treasure and gift to global culture. This one thing we can all be proud of and grateful for! Here’s evidence of Rumi’s contribution from a show with Hal Richards’ quintet just a few months ago:
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Vince Lateano has been a mainstay of San Francisco jazz culture since he rousted out of the Army in 1965! His trio has been making beautiful music together for years. Come and enjoy one of Bird & Beckett’s long running, and truly great, jazz residencies. Every third Sunday at 5. BYOB and a twenty for the trio. Student? $10. Kids are free. Just pinching pennies? Pay what you can!
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Allan Harris, vocals & piano Adam Shulman, piano Doug Miller, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums $20 cover charge; byob. Students, 10. Allan Harris returns! Earlier this year, in March, Allan was here at Bird & Beckett with a fantastic date based on “The Poetry of Jazz.” A cd of that music, recorded live in Ann Arbor, Michigan with a quintet including Sylvia Cuenca on drums, was released in July and now he’s coming back with a superb trio for an exquisite night of music.
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Here at Bird & Beckett Books, we’ve always relied on the kindness of neighbors and strangers to make it all work; and we’ve always found that strangers don’t stay strangers long! Your tax-deductible donations to our 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, FEIN 261906810, are the secret sauce. Book sales and cover charges at the shows are crucial, but only go so far to fill the cornucopia of culture that you’ll find here at Bird & Beckett! You can donate through our website using PayPal. Or if you prefer, you can drop off or mail us a check made out to the “Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project” — write “tax-deductible donation” in the memo line. Cash is fine if you prefer. Use your donor-advised fund if you have one. See if your employer offers a matching donation. You can also donate on a recurring, monthly basis…
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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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Two great shows today, Sunday November 11th! At 5pm, catch the honky tonk genius of guitar slinger & singer Mitch Polzak with his classic / outlaw country outfit, the Royal Deuces, featuring special guest slide guitar master Joe Goldmark! Two sets ripping it up with fabulous originals and tunes you love by the likes of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and more. And as if that’s not enough, we’re excited to have Petaluma native son Dan Neville, a brilliant Latin music vibraphonist & marimba player, back in town from his home in Rutherford, NJ where he teaches at Wm Patterson university and is the toast of the Queens, NYC Colombian music scene. Dan spent most of 2020 on Colombia’s Pacific coast studying and working with great masters of the marimba and brought it all back home, including his wife, the fabulous Colombian vocalist…
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This Sunday, November 2nd, at 5pm, a jazz combo from the Community Music Center performs a set and conducts a jam session open to all comers, especially students currently engaged in the study of the art! No charge, but donations help us sustain the series. Bird & Beckett is dedicated to supporting the gamut of Bay Area jazz generations, from the teenagers to the ageless! Back us up in our work of sustaining the culture. Toss some ducats in the buckets, and consider a donation to our 501(c)3 nonprofit Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project!
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Martin Luther, vocals Wilton Rabb, guitar Dave Council, keyboards & guitar $20 cover charge; byob. students $10. reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733 A gifted vocalist and singer songwriter, Luther is preparing to release his fifth studio LP, “Welcome Back Love.” Two original members of Graham Central Station are on board for the show — guitarist Wilton Rabb and keyboard player/guitarist Dave Council. Says Luther, “Funk in the name of Love is the theme for the evening. We plan to celebrate our fallen heroes of this culture and to keep bringing the heat, because the legacy of real music is far from over. With the recent passing of Funk Legend Sly Stone and the tragic sudden loss of neo soul founder D’Angelo, Luther is coming to lift and heal the spirit through song. We will also hear new music from his forthcoming release as well as some Minneapolis slaps to…
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Spend your spooky Halloween at Bird & Beckett! $20 cover charge per show / byob Eric & the In Crowd get Creepy at 6pm. Eric Shifrin, piano Paul Mehling, guitar Jim Kerwin, bass Winston Tong with Dreambounders (LX Rudis & Andre Custodio) plus M 5tevens at 8:30pm.
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10/30, 7:30pm – Del Seymour in conversation with Alison Owings, author of Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness in San Francisco. _____ And on Halloween: Blues for Dracula! Eric & the In Crowd Get Creepy – 6-8pm Winston Tong with Dreambounders LX Rudis & Andre Custodio and guest M 5tevens – 8:30-10:30pm _____ Saturday November 1st, 7:30 Martin Luther McCoy Fills Your Soul Full! _____ November 16th The Poetry of Jazz: Allan Harris with The Sylvia Cuenca Trio Check the events calendar linked from the navigation bar for details!
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In Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s journey from living in the streets to fighting homelessness in San Francisco, journalist Alison Owings slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism surrounding San Francisco’s Tenderloin to reveal a harrowing and life-affirming account of Del Seymour–whose addiction led him into eighteen years of homelessness, pimping and drug dealing. Once sober, he started Tenderloin Walking Tours and later Code Tenderloin, an organization teaching homeless, recovering addicts, sex workers, dealers, ex-felons and other marginalized people how to get and keep a job. Owings traces Del’s story and those in his orbit: from his daughters, sobriety buddy and ex-girlfriend, to a police captain and a psychiatric social worker, housing activists and corporate philanthropists, and Del’s Code Tenderloin students. In the Tenderloin, in a city known for its beauty and currently infamous for its divide between haves and have-nots, Owings highlights how Del gives back to people struggling…
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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," continuing the work we began when the store was established in 1999.
We continue to present a full slate of programming of live music and poetry readings, and produce a literary journal and poetry chapbooks, and we seek and welcome your continued financial support by way of donations.
Click on "donate" in the navigation bar above. Better yet, make a check 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
Call us at (415) 586-3733 to find out how else you might lend your support.
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We're immensely appreciative of Jazz in the Neighborhood for having stepped in as our temporary fiscal sponsor for a few months, while we straightened out some paperwork to get nonprofit status restored to the BBCLP. We're happy to say that's been done, and all past, present, and future donations made directly to the BBCLP are fully tax-deductible!
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To take our SURVEY, click here, and help the BBCLP get to know you better! As Duke Ellington always said, we love you madly...
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.
The BBCLP is a [Read More ]
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
