girlchild Join debut novelist Tupelo Hassman
for a book launch party, with live musicSaturday
Feb. 18th
7 pm to 9 pm

The author: Tupelo Hassman
The book: Girlchild (Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2012)
The band: Buckeye Knoll

“Life is a crazy risk, a foolish venture, a journey hardly worth attempting by poor daughters raised by poor daughters who have no maps or guidebooks (and no teeth, either), who receive no justice that doesn’t hurt about the same as the injustice it means to remedy.  This story is your worst white nightmare. Tupelo Hassman’s GIRLCHILD is a triumph and a philosophical treatise on survival.”

–Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Critics Circle and National Book Award Finalist American Salvage

Author Alan Kaufman in conversation with publisher & writer Brenda Knight on his new memoir, Drunken Angel — Sunday, February 19th – 2:00 pm

Dark Hollow

Dark Hollow performs traditional favorites and slam-bang originals with equal gusto. The group’s virtuoso musicianship, love of tunes, melodies, harmonies and drivingbluegrass rhythms blends together to make a traditional sound spiced up with a bit of home-grown joie de vivre, powered by the vocals of leader John Kornhauser.
Info on the entire Blues & Old-Time Festival line-up can be found at this link.  The Festival runs from Feb. 10 to 19th at venues all over town.

Les Gottesman/Bill Crossman – poetry/piano – plus open mic — Monday, February 20th, 7 p.m.

Les Gottesman‘s first published poems were in Ted Berrigan’s C magazine in 1965. More recently, his poems have appeared in Juked, Beatitude, Harper’s,Antioch Review, and Columbia Review. Les has been a teacher and political activist in San Francisco for over 30 years. He received his MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts in 2011. Website: lesgottesman.com

Bill Crossman is a poet, jazz pianist/composer, human rights activist, professor, and author. “John Brown’s Truth,” a musical theater piece he created which includes his poetry, will be performed in 2012 in the Bay Area. Bill frequently performs with violinist India Cooke (India Cooke-Bill Crossman Duo) and with the Troublemakers Union band. At Bird & Beckett, Bill will be reading new poems from his Sound Ground: Poems for the Years Since 9/11.

Jazz in the bookshop on Friday… and every Friday always 5:30 to 8:00 pm

never a cover charge, but we always implore you to contribute what you can to help us pay the musicians, who deserve far more than they ever receive. They give us so much; this is our chance to give them a little something back!

The Third Quartet!
Friday, Feb. 17, series founders Chuck Peterson (sax), Scott Foster (guitar) and Don Prell (bass) are joined by drummer Omar Aran for two sets of bebop with a west coast lineage… Chuck and Don both got their start in the music in the early 1950s and have been playing jazz at a high level ever since. Scott and Omar have been top players for only a couple decades each… You’ll dig it.

2012 hours of operation

Friday – 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday – Thursday – 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Store hours extended
any night there’s a scheduled event

Live jazz
every Friday, 5:30 to 8:00 pm
Live music, various traditions
every Sunday, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
Special one-off literary programs
most Sunday afternoons before the music
Poetry sessions with an open mic
1st & 3rd Monday of each month, 7:00 to 9:00 pm