Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project

(shown below, vocalist Dorothy Lefkovits with Don Prell, Scott Foster and series founder Chuck Peterson)
My name is Eric Whittington, but this isn't really about me. I own Bird & Beckett Books and Records, an independent bookshop in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood. Attached to the store is our sister organization, The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project, a 501(c)(3) non profit organization. Our nonprofit was set up to help us give musicians and poets a good venue, attentive audiences and reliable compensation. Since its inception in 2007 the BBCLP has hosted many hundreds of performances, readings and other such events, and we're now booking performances at least four times a week. We always pay the performers, drawing first on contributions made on the spot by the audiences, but we nearly always need augment those contributions, and must also fund many associated expenses.  This is why we solicit individual contributions, funding by family foundations and institutional grants, etc., and why we are now mounting this "GoFundMe" campaign. 

The money we raise here will go into our general fund to help us pay the artists as well as licensing costs, equipment costs, publicity expenses,  and other expenses.  With the 250+ events we mount each year, funds are needed now, next week, the week after that! We intend to continue to contribute to the cultural fabric of San Francisco and its region.  Thanks for helping us make it work! 

We present jazz twice a week at a bare minimum: in our our Friday evening "jazz in the bookshop" series and in our Saturday night "jazz club!" series.

Sundays, we host jazz and other genres in the late afternoon series we call "which way west?"  and later the same evening you can hear some of San Francisco's best Americana performers (classic country & western, rockabilly, etc.) in our "canyon moonlight music" series.

We also host featured poets and an open mic twice a month (first and third Monday nights) and also with many individual bookings.  Feel free to let us know if your contribution should go to the literary side of the coin!

Setting up for our shows isn't easy (check the link for a demonstration), but we've gotten good at moving the bookcases and putting out the chairs through long practice!  We've never missed a Friday jazz show in 13 years, since it all started in late 2002!  

Virtually all of the musicians we present are local working professsionals including just in recent months:
Music at Large (The Lewis Jordan Trio)
The Grant Levin Quartet
The Chuck Peterson Quintet
Avotcja and Modupue
Kenny Hawkins 
Scott Foster
Jinx Jones
Muziki Roberson Quartet
Dorothy Leftkovitz
Smith Dobson
The Vinnie Rodriguez Quartet
Don Prell
Zan Stewart Band
Heshima Mark Williams
The Seducers
+ Many More

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Thanks for checking us out!

Even if you can't afford to donate, come check out a show!

Cheers!