San Francisco’s golden age of poetry open mics lives 0n behind the wide-open doors of Glen Park’s venerable Bird and Beckett Bookstore. It’s hard to believe so many literary and artistic opportunities can coexist in one small space. That space is packed with books—packed in a good way, tall shelves lined with the new and used common and uncommon selections of owner Eric Whittington. It’s very hard for any book retailer to anticipate my geeked out interests, yet on my two visits, here they were: a (used) first-hand account of sailor’s life in the U.S. Navy in 1901, and a (new) translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s 1966 classic The White Guard. Reason enough right there to take BART down to Glen Park and trust to serendipity from time to time.
Here’s another reason: Every other Monday evening the bookshop hosts a poetry reading with featured readers followed by a well-attended open mic. Tonight’s was my first to attend, but I trust it is representative of the high level of spoken-word artistry to be expected. The featured reader was a young gentleman’s insightful commentaries on romance, city life, family life, and possums. Ayo Khensu-Ra led us through recent works of his own and a favorite poet, with a seasoned musical counterpoint on saxophone, flute, and digeridoo by his father Ra-Ta Khensu-Ra. Some of the poems were good enough to deserve a second reading.
This featured performance was followed by ten poets at the open mic. Some rhymed and some not, some witty to make you laugh—another small mammal, this time a marmot—and some poignant with painful looks into the harsher aspects of family life or the complex rewards of a nurse’s work. All of them poetry in all its many forms, the voice’s music to the ear and the word’s music to the mind.
Bird and Beckett’s nonprofit provides a minimal stipend to the featured artists, supplemented by the passed hat, but the rewards for this enterprise come not from money, but from a common love of the word shared in a space that celebrates and enlivens that word. On other days and nights the same stage is held by jazz musicians, or books, depending. In any case, you can’t go wrong.
Support your local independent bookstore, support live music! Don’t forget to bring some cash for the tip jar and the CDs, and by all means look for that unique book to bring home with you.
Bird and Beckett Books: 653 Chenery St., San Francisco CA 94131 Phone: (415) 586-3733
Bird and Beckett calendar: http://www.birdbeckett.com/#
Review by David Hirzel: www.davidhirzel.net