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2024 San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival Presents
Passing Through: An Evening of Poems and Music inspired by, loved by, and left behind by Leonard Cohen
Fri, 8 Nov, 7:30 PM PST
Doors open
7:00 PM PST
Swedish American Hall
2174 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94114
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Description
Passing Through: An Evening of Poems and Music inspired by, loved by, and left behind by Leonard Cohen
Featuring: Genny Lim, Alejandro Murguia, Tess Taylor, Gregory Pond, Conspiracy of Venus, Ruby Lee Hill, Middle Harbor Songbirds, & Joshua Warren
The first night (Friday, November 8th) of the upcoming 2024 San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival, will feature poets and musicians presenting words and music, inspired by, loved by, and left behind by Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), the renown Canadian singer, songwriter.
Leonard Cohen was a lover of literature, poetry, and music from a young age, and from that love came his own powerful works that have inspired so many. We will explore the works that Leonard admired and discussed in interviews and with friends.
Accomplished San Francisco Bay Area poets will present original work inspired and/or written by Leonard Cohen in a 15-minute performance piece. Poets are invited to reference Cohen (Cohen's favorite writers and poets reading list) as appropriate and/or to present their own work that may connect with, or be inspired by Cohen’s literature, poetry, spirit and/or music.
The Conspiracy of Beards (COB) and the 2024 San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival are supported, in part, by a California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant, Craig Newmark Philanthropies and Mistler & Associates Private CEO Groups | drmistler.com/results. Additional support is provided by 7x7, City
Lights Bookstore & Publishers as well as anonymous donors.
For any event that is listed as 18 or 21 and over, ANY ticket holder unable to present valid identification indicating that they are of age will not be admitted to this event, and will not be eligible for a refund. Any event listed as All Ages, means 6 years of age or older. ALL tickets are standing room only unless otherwise specified. If you need special accomidation, contact info@cafedunord.com.
Support acts are subject to change without refund.
Professional Cameras are not allowed without prior approval. Professional Camera defined as detachable lens or of professional grade as determined by the venue staff. When in doubt, just email us ahead of the show! We might be able to get you a Photo Pass depending on Artist’s approval.
Event Information
Age Limit
21+
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San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival
San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival
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Genny Lim
Genny Lim
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Genny Lim is the 9 th San Francisco Poet Laureate and former San Francisco Jazz Poet Laureate. She was also a former SF Arts Commissioner and a recipient of the Spirit of Angel Island Award given by the Angel Island Immigration Foundation for translating the poems of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island in the American Book Award winning work, Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, co-authored with Him Mark Lai and Judy Yung. Her play, Paper Angels, was the first Asian American play to air on PBS’s American Playhouse in 1985. Lim has received the PEN Oakland Reginald Lockett and Berkeley Poetry Lifetime Achievement Awards. She is the author of several poetry collections, Child of War, Paper Gods & Rebels and KRA!
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Alejandro Murguía
Alejandro Murguía
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Alejandro Murguía is the author of This War Called Love, Nine Stories, City Lights Books (winner of the American Book Award). In non-fiction he has published The Medicine of Memory: A Mexican Clan in California, University of Texas Press. He is a founding member and the first director of The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. In 2013 City Lights Books published his new book Stray Poems. His short story “The Other Barrio” was recently released as a full-length feature, filmed in the streets of the Mission District. He was the Sixth San Francisco Poet Laureate and the first Latino to hold the post.
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Tess Taylor
Tess Taylor
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Tess Taylor’s work deals with place, ecology, memory, and cultural reckoning. She has published five celebrated poetry collections: The Misremembered World, The Forage House, Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange, and Rift Zone, one of the Boston Globe’s best books of 2020. Her book Work & Days was one of the NY Times' best poetry books of 2016. In the fall of 2023, she published the anthology Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens and the Hands that Tend Them, a collection of contemporary gardening poems for an era of climate change. From 2024 to 2025, she will serve as an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow in her role as Poet Laureate of El Cerrito, California. A former Distinguished US Fulbright Teaching Fellow to the UK, she has received awards from MacDowell, Headlands Center for the Arts and other venues. She has taught at UC Berkeley, Whittier College, Boston University, and Simon’s Rock. The host of Season Two of Intimate Addresses, a Getty Museum Podcast, she now teaches privately and on the faculty of Ashland University’s low-residency MFA creative writing program. She gardens and raises chickens in El Cerrito, California.
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Gregory Pond
Gregory Pond
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Gregory Pond was born in Brooklyn to Panamanian parents, has written four books of poetry and is a member of Revolutionary Poets Brigade. He is host of 3rd Saturday Poetry in Chinatown, facilitates Poetically Speaking, a weekly conference-call program for seniors and has curated events for Queer Rebels. He currently resides in San Francisco.
Classical
Conspiracy of Venus
Conspiracy of Venus
Classical
Conspiracy of Venus is a vocal ensemble based in San Francisco that sings the words and music of artists we love in arrangements by our director, Joyce Todd McBride.
Since our formation in 2007 as the sister group to Conspiracy of Beards, we have delighted sold-out crowds at many San Francisco venues, including The Great American Music Hall, The Palace of Fine Arts, The Independent, The Swedish American Hall, The Rickshaw Stop, The Make-Out Room, West Coast Live, SF International Arts Festival, Undercover Presents, The Lost Church, Old First Concerts, The Uptown, Doc's Lab, Starry Plough, The Rite Spot, and more. In spring of 2012, we participated in the San Francisco Music Video Race, and we toured to New York City in 2016 and 2018.
Music
Ruby Lee Hill
Ruby Lee Hill
Music
Growing up between the shores of South Carolina and the peaks of North Carolina, Ruby Lee Hill embodies the essence of traditional Americana and the timeless allure of classic country music. With her weathered Martin guitar cradled in her hands and a harmonica resting upon her neck, she effortlessly transitions between folk, swing, and even Spanish tunes, transporting listeners to lands south of the border. Ruby's rich, soulful voice sets her apart, infusing her original songs with raw emotion and undeniable depth. Now rooted in the Bay Area, she recently recorded her debut album at Tiny Telephone Oakland, with her first single already making waves on streaming platforms like Spotify.
Music
Middle Harbor Songbirds
Middle Harbor Songbirds
Music
United by a love of heady chords and heartfelt lyrics, Bay Area musicians Brendan Schwarz and Joshua James Jackson present a familiar songbook of intricate compositions from the 60’s, 70’s and beyond. From Yacht Rock to the British Invasion to country classics, the Middle Harbor Songbirds’ creative and often unconventional arrangements bring something for every listener.
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Josh “Yosh” Warren
Josh “Yosh” Warren
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Josh "Yosh" Warren is a visual artist and musician residing in the Mission district of San Francisco.