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The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
a history by Andrew Delbanco
A detailed account of a crucial time in U.S. history. By awakening northerners to the true nature of slavery, and enraging southerners who demanded the return of their human "property," fugitive slaves forced the country to confront the truth about itself.

Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
a biography by Imani Perry
Hansberry was an eloquent and persuasive writer best known for Raisin in the Sun (1959), the first play by an African-American to premiere on Broadway. But she wrote in many forms –poetry, fiction, non-fiction—and was a formidable critic. She was an impassioned radical who knew Nina Simone, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. This biography fills a big gap in understanding.

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
by Zora Neale Hurston edited by Deborah Plante
The literary sensation of 2018. A book by the anthropologist and novelist Zora Neale Hurston that few knew existed! Based on interviews that Hurston did with Cudjo Lewis in the early 1930s. Lewis was a survivor of the last slave ship from Africa known to have made the transatlantic journey. The book was never published until now -- a story in itself.

The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas
Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds--the poor, mostly Black neighborhood where she lives and the wealthy, mostly white prep school that she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is soon shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend by the police. The film version of this young adult novel was released in theaters on October 5.

There There
by Tommy Orange
In this debut novel, Tommy Orange introduces us to a dozen+ unforgettable characters you have never met before in popular literature: Urban Indians who converge and collide on one fateful day at the Big Oakland Powwow.

Red Clocks
a novel by Leni Zumas
A novel that imagines a world where abortion is outlawed. And it feels eerily real. Zumas has "a perfectly tuned ear for the way society relies on a moralizing sentimentalism to restrict women's lives and enforce conformity." ―New York Times Book Review

Prison Nation, an issue of Aperture Magazine
edited by Nicole Fleetwood
A powerful and haunting collection of photography and essays published as an issue of Aperture Magazine. Documents the horror of mass incarceration in ways rarely seen. Nicole’s gripping in-store slide show and talk can be found here.

The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves
by Eric R. Kandel
What cognitive disorders reveal about normal brain functioning…and the biological grounding of the human mind. Highly readable introduction to latest brain research.

Friday Black
a short story collection by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
A debut collection of short stories that blend fantasy, dystopia and brutal realism. Placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice and outraging absurdities that Black men and women confront every day in this country.
A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree, chosen by Colson Whitehead

Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet
by Yasha Levine
Levine traces the origins of the Internet to an early Pentagon counterinsurgency surveillance project. Today, tech-industry giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon spy on their users for profit--while doing double-duty as military and intelligence contractors.

Washington Black
a novel by Esi Edugyan
High adventure with cliffhanger twists marks this runaway-slave narrative, which leaps and soars from Caribbean cane fields to the fringes of the frozen Arctic and across a whole ocean. Mixing horror with high adventure, this new novel looks at the burden and responsibilities of freedom in a time of slavery.

The Overstory
a novel by Richard Powers
"Using the tools of the story, [Powers] pulls readers heart-first into a perspective so much longer-lived and more subtly developed than the human purview that we gain glimpses of a vast, primordial sensibility, while watching our own kind get whittled down to size....A gigantic fable of genuine truths." -- Barbara Kingsolver

Island Born and Lola (Spanish-language version)
by Junot Diaz
Our favorite children's book of 2018. A story of a young girl living in the U.S. who learns about her origins in the Dominican Republic by talking to her older relatives and friends. People told her about the beauties of the island... but she probed deeper and found out they were visited by a monster (not named but we know the dictator). Lola learns that very brave women and men (in that order) eventually stood up to the monster and drove it away. K-3rd grade.

Mission Statement
of Revolution Books

People come to Revolution Books from all over the world to find the books and deep engagement with each other about why the world is the way it is and the possibility of a radically different way the world could be.

The world today, with all its horrors, holds the potential for something far better. To unlock that – at the foundation of RB – is the most advanced scientific theory and leadership for an actual revolution for the emancipation of humanity: the new synthesis of communism brought forward by the revolutionary leader, Bob Avakian.

RB is a bookstore with literature, history, science, art, philosophy, and revolutionary theory... a place of discovery and engagement. Scientific and poetic, wrangling and visionary. A bookstore at the center of a movement for revolution.

ART SALE On-going at Revolution Books:
Artwork donated by artists and collectors to support Revolution Books:
* Selected works in our collection here.
* Full collection including Posters, Prints, historic African Masks Sculptures available for purchase here.

       

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Herb Boyd on Revolution Books and the legacy of independent bookstores in Harlem

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Quote of the week from BA. You can't change the world if you don't know the BAsics.

Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, Parts 1 and 2, a major speech by Bob Avakian

If you have agonized about the horrors of this society, but did not know why we face all this and thought there was no way out… this filmed speech will reveal why those outrages go on and how they can be changed.

If you have thought that even if people could get together on it, revolution was not really possible up against the powerful repressive machinery we face… this filmed speech will challenge you.

If you have hungered for fundamental change, but did not know where to begin… this filmed speech will give you the map you need and the way to connect.

Watch It... Spread It... Fund It...

In this Film, Bob Avakian Analyzes the Deep Roots and Driving Forces of Trump/Pence Fascism and What Must Be Done to Stop It. Watch It Here, and Spread It.

A FILM OF A TALK BY
BOB AVAKIAN

THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!
In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America
A Better World IS Possible

Bob Avakian is the most radical revolutionary on the planet and the architect of a new communism.

Thise film was produced by Revolution Books (437 Malcolm X Blvd.), The Bob Avakian Institute and the Revolution Books Educational Fund,(a 501c3 registered in NYS. To obtain our financial reporting go to revbooksedfund.org)

View the film and the Q&As here.

Getting to know Bob Avakian Because of Bob Avakian and the work he has done over several decades, summing up the positive and negative experience of the communist revolution so far, and drawing from a broad range of human experience, there is a new synthesis of communism that has been brought forward — there really is a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and there is the crucial leadership that is needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal. Come by the bookstore to get a copy or purchase on line:

► Every Week (call for day and time)
A discussion of the Quote of the Week from BAsics by Bob Avakian posted every Monday in the column to the left. Hosted by the Revolution Club. Everyone welcome.

Black History Month at Revolution Books

► Friday, February 22, 7pm
Mary Schmidt Campbell and the new biography
An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden, who grew up during the Harlem Renaissance, is best known for his public murals and collages evoking the Black experience in America. Awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1987, Bearden was one of the foremost American artists of the 20th century. His work drew forth "a history of distortions of black life even as they also re-envision that life... [It was] both celebration and assault, as disturbing as it was joyful." (from An American Odyssey)

Mary Schmidt Campbell is president of Spelman College in Atlanta and was previously director of the Studio Museum of Harlem and Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. This event is part of the Harlem Renaissance 100 Celebration.

More young readers' and children's events in February and March, 2019:

Saturday, February 23, 12-1pm
Griot World (Michael J, Sophia Coffee and more – with puppets) Reading of Harlem Renaissance Party, the extraordinary artist Faith Ringgold's journey with Lonnie and his uncle through 1920s Harlem, as they meet Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston and many more of the artists, writers, musicians and sports figures who were part of this incredible period of creation and ferment in Harlem. For ages 5-10. All ages welcome.

Saturday, March 2,
12-1pm
Reading of bell hooks' Happy to be Nappy and Be Boy Buzz. AriArii Gibbs-Founder/Coordinator of Well Read Sistas Books Club @wellreadsistas (for grown-ups!), reads both of bell hooks' pathbreaking board books for children. Happy to be Nappy is an exuberant, rhythmic celebration of the beauty of "nappy" hair.
Be Boy Buzz poetically and energetically expresses the full humanity of a small African-American boy who runs, laughs, is still, is happy, is sad. Both books for ages 3-7. All ages welcome.

Suggested Donation for events at Revolution Books: $5-10* - No one turned away

*Author events, films, cultural events, and public forums at Revolution Books are presented by the Revolution Books Educational Fund. The Fund is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and a partner of Revolution Books. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Contact RB at 212-691-3345 or revbooksnyc@yahoo.com for details.

Issa Kohler-Hausmann presenting her new book "Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing."

Andrew Delbanco speaking on his book "The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War".

Sherry Turner DeCarava speaking on The Sweet Flypaper of Life by Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes and in conversation with Rev Books spokesperson Andy Zee.

"The Train to Skeleton Coast: A Tale of Murder and the Struggle for Freedom" with author Jean Cullander Krasno.

"New Communism" and Driving Out Trump and Pence. TYT's Cenk Uygur spoke with Andy Zee of Refuse Fascism and Revolution Books, NYC, about the threats posed by the Trump/Pence regime.

Garrard Conley on "Boy Erased," a young man forced at age 19 to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program to "cure" him of homosexuality.

More VIDEOS from past programs at Rev Books.