WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT REVOLUTION BOOKS:

“I think what's so beautiful and wonderful about Revolution Books is that even when you close your eyes and go to any of the shelves here and pick any one of the books, it is likely that it will contain the kind of dreams that Martin Carter was talking about when he said, 'And so if you see me looking in your hand, listening when you speak, marching in your ranks, you must know, 'I do not sleep to dream, but dream to change the world.’”   --NGUGI WA THIONG'O, Kenyan novelist, playwright, literary theorist (“Dreams in a Time of War”; “Petals of Blood”)

"[Revolution Books] is a landmark of consciousness. This is a landmark of not only the past [when] it wasn't as hard to be revolutionary. I grew up in the '60s and '70s when people—that's what we were and I actually believed it, and I thought that's what was going to happen. So I don't know where everybody went. [laughter] Then it was like, wait a minute, aren't we doing this for real? I feel it's really important that places that hold that history, but also the potential for revolution now, are preserved. This bookstore is one of those places, so it's very dear and important to me, which is why I am here tonight."  — EVE ENSLER  playwright, author (“Vagina Monologues”)

“…I’ll tell you, just even walking in the door and seeing “Revolutionary China 1949-1976” being a section, and Libros en Espanol, it seems to me it’s very open to ideas. There is this sort of myopic focus at school, I had an economics teacher, you couldn’t talk about anything but capitalism because that’s the only thing that ‘worked.’ You couldn’t bring Marxism into the discussion... Just being in a space with like-minded people who understand that capitalism is at its base an exploitative system and that people of color are stuck at the bottom – that makes me very happy.” - HUNTER COLLEGE STUDENT

“At RB, the whole world comes first ... people learn the real history of this country and its imperialist role in the world today. All of this comes from the deep morality put forward by Bob Avakian that we need to bring forward a people and movement for the emancipation of all humanity—and not “the first shall be last and last shall be first.’”
–ANDY ZEE, spokesperson for RevBooks

"Dedicated to social justice and change, Revolution Books is a non-profit with an all-volunteer staff. They survive in part by donations. They are also one of an ever-dwindling number of bookstores in Manhattan. #SaveNYC. Lend your help to Revolution Books."
 -- JEREMIAH'S VANISHING NEW YORK, Blog, May 5, 2015:

“There is an African proverb that asserts, ‘When a griot dies, it is like a library has been destroyed.’ Revolution Books is like a thousand griots-- and to lose it would be to witness the disappearance of a village of libraries. In my political development, it has been an indispensable tool and companion.”   -- HERB BOYD, journalist, Amsterdam News, author (“Diary of Malcolm X: 1964”, “Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography”)

 “Revolution Books is politics, economics AND culture. Revolution Books is the place to gather, to talk, to debate and to look to the future. And also to buy books to read!”  - PROFESSOR ARTHUR LEWIN, Baruch College

“I learned more in 45 minutes at Revolution Books about the Chinese Revolution than in 10 years of studying Chinese language and culture.”  -- MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTION CLUB who discovered Revolution Books after returning from a year in China

“We want more stores like this, more centers for revolution in all the boroughs and across the country. We can't lose the one like this in NYC, it would leave a terrible political vacuum at a time when thousands are in the streets, looking for a way out, another way their lives and their children's lives could be.”
-- REVOLUTION BOOKS SUPPORTER

“…a bookstore I love as much as I do Bureau of General Services, Queer Division... and really don't we need a real revolution and not just a social adjustment? …find out how to be a part of it.”  -- JIM FOURATT, music/film critic, gay rights activist

“Revolution Books is a bastion of revolutionary energy and people who know what this city is really for. There’s no other place like it. Look at the trend among bookstores. Even the big chains closed in favor of basically this monopoly bookstore Barnes & Noble. There’s nothing connected to the community, and able to not only foster organization, but also a place that is representative of revolutionary artists who in their work continue who continue to create music and art that takes on the larger issues of a people’s struggle. That’s why it’s important for Revolution Books to last, to endure and to thrive. So we need to make it happen.”
-- BRAD WALROND, poet