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June 18-19, Saturday-Sunday, 12-8pm
Two-Day Special Used Book Sale
Through the generousity of the late Bob Fitch, his personal library has been donated to Revolution Books. This Saturday & Sunday, this vast collection of books on labor and urban history, politics, and philosphy will be available. Don't miss this opportunity!
June 18, Saturday, 3:30pm
A Discussion of BAsics
Join an informal discussion of a couple provocative quotes in the sixth chapter of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian.
June 17, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic: Pieces for Revolution
An open-mic like no other. Bring your most powerful piece and be ready to talk about it. Co-produced with Pricetags. Every 3rd Friday of the month.
June 11, Saturday, noon-7pm
Book Sorting Party
We recently received a donation of 4000 fine used books from the family of the late Bob Fitch, a leftist scholar and journalist. Come to a giant "sorting and shelving" day on Saturday, June 11, noon to 7pm. Get first crack at the books and help make available this collection of books which run the gamut from 60s movement to labor history to Greek and Roman studies.
June 11, Saturday, 7pm on
Animated Rent Party!
Music, good conversation, snacks and a lot of fun contributing to a place that matters. Contribute $10 and up.
June 11, Saturday, 7pm on
Animated Rent Party!
Music, good conversation, snacks and a lot of fun contributing to a place that matters. Contribute $10 and up.
June 7, Tuesday, 7pm
A Discussion of BAsics
Join an informal discussion of a couple provocative quotes in the fifth chapter of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian.
Sample quote from Chapter 5:
The basis for communist morality is contained, in a concentrated way, in what Maoists refer to as the "4 Alls." This is drawn from the summary by Marx of what the communist revolution aims for and leads to: the abolition of all class distinctions (or "class distinctions generally"); the abolition of all the relations of production on which these class distinctions rest; the abolition of all the social relations that correspond to these relations of production; and the revolutionizing of all the ideas that result from these social relations. (See "The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850.")
June 7, Tuesday, 7pm
A Discussion of BAsics
Join an informal discussion of a couple provocative quotes in the fifth chapter of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian.
Sample quote from Chapter 5:
The basis for communist morality is contained, in a concentrated way, in what Maoists refer to as the "4 Alls." This is drawn from the summary by Marx of what the communist revolution aims for and leads to: the abolition of all class distinctions (or "class distinctions generally"); the abolition of all the relations of production on which these class distinctions rest; the abolition of all the social relations that correspond to these relations of production; and the revolutionizing of all the ideas that result from these social relations. (See "The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850.")
May 28 discussion postponed to June 4 for Memorial Day weekend
A Discussion of BAsics
Discusión de Lo BAsico
Sábado 28 de Mayo a las 7pm
Ecos de Libertad y Libros Revolución presenta
Un Micrófono Abierto
Invitamos a todos los poetas, cuentistas, narradores, soñardores, y amantes de literatura a estar con nosotros cada cuarta sábado del mes. Este micrófono abierto es diferente a otros, porque la audiencia no solamente oye pero participan con comentarios y preguntas al presentador. Es una oportunidad para expresar libremente sus ideas y sueños.
Donación sugerida en la puerta de $5.
What people are saying and doing:
"I didn't know much going into the military. When I came out 6 years later, I learned some things about this government and wanted to find out more. Your bookstore provided me information indispensable to understanding why all this is happening. We can't lose this store." He pledged $500.
"I like Revolution Books because anyone that knows anything about anything speaks there." He's sending a donation.
"I don't agree with the contents of all the books in your store but I do believe I should do my part to support independent bookstores versus the homogenized chains." She hung up and donated $100 online.
May 24-26, Tuesday-Thursday
Join Revolution Books at BookExpo America 2011
Join us in taking BAsics out to the book industry's largest trade show. Call the store for details: 212-691-3345
May 21, Saturday, 3:30pm
A Discussion of BAsics
Discusión de Lo BAsico
Join an informal discussion of a couple provocative quotes in the fourth chapter of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian.
The discussion will be bi-lingual--Spanish and English speakers welcome!
Disfrute una discusión informal con un par de provocativas citas del cuarto capítulo de Lo BAsico, de los discursos y escritos de Bob Avakian.
La discución será bilingüe, así que bienvenidos los hablantes de español e inglés.
May 20, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic: Pieces for Revolution
Every third Friday of the month at Revolution Books, an open-mic like no other. Audience members give feedback to the artist. Produced by Price Tags Entertainment and Revolution Books. $5 cover.
May 19, Thursday, 7pm
Revolution Books Community Meeting
Building a vibrant bookstore as part of building a movement for revolution. All staff, volunteers, and freinds of Revolution Books are invited.
May 16, Monday, 9pm
Join a viewing of the PBS broadcast:
Freedom Riders
FREEDOM RIDERS is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, but sparked a massive social movement that ended legal segregation.
Join us for a viewing at Revolution Books. Light refreshments. Good conversation. Suggested donation: $5-$10 to support Revolution Books.
Book of the Week!
This week's Book of the Week is The Information, by James Gleick, published by Pantheon Books
"In 1948, Bell Laboratories announced the invention of the electronic semiconductor and its revolutionary ability to do anything a vacuum tube could do but more efficiently. While the revolution in communications was taking these steps, Bell Labs scientist Claude Shannon helped to write a monograph for them, A Mathematical Theory of Communication, in which he coined the word bit to name a fundamental unit of computer information. As bestselling author Gleick (Chaos) astutely argues, Shannon's neologism profoundly changed our view of the world.... Gleick leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another, beginning with African tribes' use of drums and including along the way scientists like Samuel B. Morse, who invented the telegraph; Norbert Wiener, who developed cybernetics; and Ada Byron, the great Romantic poet's daughter, who collaborated with Charles Babbage in developing the first mechanical computer. Gleick's exceptional history of culture concludes that information is indeed the blood, the fuel, and the vital principle on which our world runs."
--Publishers Weekly
The Information is a hardcover 544-page, $29.95 value for only $20 at Revolution Books this week only.
May 14-15, Saturday-Sunday, 12-8pm
Two-Day Giant Clearance Sale & Used Books Sale
We are refreshing our new book stock, so hundreds of titles currently on the shelves have to go. Come find thousands of new books from our unique collection sold at drastically reduced prices, as well as some of the best used books in the city.
An incredible opportunity: History, Novels, Poetry, Rare Books, Art, Theater, Politics, Books in Spanish, Science, Travel, Food, Children's Books. Many, many new books right off the shelves at used book prices.
Come in and buy a lot of books! Help to keep open the one place to find the books and engagement about the root causes of all that plagues the world today, and how that world can be radically transformed. Donations of good used books welcome.
Also: Come by the store Friday evening for pizza and join us in setting up the store for the weekend sale.
May 10, Tuesday, 7pm
A Discussion of BAsics
Join an informal discussion of a couple provocative quotes in the first chapter of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian.
Book of the Week!
This week's Book of the Week is Enrique's Journey, by Sonia Nazario in either English and Spanish.
"Nazario's account of a 17-year-old boy's harrowing attempt to find his mother in America won two Pulitzer Prizes when it first came out in the Los Angeles Times. Enrique's mother, Lourdes, left him in Honduras when he was five years old because she could barely afford to feed him and his sister, much less send them to school.Twelve years later, she was still living in the U.S. and wiring money home. That's when Enrique became one of the thousands of children and teens who try to enter the U.S. illegally each year, riding on the tops of freight trains through Mexico..."
--Publishers Weekly
Enrique's Journey is a paperback 336-page, $16.00 value for only $10 at Revolution Books this week only. (Spanish edition is $11.)
May 3, Tuesday, 7pm
A "bring your ideas" session on popularizing BAsics
A brainstorming session on getting BAsics out into the world.
BAsics is a new book of quotes and essays from Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. BAsics concentrates more than 30 years of Avakian's work on everything standing between humanity and complete emancipation into a single concise book of essential quotes and short essays.
May 1, Sunday, 12noon
REVOLUTIONARY MAY DAY, 2011
A celebration of internationalism and the vision of a new world. Gather at 125th and Amsterdam Ave. Radiating out in the Harlem neighborhood from this hub with readings from BAsics together with open mic.
Then join us For May Day Dinner at 5pm at Shrine
http://www.shrinenyc.com/location.php
2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (7th Ave.)
New York, NY 10030-3003
(212) 690-7807
Shrine is just south of 134th on ACP Blvd.
1 or 2 train to 135th St. And walk 1 block West to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. Then left to 134th St.
B or C train to 135th St.
Walk East (away from park) to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.
The M2 bus stops right in front of Shrine's door.
April 30, Saturday, 3pm
A Discussion of BAsics
Discusión de Lo Basico
Join an informal discussion of a couple provocative quotes in the first chapter of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian.
The discussion will be bi-lingual--Spanish and English speakers welcome!
Disfrute de una discusión informal con un par de provocativas citas del primer capitulo de Lo Basico, de los escritos y las conversaciones de Bob Avakian.
La discución sera bilingue, asi que bienvenidos los hablantes de español e ingles.
April 27, Wednesday, 6:30pm
RECOMMENDED PROGRAM
An Urgent Exchange:
U.S. Empire, Islamic Fundamentalism, Both Deadly.
Is There Another Way?
Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 66 W. 12th Street, NYC
A diverse group of artists, scholars, and political thinkers including
Wafaa Bilal, Laura Lee Schmidt and Sunsara Taylor, will engage the question: "If you are troubled about the state and direction of the world...if you are repelled by both the arrogant assertion of empire by the government and leaders of the U.S. and the fanatical backwardness of Islamic fundamentalism, what should you be doing?"
Sponsored by The Platypus Affiliated Society & World Can't Wait
Call (866) 973-4463 for more information.
April 23, Saturday, 3pm
EARTH DAY 2011 AT REVOLUTION BOOKS--A SPECIAL TALK BY RAYMOND LOTTA
The Japan Nuclear Disaster: How Capitalism Caused It...Why Revolution Is The Real Solution to Our Planet's Environmental Emergency
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan were the result of natural forces. But why Japan was so reliant on nuclear energy, and how this crisis continues to unfold, has everything to do with the global economic and social system we live under. The same system that is destroying the ecosystems of the planet. But the world does not have to be this way…
Raymond Lotta is a revolutionary intellectual who takes Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism as his foundation. Raymond writes and lectures on international relations, the experience of socialist revolution in the 20th century, and issues of the environment.
Sábado 23 de Abril a las 7pm
Ecos de Libertad y Libros Revolución presenta
Un Micrófono Abierto
Invitamos a todos los poetas, cuentistas, narradores, soñardores, y amantes de literatura a estar con nosotros cada cuarta sábado del mes. Este micrófono abierto es diferente a otros, porque la audiencia no solamente oye pero participan con comentarios y preguntas al presentador. Es una oportunidad para expresar libremente sus ideas y sueños.
Después del micrófono abierto el poeta y escritor Rafael Augutin Méndez presentura su nuevo libro Desde Santo Domingo a Nueva York Puros Cuentos. Seguido por una conversación con el escritor y firmará su libro.
Donación sugerida en la puerta de $5.
April 22, Friday, 6:30pm
reg e. gaines
reg e. gaines is a poet, director, and playwright. He has published 3 books of poetry, recorded numerous CD's, and has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry, Arsenio Hall Show, MTV's "Fightin' Wordz" and "Spoken Word Unplugged." He wrote the book and lyrics for the Tony-award winning musical "Bring in da Noise/Bring in da Funk." He is the artistic director of the Downtown Urban Theater Festival currently running in New York City.
reg was one of many artists who performed at Harlem Stage on April 11, 2011, at the event: "On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World." Article, interviews, and slide show from this extraordinary evening can be found at Revolution newspaper.
April 21, Thursday, 6:30-8:30pm
An Evening with Ethan McCord, Truth Teller & War Resister
Featured in a film premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24,
Incident in New Baghdad, Ethan McCord enlisted in the US Navy in
response to 9/11. Wanting to be closer to the action, he moved to the
Army, and in 2007, found himself in the middle of the ground war in Baghdad.
Ethan literally walked onto the scene filmed from an Apache helicopter just
after 12 Iraqi civilians had been shot to death form 1.5 miles away. He can
be seen in the Wikileaks film Collateral Murder, released one year ago,
rescuing two children who survived the attack. Ethan's story of coming to
grips with the Army's rules and the loss of civilian life brought him to say,
"the thing I couldn't live without in Iraq was my own humanity."
Ethan will share his story in person, and via film. Students especially
invited.
Co-sponsored by World Can't Wait & Revolution Books
April 15, Friday, 5-8pm
Open House at Revolution Books. All invited!
Maybe you have never been to Revolution Books before. Maybe you are a long-time customer. Everyone is invited!
Light refreshments. a door prize, and engagement with the bookstore that is at the center of a new movement for revolution.
146 W. 26th Street (between 6th & 7th)
April 15, Friday, 8pm
Open-Mic: Pieces for Revolution
Every third Friday of the month at Revolution Books, an open-mic like no other. Audience members give feedback to the artist. Produced by Price Tags Entertainment and Revolution Books. $5 cover.
This week FEATURING : Ayodele- The Nigerian Nightmare
On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics:
A Celebration of Revolution
and the Vision of a New World
April 11, Harlem Stage at Aaron Davis Hall,
an Evening of Music, Visual Art, Poetry and Readings
|
April 4, Monday, 7pm
Kathleen Barry on her new book
Unmaking War, Remaking Men:
How Empathy Can Reshape Our Politics, Our Soldiers and Ourselves
Kathleen Barry's new book reveals how the military's goal to drum empathy out of new recruits trains them to become remorseless killers. She shows how, even in demilitarized states, violence against women persists at high levels. presaging the Wikileaks exposés of random killing by US soldiers in Iraq, Barry documents preventive killing as a daily occurrence in combat zones.
February 24, Thursday, 7pm
EGYPT ERUPTS!
A panel discussion on the unfolding situation in Egypt and the Middle East with Alan Goodman (Revolution newspaper), Andy Zee (Revolution Books) and other speakers TBA.
New Installation at Revolution Books:
"who gets to speak?" by Ann Messner
"REVOLUTION:
Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
now online!
revolutiontalk.net
In 2003 Bob Avakian delivered this historic talk in the United States. This is a wide-ranging revolutionary journey. It breaks down the very nature of the society we live in and how humanity has come to a time where a radically different society is possible. He lays it all out in a nine-hour speech-and then goes into three hours of question-and-answer dialogue with the audiences. It's all there-full of heart and soul, humor and seriousness. ...continued
Held on July 22
Now avilable on line:
"Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage"
Author reading with Michael Otterman
Video in three 20 min parts by Fansmiles Productions
Part 1: http://politube.org/show/2911
Part 2: http://politube.org/show/2912
Part 3: http://politube.org/show/2913
An account of the actual carnage in human terms, including
interviews with Iraqi refugees. The continuing U.S.
occupation is described as an "attempted sociocide…
either through negligence or deliberate strategy to stun the
country into submission."
Held on June 1
Emergency Forum:
Condemn the Israeli Attack
on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Speakers:
Alan Goodman, writer for Revolution newspaper
Chris Hedges, author, "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle"
Abdeen Jabara, past-president of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee
Joel Kovel, author of "Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine"
Adam Shapiro, human rights activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement
hosted by Andy Zee
Youtube Excerpts from Revolution Books' Emergency Forum, June 1, 2010, New York City
Full video recording available (Courtesy of Fansmiles Productions.)
(Adobe Flash format. Download file, play in Windows Media Player or open file in Firefox.)
Audio recording also available.
Held June 8
Hear audio
Download video (download file, play in Windows Media Player or open as file in Firefox)
Raymond Lotta speaking on:
The Gulf Oil Catastrophe
A CAPITALIST OIL SPILL...
A SYSTEM NOT FIT TO BE
CARETAKERS OF THE PLANET...
AND THE REVOLUTION WE NEED!
This important talk will be followed by wide-ranging discussion of the stakes of this crisis and the challenges before us to act.
Raymond Lotta is a revolutionary intellectual who takes Bob Avakian's new synthesis of revolution and communism as his foundation. Lotta writes for Revolution newspaper. He has published and lectured widely on world economics and the experience of socialist revolution in the 20th century. His recent writings and talks explain how communist revolution makes it possible to create an economically rational, socially just, and environmental sustainable society.
October 19, Tuesday, 7pm
"Fighting Police Brutality, and
Transforming the People, for Revolution!"
A talk & discussion with Carl Dix on his Revolution article
Carl Dix is a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. In 1970 Carl was one of the Fort Lewis 6, six GIs who refused orders to go to Vietnam. He served 2 years in Leavenworth Military Penitentiary for this stand. In 1996, Carl was a co-founder of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality.
October 16, Saturday, 11:30-8pm
Giant Monthly Used Book Sale!
to Save Revolution Books
1000's of the best used books in the city, + cheap! (most are $1-4)
Novels, plays, poetry, history, politics, rare books from Soviet + Chinese revolutions, the 60s, art books.
October 15, Friday, 5:00-7:00pm
Open House for Teachers
October 15, Friday, 7-9:30pm
Open-Mic: Pieces for Revolution
Like no other open-mic in the city, bring your most powerful work.
Co-produced with Pricetags Entertainment.
October 11, Monday, 7pm
Bastion of Enlightenment… or Enforcer for Imperialism: The Case of Israel
Discussion with Revolution writer Alan Goodman on Revolution special issue on Israel, #213. Bring all your questions, and ones you've run into, in the course of reading and taking out this issue.
OCTOBER 5, DON'T MISS IT!
October 5, Tuesday, 6:30 pm, Union Square
(North end)
Outdoor screening of the film of the talk
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
Endless wars, Gulf catastrophe, Arizona. The world cries out for revolution. Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party takes you on a wide-ranging revolutionary journey. This movie of his talk will challenge you and set your mind to flight. It's all there-- full of heart and soul, humor and seriousness.
For more info . . .
October 4, Monday, 7pm
Mickey Huff from Project Censored will discuss Censored 2011, the latest book featuring the most censored stories in the media
Top Censored Stories of 2010
* 1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
* 2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than
in the 1950s
* 3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
* 4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
* 5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
* 6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
* 7. Obama's Military Appointments Have Corrupt
Past
* 8. Bailed out Banks and America's Wealthiest
Cheat IRS Out of Billions
* 9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
* 10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
Book of the Week!
This week's Book of the Week is Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration published by Random House.
"A landmark piece of nonfiction.... sure to hold many surprises for readers of any race or experience....A mesmerizing book that warrants comparison to The Promised Land, Nicholas Lemann's study of the Great Migration's early phase, and Common Ground, J. Anthony Lukas's great, close-range look at racial strife in Boston....[Wilkerson's] closeness with, and profound affection for, her subjects reflect her deep immersion in their stories and allow the reader to share that connection." -- Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Isabel Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times in 1994.
A hardbound, 640-page, $30.00 value for only $22 at Revolution Books this week only.
Click to
September 26, Sunday, 5pm
A presentation and discussion
Revolution Newspaper...and
Making Revolution For Real
September 25, Saturday, 11:30am-9pm
Used Books Big Monthly Sale
to Save Revolution Books
1000’s of the best used books in the city, + cheap! Rare books from Soviet + Chinese revolutions, 60s, art books.
September 22, Wednesday, 7pm
An evening with WBAI radio's Local Station Board candidates
Revolution Books is hosting this gathering on behalf of WBAI -- so radio listeners can hear from the various candidates running for the station's local station board.
Domingo 19 de septiembre, 3 a 6 pm
Una tarde de cine en Libros Revolución (en español):
“REVOLUCIÓN:
por qué es necesaria,
por qué es posible, qué es”
La histórica charla filmada de Bob Avakian
Esta charla de Bob Avakian, el presidente del Partido Comunista Revolucionario, Estados Unidos, es toda una expedición revolucionaria que abarca muchos temas. Examina la naturaleza de la sociedad y plantea que la humanidad ha llegado a un momento histórico en que es posible crear una sociedad radicalmente distinta.
September 17, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
Like no other open-mic in the city
Features: Dremur and Melly B
Produced by Price Tags Art &
Revolution Books every 3rd Friday
September 14, Tuesday, 7:30pm, at PS 41 (11th St. & 6th Ave.)
A Benefit for Revolution Books
An Evening with DAVID HARVEY
...on the occasion of the publication of the paperback edition of
A Companion to Marx's Capital
Tickets no longer available on line. Tickets available at the door. Regular admission $15, student admission (w/ID) $5, Premium admission $100 (includes a copy of A Companion to Marx's Capital), and Premium admission $250 (includes a copy of the book plus a one year membership in Friends of Revolution Books).
At a time of capitalist crisis...
At a time of questioning about capitalism...
A Companion to Marx's Capital offers fresh, original and sometimes critical interpretations of a book that changed the course of history and, Harvey intimates, may do so again.
Recently Harvey wrote: "Once [capitalism's] mask is torn off and its mysteries have been laid bare, it's easier to see what has to be done."
Please note that we cannot sell books at PS 41. You may pay for A Companion to Marx's Capital here on line for $19.95, and then pick it up at the store:
David Harvey is one of the world's foremost scholars of Marx, and a Distinguished Professor at CUNY Graduate Center.).
August 31, Tuesday, 7:00pm
Screening on the 5th Anniversary of Katrina
"Trouble the Water"
Oscar-nominated documentary takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall. Kimberly Rivers Roberts, an aspiring rap artist, is turning her new video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. "It's going to be a day to remember," Kim declares. As the hurricane begins to rage, Kim and her husband Scott continue to film their harrowing retreat to higher ground and the dramatic rescues of friends and neighbors.
Directed by Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal.
Discussion after film:
Over 1800 people died in Katrina due to the criminal failure of the capitalist system. How would a revolutionary society deal with such a catastrophe?
$10 Suggested Donation
Includes film, popcorn and drinks, a great discussion, and Revolution Books.
Benefit for The World Needs Revolution Books 2010 Fund Drive.
August 24, Tuesday, 7:45pm, at McCarren Park in Williamsburg
Outdoor screening of the film of the talk
Chairs available or bring your own lawn chair
Weather forecast looks better, so it's definitely on in the Park
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
Endless wars, Gulf catastrophe, Arizona. The world cries out for revolution. Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party takes you on a wide-ranging revolutionary journey. This movie of his talk will challenge you and set your mind to flight. It's all there--full of heart and soul, humor and seriousness.
Directions: Lorimer St, between Bedford and Driggs. Use Nassau stop on the G line or the Bedford stop on the L line or take the 62 bus from Williamsburg. See map for location.
August 20, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
An open-mic like no other. Every 3rd Friday. Come with your most powerful work and be ready to talk about it.
August 21, Saturday, 3pm
Screening + discussion every Saturday at 3pm:
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
A Film of a Talk by Bob Avakian
22 de agosto, Domingo, 3pm
El domingo enseñaremos la primera hora del DVD:
"REVOLUCIóN: por qué es necesaria, por qué es posible, qué es"
Una charla de Bob Avakian
Todos los domingos a las tres de la tarde, en español
August 17, Tuesday, 7pm
New York Police Dept.'s Stop & Frisk
A massive crime against the people: 3 million stops in 6 years, 1 million people in the NYPD "suspect" database. Come discuss with the revolutionaries and Revolution writers.
Book of the Week!
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is finally out in paperback.
Through the story of one man's experience after Hurricane Katrina, Eggers draws an indelible picture of contemporary America.
Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a successful Syrian-born painting contractor, decides to stay in New Orleans and protect his property while his family flees. After the levees break, he uses a small canoe to rescue people, before being arrested by an armed squad and swept powerlessly into a vortex of bureaucratic brutality. A guard even accuses him of being a member of Al Qaeda!
Eggers, compiling his account from interviews, sensibly resists rhetorical grandstanding, letting injustices speak for themselves. His skill is most evident in how closely he involves the reader in Zeitoun's thoughts. Thrown into one of a series of wire cages, Zeitoun speculates, with a contractor's practicality, that construction of his prison must have begun within a day or so of the hurricane.
A New York Times Notable Book
An O, The Oprah Magazine Terrific Read of the Year
A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year
A New Yorker Favorite Book of the Year
A Chicago Tribune Favorite Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Decade
A 368 page, $15.95 value for only $12 at Revolution Books this week only.
Click to
August 11, Wednesday, 7pm
Screening of
DIRT
Talkback with director Nancy Savoca
"You don't smile enough," a character tells Dolores after she loses a job in DIRT, Nancy Savoca's riveting drama about undocumented immigrants living a harsh existence in contemporary Manhattan. Nancy Savoca’s earlier films include “True Love,” Household Saints,” “Dogfight,” “Reno: Rebel Without a Pause,” “If These Walls Could Talk.”
$10 with popcorn, drinks. A benefit for Revolution Books.
August 7&8, Saturday & Sunday, 12 noon-9pm
USED BOOKS RENT PARTY EXTRAVAGANZA
To Save Revolution Books
Come Get Great Used Books at Revolution Books 2-day Extravaganza!
For 2 days, on Saturday and Sunday, August 7 and 8, 12 noon to 9pm Revolution Books will fill our tables, spilling out into the street, with thousands of used high quality books donated by our friends. We have two goals: 1) Get some really good books into the hands of new readers and 2) pay the rent!
Included in the sale will be rare historical books on the past re...volutions (some in Spanish), and some stunning art books. There will be food, fun, music, artworks for sale, all day...
For more info . . .
August 3, Tuesday, 7-9pm
Report back from Arizona Freedom Summer with Travis Morales
Travis Morales (the manager of Revolution Books in New York) is in Arizona right now with Arizona Freedom Summer. He'll be reporting back at the store this Tuesday.
On July 29, Arizona's anti-immigration law, SB1070, went into effect. Arizona's anti-Immigrant Law is Inhumane & Illegitimate. Stop the Fascist Attacks on Immigrants! (see http://www.rwor.org/a/208/immigration-en.html)
For more information...
July 31, Saturday, 3pm
Screening + discussion every Saturday at 3pm:
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
A Film of a Talk by Bob Avakian
1 de augusto, Domingo, 3pm
El domingo enseñaremos la primera hora del DVD:
"REVOLUCIóN: por qué es necesaria, por qué es posible, qué es"
Una charla de Bob Avakian
Todos los domingos a las tres de la tarde, en español
August 1, Sunday, 4:30pm, at Asian American Writers Workshop
World Can't Wait will present a national webcast of
Anti-war Leaders and Veterans Responding to the WikiLeaks Revelations
What should we do NOW, immediately to end the occupations of Afghanistan & Iraq?
Featuring Josh Stieber, veteran of Bravo Company 2-16 Collateral Murder
via Skype: Cindy Sheehan, anti-war veteran Matthis Chiroux & journalist Dahr Jamail & others to be announced.
NYC supporters: Be part of the live audience discussion in cool comfort
Asian American Writers Workshop 112 West 27, near 6th Avenue, 6th floor, 4:30pm - 6:30pm
For more info, click here.
July 27, Tuesday, 7pm
Planning meeting for the Revolution Books'
USED BOOKS RENT PARTY EXTRAVAGANZA
Join us Tuesday at the bookstore at 7pm to brainstorm and organize the Aug 7-8 weekend event-- a fabulous sale that raises a ton of money for the store and brings many new people and old friends to Revolution Books.
July 25, Sunday, 1pm
Brunch Roundtable Discussion:
Palestine and Iraq -- 2 Occupations
Brunch roundtable discussion with authors Michael Otterman (Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage) and Antony Loewenstein (My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution). On the realities of occupation and the illusions of “peace” in Iraq and Palestine. Brunch provided. Donation requested.
July 22, Thursday, 7pm
Book Launch:
"Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage"
Author reading with Michael Otterman
An account of the actual carnage in human terms, including interviews with Iraqi refugees. The continuing U.S. occupation is described as an “attempted sociocide… either through negligence or deliberate strategy to stun the country into submission.”
“If I could only recommend one book that provides a comprehensive overview of both the situation in Iraq today, and the decades of U.S.-backed policy it took to create this nightmare scenario, Erasing Iraq is it.”
-- Dahr Jamail, Beyond the Green Zone
July 17, Saturday, 3pm
Screening + discussion every Saturday at 3pm:
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
A Film of a Talk by Bob Avakian
18 de julio, Domingo, 3pm
El domingo enseñaremos la primera hora del DVD:
"REVOLUCIóN: por qué es necesaria, por qué es posible, qué es"
Una charla de Bob Avakian
Todos los domingos a las tres de la tarde, en español
July 16, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
An open-mic like no other. Every 3rd Friday. Come with your most powerful work and be ready to talk about it.
July 15, Thursday, 8:20pm
Outdoor Screening of
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
Location: Morningside Park--114th & Monrningside Ave. (NOT Monrningside Dr.)
Endless wars, gulf catastrophe, Arizona. The world cries out for revolution. Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party takes you on a wide-ranging revolutionary journey. This movie of his talk will challenge you and set your mind to flight. Sponsored by Revolution Books; for more information call 212-691-3345.
July 10, Saturday, 7pm
What's Your Favorite Bob Avakian Quote?
BAsics
Open Mic Night
An open-mic night to promote and raise money for the BAsics project! If you are a youth; a veteran revolutionary; a poet, actor, spoken-word artist; or a newcomer to this movement for revolution...choose your favorite Bob Avakian quote and read it on July 10.
What is BAsics?
BAsics is a back-pocket-sized book to be published this fall of 100 quotations from Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party. BAsics will make BA, his work, and leadership much more widely known. It will greatly enhance the ability of all kinds of people to grasp, wield, and discuss with one another BA's understanding and development of the strategy for making revolution, his pathbreaking re-envisioning of socialism and communism and unparalleled ability to speak to key questions facing society and the revolution with depth, nuance, insight, integrity, heart and humor.
BAsics will crystallize for people a very basic sense of what this revolution is all about and who Avakian is. These will be words to live and die by, words of inspiration and challenge-- sharp provocations that concentrate a different way of seeing something. They can become part of the consciousness for an entire generation -- concentrating a different way for how to live and how to die. This collection needs to have society-wide impact, provoking controversy and spreading like wild.
The BAsics project is a crucial element of the national campaign, "The Revolution We Need...The Leadership We Have."
If you want to participate on July 10, please respond by email as soon as possible to
thebasics2010@yahoo.com
Important! Volunteers are needed for all aspects of the BAsics project-including right now to help search through Avakian's works for quotations to suggest for the final 100.
July 6, Tuesday, 7pm
Presentation and discussion:
MICRO-LENDING:
Is it part of the solution...
or part of the problem?
A radical critique ...
One of the key prescriptions promoted by the International Monetary Fund, scholars like Jeffrey Sachs, and public figures like Bill Gates and Bono for ending global poverty and promoting women’s empowerment is: micro-lending. This talk will challenge this idea and contribute to a much-needed dialogue and debate.
The presentation will offer a communist critique of micro-lending. We welcome viewpoints and arguments in support of micro-lending into the discussion.
July 4, Sunday, noon-6pm
at Riverbank State Park
REVOLUTIONARY
ANTI-JULY 4th PICNIC
Bring others for a fun day and
raise funds for “The Revolution We Need,
the Leadership We Have” campaign.
Reports from the mobilizations in Detroit and the Gulf
People are encouraged to donate $10.00 or more and to bring your favorite dish to share.
Bring your own poetry, music and dance to contribute to the anti-July 4th festivities. Build the Movement for Revolution —
This is NOT the Best of All Possible Worlds and We Do NOT Have to Live This Way.
Riverbank State Park:
Enter at 145th Street & Riverside Drive in Manhattan
Take the 1 (closest), A, B, C, or D trains to 145th Street, walk west to Riverside Drive
or take M11 or Bx19 directly into the park. Look for red flags in the picnic area.
Note: Revolution Books will be closed July 4 for this event.
July 3, Saturday, 3pm
Screening + discussion every Saturday at 3pm:
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
A Film of a Talk by Bob Avakian
.
June 29, Tuesday, 7pm
Presentation and Discussion
The U.S. War of Occupation in Afghanistan:
McChrystal Out, The Horror Grinds On...
What is Happening?
with Sunsara Taylor
Obama's recent firing of General McChrystal as top general in Afghanistan is a big deal-- and reflects serious contention among sections of the U.S. ruling class over how to prosecute this bloody occupation. It's been 60 years since a president removed the senior commander in a war zone. McChrystal will be replaced by another war criminal, David Petraeus, who was already head of "Central Command," (McChrystal's boss). The Washington Post quotes Obama: "This is a change in personnel, but it is not a change in policy." Translation: The criminal war in Afghanistan-- which on June 4, 2010 officially became the longest war in U.S. history -- continues
Come discuss this cauldron of contradictions with Sunsara Taylor on Tuesday night at Revolution Books-- the place to go to when something major happens in the world... to get under the hood, to figure out what it means for the people...to meet the movement for revolution.
June 28, Monday, 7pm
Emergency Report Back
from the Gulf on the Oil Spill
Reporting on the battle to stop the Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Disaster
Elizabeth Cook, a lifelong resident of Louisiana, spoke at the Gulf Emergency Summit in New Orleans on June 19. Very active in the struggle for housing in the wake of Katrina, she is helping uncover the reality of the catastrophe playing out for the people, wildlife, and environment. She recently confronted a Coast Guard representative at a public meeting, and is organizing independent mass political action along the Gulf.
Debra Sweet, Director of World Can't Wait, is returning to New Orleans shortly, and recruiting volunteers to come along as part of fact-finding, truth-telling missions and political protest along the Gulf.
June 26, Saturday, 3pm
Screening + discussion every Saturday at 3pm:
"REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About"
A Film of a Talk by Bob Avakian
27 de junio, Domingo, 3pm
El domingo enseñaremos la primera hora del DVD:
"REVOLUCIóN: por qué es necesaria, por qué es posible, qué es"
Una charla de Bob Avakian
Todos los domingos a las tres de la tarde, en español
Seen at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit:
June 24, Thursday, 7pm
Opening New York City Book Release Party for
TEXAS TOUGH:
The Rise of America's Prison Empire
with author Robert Perkinson.
Buy "TEXAS TOUGH" Thursday night at Revolution Books -- Get $5 off and get it autographed.
click to
"HOLD A COPY FOR ME"
The U.S. has built the most expansive prison system in world history-- 2.4 million people now behind bars, 1 in 100 adults incarcerated. And contrary to conventional wisdom, 50 years AFTER the civil rights movement, all this is unimaginably worse for Black people. In 1960, Blacks were imprisoned at 4 times the rate of whites-- today, Blacks are imprisoned at seven times the rate of whites.
"Texas Tough" presents a new thesis on how this has happened. Contrary to most histories, criminal punishment in the U.S. is much more of a "southern story"-- with the legacy of slavery and later the Jim Crow system impacting the prison system across the whole country down to today.
And in the prison business, all roads lead back to Texas. A pioneer in criminal justice severity-- from mandatory sentencing to prison privatization, from supermax isolation to assembly-line executions-- Texas is the most locked-down state in the most incarcerated country in the world. "Texas Tough" is a sweeping tour of southern justice from slavery to the present, and explains how this punishment colossus came into being and how a plantation-based penal system once dismissed as barbaric became a template for the nation.
Perkinson is a professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. He is also a Soros Justice Fellow. Hear an interview with him from the Open Society's blog.
"An alarming indictment, built on passionate and exhaustive research..."
- New York Times
"If you want to understand how politics, not crime control, governs today's prison population, read this book.... A must-read..."
- Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Harvard Law School
June 20, Sunday, 4-10pm on-line
TUNE IN...DONATE...INVITE YOUR FRIENDS....
"Put Revolution On the Map"
National Fundraising Web-a-thon
Be part of raising $10,000 in a national fundraising web-a-thon to put revolution on the map.
When you tune in on Sunday, June 20 with others all over the country to watch the "Put Revolution on the Map" Webcast, you'll be part of something unique. A national event that's like watching "revolutionary TV." And a collective fundraiser to raise $10,000 by the end of the web-a-thon to kick "The Revolution We Need...The Leadership We Have" campaign into high gear.
On Sunday, at 4:00 pm EST go to revcom.us to log in to the web-a-thon.
A web-a-thon event with Sunsara Taylor, Annie Day and Michael Slate, with live reports from Larry Everest on the Gulf Coast... Carl Dix in Detroit... Raymond Lotta on the oil spill... Alan Goodman on the situation in Gaza, and more.
June 18, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
An open-mic like no other. Every 3rd Friday. Come with your most powerful work and be ready to talk about it.
June 17, Thursday, 7pm
Reading with Marina Budhos:
"Tell Us We're Home"
Marina Budhos will read and discuss her recent young adult novel, Tell Us We're Home, published by Simon & Schuster.
"Jaya, Maria, and Lola are just like the other eighth-grade girls in the wealthy suburb of Meadowbrook, New Jersey. They want to go to the spring dance, they love spending time with their best friends after school, sharing frappés and complaining about the other kids. But there’s one big difference: all three are daughters of maids and nannies. And they go to school with the very same kids whose families their mothers work for."
"Budhos explores the evolving friendship with unwavering clarity. The true strength of Budhos’ latest young adult novel lies in her resolute ability to never settle for easy answers or convenient happy endings."
–BookDragon
Marina Budhos also wrote Ask Me No Questions, a searing portrait of the crisis facing a South Asian family in New Jersey after 911-- as orange alerts and the Patriot Act seize the country. It is a story of two sisters, one of whom must find strength to save her family.
Ask Me No Questions was an ALA Notable and winner of the first James Cook Teen Book Award. Marina Budos has also written The Professor of Light, House of Waiting, and a nonfiction book, Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers. Her short stories, articles, essays, and book reviews have appeared in publications such as The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Literary Review, The Nation, Dissent, Marie Claire, Redbook, Travel & Leisure, Ms., Los Angeles Times, and in numerous anthologies.
June 15, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion:
"Some Principles for Building A Movement for Revolution"
Article by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
"At every point, we must be searching out the key concentrations of social contradictions and the methods and forms which can strengthen the political consciousness of the masses, as well as their fighting capacity and organization in carrying out political resistance against the crimes of this system; which can increasingly bring the necessity, and the possibility, of a radically different world to life for growing numbers of people; and which can strengthen the understanding and determination of the advanced, revolutionary-minded masses in particular to take up our strategic objectives not merely as far-off and essentially abstract goals (or ideals) but as things to be actively striven for and built toward...."
Read the whole thing here...
June 11, Friday, 7pm
Screening: Plunder: The Crime of Our Time
Talkback with filmmaker and author Danny Schechter
This hard-hitting investigative film shows how the financial crisis was built on a foundation of criminal activity. To tell this story, the filmmaker Danny Schechter (who will be present at the screening), speaks with bankers involved in these activities, respected economists, insider experts, top journalists including Paul Krugman, and even a convicted white-collar criminal, Sam Antar, who blows the whistle on intentionally dishonest practices.
Plunder: the Crime of Our Time looks into how the crisis developed, from the mysterious collapse of Bear Stearns to the shadowy world of trillion dollar hedge funds. Insiders who work in the industry and know it well tell both of these stories. 'Plunder' also shows how hastily arranged government bailouts did not revive the economy and may have lost billions. Also available Friday night: the companion book to the film, "The Crime of Our Time."
Danny Schechter was a producer at CNN and ABC News and has written ten books and directed more than 20 documentaries. He attended Cornell, The London School of Economics and was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He is an independent filmmaker and TV producer with the award-winning independent company, Globalvision.
June 1, Tuesday, 7pm
Emergency Forum:
Condemn the Israeli Attack
on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Speakers (list in formation):
Alan Goodman, writer for Revolution newspaper
Chris Hedges, author, "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle"
Abdeen Jabara, past-president of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee
Joel Kovel, author of "Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine"
Adam Shapiro, human rights activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement
hosted by Andy Zee
At 9pm, Sunday night, the Israeli Defense Forces conducted a military assault on a flotilla of unarmed ships in international waters carrying humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people of Gaza. Initial news reports state that 10 to 19 civilians were killed by Israeli commandos who boarded one of the ships, guns blazing. This act of high-seas mass murder is an outrage that demands universal condemnation.
Come to Revolution Books on Tuesday night at 7pm to join Chris Hedges, Abdeen Jabara, Alan Goodman (list in formation) in denouncing this war crime, digging into what lies behind this attack, and what to do about it.
To see video of Israeli commandos storming aboard Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship, click here.
May 25, Tuesday, 7pm
Join us at Revolution Books for an informal hour of discussion of experience, learning and planning on spreading revolution and communism.
See www.revcom.us for breaking news about bringing the revolution and its leadership to the outrage of seven-year old Aiyana Stanley-Jones' murder by Detroit police -- fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution -- in Detroit and around the country. We'll have a brief discussion and then teams will go out to spread the powerful image of Bob Avakian and work on plans for the upcoming "Revolution We Need, Leadership We Have" conference.
May 18, Tuesday, 7pm
A Conversation at Revolution Books about the recent ad in the New York Review of Books:
Join a conversation at Revolution Books with Debra Sweet and other signers of the full page ad which has just appeared in The New York Review of Books (on newsstands now). How do we respond to continuing crimes against civilians by our government? Is this, as the statement says, "in some respects, worse than Bush?" If so, what IS our responsibility?
The statement, published as a paid ad, opens by challenging the president's plan to assassinate a Muslim cleric now living in Yemen, a U.S. citizen.
Read the Agence France-Presse article on the ad.
"In the past few weeks, it has become common knowledge that Barack Obama has openly ordered the assassination of an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, because he is suspected of participating in plots by Al Qaeda. Al-Awlaki denies these charges. No matter. Without trial or other judicial proceeding, the administration has simply put him on the to-be-killed list."
Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University of New Orleans, and a signer of the statement wrote Monday, "Murdering anyone in the US is a criminal act that is prosecuted regularly in courts across this country. Why should secret cold-blooded murder by government forces outside the U.S. be treated any differently?"
The statement goes on to say, "Such measures by Bush were widely considered by liberals and progressives to be outrages and were roundly, and correctly, protested. But those acts which may have been construed (wishfully or not) as anomalies under the Bush regime, have now been consecrated into "standard operating procedure" by Obama, who claims, as did Bush, executive privilege and state secrecy in defending the crime of aggressive war."
Among the signers are Edward Asner, Noam Chomsky, James Cromwell, Daniel Ellsberg, Donald Freed, former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel, Chris Hedges, Kathy Kelly, Ray McGovern, Tom Morello, Michael Ratner, Rev. Dr. George F. Regas, Mark Ruffalo, Cindy Sheehan, Sunsara Taylor, and Cornel West.
This evening is co-sponsored by The World Can't Wait!
May 12, Wednesday, 7pm
"The War Comes Home"
A Reading and Discussion with award-winning writers
Helen Benedict and Nora Eisenberg
Helen Benedict:
"The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq"
"It is hard to determine what is most disturbing about this book--the devious and immoral tactics used by leaders and recruiters to get women to join the military, the terrible poverty and personal violence women were escaping that lead them to be vulnerable to such manipulation, the raping and harassing of women soldiers by their superiors and comrades once they got to Iraq, or the untreated homelessness, illnesses and madness that have haunted women since they came home."
-- Eve Ensler, playwright, The Vagina Monologues
"Once again, Helen Benedict reports what others sweep under the rug, and reveals a pattern where others see random events. The Lonely Soldier will shock you and enrage you and bring you to tears."
-- Katha Pollitt, contributor, The Nation
Nora Eisenberg:
"When You Come Home" -- a novel about the unending Gulf War
"In 1991, troops sent to Iraq for the first Gulf War returned home with a litany of physical, neurological, and psychological symptoms that collectively became known as Gulf War syndrome. Eisenberg bravely sheds light on the resultant devastation suffered by one small group of friends and their families..."
-- Booklist
"Nora Eisenberg uses her estimable talent to explore the human cost of modern war. And thanks to that talent, her book is not only timely but timeless."
--- Robert Olen Butler
May 11, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion of the new article:
"Some Observations on the Culture Wars: Textbooks, Movies, Sham Shakespearean Tragedies and Crude Lies"
by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
"For humanity to advance beyond a state in which 'might makes right' -- and where things ultimately come down to raw power relations -- will require, as a fundamental element in this advance, an approach to understanding things (an epistemology) which recognizes that reality and truth are objective and do not vary in accordance with, nor depend on, different 'narratives' and how much 'authority' an idea (or 'narrative') may have behind it, or how much power and force can be wielded on behalf of any particular idea or 'narrative,' at any given point.umanity to advance beyond a state in which 'might makes right' -- and where things ultimately come down to raw power relations -- will require, as a fundamental element in this advance, an approach to understanding things (an epistemology) which recognizes that reality and truth are objective and do not vary in accordance with, nor depend on, different 'narratives' and how much 'authority' an idea (or 'narrative') may have behind it, or how much power and force can be wielded on behalf of any particular idea or 'narrative,' at any given point."
Read the whole article here.
May 8, Saturday, 3-5pm
Commemoration of 40th Anniversary of Kent State and Jackson State
On May 4, 1970, national guardsmen opened fire on hundreds of unarmed students at an anti-war rally at Kent State University in Ohio. The students were protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, which was announced by President Nixon on April 30th. The guardsmen fired off at least 67 shots in roughly 13 seconds. Four students were killed and nine others wounded. The four students shot dead were Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, William Schroeder, and Sandra Shoyer, all between the ages of 19 and 21. To this day, no one's been held accountable for what happened.
Ten days later, 2 students were killed by state police at Jackson State in Mississippi.
Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are gunning us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?
--“4 Dead in Ohio” Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Watch here
More info on facebook . . .
Audio recording now available
Held Tuesday, May 4, 7pm
Emergency Presentation: Raymond Lotta on the
Gulf Environmental Disaster
A CAPITALIST OIL SPILL...
A SYSTEM NOT FIT TO BE THE CARETAKER OF THE PLANET
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform that killed 11 workers on April 20 threatens to become a massive and perhaps unparalleled environmental disaster. Current estimates are that 200,000 gallons a day are gushing out of the sea floor, one mile beneath the surface. The spill endangers marsh, fragile ponds, creeks, lakes, and other wetlands making up 40% of U.S. total wetlands.
This is a capitalist oil spill. The Gulf of Mexico has been turned into a vast laboratory for deep-water oil drilling to serve capitalism's relentless drive for profit and strategic control of energy resources. Official U.S. government policy has encouraged this. The inconvenient truth is that this oil leak could have been prevented. But it is "cost-effective" for companies like British Petroleum to scrimp on safety and environmental protection measures and equipment.
Download audio
March & Rally on Revolutionary May 1st!
11:00am... 3pm... through the evening
The Future is Calling...
The REVOLUTION Is Real.
March & Rally all day on May 1 in
Washington Heights, Harlem & East Harlem/El Barrio!
11:00 am: Meet at 181st & St. Nicholas Avenue (#1 to 181st St.)
2:30-3:30: 125th St. & Amsterdam (#1 or #A,B,C,D to 125th St.)
7:00 pm: Program: East Harlem Cafe, 1651 Lexington Avenue @104th Street (tickets $10, includes light dinner).
"The world as it is today is intolerable. More and more people understand that things cannot go on in this way, and that humanity needs a way out. But everywhere they turn they are offered false solutions.
There is only one real way to emancipate humanity: revolution, communist revolution. And there is a leadership that makes the prospect of this revolution real. But people don't know this..."
To read the rest go here.
We ARE BUILDING a movement for revolution. And that movement needs you.
To spread this event on FACEBOOK go here.
SUNSARA TAYLOR TALKS
April 28, Wednesday, 8:30pm EDT webcast--Sign-up NOW!
Spin the globe. Anywhere you look women are being held down and slammed backwards, objectified and degraded.On campuses nationwide -- UCLA, Berkeley, NYU, University of Chicago, University of Hawaii, Columbia -- Sunsara Taylor has been making the case for why there is no biological, god-given or man-made reason why things have to remain this way -- and how things can change through revolution and through building a movement for revolution -- starting now!
Log-on to the broadcast of Sunsara Taylor's April 8 talk at UCLA. Immediately following, Sunsara will respond to questions in a live webcast. Invite your friends to the webcast on facebook.
Receive log on information with donation of $10.00 or greater. Please register well in advance (be sure to include your e-mail address in the donation form--this is how you will receive the log on link).
For more info on the webcast . . .
Available on line
Webcast from the Emergency Conference at UC Berkeley, April 26, 2010
Copenhagen, Environmental Crisis, and the Future of Humanity
Speakers include: Professor John Harte, Jamie Henn, Raymond Lotta, and Maggie Zhou.
The planet is at a precipice. We confront a multi-dimensional, global environmental crisis: soil depletion... diminishing clean water, rivers, and streams... growing biological dead zones in oceans... species extinctions and potential eco-system collapse... and human-driven global climate change... We have reached the point where the actions of human society could result in a planet in which it is no longer possible for humans and many other species to live.
For more information and to view.
On February 23, Sunsara Taylor launched her national tour "From the Burkha to the Thong, Everything Must, And Can, Change--WE NEED TOTAL REVOLUTION!" Click here for an excerpt from her talk.
photo: Bud Korotzer
April 22, Thursday, EARTHDAY
Special Issue of Revolution newspaper on
"State of EMERGENCY!
The Plunder of Our Planet, the Environmental Catastrophe and
THE REAL REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTION"
The staff of Revolution Books want to alert everyone to an extraordinary 20-page issue of Revolution newspaper out now. It is available at the bookstore ($2) and is online here.
"Make no mistake, destruction and collapse of whole ecosystems can transform our planet into one that could become unlivable for humans, even with all our potential to adapt."
The issue reveals how environmental emergency that now faces humanity and earth's ecosystems has many dimensions, among them:
* the destruction and fragmentation of forests and other natural habitats, making the survival of many species of plants and animals impossible
* the acidification, degradation and spreading of dead zones (areas in which there is no life) in oceans
* a great extinction (wiping out) of species on the lands, lakes and rivers, and in the seas;
large-scale pollution and degradation of water, air and soils
* large-scale pollution and degradation of water, air and soils
* the real threat of unstoppable climate change
"It is as if life on earth is being ravaged by a cancer -- something that is growing and totally out of control, something eating up life which the body is powerless to defeat."
This issue of Revolution shows the source of all this is the capitalist system, and the impossibility of that system solving this crisis...
* how Copenhagen revealed the world's powers fiddling while the planet burns
* why laws passed by the government will not even begin to solve this proglem
* why "green technology" is NOT the answer
This issue shows a way out and way forward for humanity -- a revolutionary society in which people could actually live as custodians of nature, rather than plunderers. It presents for the first time a truly radical approach to these problems, how a revolutionary society could begin to reverse this terrible destruction with a system of planning that keeps the whole world -- and all of life -- in mind. Bob Avakian's new synthesis of revolution and communism opens new possibilities for a socialist state power that unfetters science, that promotes dissent, debate and initiative from below. The Revolutionary Communist Party is building a movement for this revolution NOW.
Come by Revolution Books, pick up copies of this issue for everyone you care about and people you don't know yet. Come in and talk with us about it.
This IS an emergency, and there IS a way out.
Also check out:
"Emergency Conference at UCB: Copenhagen, Environmental Crisis, and the Future of Humanity" -- a major conference on the environment sponsored by Revolution Books in Berkeley, California on April 26, at 7pm, featuring:
Professor John Harte, Energy Resources Group and Ecosystems Sciences Division of the College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley
Jamie Henn, Communications and East Asia Director for the international climate campaign 350.org
Raymond Lotta, writer for Revolution, his "The Elephant in the Room: Can Anything Short of Revolution Solve the Environmental Crisis" was webcast globally
Maggie Zhou, organizer of Climate SOS.
Watch for information on a webcast of this conference
April 20, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion: "There IS NO 'Permanent Necessity' for Things to Be This Way: A Radically Different and Better World CAN Be Brought Into Being Through Revolution"
a new article by Bob Avakian.
"One of the more important statements in the Manifesto from our Party (Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage) is the quote from Marx: 'Once the inner connection is grasped, all theoretical belief in the permanent necessity of existing conditions breaks down before their collapse in practice.' This is not just a matter of abstract theory -- it has a broader effect. That belief weighs heavily on people who don't like the way things are -- they are weighed down by a belief in the 'permanent necessity of existing conditions.' Over and over we are confronted by the fact that people can't see beyond the way things are now.
"This has to do with the importance of constantly wrangling with what a revolutionary situation would look like and how a revolution could actually be made..."
April 18, Sunday, 3pm
An afternoon with poet and playwright reg e. gaines.
reg e. gaines wrote the book and lyrics for the Tony-award winning musical “Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk.” He collaborated again with tapper Savion Glover in a John Coltrane-inspired improvisation session, “If Trane Wuz Here.” He has appeared on MTV “Spoken Word Unplugged,” Def Jam Poetry Slam, he is a Grand Slam Champ, and his spoken word CDs include Please Don't Take My Air Jordans.
April 16, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
An open-mic like no other. Every 3rd Friday. Come with your most powerful work and be ready to talk about it.
April 15, Thursday, 7:30pm
A special benefit evening to save Revolution Books
NGŨGĨ WA THIONG'O
In a rare New York City appearance, the world-renowned author from Kenya
will read and talk about his new book
Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir
...for complete information
April 13, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion with Carl Dix on plans for Revolutionary May Day, May 1.
"May 1 is the revolutionary holiday. May 1 is the day when people come together, around this tortured planet, and declare their determination to end exploitation and all forms of oppression.... Imagine bands of people, determined and with confidence, marching through the streets and getting out this message, and drawing in others as they go. Imagine drum corps of youth giving a vision of the discipline demanded by our struggle, and the pride, energy and joy that must surge through it..." -- from Revolution newspaper. Read the whole thing here.
April 8, Thursday, 7pm
Raymond Lotta speaking on
"Everything You've Been Told About Communism Is Wrong: Capitalism Is A Failure, Revolution Is The Solution."
At Columbia University, Altschul Auditorium, International Affairs Bldg., 420 W. 118
... for complete infomation and purchase ticket
| Raymond Lotta issues challenge to Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs. Read more... |
| Harvard Crimson refuses paid ad for Ray Lotta program at Harvard! Editor deems talk "too controversial." Read more... |
3 de abril, sabado, 5 pm - 10 pm
Micrófono Abierto: Beneficio a Libros Revolución
Revolution Books Open-mic Fundraising
Patrocinado por Poetas en Nueva York
El colectivo Poetas en Nueva York y Revolution Books, invitan a la comunidad a participar en la Micrófono Abierto: Beneficio a Libros Revolución. Poesia, música, cine y otras expresiones artísticas, con las que se respaldara a la libreria Revolution Books (146 W. 26th)
El evento se llevará a cabo el próximo sábado 3 de Abril desde las 5:00 de la tarde en horario continuo hasta las 10:00 de la noche del presente ano 2010. Será una jornada de presentaciones en diferentes idiomas, en donde se convoca a la comunidad y artistas en general para que participen activamente y sean parte de la programación. (para leer mas)
March 26, Friday, 7pm
2-4 Friday Films, films that matter every 2nd and 4th Friday
Screening: Moolaade
Feature film by acclaimed Senegalese writer-director Ousmane Sembene about the practice of or female genital cutting. In a West African Muslim village, a fiery woman provides safe harbor for young girls fleeing this barbaric ritual. What one man terms "a minor domestic issue" soon puts the whole town on the verge of bloodshed.
March 24, Wednesday, 7pm
Revolution Books will host a gathering of people we met at Left Forum, and over the past few weeks.
All welcome-- Bring your questions, your ideas, your energy.
Scientific and poetic, wrangling and visionary -- Revolution Books is alive with a defiant spirit that refuses to accept that the horrors of today's world have to be. People come into Revolution Books from all over the world to find the books and the deep engagement with each other about the possibility of a radically different way the world could be.
At Revolution Books you can meet the movement that is changing the world.
March 23, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion and Planning Meeting for Raymond Lotta speaking at Columbia on April 8: "Everything You've Been Told About Communism Is Wrong: Capitalism Is A Failure, Revolution Is The Solution."
See description below and take a look at article on the tour in Revolution #193.
March 22, Monday, 7pm
Author Reading and Panel Discussion: Bevery Naidus
"Arts For Change: Teaching Outside the Frame"
Panel discussion with Beverly Naidus, Greg Sholette, Emily Caigan and Magdalena Gomez. These artist/teachers are included in Naidus' new book that charts an "alternative path in teaching art and social justice." Panel will be moderated by Andy Zee spokesperson for Revolution Books.
"[Arts For Change] is essential reading... brings to life a pedagogical practice, employed for years by a significant number of socially engaged activist artists, known but to a few outside this community." (Nina Felshin)
March 20-21, Saturday-Sunday
Revolution Books will be at the Left Forum in New York City. Look for our tables.
Workshops with speakers affilated with Revolution Books or Revolution newspaper:
Alain Badiou's “Politics of Emancipation”:
Controversies over the Framework and Future of the Communist Project
Room W602 – SUNDAY, 10:00 AM – 11:50 PM
Alan Hausman (Chair) – Philosophy, Hunter College, CUNY
Nayi Duniya – contributor, Demarcations: A Journal of Communist Theory and Polemic
Raymond Lotta – Revolution newspaper; Set the Record Straight Project
Respondent: John Gerassi – Political Science, Queens College, CUNY
Revisiting the Legacy of Women’s Liberation in Maoist China
Room W618 – SATURDAY, 10:00 AM – 11:50 AM
Di Bai (Chair) – Drew University
Tao Qingmei – Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Xurong Kong – Kean University
Xueping Zhong – Tufts University
Li Onesto – Revolution newspaper
Nationalism, Anti-Imperialism, and International Solidarity Today
Room W619 – SATURDAY, 5:00 PM – 6:50 PM
Ryan Hardy – Platypus Affiliated Society
Spencer Leonard – Platypus Affiliated Society
Mary Lou Greenberg – contributing writer, Revolution newspaper; 2006 European March of Iranian and Afghan Women
Peter Hudis – U.S. Marxist-Humanists
Marxism and Anarchism: The Relevance of Radical Traditions Today
Room W605 - SUNDAY, 10:00 AM - 11:50 PM
Blair Taylor (Chair) -
Ian Morrison – Platypus Affiliated Society
Andy Zee – spokesperson, Revolution Books, New York City
Peter Staudenmaier – Cornell University
The Gaza Freedom March: Lessons and Challenges
Room W622 – SUNDAY, 12:00 – 1:50 PM
Alan Goodman (Chair) – Revolution newspaper, “Gaza Freedom March”
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb – cofounder of Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence
Diane Harriford – co-author, When the Center is On Fire
Felice Gelman – steering committee member of the Gaza Freedom March
Fida Qishta – Palestinian journalist
March 19, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
An open-mic like no other. Every 3rd Friday. Come with your most powerful work and be ready to talk about it.
March 18, Thursday, 7pm
A Very Merry Tap Dance Un-Birthday Party
in honor of
JANE GOLDBERG.
A Benefit Evening for Revolution Books.
Tap dance un-birthday party with performance, talk, cake and book-signing for the legendary tapper and writer Jane Goldberg. This evening is co-hosted by Lisa LaTouche, whose group the L-Touch Tap Phonics will perform. Joseph Webb, Michela Lerman, Sean Jackson, Claudia Rahardjanoto plus other amazing tappers spanning the generations. With Jerome Jennings on drums. And there will be a book-signing for Jane Goldberg's Shoot Me While I'm Happy: Memories from the Tap Goddess of the Lower East Side.
"One of the people who had a tremendous impact (on tap) was Jane Goldberg. Sometimes I think she single-footedly brought tap back to the city..." - Gregory Hines.
Tap, talk, books, and cake. All to benefit Revolution Booksthe place where people come from all over the world to find the books and deep engagement about how the world could be radically different.
Tickets: $20 (Tappers who bring their shoes- $10)
Premium tickets $50-- includes copy of Jane's book
Call Revolution Books for reservations (strongly advised): 212-691-3345
Click here to read "Tapper's Tale: She Had the Time-Step of Her Life" by Claudia La Rocco
-- an article on Jane Goldberg and her new book in the NY Times, January 4, 2009.
"As soon as she hit the Lower East Side, Goldberg started tracking down the master tappers, getting them to teach her their steps and tell their stories. Eventually, she knew them all, from the most famous - Honi Coles, Gregory Hines - to unsung role models Chuck Green and Sandman Sims and lesser-known individualists like Leon Collins and Jimmy Slyde..." Read more.
March 16, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion on "Alain Badiou's 'Politics of Emancipation' A Communism Locked Within the Confines of the Bourgeois World," an article published in Demarcations. Click here to read.
Demarcations: A Journal of Communist Theory and Polemic seeks to set forth, defend, and further advance the theoretical framework for the beginning of a new stage of communist revolution in the contemporary world. This journal promotes the perspectives of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
March 12 , Friday, 7pm
Screening and Talkback:
"DISAPPEARING VOICES: The Decline of Black Radio."
Talkback with film's director U-Savior Washington
In-depth history of what made Black radio unique, the careers of Black DJs who changed the landscape of American radio, how Black radio is being driven out today. Interviews with Chuck D, M1, Melvin Van Peebles, Gary Byrd, many more.
Part of a new series at Revolution Books, "2-4 Friday Films"-- screenings of films that matter every 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month. Talkbacks with the directors.
March 11, Thursday, 7pm
Author Reading: Hester Eisenstein reads from her book:
"Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women's Labor
and Ideas to Exploit the World"
"In a pioneering reinterpretation of the role of mainstream feminism, Eisenstein reveals how the ruling elites of the developed countries utilize both women's labor, and the ideas of women's liberation and empowerment, to maintain their economic, and political power, both at home and abroad: from the abolition of 'welfare as we know it' and the ending of the family wage in the United States, to the creation of export-processing zones in the Global South that depend on women's 'nimble fingers;' and from the championing of micro-credit as a path to women's empowerment in the Global South to the claim of women's presumed liberation in the West as an ideological weapon in the 'War on Terror.' "
March 9, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion on upcoming Raymond Lotta Campus Speaking Tour, "Everything You've Been Told About Communism Is Wrong: Capitalism Is A Failure, Revolution Is The Solution."
Take a look at article on the tour in Revolution #193.
March 6, Saturday, 7pm
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY
Demonstration, 2:30pm, 125th and Amsterdam
Harlem March will visit nearby symbols of the oppression of women
Dinner and Speak-out 5:30pm
La Pregunta Arts Cafe
1528 Amsterdam Avenue, between 135th and 136th Streets
Regular ticket $20, Low-income ticket $10, HS and unemployed $5
Tickets available at Revolution Books
"On International Women's Day we are taking to the streets to call for something sorely needed and unseen in generations: an uncompromising outpouring of fury and resistance from women and men who want to see women, the world over, lifted from centuries of being condemned to being treated as the possessions of men..."
-- click to read statement from the RCP
March 2, Tuesday, 7pm
Justice Department Refuses to Prosecute Cops Who Murdered Sean Bell
50 Shots, Government Whitewashes and the Real Way Out of This Madness!
On Feb 17, the federal justice department closed the door on the possibility of a criminal trial of the cops who killed Sean Bell by writing: "A team of experienced prosecutors and FBI agents determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the cops who fired at Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield acted willfully." Why do outrages like this happen again and again, why does police murder especially target Black people and other oppressed nationalities and what could and must be done to end this kind of official brutality once and for all?
Panelists will include:
Juanita Young, Oct 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality and Families Against Police Brutality whose son, Malcolm Ferguson, was killed by the NYPD in 2000.
Father Lawrence Lucas, Roman Catholic priest and a long time fighter against injustice.
Carl Dix, representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party and a co-founder of the Oct 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality.
February 26, Friday, 7pm
Screening: "SACCO AND VANZETTI"
Talkback with director Peter Miller
Sacco and Vanzetti is an award-winning documentary on the case of two Italian-born anarchists, accused of a murder in 1920, and executed in Boston in 1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial. The first major documentary film about this landmark story.
Peter Miller directed and produced Sacco and Vanzetti (released nationally in theaters in 2007); A Class Apart, which aired on the PBS series American Experience; and The Internationale, shown on PBS and screened at over thirty film festivals. He has been a producer on numerous documentaries by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, including PBS series The War and Jazz, as well as the Peabody Award-winning Frank Lloyd Wright. Peter has also been a producer on The Uprising of '34, Passin' It On, and the Academy Award-winning American Dream. He is currently directing and producing a new documentary, Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story.
Part of the Revolution Books series, "2-4 Friday Films" - films that matter every 2dn and 4th Fridays.
February 23, Tuesday, 7-9:30pm
"From the Burkha to the Thong: Everything Must, and Can, Change--
WE NEED TOTAL REVOLUTION!"
A talk by Sunsara Taylor
At Cantor Film Center-NYU, 36 E. 8th Street (between 5th Avenue and Broadway). Sponsored by Revolution Books.
"IF YOU ARE A WOMAN, YOUR BODY IS A BATTLEGROUND. Anywhere you look, women are being slammed backwards. In Bangkok and Bangalore and Moldova young women are stripped naked and sold across borders as sex slaves. In Indonesia and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia women are shrouded in veils, kept as the property, and even killed if they somehow "dishonor" their family.
"Meanwhile, in the U.S. we are told women are no longer oppressed. Yet, how many will learn to starve themselves, cut themselves, hate themselves --- internalizing the images that saturate society of women as objects of sexual conquest, the butt of a joke, or baby-making machines?...
"It doesn't have to be this way! ...But, the oppression of women is woven so deeply into the fabric of society here and all over the world, that it will take total revolution -- communist revolution -- to liberate women..."
On campuses nation-wide, Sunsara Taylor will make the case for why there is no biological, god-given, or man-made reason why things have to remain this way -- and how things can change through revolution and through building a movement for revolution -- starting now!
Find more on the Facebook page for this event.
February 18, Thursday, 7pm
Screening: "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train"
A documentary about the people's historian Howard Zinn
Talkback afterwards with film's director Denis Mueller
Matt Damon narrates this biographical portrait of historian and activist Howard Zinn,
author of the pivotal A People's History of the United States. Commentary from Zinn and interviews with Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky and Alice Walker, among others.
Denis Mueller's films include The FBI's War Against Black America, co-directed with
Deb Ellis; I Would Never Do That Again, about the experiences of Vietnam veterans and
Citizen Soldier: The Story of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Mueller has worked
as producer of The Assassination of JFK and The Assassination of Martin Luther King, and
a feature-length documentary on J.Edgar Hoover.
$10 donation to Save Revolution Books
February 19, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
An open-mic like no other. Every 3rd Friday. Bring your most powerful work and be ready to talk about it. Presented by Pricetags Art and Revolution Books.
February 15, Monday, 7pm
Screening: "View from a Grain of Sand"
Talkback with the director Meena Nanji
Documentary on the lives of 3 Afghan women and "how international interventions, war and the rise of political Islam have stripped Afghan women of their freedom over the last thirty years." From 2006. Co-sponsored by World Can't Wait.
February 16, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion with Sunsara Taylor of
"A Declaration: For Women's Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity"
Admission: $10 requested donation to support reprinting this powerful Declaration, first published in March 2009. Available in full online, click here.
"Spin the globe. Anywhere you look women are being held down and slammed backwards... To live like this on this planet in the 21st century cannot be justified and should not be accepted. None of this can be tolerated or excused away with counsel of patience... WE DECLARE: NO MORE!"
.
February 12, Friday, 7pm
New Revolution Books Series: 2-4 Friday Films, screenings of films that matter every 2nd & 4th Friday
Screening:
"AMERICAN FAUST: From Condi to Neo-Condi"
Talkback with the director Sebastian Doggart
NYC premiere of the first retrospective film on the Bush Administration. "Incisive and shocking," this biographical documentary tells the story of Condoleeza Rice. The film includes a series of candid interviews with Rice. Co-sponsored by War Criminals Watch.
February 11, Thursday, 7pm
Book release party with Peter Akinti, "Forest Gate,"
U.S. debut of an extraordinary novel about two teenage boys who try to kill themselves and what happens afterwards. One is a political refugee from Somalia, the other a Black Briton. Published by Simon and Schuster. Akinti is a Londoner of Nigerian descent now living in NYC and teaching at Hunter.
"..a feat of fiction writing that goes beyond reporting, because it's the sort of thing that reporters never, or hardly ever, tell you. Akinti tells you how appalling modern Britain can be. We keep hearing about knife crime and gang warfare, but really have no idea. Well, Akinti does." - Guardian, UK
February 9, Tuesday, 7pm
Presentation and Discussion with Sunsara Taylor on
"How and Why the Revolution Will Put an End to Pornography and Prostitution."
January 28, Thursday, 7pm
Discussion: "THE GUANTANAMO LAWYERS"
Mark Denbeaux, author of a new book, "The Guantanamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law," a book of detainees' stories told by their lawyers.
Yvonne R. Bradley, the lawyer appointed in 2005 as military defense counsel for a British prisoner in the military commissions at Guantanamo.
Revolution Books presents an evening with 2 of the lawyers who have defended Guantanamo prisoners and brought the truth about Gitmo to the world.
January 19, Tuesday, 7pm
Screening:
"REVOLUTION: WHY IT'S NECESSARY, WHY IT'S POSSIBLE, WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT"
A Film of a Talk by BOB AVAKIAN. A screening of excerpts from this film. Part of a major national effort to spread this Talk everywhere during the week of January 18-25. The film is available in its entirety at www.revolutiontalk.net.
Screening at Revolution Books.
January 17, Sunday, 4pm
Alan Goodman, writer for Revolution newspaper, reports back from Gaza Freedom March.
At Revolution Books.
January 15, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic "Pieces for Revolution," produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
An open-mic like no other. Every 3rd Friday. Come with your most powerful work and be ready to talk about it. At Revolution Books.
January 10, Sunday, 7:30pm
(Another Great) Benefit Concert to Save Revolution Books
At a loft at:
1399 Pacific St. #2, Brooklyn, take A or C train to Nostrand Ave.
Performers:
Sparrow -reading
Sylvia Gorelick -reading
Penny Shower -music making:
myk freedman -lap steel/composer
Michael Herring -bass
Ilushia Tsinadze -acoustic guitar
Jean Rohe -voice
Joey Wisenberg -poik
$6 donation, or more! if you can.
Treats.
January 5, Tuesday, 7pm
Discussion on "Spreading the REVOLUTION...Online"
Bob Avakian's major talk, Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About, is online at www.revolutiontalk.net. This is the most radical, and most liberatory video you can find online. There really is nothing else like it in answering deeply the three questions in the title, three of the most important questions of our time.
Bring all your creativity and ideas on Tuesday where we will discuss a major national effort in January to spread this talk everywhere and get all kinds of people listening to it.
Sunsara Taylor and Annie Day will lead this discussion.
December 29, Tuesday, 7pm
Come to a discussion with Carl Dix and Annie Day on
The Controversy over Precious:
"The Demonization of Black Men? Or, Shining a Light on the Squandered Potential of 'Precious Girls Everywhere' and Why Everyone Should Want That Realized"
And check out Annie Day's article in Revolution newspaper:
"The Potential of Precious Girls Everywhere"
Great night at Bowery Poetry Club, December 27.
There was a full house at the Benefit for Revolution Books and a Tribute to Edna St. Vincent Millay organized by the poet Sparrow this past Sunday. A good time had by all. Poets included Steve Dalachinsky, Esther Smith, Marshall Reese, Mike Topp, Yuko Otomo, Bob Heman, Georgia Luna, Mickey Z., Sparrow , and Postcard Poets from Purgatory Pie Press. Also featured: the band FOAMOLA, pictured below.
December 18, Friday, 7pm
Open-Mic, Pieces for Revolution
Bring your most powerful pieces, and be ready to talk about them!
Featured poets:
Likwuid,
Lamar Hill
Produced by Pricetags Art with Revolution Books.
December 17, Thursday, 7pm
The book release party for
"Graffiti New York"
By Eric Felisbret (DEAL CIA)
Contributions by Luke Felisbret (SPAR ONE)
Foreword by James Prigoff (co-author with Henry Chalfant of "Spraycan Art")
Decades after the graffiti movement globalized, New York is still the mecca of graffiti culture. Painting there is a badge of honor, with graffiti artists from around the globe making pilgrimages to New York for that purpose. This is the city where it all began.
Other books and films document New York City's graffiti movement, but most focus on specific time periods. "Graffiti New York" fills that gap, detailing the concepts, aesthetics, ideals, and social structures that have served as a cultural blueprint for graffiti movement. The book is published by Abrams, and features 1000 images plus texts by the authors and other graffiti artists. In addition to the authors, many of the city's most celebrated artists will be on hand to sign books. Guests to be announced.
Re-recorded for internet viewing
"The Elephant in the Room: Can Anything Short of Revolution Solve the Environmental Crisis?"
The December 15 talk by Raymond Lotta on the "climate threat, Copenhagen , and why capitalism is utterly incompatible with sustainable development" is available.
Click here to view.
December 11, Friday, 7pm
Screening of
"SCHMATTA:
From Rags to Riches to Rags"
+ Talkback with director Marc Levin
New HBO documentary on the decline of the apparel manufacturing industry in the U.S.
Gets under the hood of what globalization actually means on the ground. Check your labels:
Percentage of American clothing made in US in 1965-- 95
Percentage in 2009-- 5.
This screening is the first in a new series at Revolution Books coming in 2010: "2-4 Friday Films" -- films that matter every second and fourth Fridays, with directors, actors, producers or screenwriters when possible. $10.
December 9, Wednesday, 7pm
Opening Book Party for
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
with the author Jeffrey Haas.
It's around 7:00 A.M. on December 4, 1969, and attorney Jeff Haas is in a police lockup in Chicago, interviewing Fred Hampton's fiancee. She is describing how the police pulled her from the room as Fred lay unconscious on their bed. She heard one officer say, He's still alive. She then heard two shots. A second officer said, He's good and dead now. She looks at Jeff and asks, "What can you do?"
2009 marks the 40th anniversary of Fred Hampton's murder. Author and attorney Jeffrey Haas' book is his personal account of how he and People's Law Office partner Flint Taylor pursued Hampton's assassins, ultimately prevailing over unlimited government resources and FBI conspiracy.
December 8, Tuesday, 7pm
Introducing a new talk by Bob Avakian:
"UNRESOLVED CONTRADICTIONS, DRIVING FORCES FOR REVOLUTION: Part 1. Once More on the Coming Civil War and Repolarization for Revolution"
A discussion with Sunsara Taylor and Andy Zee. The change many hoped for has not come. Why not? How can real change come through revolution?
December 1, Tuesday, 7pm
Film showing of
"The Murder of Fred Hampton"
We are postponing the screening of "Lords of the Revolution" film until a later date but as part of
the 40th anniversary of the murder of Fred Hampton, on Tuesday, December 1, at 7pm,
Revolution Books will be screening The Murder of Fred Hampton.
The Murder of Fred Hampton began as a film portrait of Hampton and the Illinois Black Panther
Party, but half way through the filming, Hampton was murdered by Chicago police. On December 4, 1969, over a dozen police burst into Hampton's apartment while its occupants were sleeping, killing Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark and brutalizing the other occupants.
Filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk arrived a few hours later to shoot film footage of the crime scene that was later used to contradict the false news reports and police testimony. Recently restored and reworked by Gray, this 90-minute documentary is a chilling slice of American history.
December 2, Wednesday, 7pm
Opening Book Party
John Gerassi, "Talking with Sartre:
Conversations and Debates"
Authorized by Sartre to write his biography, John Gerassi conducted a long series of interviews between 1970 and 1974, which he has now edited to produce this revelatory portrait. Published by Yale University Press.
John Gerassi
"Talking with Sartre is like no other interview book that I've ever read. Sartre's genius and fire figure on every page, often interwoven with the personal details that make his life every bit as interesting as his writings. Gerassi's insightful and argumentative probing brings out the very best in Sartre. A masterpiece, an absolute delight to read."
-
- Bertell Ollman, New York University
William Kunstler film great, and Revolution Books Fundraiser a big success:
On Saturday night, Nov 14, a packed house watched "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe" on its opening evening. Many in the audience had bought $20 tickets as a benefit to support Revolution Books' $100,000 Fund Drive. The filmmakers, Emily and Sarah Kunstler, their older sister Karen, plus Joey Johnson, spoke to audience after the screening.
Jon Jeter at Revolution Books heard on WBAI radio.
On Wednesday night, Nov 11, former Washington Post Bureau chief for Southern Africa and South America, Jon Jeter, gave us fascinating presentation at Revolution Books on his book "Flat Broke in the Free Market: How Globalization Fleeced Working People." WBAI reporter Fred Ngyuen was there aired this report on the WBAI Evening News on Sunday, November 15. Listen to it at http://archive.wbai.org/ Go to Sunday, scroll down to 6pm.
Or go to:
http://www.radio4all.net/files/siddharta5@yahoo.com/450-1-brokeinthefreemarket.mp3
On November 4, Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, spoke on the continuing imprisonment of hundreds in the "law free zone" of Guantanamo.
October 10, Saturday, 3pm
Auction of Art Works from China's Cultural Revolution
Viewing of works: 1:30; Auction: 3:00pm
Rare art works produced during China's Cultural Revolution and seldom seen since the death of Mao Tsetung in 1976 will be displayed and auctioned on October 10, 2009 at Revolution Books. The event will coincide with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Among the items offered are a large number of unusual posters of life in revolutionary China, porcelain badges depicting Mao at different stages of the Chinese Revolution, recordings of revolutionary operas, ballets and folk music which were popular in China from 1968-1976, first edition copies of the "Little Red Book" with sayings of Mao Tsetung which sold more copies than the Christian Bible during the early 70s.
On October 9, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges launched his new book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle at Revolution Books.
It was filmed for broadcast by C-Span's Book TV, as 80 people packed into the store, and another 35 listened to sound broadcast out onto 26th Street.
Introduced by Andy Zee from Revolution Books, Hedges spoke for an hour and answered questions for another, while many more waited to query him, bought books, and engaged in a discussion crackling with the promise of resistance and change in the face of the Empire.
There was a packed house for Dr. Susan Wicklund and Sunsara Taylor on Monday, Aug 3.
Over 120 people came out to hear an evening discussion on "Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women" sponsored by Revolution Books at the LGBT Center.
Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women with Dr. Susan Wicklund, author of This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor and Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution newspaper, is now available on YouTube. This video is divided into 15 short sections: presentations followed by questions and answers. Watch this clip to get a taste, then follow the links to watch the whole film!
photos: Bud Korotzer
Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women is also available on DVD, specially designed for use in classrooms and by school groups. Order a copy (or several) online today!
Read a report on Revolution Book's June 3 Town Hall Meeting on "Torture . . . and the Need for Justice."
Local Stop | Flower District
Midtown's Lush Passage
June 25, 2009
1 P.M. You've saved on flowers and plants, but you've still spent money. Time to assuage that capitalist guilt. Check out Revolution Books, 146 West 26th Street, (212) 691-3345, for your pick of Communist fare and other left-wing literature. Politically pointed gifts are for sale, too, like the empty $1 Obamalade bottles, which warn they might cause "massive loss of life in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Pakistan." A clerk said, "A lot of people got taken with Obama, but it's just the same Bush program rebranded."
Check out the article on Revolution Books ("Book Marx") New York Press.
This revolutionary communist bookstore invites you to VOLUNTEER.
This store fulfills great needs in society right now, and YOU are needed here-- with whatever skills and interests you have. Web design, graphic design, Facebook, events-planning, fundraising, promotions and media, BOOKS, ideas, a burning desire to radically changing the world.
Don't Drink the Obama-lade!
INGREDIENTS: massacres in Gaza, Rick Warren, escalation of the Afghanistan war, Hillary Clinton, bailout of big business, Rahm Emanuel, blaming Black people for problems the system inflicts on them, "coming together" with those who hate gay people, Robert Gates, whitewashing torture by the Bush regime, and the Patriot Act.
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Obamalade causes massive loss of life in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan and many other countries; continued attacks on Black people, women, immigrants, gays & lesbians; political cowardice that is dangerous to the health of humanity. If, after drinking Obamalade, you find yourself accepting the crimes of this system -- you should immediately take 2 doses of reality and report to the nearest movement of resistance against these crimes.
Check out story about Revolution Books in the NY Observer October 7, 2008
"Where Being in the Red Now Rules!
Leftist Revolution Books relishes Wall Street crisis from fresh Chelsea space"
Volunteer at Revolution Books!
Revolution Books-- a place to engage, and radically change, the whole world. Volunteers welcome-- to order books, work with customers, do front window displays, produce events, do graphic design, web... The most interesting and interested people come through the doors of Revolution Books every day. Come meet them. Spend a couple hours a couple days a week... become a Revolution Books volunteer. Revolution Books is all-volunteer & not-for-profit. Call or email the store, or just come in.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT REVOLUTION BOOKS:
"Revolution Books is that rare item, a bookstore with meaning, a bookstore with warmth, where you can learn and browse and find the sort of books that tamer shops never carry."
-- ALEXIS GREENE, co-editor, "Front Lines: Political Plays by American Women"
"I have never been in a place quite like Revolution Books. It is the repository of a wide range of progressive and radical literature. Anytime I have gone there looking for a left wing book, no matter how obscure, I have found it. Even more importantly I always find something illuminating that I had never heard of before. At a time when so much commerce takes place on computers, it is particularly important to have a few physical places where minds and people can meet and learn. For committed lefties such as myself, Revolution Books is uniquely valuable."
-- DANNY GOLDBERG, president Gold Village Entertainment, author "Bumping Into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business"
For those who wish to read the dissenting view, the uncensored analysis, the truth about their country and the world, the existence and viability of Revolution Books is absolutely essential."
-- PROF. JOHN GERASSI, Political Science, Queens College and Graduate Center
"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, Essence), author (Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography)
“Revolution Books is one of my favorite bookstores in New York City. Whether you're a revolutionary or simply a reader who believes books really matter for the health of a community, you need to know about this store -- one of the last great independents in Manhattan, a brilliant, exciting, and wonderfully eccentric collection of books old and new, forgotten and front-page, radical and revelatory…a vital institution.”
-- JEFF SHARLET, contributor, Rolling Stone and Harpers, author “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power”
"In traveling around the country for readings at bookstores, it has become evident that Revolution Books presents a whole different level of engagement. I have learned much from the audiences here… "
--DR. SUE WICKLUND, This Common Secret: My Journey As an Abortion Doctor
“The Rev has New York’s biggest and most outstanding radical collection of books, leaflets and journals. You’ll find bookshelves devoted to Lenin, Mao and Marx, many books in espanol, as well as cute red-star earrings.”
-- LONELY PLANET travel guide for NYC
GAZA: A CALL TO ACT
DVD from the January 13, 2009
Emergency Town Hall Meeting: "Stop The Israeli Massacre in Gaza.
Condemn the U.S. Role in this War Crime."
$20 including postage - 2 DVD set
The speakers included Abdeen Jabara, past-president of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee; author Chris Hedges; former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney; Alan Goodman, writer for Revolution newspaper ; Adam Shapiro, human rights activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement ; Center for Constitutional Rights Vice President Peter Weiss; actor Vanessa Redgrave; and Najla Said, actor and daughter of Edward Said.
A slide presentation of outstanding art created in response to 9-11 from 
