$30,000 Raised!

An Important Step in the Great Effort to Re-Open Revolution Books in Harlem

August 31, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a Revolution Books volunteer

Revolution Books in New York City succeeded just before midnight Friday, August 28, in reaching its $30,000 goal in its online crowd-funding campaign! The funds will go toward the essential renovations of the new space at 437 Malcolm X Blvd./Lenox Ave. in Harlem, NYC. As the deadline approached late Friday night, volunteers reached out to many, many contacts and friends of Revolution Books, new and old, with some of those folks themselves spreading the word on Facebook and in other ways. A lot of small contributions came together through the final hours to put it over the top! Altogether in the five week campaign, 236 donors contributed from $5 to $2,000—including two large matching challenges from “2 still-crazy senior women looking to a new world.” One of them sent this: “When you walk into Revolution Books... the books, the books! It’s bright, there’s color everywhere. Even the air feels fresh. You can breathe. My god, it’s a liberated area!”

On August 17, at a Revolution Books meeting held at the Harlem YMCA as the crowd-funding campaign entered its last week, Andy Zee, spokesperson for Revolution Books NYC, told a diverse group of professionals, ex-prisoners, older activists, and people living in nearby projects about Revolution Books’ mission and how and why they were needed to be part of opening this place. He said this: “There is no place else—no other site, no other bookstore, where there is consistent engagement with the biggest questions facing humanity, and which holds the possibility of connection to the movement for revolution. Something beautiful—a world with a radically different economy, with different values, a different form of government, social relations and a whole new way of thinking grounded in knowing the world as it actually is and transforming it with the aim of not only meeting the needs of the people of the world and protecting the environment for future generations—but a world where all the social relations that Bob Avakian spoke of in the ‘What if’ film clip1 that we just saw are being worked on collectively and consciously. The vision of this society, the means to struggle together for it, is what drives the staff of Revolution Books, it is what we model, and all this is grounded in the new synthesis of communism developed by Bob Avakian which is not only a goal and the mission of a party and movement with a strategy to achieve that goal... it is most of all a scientific method and approach to probe, engage, understand and transform reality.”

Revolution Books, a bookstore for the whole world from Revolution Books on Vimeo.

This vision and spirit at the core of Revolution Books animates and is drawing together the donations and contributions of many people, from many different viewpoints, who want to see this bookstore for the whole world, and about the whole world, open in Harlem.

The successful completion of this latest round in the battle to re-open Revolution Books matters a great deal. It matters that $30,000 was raised to take the next steps in re-opening the store. And it matters that more than 230 donors have stepped into the Revolution Books community through working together to contribute and raise these funds. All this must be built upon and marshaled as we fight to raise the remaining funds for signage, new books, and promotion; as we draw forward volunteers to help with the renovations and be part of “Revolution Books Without Walls” tables throughout NYC until the new space is open; and as a whole new level the revolutionary intellectual ferment and community comes alive when the new store actually opens.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, September 1, at 6:30 pm, Revolution Books invites everyone to the next bookstore meeting at the Harlem YMCA, 180 W. 135th Street. Find out more about Revolution Books and how you can be involved in reopening this place that is needed now more than ever.

Revolution BooksThe world needs revolution, the revolution needs Revolution Books, Revolution Books needs you!

To donate now: the Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign is still open for contributions at http://www.igg.me./at/revbooksnyc and donations can be made directly at www.revolutionbooksnyc.org.

Information and to volunteer: www.revolutionbooksnyc.org or 212-691-3345.


1. An excerpt from the film of the November 2014 Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian: REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion [back]

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