RB Fund Drive Goes to Harlem Restaurants and The Three Musketeers in Marcus Garvey Park

Two quick reports from this past weekend…

1) Restaurant scene on Malcolm X Blvd.
We went out with the Revolution Books $25,000 fund drive to talk with people hanging out along Malcolm X Blvd, from 132nd to 116th. It’s a corridor of nice restaurants like Sylvia’s and Red Rooster, open-air eating. The basic message: “Did you know that right up the block is the most radical, life-changing place you can’t imagine?” We got out 150 flyers in short order, left a few on restaurant counters, and put up some small posters with help from managers.

We said: “if you’re disturbed by what’s going on in the world now…come to RB.” This caught people’s attention, because they are(!). We got into discussion with a dozen+ people (not long…people were eating) and asked for financial support.

    

Some Highlights
--An RB friend in the hip hop world was eating at Sylvia’s and called us over to meet his dinner companions, letting them know how glad he is that RevBooks has come to Harlem.
--Two Black gay professionals (one a high school teacher, another in the corporate world) knew nothing about the store but were taken by a place that was radical; they were highly disturbed by the moment. They showed up at the store after dinner. One said: “I just walked in and I’m already having an emotional experience. The books…it’s incredible there’s a place like this.” He had been very affected by reading The New Jim Crow—how things had gotten worse for young Black people. We showed them BAsics by Bob Avakian which they bought. After watching the Indiegogo fund drive video, they decided right away to donate $40.

2) The Three Musketeers in Marcus Garvey Park

The slogan “all for one and one for all” comes from the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. A theater version produced by The Classical Theater of Harlem (CTH) opened at the amphitheater at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. CTH brings classic plays to a Harlem audience that doesn’t generally have the chance to experience this—and also updates this work. Ty Jones, the theater’s artistic director, said, “the system is being indicted today…” the problem is “have’s and have not’s,” and we have to unite--“all for one, one for all”-- and this story can speak to that. One of the biggest changes made in the plot was that one of the musketeers is a gay woman.

Sunday was a beautiful night. RB volunteers handed out flyers to people as they came in… we ran into people who knew the store and others who were really interested in finding out about this bookstore about the world and for a radically different world. We stayed to watch this imaginative adaptation with dance and music, and we mingled afterward. A person involved in promoting development in Harlem, and a friend of RB, was in the audience. He waved one of us over, took flyers, letting his friends know who we were. Looking at the flyer, he said, “Send me an email…and I’ll definitely donate.”  After the play as people were leaving the park, he shouted, “Revolution Books in the house.”
One of us spoke at length with a couple—an architect and poet living in the neighborhood. Totally intrigued by the store, and offering to help bring some new poets to speak, they said they would definitely consider donating.

Three lessons from these two outings:
--There’s a sea of people out there who know about RB and many, many others who when they hear about the bookstore are attracted to the message of RB.
--We could have done better in putting the fund drive right in front of people. Especially with people outside the restaurants, we could have encouraged them to watch the IGG video
on their cell-phones—then asked them for donations or pledges on the spot. .
--These outings are the kind of thing we have to be doing to make the fund campaign a real social movement.

-- from the Revolution Books staff