Special Guest: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Sunday, November 15, 2015, 2pm and 6:30
Revolution Books, 437 Malcolm X Blvd./Lenox Ave. @132nd Street (#2/3/A/B/C to 135th stations)
Revolution Books, formerly in Chelsea, will soon re-open the bookstore in Harlem. The Grand Opening will be marked by a special appearance of the world-renowned Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.
Revolution Books is one of a kind—a bookstore “about the world … and for a radically different world.” It is the one place where people come from all over the world to find the books and the deep engagement about why the world is the horrible way it is and the possibility of a radically different way the world could be.
Grand Opening Events on Sunday, November 15
2:00- 4:00 PM:
Reading and Talk by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: “THE BOOK, STORY AND THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE” Ngugi is a novelist, playwright, post-colonial theorist, former prisoner of conscience who currently lives in exile. He is a distinguished professor at University of California, Irvine.
Opening remarks from Andy Zee on “Revolution Books and the Emancipation of Humanity.” Andy is spokesperson for Revolution Books.
Tickets $30 general, $10 students/Under/unemployed
6:30-9:00pm:
Benefit dinner with Ngugi and Andy, including talks by both speakers.
Tickets $75 / $125 / $250
Andy Zee: “What will people find at Revolution Books? Books. Films. Talks. Dialogue. An ethos of cooperative relations and community. A movement for revolution and theory that guides it. And, coffee. What makes RB unique? Nothing less than revolution—and a scientific way to know and change the whole world, an approach that goes hand in hand with a poetic spirit, a critical spirit of inquiry and debate; the liberating joy of struggle and the seriousness of a movement for an actual revolution that could at long last put an end to all forms of oppression and exploitation throughout the world. How rare, how needed is this today?
“The heartbeat and foundation of it all is the leadership of Bob Avakian, concentrated in the new synthesis of communism, a qualitative breakthrough in the science of revolution. In a world crying out for revolution, this is a game changer.”
The re-opening of RB is cause for celebration and it will be one hell of a celebration: Students standing against injustice; people from Harlem–literary and cultural folks, and people from the streets and projects who raised money and worked on the renovation; critical thinkers and dreamers; downtown and out-of-town writers and artists; people who care about the future of humanity and the planet.
“Revolution Books is a landmark of consciousness…” – Eve Ensler
Proceeds from Sunday’s events will go towards raising $35,000 – the final leg of the $160,000 fund drive to move and renovate the new Revolution Books in Harlem.
Go to www.revolutionbooksnyc.org for info and tickets.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan writer and intellectual. Ngugi’s work includes many novels (Wizard of the Crow, Petals of Blood, many more), plays, and memoirs. His theoretical writings, such as the influential Decolonizing the Mind, have focused on the necessity for oppressed people to develop their own literary-cultural movement in opposition to the hegemony of imperialist culture and thinking in the nations dominated by imperialism. In 1977, he was arrested by the Kenyan government and spent a year in prison during which he wrote the novel Devil on the Cross on toilet paper. Upon his release, he went into exile. Ngugu taught at NYU and currently a distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine. Ngugi’s name is often mentioned in short-lists for the Nobel Prize.
Andy Zee is the spokesperson for Revolution Books and an advocate for the new synthesis of communism developed by Bob Avakian. Andy Zee has hosted conversations with Eve Ensler, Walter Mosley, Wallace Shawn, and many more. He directed the film of REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN.
