WE SAY “NO MORE!” Chicago Benefit for the BAsics Bus Tour July 8, an evening of music and spoken word at the Elastic Arts Gallery in Logan Square. Writer Jacqueline Lewis performed a spoken word piece she put together for this event. To the rhythm and beat of the Prince Saleem Ensemble and with a soaring flute from Prince Saleem himself, Jacqueline declared, “I say no more!” and, fist in the air, said “Today—tonight—is the right time for change!”
Alpha Bruton is an artist who attended the July 8 WE SAY “NO MORE !” benefit. She made the following comments about the significance of the evening and then posted her own words to her blog:
“I didn’t expect for things to be so heavy. I know about the societal issues that are going on, but as the night unfolded I think that everyone had a voice to speak on what was going on. I think that set the pulse for the revolution. I just came from a great art exchange in Maryland, I was there last week, and the artists there were doing the same thing, exchanging how they are dealing with the 99 percent and Occupy. I was there for my project that I am doing, “Critical Currency—Words to Live By.” And I’m doing a Yard Sign project with other artists. I’m going to use the words that I heard here tonight. I wrote some of the words down that the poets were using onstage, and I’m gonna use them as part of my signage project. I’m going to blog on our blogspot what happened here tonight. Some of the words that struck me were—well, first of all, it was the musician that started the evening , I wrote down his script and how he talked why he wrote those songs and their history, you know, when the Polish revolted, and those things. So I just chose words that they were saying, some of the poets—I just chose some of their words and some of their topics, so I could use those as positive affirmations of what we need to do. And that’s what the signs are going to do. We’re going to use the signs during an arists month. I’ll repurpose them and put them out on the landscape.”
This artist then went ahead and posted the following on her blog with a clickable link from the words WE SAY “NO MORE!” to the Chicago Revolution Books blog with more information about the BA Bus Tours and BAE Campaign:
“On Sunday I was invited to this event “We SAY “NO MORE”… It was very heavy for me, but it was a reason the universe took me there. Last week my oldest sister lost her grandson who was twenty, my nephew lost his first born, he was buried on Friday July 6th. He was shot in the back, while his younger 19 year old brother watched him bleed out. Gang, retaliation, girlfriend, words, he was lost, and caught up in the streets, born to two teenage parents, and buried by a Muslim tribe in Madera, California, he had joined only two weeks before the incident. My sister raised him Christian, but his body now points to Mecca, a land he will never see. Is this his obituary? No just a summation of his life at its end, not the twenty years in the heart of his grandmother, father, uncle, aunties, brothers, sister, and his 5 month old baby girl who will never know her father just of him.”
Chicago’s South Side: Benefit for BAsics Bus Tour
The Band Leader opened the evening with a shout-out to “the Revolution” and the band broke into the song “What’s going on.” It was an evening of Rhythm and Blues to benefit the BAsics Bus tour, the entire event put together by people whose family members were murdered by police. BAsics 1:13 provided a common focus for the evening. A banner was displayed on the front of the stage with pictures of 25 people killed by the police. The audience was visibly moved when the MC pointed out the picture of his son on the banner and recounted how his son was shot 18 times by the police.
Chicago Anti- July 4th celebration
![Chicago Memorial Day picnic
A supporter of Revolution Books designed and built a mobile display case. It was part of way to showcase the BAsics Bus Tour and other important works of Bob Avakian. The Memorial Day picnic was a perfect time to bring it out on the street and see what people’s response was to it. People dug it, and it kind of broke away from the standard book table. The setup had been done the night before, we just opened it up and we had all the key works of the BAsics Bus Tour and enlarged photos of high school students signing a banner they sent to Atlanta. We had take-home organizer bags wrapped with the centerfold of “What people are saying” and designed for people to take out pluggers of BAsics 1:13, copies of the “Twelve Ways That YOU Can Be Part of Building the Movement for Revolution – Right Now”, Revolution newspapers and the sampler DVD of the Revolution talk, enabling many more people to become a part of spreading the Bus Tour campaign and the quotes of Bob Avakian.
The Picnic
On entering the park there was a new display by Revolution Books featuring the Basic Bus Tour and many of the works of Bob Avakian. There were red flags on the park fences, and a big banner announcing the Memorial Day picnic fundraiser. Under a group of trees, people gathered to picnic and hear about the Tour from a volunteer who had just come back from Sanford, Florida, the town where Trayvon Martin was murdered.
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Before the volunteer spoke we had time to get out the BAsics plugger with BAsics 1:13 “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.” We talked with people cruising the park. People were very positive; a Brazilian couple dropped by and we got into that quote, they were very touched that people here in this country would have the perspective of “children here and around the world”. Others more focused on how youth have no one fighting for them; that there wasn’t a future for the kids, and how they were dogged by the police; this was mainly from Black and Hispanic people who hang out in the park or who live in the nearby neighborhood. A few stopped and listened to a volunteer speak about what the lessons he learned and what the masses response was to the Bus Tour about his trip into the deep South.
One 20-something guy from the neighborhood on hearing what the Tour was spreading and reading the quote bought a ticket and joined the picnic. Two college students traveled up to the picnic after getting a copy of Revolution newspaper at a recent teachers march and rally, and checking out the Revolution Books blog. Seeing that we were holding a picnic they thought they would come “to learn some new things” about what was going on. They got into a deep discussion with one revolutionary about the future society centering on the Constitution For The New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). They were very excited to learn that a PDF of it was available on line. One of the young Black students was very into advanced physics and how it helped her understand the world. Both students got BA swag bags and signed up to be on the BA Everywhere list.
Several people who attended the May Day fundraising dinner for the Bus Tour came to the picnic, including family members of victims of police shootings and murder. One Black man, nodding when the BAsics Bus Tour volunteer talked about the Lynching Belt and the Bible Belt, later recounted to a revolutionary that two of his uncles had been lynched in Arkansas after trying to defend his grandfather’s land.
A middle aged unemployed white guy said that he heard about the picnic a couple of blocks away; that there were people in the park talking about revolution, so he came by to check it out. He has a Black girlfriend in Englewood and gets harassed by the cops all the time for dating a Black woman. He really was very interested in learning more about the Trayvon Martin murder, and stayed to hear more about the tour. He left his email to get more information about the tour and other issues. A 50-something white guy came by and argued that Occupy didn’t change a thing and that most people are morons and just don’t get it. A bike messenger who had been at Revolution Books before, read the quote and agreed, saying this would push him to drop by the store and check out what we were doing. Quite a few white families walked by and were kind of unsure of what we were about, a few took BAsics cards.
Overall it was very engaging and welcoming, an opportunity to learn more about the impact of the Tour in the South, raise funds and bring people into this campaign, BA Everywhere… Imagine the Difference it Could Make!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4uiewjBi31rowtzko1_1280.jpg)
Chicago Memorial Day picnic
A supporter of Revolution Books designed and built a mobile display case. It was part of way to showcase the BAsics Bus Tour and other important works of Bob Avakian. The Memorial Day picnic was a perfect time to bring it out on the street and see what people’s response was to it. People dug it, and it kind of broke away from the standard book table. The setup had been done the night before, we just opened it up and we had all the key works of the BAsics Bus Tour and enlarged photos of high school students signing a banner they sent to Atlanta. We had take-home organizer bags wrapped with the centerfold of “What people are saying” and designed for people to take out pluggers of BAsics 1:13, copies of the “Twelve Ways That YOU Can Be Part of Building the Movement for Revolution – Right Now”, Revolution newspapers and the sampler DVD of the Revolution talk, enabling many more people to become a part of spreading the Bus Tour campaign and the quotes of Bob Avakian.
The Picnic
On entering the park there was a new display by Revolution Books featuring the Basic Bus Tour and many of the works of Bob Avakian. There were red flags on the park fences, and a big banner announcing the Memorial Day picnic fundraiser. Under a group of trees, people gathered to picnic and hear about the Tour from a volunteer who had just come back from Sanford, Florida, the town where Trayvon Martin was murdered.
People across the country are supporting — and acting together with — the BAsics Bus Tour… from Chicago: A mix of enthusiastic urban inner city high school students sign the BAsics Bus Tour banner after school. Some had been involved in protesting Trayvon Martin’s murder recently. Inspired by the BAsics Bus Tour they wrote ”Inspiring”, “Right on”, sending “Love and Respect”. Signatories also included an administrative staff member and a security guard. There’s a basis to engage them at a deeper level which needs to be an ongoing process keeping them in tune with the progress of the tour and why BA needs to be everywhere to get to a radically different world.
The banner features BAsics 1:13, a quote from Bob Avakian, and the theme of the Tour:
“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.”
Kick-Off Parties in Atlanta and nationwide this Friday!
Taking REVOLUTION, COMMUNISM, and BOB AVAKIAN to the South! The official Kick-Off Party to send the BAsics Bus Tour on the road!
7-10pm, Friday, May 18th
Little 5 Points Community Center
1087 Austin Ave. (at Euclid)
Join the celebration and excitement, see the decorated RV, meet the volunteers and all those supporting this, listen to live music and poetry, watch videos documenting our efforts so far and clips of Bob Avakian, bring a dish to share, and more. $10 suggested donation.
Kick-Off Parties all across the country this Friday to celebrate this Tour heading further South:
