Revolution Books, New York City
New York City, Revolution Books
HOURS: Tues-Thurs-Fri-Sat-Sun 2-7 pm
LOCATION: 437 Malcolm X Blvd (at 132nd St) (2/3 train to 135th St)
New York, NY 10037
CONTACT: 212-691-3345
revbooksnyc@yahoo.com
revolutionbooksnyc.org
Revolution Books, Berkeley
Berkeley Revolution Books
HOURS: Tues-Fri 12:30-7pm; Sat & Sun 1:00-6pm
LOCATION: 2444 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
CONTACT: 510-848-1196
revolutionbooksberkeley@gmail.com
www.revolutionbooks.org
New York Events
437 Malcolm X Blvd (at 132nd St) (2/3 train to 135th St)
New York, NY 10037
Author event: "THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL: The Secret Prison History of American Music"
September 24, Thursday @7pm
Author COLIN ASHER presents his new book at Revolution Books:
"THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL: The Secret Prison History of American Music"
Colin Asher tells of the extraordinary music created within the highest and thickest walls of America's brutal, racist prison system. With five compelling portraits of musical artists whose careers span the 20th century—from folk and blues singer Lead Belly to jazz pianist Elmo Hope, to rap artist Tupac Shakur. A celebration of joyful, angry, and rebellious words and sounds...an indictment of an unjust and cruel system of incarceration that cannot suppress beauty.
"A fog-bending down-bound train of a book, better than it had to be..."
-- Dwight Garner, NY Times Book Review, July 26, 2026
Joining Colin Asher in discussion on September 24:
-Aidan Levy author of Saxophone Colossus, biography of Sonny Rollins
-Raymond Lotta A spokesperson for Revolution Books
This special evening at Revolution Books is an official "Bookend Event" --
in collaboration with the Brooklyn Book Festival.
Events at Revolution Books are co-sponsored by the Revolution Books Education Fund, a 501(c)3 entity.
Berkeley Events
2444 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
50 Years Since the Death of Mao Zedong and the Defeat of Socialism in China Learning From and Going Beyond Mao's Great Breakthroughs to the New Communism of Bob Avakian
Saturday, September 19th, 6 p.m.
Fifty years ago, on September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died.
Mao led the monumental and tremendously liberating Chinese Revolution of 1949-1976. Mao's greatest contribution was the theory and practice of continuing the revolution under socialism and preventing the restoration of capitalism. But shortly after Mao's death, new bourgeois forces in China carried out a violent coup—and began the process of restoring capitalism.
Following the defeat of socialism in China, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian set out to sum up the first socialist revolutions in Russia and China: their tremendous achievements, but also their problems, some quite serious.
Through decades of theoretical work and struggle, Bob Avakian has synthesized the new communism. He has drawn from diverse spheres of human understanding and experience. The new communism builds on the achievements of the first stage of communist revolution but is a qualitative leap beyond and also, in important ways, a break with communist theory as it has been previously developed.
At the heart of the new communism is a thoroughly and consistently scientific approach to reality.
Humanity now has a radically different and far better framework to make the emancipating revolution necessary to end all exploitation and oppression. To create a world in which human beings can truly flourish. That is why being a communist today means being a follower of Bob Avakian.
Film Showing & Discussion: Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
Saturday, September 26th, 6 p.m.
This extraordinary film (Arabic: ضع روحك على يدك وامشِ) is a 2025 documentary directed by the Iranian filmmaker, Sepideh Farsi, whose films are banned in Iran. In 2024 she tried to enter Gaza to report first hand on the war, but she was stopped at the Egyptian border.
She then connected with Fatma Hassona, a photo-journalist who lived in Gaza whose images featured the lives of the people living under conditions of bombing, starvation and war.
Their year-long conversation on video calls in this film exposes life in Gaza during the genocidal U.S. backed Israeli assault on the Palestinian people.
On April 15th, 2024, Sepideh called Fatma to tell her their documentary would be screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The next day Fatma and 9 members of her family were killed by a targeted Israeli strike while they were sleeping. Since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 259 media workers, 210 of them Palestinian journalists inside Gaza. (Committee to Protect Journalists)
The director, Sepideh Farsi lived in Iran under the rule of the Shah and was locked up in prison for her political activities. She said, “This film is a window, opened through a miraculous encounter with Fatem. Offering glimpses of the ongoing massacre of the Palestinians,” “She has become my eyes in Gaza, and I, her connection to the outside world."
