LA Central Library Screening of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live
July 28, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Saturday, July 20, 170 people filled the Mark Taper Forum of the Central Library in Los Angeles to watch the first two discs of the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live. The audience was multinational and of all different ages, with people hearing about the event from all over the city. There were a number of people who regularly frequent this or other libraries, people who came from the Trayvon Martin protests taking place just a few blocks away earlier that day, others who heard about it on KPFK, the media sponsor that played a PSA regularly over the preceding days. Others heard about it at Artwalk, a music festival in East LA, or through the work of the revolutionaries in South Central. There were skater youth, a few homeless people, artists, students, professionals, and others.
People came with a deep outrage about what is concentrated in the acquittal of George Zimmerman, saying that pushed them over the edge to want to get more deeply into revolution. A bunch of people came out of curiosity; one guy said he knew he had to question his own assumptions about communism and wanted to hear more. Another guy came towards the beginning and kept stepping out to call his friends to come down because “there's a film with a guy talking about what we talk about all the time.” A group of three young Black women planned their day around going to two Trayvon Martin protests and stopping in to watch about an hour of the film.
Comments after included, “Wonderful truth telling! Remarkable.” A KPFK listener wrote, “Always looking for another system of government for I see too much dysfunction, dishonesty in the current one.” Another wrote, “Eye opening in your face, made a lot of great comments also touched on important topics that should concern the human race especially minorities or people who are being fed mass media corruption.” One person wrote simply, “Brilliant.”
Revolution reporters were able to interview a number of people, so more will be coming.
The week before the event, the revolutionaries were in the streets for justice for Trayvon Martin, and the BA Everywhere Van Tour was rolling through South Central, calling people out of their homes to watch clips of this film, engaging in on-the-spot speak-outs and talking about how they can and need to be part of the movement for revolution.
The night before the film showing, Revolution Books was filled with people making signs carried here in the demonstrations against the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, and packets for the film screening. Photo: Special to Revolution
The night before, Revolution Books was filled with volunteers—making signs for the next day's demonstration and creating packets for the library film screening. Some of the volunteers were long-time revolutionaries and some came off a phone call they received earlier that day letting them know there was a big need to fill. A number of people came into the store off a big sign in the window: “Justice for Trayvon Martin! The whole damn system is guilty!” This attracted people who were seething about this verdict and wanted to get more deeply into why this happened. There was lively discussion about what was going on in the world and what this revolution is about. When Revolution newspaper posted the new article, “On the Murder of Trayvon Martin and the Outrageous Acquittal of His Killer: THEY MUST NOT—THEY WILL NOT—GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!” someone read it out loud while everyone stopped to listen. A Latino youth, after watching the first part of the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—Nothing Less! said he never understood the reason for the mass incarceration of Black and Latino people before. “I get it, it's not just evil, they have to do this because they can't profit off these people anymore.”
After the screening on Saturday, a nearby restaurant gave a discount, so a bunch of revolutionaries and people we'd just met piled in for a huge amount of delicious Mexican food. We linked up with people from the Revolution Club who spent the day at the Trayvon Martin protest and helped lead a march that went from the main downtown protest all the way to Leimert Park! (Over a five-mile walk) The tables were filled with laughter and discussion in Spanish and English. People talked about what BA laid out in the film, about what it was going to take to not let the struggle around Trayvon Martin die down, and about what all was learned and changed that day.
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