It was a special night in Harlem, this August 30. A heat wave had broken, the clouds held back an expected rain, and as the daylight sky gently darkened, people took their seats at the amphitheater of Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. They had come to watch the film of Bob Avakian’s talk THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. A Better World IS Possible.

The larger-than-life screen... the proximity of people, numbering over 160 at the peak, sitting together and taking in Bob Avakian’s (BA’s) historical analysis, his summoning to act, and the possibility of a better world... in the neighborhood known worldwide as a center of African-American life and culture—all this made for an important and memorable event.

It was a multinational audience—mainly middle-aged but with pockets of young people, and very diverse: professionals and creative folk, activists, people from the neighborhood, and the homeless. Many had heard about the event through social media or had seen posters and flyers in Harlem and at cultural events in Brooklyn. Others got the word at Revolution Books or through the outreach of the store and the Revolution Club. And some found out just that evening—walking through the park, they were challenged to face the reality of the moment and to meet the leader of the revolution.

People came out of curiosity about Bob Avakian, hunger to understand what we’re facing, disgust at the white supremacy gone berserk, and the caging of immigrant children, wanting to connect their feelings with something bigger. And a number of people who had seen the film before wanted to turn friends and others on to it.

The evening’s showing was introduced by Carl Dix from the Revolutionary Communist Party, and a member of the Host Committee for the event. Three other Host Committee members were also at the showing and made brief comments of welcome. Nkosi Anderson, PhD candidate at Union Theological Seminary: “We’re going to see this is a great talk. The hope is to inspire thinking, critical dialogue, debate, and most important, action, as we leave this place to go forward, and to work our tails off to get this Trump/Pence regime out of office.” Pastor Doris Johnson of the Faith Tabernacle in Queens: “We want you to look at this film tonight, talk to your friends about it, and your churches, or your community. Let them bring this film in so others can see it.” David Orenstein, professor at Medgar Evers College: “We must stop Trump. We must stop Pence. We must stop the enablers. We must stop all of this that is affecting our common goodness and our common humanity.”

Once the film started, people relaxed into it, there were murmurs of outrage and approval as BA delivered the truth straight-up, and went deeper into the truth and history of the system with utter disdain for it. Some in the audience chuckled when he asked, “What’s the matter with liberals?” and sighed heavily at the mention of the “demented bully with his finger on the nuclear trigger.”

A young Black guy from the film company that handled the big-screen projection, which did an excellent job, called his mom in the Bronx as soon as he found out what the film was about, urging her to come to the showing. A young white man in the crew said BA “captured so much of what I feel” and plans to come to Revolution Books to find out more about him.

As the evening drew to a close, many from the audience hung around to talk about what they had just seen and heard, to learn more, and to get connected up with Refuse Fascism, Revolution Books, and the Revolution Club. See sidebar for some of what people were saying right after the showing. One young woman described what she was thinking after the watching the film: “It was really great ... I feel really charged up and ready to fight and resist and make a better world.”