Bill Ayers

Episode #101: Tea and Reparations with Aaron Hughes and Amber Ginsburg

https://rick-ayers.medium.com/percival-everetts-james-and-the-literature-of-resistance-5214d11a56ad

Dear Ones:

Rachel DeWoskin and Writers for Democratic Action have written a one-act play echoing Sinclair Lewis’ 1936 exhortation against fascism, “It Can’t Happen Here.” It’s called “It Can’t Happen Here—Again!” (see below)

We’re mobilizing little DYI productions to be performed everywhere on July 19, including in prison. It’s both fun and important.

Please join this little insurgent community-in-the-making.

THXXX

Bill

“IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE—AGAIN!” 

An InvitationTo Stand Against

The Forces Determined to Destroy Democracy

WRITERS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION

A Play!
An Homage!
A Nationwide Gathering! 

A Call to Action!

Join us on July 19, 2024

DIY!

In the 1930s, fascism was sweeping through Europe and Asia, and in 1936 it was America’s turn. The New Deal was generating savage push back. Would he be re-elected? Would American democracy survive?

On October 27, 1936, one week before the election, those

questions were raised by a coast-to-coast production of a play that premiered simultaneously on 21 stages in 17 states.

“It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis was seen that night by thousands of people who heard its warning of a coming dictatorship, “when parade grounds become encampments.”

On July 18, 2024, at the Republican National Convention in

Milwaukee, Donald Trump will accept his party’s third consecutive nomination to be their candidate for President of the United States. 

The next day, on July 19, Writers for Democratic Action will issue a call to action with a newly written one-act stage presentation, “It Can’tHappen Here—Again!” 

Our play dramatizes the stakes of the 2024 election by reminding us of the threats of 1936. We warmly invite you

to join us. “It Can’t Happen Here—Again!” can be performed in theaters, but also in book stores, schools, libraries, bars, sites of worship, parks, living rooms, and any other space where people  are still free to gather.

“It Can’t Happen Here—Again!” will sound the alarm loud and clear, providing folks with a concrete way to respond (in person and online) to the catastrophe we’re facing.

On that one night in July, legions of citizens and residents from all across the nation can come together to say “Yes to Democracy!”

Voting is a burning issue this year, and this event will fan those flames.

Please join us! Help us create national solidarity against the rise of American fascism by presenting your own version of our easily mounted five-player script on Friday July 19, 2024. Do it in your local bookstore or place of worship or community center or school or town square or backyard. Do it wherever you can gather folks together to entertain, move, and motivate. Do it to help create the Beloved Community that we need and want

to live in!

Contact us here, and we will give you what you need:

WDApresentsICHH@gmail.com

For more information: http://www.writersfordemocraticaction.org/ICHH

Episode #100: The Real Dragon with Stanley Howard

https://chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/2024/05/26/stateville-logan-prisons-tear-down-pritzker-900-million-decarceration-parole-bill-ayers-other-views

https://rick-ayers.medium.com/the-kids-are-all-right-in-praise-of-student-activism-against-genocide-abf9b68b200a

Episode #98: American Precariat with Zeke Caligiuri

OPENING RECEPTION

More Beautiful, More Terrible: Humans of Life Row

Saturday, April 27, 7-9PM

 CoProsperity, 3219 S. Morgan St., Chicago

Register here: https://mailchi.mp/p-nap/humans-of-life-row

The making of this exhibition has been filled with wonder, determination, inspiration, and resolve. More Beautiful shines a light on the dreams, everyday experiences, and transformative ideas of the people who inhabit “life row”–those facing life sentences in Illinois.  

We’ll have food, drinks, a “humans of life row play list” and a brief program at 7:30pm. 

The exhibition will serve as a water collection site in collaboration with the Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois and the Nickolas Lee Foundation. Attendees are invited to bring sealed bottles of water to the exhibition to be donated to communities at Stateville Prison. Read more about the water crisis in Illinois prisons here. 

American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.—James Baldwin 

Spirit of Justice: Michelle Alexander & Angela Davis (Video)