During the summer We held once per week block parties to fully open Strategy and Soul like we've never seen before. We held talks in our theater and watched films together.. with social distancing and masks. We played music and the speeches of Dr King, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Angela Davis, Eric Mann, and others on the loud-speakers. We had Cameroon Coffee, hot dogs, burgers, and snacks for sale. We even had a second-hand flea market, and we're grateful to Morgan Cognata, a BRU member and student who took Eric Mann's Class "an Introduction to Transformative Organizing" at Northridge college who donated hand crafted Jewelry to sell as a fundraiser for the work of the Bus Riders Union.  

Following the summer we shifted based on time place and conditions. As many members now had to go back physically to school, We moved to focus on opening the bookstore with one team and maintaining a weekly booth in Leimert Park on Saturday's with another team. We have been able sign up an average of 3-4 new members each week, and we spoke with 150 people weekly. 

In the past week we made another exciting shift taking away some elements of our traditional weekly block party while adding some interesting pieces. Here' what we did: 

• We brought our bookstore outside onto the sidewalk. While Strategy and Soul Bookstore is still open for you to check out our collection of books, on the sidewalk we featured 10 great books to get started with revolutionary organizing including: Playbook for Progressives, Black Bolshevik, Apartheid in an American City, A New Vision for Urban Transportation, and Black Reconstruction in America, just to name a few.  

• We focused on promoting Bus Riders Union and Fight for the Soul of the Cities Shirts and included our plants, thanks to the work of Carmen Anders
• GIANT TUMBLING BLOCK (JENGA) Its beyond comprehension why we're all so obsessed with these tumbling block... While we focus on the building blocks of the revolution. We wanted to make sure kids including those of us big kids who still love Jenga had activities as well and found that many, while waiting on the bus kept an active eye on who would be the first to make the tower tumble. 

• Audible... duh, we are a bookstore after all. This past weekend we began listening to The Autobiography of Malcolm X read by Laurence Fishburne. We learned about Malcolm's childhood, his analysis of how the system used every which way it can to drive Black people into oblivion. Malcolm spoke about how his Mother fought with everything she had to make sure her boys survived and detailed how the state at every turn worked to make it nearly impossible to raise Black children in the US. We stopped right at the end of Chapter 2. Join us this week and grab some Cameroon Coffee and a seat as we listen to Chapters 3-4 of the Autobiography of Malcolm X