FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2014
Contact: Larry Everest, 212-691-3345, larryeverest@hotmail.com

Ed Asner Says Cornel West and Bob Avakian Dialogue on November 15 is “Desperately Needed,” in New York Times Full-page Ad Funded by Hundreds

Spokespeople Available for Interviews

A full-page ad featuring statements from Ed Asner; a Nobel Laureate; an abortion provider profiled in the NY Times Magazine; the President-Emeritus of Union Theological Seminary; and the parent of an African-American youth murdered by the NYPD was published in the Thursday print edition of the New York Times.

The ad announces a historic dialogue this Saturday, November 15 at The Riverside Church, NYC, Revolution and Religion: The Fight For Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between Cornel West and Bob Avakian.

Asner states: “I have been deeply impressed by Cornel West’s intelligence and his purity and to find him in dialogue with Bob Avakian, a fearless leader of the left is a consummation to be wished for. If hope and clarity can only come from this dialogue to lighten the dark times we live in, then I would wish this same dialogue will be played throughout the land. We need it desperately.” 

The Dialogue is an unprecedented encounter between the Revolutionary Christian Cornel West and the Revolutionary Communist leader Bob Avakian.  Avakian is the architect of a new framework for revolution in today’s world, and this will be a rare opportunity to see him live and in person. West is one of the foremost public intellectuals in the world and has been on the frontlines of the protests in Ferguson, MO. The two speakers will be addressing a topic—the fight for emancipation and the role of religion—that impacts the lives of billions.  

Harold Kroto, who won the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry, sees the Dialogue going against “neo-McCarthyite pressure aimed at undermining rationality in the sciences and society.” Donald Shriver, President Emeritus of Union Theological Seminary, sees the Dialogue focusing up the question: “can religion be a servant of justice rather than an enemy?” Nicholas Heyward, whose son was shot and killed by the NY Police Department, says that “anyone with deep concern about the future of this world needs to be there.”

The ad was funded by hundreds of people—from professionals making individual donations to residents of Ferguson organizing bake sales.

Carl Dix, spokesperson for the Dialogue, explains: “Why is one of the country’s most esteemed, provocative, and deeply religious intellectuals dialoguing with the world’s most radical and important communist thinker? When was the last time such a range of people—a Nobel Laureate, a Pulitzer Prize poet, and a Grammy Award musician joined with university professors and novelists, and parents of young people killed by the police—came together to support something like this?”

Buses are coming from Harlem, the south side of Chicago, and Ferguson. The Dialogue will be simulcast in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London.

Contact Larry Everest, 212-691-3345 and larryeverest@hotmail.com, with requests for press tickets.


AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS:
Carl Dix, founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party; co-founder with Cornel West of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network.
Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution newspaper/revcom.us; the initiator of Stop Patriarchy.
Raymond Lotta, political economist; advocate for Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism.
Sir Harold Kroto, FRS, Professor of Chemistry, Florida State University; Nobel Laureate (1996)

BACKGROUND:
Host Committee to Promote the Cornel West-Bob Avakian Dialogue

Commentary

Bob Avakian, Cornel West to talk revolution and religion
by Garrett Donnelly and Aaron Fisher, Columbia Spectator, November 7, 2014

Revolutionary Emancipation and Religion
by Ron Jacobs, Dissident Voice, November 5, 3014

Religion and Revolution: The Promise of a Fresh Look
by SpearIt, Associate Professor, Texas Southern University—Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Huffington Post, October 20, 2014

 

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