For the last few years around this time (September), I have taken long road trips through neighboring states. And while on these trips, I find ways to promote BA, The RNL Show and revcom.us. Getting out on the road to areas far from home both has given me some insight of the lay of the land and to think more about how we could actually win. I also tried to visit as many of the towns as I could, that would drive Jason Aldean (“Try That in a Small Town”) and his fans livid.
In 2021, my first foray, I went through the Northwest—Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and northern California and Nevada. I took with me stencils I had made of the iconic BA image and a stencil that said, “Revolution, Nothing Less! YouTube.com/therevcoms,” and stenciled my way through every major college and university along the way.
Stencil at University of Washington.
In 2022, I developed a simple 8½ x 11 REVOLUTION, NOTHING LESS! sticker that used a QR code that would not only take people to the revcom.us site, but would capture metrics—when it was opened and where the smartphone number opening it was registered, giving me a rough idea of its reach. Last year, I posted the sticker through the Southwest and at every major college and university campus in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The QR code got over 2,650 hits and still counting (from all over the U.S. + a few other countries).
This year, 2023, once again, I went to Northwest states, roughly retracing my previous route, but also adding universities in Utah and other spots. This year, the emphasis was on saturation postering the new materials on revcom.us, so I loaded assorted posters in my van along with wheat paste and makings for more paste and headed off. I went through Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon and California. I slept in campgrounds. (While other campers might be fixing dinner over a campfire, I was cooking up glue!) I had also printed up hundreds of the QR code Revolution, Nothing Less! stickers,1 along with other color stickers I downloaded from revcom.us Resources. Where it was hard to get access to wheat paste, I used spray glue for the posters. I also sprayed or pasted the broadsheets, English and Spanish2 around campuses and in the inner cities.
I would like to highlight a particular significant (and humorous) experience. I was postering at Evergreen College, a progressive school in Olympia, Washington. (They once had Mumia Abu Jamal as a commencement speaker by phone from prison in Pennsylvania.) I was pasting up the broadsheets and the “What? You don’t know?” posters, when a voice behind me asked, “Are you the one putting up these posters?” Startled, I said yes, preparing to defend them. It was a young student. They asked, “Do you mind if I take a picture?” “Better yet, I’ll give you one.” “Wow, thanks,” they said. “Are you with the Avakian people?” “Yes, I am. How do you know about him?” They explained, “A couple of years ago some people came to our campus and painted stencils of him all over.” “Really?” I replied. “Yeah, would you like to see one?” “I sure would!” I said. ”We thought they might have been from Seattle. They have a bookstore up there. Some of us have been hoping they would come back.” I was led on a brisk walk across the campus to the cement walkway behind the amphitheater. There, faded, worn and barely recognizable was the BA iconic image from a couple years earlier. “There are others, all over,” my guide said.
We exchanged emails, and I gave them a stack of materials to share with friends, and a promise to keep in touch.
