5/27/19 Minutes

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Marc (secretary), Ty, Wyatt
Start time: 7:10

1. Event review:

Aragorn! came here Thursday and Jackson purchased $155 worth of books. We also received $60 for hosting the event. We have a whole bunch of books to sort through and add to the library; most of it is more contemporary.

Wyatt said that we liked having folks come by and speak if it’s convenient, and the BCH could be used as a gig space more often because of its position on I-80 between major cities. We also want to figure out ways to reach out to younger folks interested in politics.

The conversation attendees and Aragorn! had were fruitful and intriguing, and it was a great event.

Young Karl Marx movie night was on Friday; a few people showed up and spoke afterwards. The movie served as an introduction to the politics of the 19th century for some folks in attendance.

2. Upcoming events:

Our open house is on June 1st. We’ve gotta hype it up. Wyatt has offered to bake cupcakes for the event. Jackson is going to handle the punch. Ty is gonna also schedule tweets for the event.

Ty and Marc are going to table at the Feed the People grill-out event at Peter Pan Park. We’ll show up with material to pass out at the event, such as zines, publications, etc. We’ll also take the table banner with us.

3. June events

Wyatt got a description of the movie 1984 for the upcoming Popcorn Politics event with DSA. We edited the description to pertain to the event itself and include more information and will send it to the DSA for approval. Jackson will take care of this part.

What is Revolution is already up; How to Survive a Plague is not yet up. Ty has offered to write up the description for HtSaP.

4. Library donations

We had 17 leftover books from yard sale donations to add to the lending library, plus the books from Aragorn!. The zines from Aragorn! will be going into the zine archive.

5. Calendar distribution

Wyatt has already done part of his route; Ty and Marc will distribute calendars tomorrow, and Jackson will distribute calendars later.

6. New flyers

Marc made drafts of a new flyer and bookmark design. Wyatt proposed updating the mission statement and “about” information for materials in the future.

Marc will complete the design for the bookmark to be printed by June 1. He will also contact the print shop to get a price estimate for printing them.

We also discussed creating more Black Cat House swag in the future, and getting an interest check on buttons and T-shirts.

We’ll talk more about the wording update in the future.

Meeting adjourned: 8:20 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty, Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:15 PM

1. Event Review – We had our reading discussion for Lucy Parsons’ “I Am an Anarchist.” We had a lively discussion, but maybe we should have moderated a bit more. We discussed whether we should have appointed a moderator amongst ourselves before the event.

2. Upcoming Events – Aragorn! is speaking here on Thursday and we’re running Popcorn Politics on Friday. We sent out some questions to Adam, our contact with Aragorn! The movie will be standard stuff.

3. Reimbursement – Ty spent $14.93 on getting our readings and summer calendars printed, and we will reimburse him for these necessary group expenses.

4. Calendar Distro – Wyatt will do South Street, the Bay, and the Unitarian Church. Marc and Ty will do the Haymarket, the Hub, and the Hub Cafe. Ty will also do relevant spots on campus. Jackson will do the main downtown area.

5. June Events – We need to get our BCH Birthday Party advertised online. We spent meeting time working on it. Also, Feed the People-Lincoln is having a fundraising cookout on the same day at an overlapping time, and Marc and Ty may table for us there.

6. Calendar/Flier Re-design – Marc has some ideas for new fliers and updating our calendars. We talked a bit about this, but are mostly excitied to see what he comes up with. There was discussion of possibly starting with a bookmark design.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Wyatt, Marc (secretary), Martin, Austin, Mikeyla

Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review
Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster – only 1 other person showed up. It was all organizers. Popcorn Politics has lost a lot of steam; Jackson reached out to DSA to publicize events more in the future. The low attendance might have also been because it was the Friday before finals week.

Next popcorn politics: Young Karl Marx!

Jackson brought up using the Death of Stalin as a future Popcorn Politics flick. It’s not explicitly leftist, nor is it that historical, but it’s entertaining.

2. Upcoming Events
Marc wrote the call for donations for the yard sale, and we’re not 100% certain if the post has been posted or scheduled. Marc checked past BCH chat logs, and Ty said it’d be posted on April 10. Wyatt suggested reaching out more to solicit donations.

Martin suggested collecting clothes anyway, and then donating it rather than selling it at the yard sale. Jackson and Wyatt confirmed that the house probably physically doesn’t have the space, but it’s a good suggestion that’s worked in the past. Next week, we’ll sit down and price items for the sale, organize stuff, etc. On Wednesday or Thursday we can start moving the collection from storage.

The Lucy Parsons event needs to be posted on Facebook. Jackson also needs to write up stuff for Young Karl Marx.

Turtle Island
Adam messaged the BCH Facebook page to ask us if we’d be interested in hosting a book tour for an author. The author is Aragorn! who has written a book about anarchist Native Americans. Martin suggested platforming Native writers on the issues that the book brings up; Jackson also suggested reaching out to Aragorn! to learn more about them as an author. Wyatt also expressed interest in reading the book first. We’ll have time to discuss this again next week. Mikeyla also researched more about the book while trying to figure out more about Aragorn!, but didn’t find much new info.

Jackson is going to reach out directly to Aragorn!; if people have questions for Aragorn!, let Jackson know. Martin also suggested asking local Native groups whether the name of the author/book is familiar.

Lucy Parsons reading
Marc read aloud Ty’s description of the event. Wyatt suggested adding the elements of how Lucy Parsons also spoke about her own personal and political development and editing the writeup a bit. Wyatt will publish the post with some additions to our Facebook page.

Jackson will write up the description for the Young Karl Marx screening.

3. Summer Calendar
We need dates for upcoming summer events!

(Copied from last weeks’ meeting with edits.)
Blackout dates:
June 7 and 8 Star City Pride
June 15 Juneteenth
July 4 – 7 Socialism Conference
August 24 Red State Conference

Definite Events

Saturday, June 1st Black Cat House 6th Birthday Open House (times TBA)
Movie Night: How to Survive a Plague (need description/queer/AIDS/etc) – Friday June 28 (anniversary of riots!)
Popcorn Politics (June) [1984? for the 70th anniversary of the book being published] – Friday June 14? First Friday is also this day. Book was released June 8. Jackson will have to run this by the DSA Popcorn Politics folks.

Movie Night: Manufacturing Consent (do before mid-month; 6 PM start; description?) – 2nd Friday; July 12
Popcorn Politics (July) – Chicken Run on July 26

Movie Night: White Light, Black Rain (atomic bombings commemoration) – Friday August 9 (anniversary of Nagasaki bombing)
Popcorn Politics (August) – Pan’s Labyrinth – Friday August 16

What is Revolution? (a community discussion) – Saturday June 22

Open discussion of U.S. imperialism’s relation to Iran/Middle-East fundamentalism – Saturday July 20

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In Attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty (moderator), Wyatt
Start time: 7:18 PM

1. Event Reviews – Our events didn’t quite go according to plan!

Jackson reports that only one person showed up for the advertised Stars Over Latin America reading on Friday night, and he hadn’t seen the Motorcycle Diaries film so they did that instead. The book actually only showed up today, but we’re still happy to have it for our library. We agree that Jackson will be reimbursed $13.37 for buying that for us.

We had a moderate turnout for our Kurdish discussion on Saturday, but due to a miscommunication our intended discussion leader was unable to come! We were forced to improvise towards a much more general discussion, since our specific knowledge of Kurdistan wasn’t good enough. We had a pretty good discussion once we transitioned to a broader discussion of U.S. imperialism and how we should be resisting it. Wyatt suggests that we need to have more direct contact with guests leading events here in the future.

2. Upcoming Event – Popcorn Politics returns this Friday with Godzilla vs the Smog Monster. It should be less complicated than our events last weekend, and we are relieved!

3. Moderator/Secretary Rotation – Marc will be joining the moderator/secretary rotation.

4. Library Update – Wyatt and Jackson spent meeting time last week finishing the current round of library sorting. Jackson also suggested that we should consider expanding our DVD selection, which was well received.

5. May Events – Ty will draft a description of the Lucy Parsons discussion in the next week. Jackson volunteers to tackle the Popcorn Politics for The Young Karl Marx.

6. Summer Calendar

Blackout dates:
June 7 and 8 Star City Pride
June 15 Juneteenth
July 4 – 7 Socialism Conference
August 24 Red State Conference

Definite Events

Saturday, June 1st Black Cat House 6th Birthday Open House (times TBA)
Movie Night: How to Survive a Plague (need description/queer/AIDS/etc)
Popcorn Politics (June) [1984? for the 70th anniversary of the book being published]

Movie Night: Manufacturing Consent (do before mid-month; 6 PM start; description?)
Popcorn Politics (July)

Movie Night: White Light, Black Rain (atomic bombings commemoration)
Popcorn Politics (August)

What is Revolution? (a community discussion)

Suggested Event

Open discussion of U.S. imperialism’s relation to Iran/Middle-East fundamentalism

Meeting adjourned: 8:51 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Wyatt

Start time: 7:05 PM

1. We discussed our events upcoming this weekend: the children’s book reading Stars Over Latin America and our community discussion on the Kurdish Freedom Struggle.
2.  We spent the rest of our meeting sorting our library books.

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

Tabled Items: Summer Calendar, Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator, via video chat), Wyatt
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – We hosted the “Who Owns Politics?” discussion here on Saturday. It was a really good talk. Maybe we should do it again at the next election cycle?

2. Upcoming Event – Our movie night for Boom! is this Friday. We’re good to go for it!

3. April Events – We spent the rest of our meeting working on online descriptions for our upcoming April events.

Meeting adjourned: 8:09 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In Attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty, Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re showing Hidden Figures for Popcorn Politics on Friday night!

2. Calendar Distro – Wyatt still needs to hit up Bodhi and the Unitarian Church. Ty still needs to hit the Haymarket. Jackson still needs to go to The Bay and The Hub.

3. Online Presence – Ty will be assuming more responsibility over our inactive Twitter account. We are debating an appropriate way of reviving the use of our email list. Ty will contact Ju Ping regarding helping us create an account for Wyatt on our website. Item TABLED.

4. Library – We spent the remainder of our meeting working on re-organizing our lending library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Reviving the Email List, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Meeting 02/25/2019
In attendance: Jackson, Ty (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)

Meeting begins at 7:38
>Event Review
>Upcoming Events
>Calendar Distro + Reimbursement
>Messages
>Library

>Event Review
Several people enjoyed the movie The Garden, and stayed for an in depth conversation afterwords.

>Upcoming Events
None this week.

>Calendar
We reimburse Jackson for printing cost $11.24.
Distribution. It will be difficult in this weather.
Wyatt: South Street places. Meadowlark, Open Harvest, Bohdi imports, Russes?
Jackson: main downtown places. coffee house, gomez, upstairs in parish building, the bay, cultiva.
Ty needs 7full size and “a bunch” of handbills in a paper bag. Haymarket and campus places. the mill, 10thousand villages, indigo bridge, ivana cone, scooters, blue stem, love library, resource center.

>Messages
We collectively posted three comment replies on our facebook pages.

>Library
Several people checked out books.
We discussed organizing the library a little bit better. We plan to introduce geo-regional library sections including Latin America, Africa, Asia, North America, Europe, Australia/Oceania. We plan to introduce a new prison industrial section, animal rights section, and potentially other sections. We will make labels for section identification.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:20 PM.

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (via video chat), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:01 PM

1. Event Review – We ran Malcolm X for Popcorn Politics on Friday night. We had a solid turnout, and they seemed to really enjoy the film. The discussion was ok, but we had some clashing personalities in the room. We had some further discussion about ways we could have possibly done more to moderate that situation. We won’t do any reimbursement for the pizza ingredients, because we wound up eating most of that ourselves anyways.

2. Upcoming Event – The KXL discussion is this Saturday. We feel pretty good about our preparations for it. We briefly discussed the Keystone leak reported near St. Louis last week, and we think we should add some mention of this on Saturday.

3. Spring Calendar: We’re finally done with it!

Friday, March 8th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): Hidden Figures movie showing
Saturday, March 16th, 1-3 PM; What is Happening in Venezuela? (a reading discussion)
Saturday, March 23rd, 1-3 PM; Who Owns Politics? (a community discussion)
Friday, March 29th 7-10 PM; Movie Night: Boom! The sounds of Eviction
Friday, April 12th 7-10 PM; Movie Night: Strength in the Storm
Friday, April 19th, 7-9 PM; Stars Over Latin America (children’s book about Che Guevara read by the author)
Saturday, April 20th, 1-3 PM; The Kurdish Freedom Struggle (a community discussion)
Friday, April 26th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster
Friday, May 10th 8 AM-6 PM & Saturday, May 11th 8 AM-2 PM: The Annual Black Cat House Yard Sale Fundraiser
Saturday, May 18th, 1-3 PM; Reading Discussion: Lucy Parsons’ “I am an Anarchist”
Friday, May 24th, 7-10 PM; Popcorn Politics (Co-Hosted with DSA Lincoln): The Young Karl Marx

Ty thinks he can get these formatted and printed this week.

4. Upcoming Event Idea – Jackson and his surrogate mother Dance talked the other day about running a discussion in the future on U.S. imperialism in the Middle East and its impact on building Islamic fundamentalism. She was particularly interested in discussing the 1953 coup in Iran. Item is tabled, and we can hopefully brainstorm on developing this concept over the next few months.

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

Tabled Items: Library Readership Development, Discussion on U.S. imperialism’s relationship to fundamentalism in the Middle East, Stuff to Buy (canopy, stuff to secure bike rack, new SSD hard drive for public laptop)

Meeting in session at 703
In attendance: TY (moderator), Jackson, Wyatt (secretary)

1. Event Review

Last saturday we hosted a guest workshop on activism in the age of trump. One highlight was a handout comparing “alternative” politics to “oppositional” politics which parsed the difference between individualist and collective solutions.

2. Upcoming Events

On friday we will be showing the Malcolm X biopic! Special early start time at 6pm. We will be preparing about 6 pizzas, with cheese, meat, and vegetarian options.

3. SW

Black Cat House will be subscribing to the Socialist Worker monthly paper and make the paper available in our public space.

4. Books

Jackson is donating “Kids on Strike” by Susan Bartolli
Jackson will be reimbursed $18.65 for “You don’t have to fuck people over to survive” by Seth Tobocaman and the elusive “Wobblies!” edited by Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman. All three books are added to the lending library.

5. Spring Events

We’re (mostly) decided on our spring calendar! It’s packed!

March 8 7pm Hidden Figures movie showing
March 16 1pm Venezuela reading discussion
March 23 1pm Who Owns Politics community discussion
March 29 7pm Boom! The sounds of Eviction Movie
April 12 7pm Strength in the Storm Movie showing
April 19 7pm Authors reading of Stars over LA
April 20 1pm Kurdish workers struggle community discussion
April 26 7pm Godzilla VS the smog monster movie showing
May 10-11 All Day Annual Yard Sale!
May 18 1pm Lucy Parsons I am an Anarchist reading discussion
May 24 7pm Young Karl Marx movie showing

Tabled: Library Readership Development

Meeting Adjourned 8:35pm