In attendance: Jackson, Marc (moderator), Ty (secretary), Wyatt
Start time: 7:29 PM

1. Upcoming Events – We have a lot of donations from Ty’s grandpa for the fundraiser yard sale. There are a few things that aren’t priced yet, and we also have some donations yet to come. Wyatt has some tables that he’s going to bring over, and we have some tables from last year for set up.

2. Arragorn! – It looks like we’re a-go for an event on May 23rd at 7 PM. Adam’s going to draft us a description for the event.

3. Contacts – We got a message on the Facebook page about Dear UNL, but we probably missed the boat on the actual campaign they were going for. Whoops! We sent a message acknowledging we got it, however.

We also got an email from someone representing Wellred Books and whether we’d be interested in Marxist literature (which we are, of course). We will table this item to next week, after we get more funds from the yard sale, before we browse their catalogue for possible titles.

4. Chairs – Jackson found a lot of cushioned folding chairs – much nicer than what we already have. 17 chairs in total, altogether $272.68. Jackson would like reimbursement, which we approve, but we’ll have to differ the reimbursement until we have more funds in the treasury.

Now we have a surplus of folding chairs. We’re opting to keep the lime plastic chairs from our old stock, but are selling the rest of them at the yard sale in favor of the new chairs.

5. Summer Calendar –

June
Saturday, June 1, 12-5 PM: The Black Cat House 6th Birthday Open House
Friday, June 14, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: 1984
Saturday, June 22, 1-3 PM: What is Revolution? (a community discussion)
Friday, June 28, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: How to Survive a Plague

July
Friday, July 12, 6-10 PM: Movie Night: Manufacturing Consent
Saturday, July 20, 1-3 PM: Open discussion on the relationship between U.S. imperialism and Middle Eastern religious fundamentalism (Proposed Title: Why They Hate U.S.: American Empire in the Middle East)
Friday, July 26, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Chicken Run

August
Friday, August 9, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Friday, August 16, 7-10 PM: Popcorn Politics: Pan’s Labyrinth

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: Ty, Marc, Wyatt (secretary), Jackson (moderator)
7:03 pm meeting in session

1. Upcoming events
We will be showing Strength of the Storm on Friday. Its a short movie and will provoke lots of discussion.

2. Emails
Serendipity has sent out a feedback form about her workshops. Individual members are encouraged to complete.
Martin Smith has fully canceled his presence at the event we scheduled for him this april. In leiu of the authors presenting his book we will do a reading of the book. Marc volunteers to read the book aloud.

3. May events
Begining May 1, the public is encouraged to bring donations to the Black Cat House for our spring fundraiser yard sale. Working appliances, small furnitures, electronics, toys, hats and shoes, books, art, and any other useful household items or stuff you think we could sell. No clothing or large furniture. We have stickers and tables and signs.

4. Summer calendar.
June 7 and 8 Star City Pride
June 19 Juneteenth
July 4 – 7 Socialism Conference
August 24 Red State Conference
–Proposed BCH events
June 1 BCH turns 6 open house birthday party
August Commemoration of destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
Open discussion of US Imperialism and Religious Fundementalism
Open discussion What is Revolution?
Late June Early July Manufacturing Consent / The Corporation
Pans Labrinth
Purple Blue

Meeting Ajourned 8:14

In attendance: Jackson, Marc, Ty (secretary), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:09 PM

1. Event Review – The documentary, “Boom! The Sound of Eviction” was a good film, and the turnout was pretty decent. There was a lot of connections drawn between Lincoln and San Francisco’s gentrification in the discussion, and solutions generated for combatting gentrification locally.

2. Upcoming Event – Not this week, but next week is Strength of the Storm. We’ve got the DVD so we’ll be ready.

3. April Events – We have not heard from M. Earl Smith in regards to the event, so we’re going to order the book and have a reading discussion no matter what. If he is still able to show, fantastic! But given his last email, Ty will write the event up tonight as if he will not be able to make it.
The rest of the April events need up on the website. Jackson will add them.

Note: the WordPress calendar is a little wonky, and Marc volunteered to take a look at it to see if he could fix it.

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)

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, Ty (secretary), Wyatt (moderator)
Start time: 7:02 PM

1. Event Review – We had a reading discussion on Venezuela on Saturday. It had a good turnout and discussion. We hit on a great deal of the points in the readings.

2. Upcoming Event – Who Owns Politics is coming up on Saturday! We should be ready besides cleaning the room up.

3. AK Press – Two more books came in from our Friends subscription: Pleasure Activism, and the Sons of Night. The subscription for Friends of AK Press is coming up, and we’re opting to not renew it. Seems more reasonable to take advantage of their 50% off sales.

4. Calendar Distro – Haymarket calendars are up, and everywhere has one except for Bodhi Imports and Unitarian Church. Ty still has his and will bring them back to the House, and posted one up on the Facebook page.

5. Twitter – Ty says the Twitter is now active, and had some questions on what sort of use we should be trying to get out of it.

6. Santee Sioux Flood Relief – There is a supply drive for the Santee Sioux Nation for flood relief efforts, coordinated by the Dandelion Network. We shared the Facebook event to our page, and we will donate $50 to the Santee Sioux Nation’s GoFundMe page.

7. Library – We have freed three bookshelves from use in the kitchen, that we can potentially use for the library instead. We decided to reorganize the kitten corner into a more book-friendly, kid-friendly space and place one of the bookcases there. Another bookcase is going into the foyer. There’s more to do with library organization and readership, but that will be tabled again.

The rest of the time is working on library organization.

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)

In Attendance: Jackson (moderator), Wyatt (secretary)
Start time: 7:02 PM

>Event Review
On Friday we watched Hidden Figures, and we decided during the discussion that we didn’t really like it. There was a moderate turnout.

>Upcoming Events
On Saturday we are hosting a Venezuela discussion. Greg Palast posted an update to the article we are using that connects the Koch bothers oil refineries and the slowing of KXL construction to US interests in Venezuela. So we have some more good material for discussion on Saturday.
We will print 10 sets of the readings, which Jackson has kindly arranged.

>Posting fb Events
Coming up in March is our community discussion “Who Owns Politics?” We work to build a description of this murky subject and post a facebook event.
Jackson will also post an event for our next march movie about gentrification and eviction in San Fransico.

Meeting Adjourned 8:15

Tabled:
Library Readership Development, Library Organizing, 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)