Join Us and dedicate your afternoon to Revolutionary Cultural Conference

Session 1 – Presenters

Chris Mahin is the manager of Barbara’s Bookstore on State Street in Chicago. Chris began working for Barbara’s in 1997 and has worked in bookselling—on and off—since 1979. The first bookstore at which he worked was The Midnight Special Bookstore in Venice, California, then, at Guild Books in Chicago during the Harold Washington years. Independent Scholar and Labor Educator,  he has a special research interest in abolitionism and the Civil War as well as U.S. labor history. 

Ruben Funkahuatl Guevara is a Los Angeles native Chicano musician, singer, songwriter, poet, performance artist, activist, producer, short story author and historian. Famed for his beautiful singing voice and performances with Frank Zappa, Johnny Otis, Tina Turner, Celia Cruz and Bo Diddley, Guevara’s calling has always been “as much a spiritual calling as it was political.”  He is the author of the memoir Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-wop Singer and subject of the award winning documentary Con Safos

Steven Newcomb: We were introduced to Steven Newcomb by the incomparable musician and activist Buffy St. Marie, and we thank her for the introduction.  Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) –Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape) is a legal scholar and one of the world’s foremost authorities on the doctrine of Christian discovery. In 2008 Fulcrum published his book Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. In 1992, he and Birgil Kills Straight (Oglala Lakota Nation) co-founded the Indigenous Law Institute. Newcomb has been studying and writing about U.S. federal Indian law and policy since the early 1980s. In 2015, Newcomb and Sheldon Wolfchild (Dakota) completed a documentary movie based on Pagans in the Promised Land. It’s titled “The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code” (2015). 

Session 2 – Global Dimensions

Anna Lombardo lives in Venice. She is a poet, cultural activist, and freelance translator. She has been the Art Director of the International Poetry Festival Palabra en el Mundo in Venice since 2009. She believes that poetry can unite people worldwide and raise awareness towards the principles of solidarity and make Peace constructive and concrete.  and

Mariella Setzu a poet and activist, became a convinced antimilitarist a long time ago observing her land, the island Sardinia, subject to tremendous war games on the wide military ranges that were imposed on its territory. For most part of her life Mariella has been a teacher of English in various state schools. She is engaged in a grassroot union for school workers.

Maria Cristina Gutierrez has been fighting for socialism since she was 14 ½ yrs old. She was a member of a guerrilla movement in Colombia, the M19. She was also one the of cofounders of the Communist Labor Party of North America. She is the founder of Mothers on the March Against Police Terror. She went on a 18-day hunger strike to stop police murders, and is a founder of the Black and Brown and Social Club.

Session 3 – Presenters

Maureen Taylor is a grass roots, working class activist who’s history goes back to the days of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in late 1960’s Detroit. She has been a leading force in fighting for the basic gut level interests of Detroit’s poor and destitute. The struggle against social problems such as unemployment, crumbling public schools, state takeovers of cities and school systems, high utility rates, utility shut offs, homelessness, vacant public housing going unused, sky high water rates, attempts to privatize water systems and other public services, etc., have been her constant political focus.  Maureen is the chairperson of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization,

Mark Lipman is the founder of Vagabond Books and the Culver City Small Press Book Festival; recipient of the 2015 Joe Hill Labor Poetry Award; winner of the 2016 International Latino Book Awards, a writer, poet, multi-media artist, and activist. He’s the author of ten books including The Role of the Revolutionary Poet in Society and a Strategic Vision for the 21st Century. He serves as the Chair of Culver City’s Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness.  For the last six months he has traveled throughout Europe connecting with poets and cultural collectives in Europe opposing the rise of fascism.

Damon Williams is an organizer, social activist and movement builder. He is a founding member of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, Breathing Room, and Co-Host of AirGo Radio.

Program Closer

Adam Gottlieb  is a musician, poet, and revolutionary from Chicago, IL. His band, Adam Gottlieb & OneLove, performs and works widely with grassroots movement organizations throughout Chicago and beyond. His activism has been mostly centered in housing, Indigenous sovereignty solidarity work, and public education.

2021 – Revolutionary Vision: Toward a Cultural Offensive

An anthology including presentations and performances from the October 2021 Cultural Conference is now available.  Revolutionary Vision: Toward a Cultural Offensive can be purchased with a $20 donation to LRNA (link to donate button), postage paid. Please include your mailing address with the donation and indicate it is for the anthology.