BK/NY – Tuesday, January 28 – Letter Writing Dinner for Joe-Joe Bowen

WHAT: Political Prisoner Letter-Writing Dinner
WHEN: 7pm sharp, Tuesday, January 28th, 2020
WHERE: The Base – 1302 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11221 (directions below)
NOTE: The Base is on the ground floor, is wheelchair accessible, and has a gender neutral toilet.
COST: Free

We are just settling into 2020, and have some good news–after 42 years in prison, Delbert Africa is free! That means we need to work extra hard to make sure Chuck Africa, the last remaining MOVE 9 political prisoner, gets parole. This news also has us thinking of another Pennsylvania prisoner–Joe-Joe Bowen. This week NYC ABC will be focusing our every-other-week political prisoner letter-writing dinner on Joe-Joe, aka “The Old Man,” who is no stranger to rebelling against captors as a path towards collective liberation.

A native of Philadelphia, Joe-Joe was a young member of the “30th and Norris” street gang before his incarceration politicized him. Released in 1971, his outside activism was cut short a week following his release when Joe-Joe was confronted by an officer of the notoriously brutal Philadelphia police department. The police officer was killed in the confrontation, and Bowen fled. After his capture and incarceration, Bowen became a Black Liberation Army combatant, defiant to authorities at every turn. In 1973, Joe-Joe assassinated Holmesberg prison’s warden and deputy warden as well as wounded the guard commander in retaliation for intense repression against Muslim prisoners in the facility.  In 1981, Bowen led a six-day standoff with authorities when he and six other captives took 39 hostages at Graterford Prison as a freedom attempt and protest of the prison conditions.

If you will not be able to join us this upcoming Tuesday, you can still write to Joe-Joe:
Smart Communications/PA DOC
Joseph Bowen AM4272
SCI Fayette
Post Office Box 33028
Saint Petersburg, Florida 33733
*Address cards/letters to Joe-Joe.

The deal, as always, is that you come bringing only yourself (and your friends and comrades), and we provide you with a delicious vegan meal, information about the prisoners as well as all of the letter-writing materials and prisoner-letter-writing info you could ever want to use in one evening. In return, you write a thoughtful letter to a political prisoner or prisoner of war of your choosing or, better yet, keep up a long-term correspondence. We’ll also provide some brief updates and pass around birthday cards for the PP/POWs whose birthdays fall in the next two weeks thanks to the PP/POW Birthday Calendar.

Directions:
Getting to The Base is simple:
From the M Train:
Central Avenue Stop: Walk east on Myrtle Avenue (away from Hart Street, toward Cedar Street). We’re about two blocks down on the south side of the street.

Knickerbocker Avenue Stop: Walk west on Myrtle Avenue (away from Harman Street, toward Himrod Street). We’re about three blocks down on the south side of the street.

From the L Train:
DeKalb Avenue Stop: Walk south on Stockholm Street (away from Wyckoff Avenue, toward Irving Avenue). We’re about four blocks down, at the intersection of Stockholm Street and Myrtle Avenue.

From the J Train:
Myrtle Avenue Stop: Transfer to the M train and follow the above directions.