Hello Neighbors,
While it is absolutely right for you to wonder where the CCC’s bi-weekly newsletter has been for 9 months, suffice it to say, the CCC has navigated an exhausting onslaught of unfortunate circumstances (including but not limited to firings, hirings, births, deaths, reincarnations, busted pipes, chicken pox, wind-swept roofs, poltergeists, electrical outages, amnesia, miscommunications, tantrums, and a nasty bout of the runs) that have bound much of our time, energy, and attention.
Luckily (hopefully), we are past all of that now, and ready to get back into the swing of things, including the celebration of our favorite holiday, Ruinteenth. Yes, it’s already that time of year when we gather to remember the final day in the years-long collapse of the american empire (aka The Fall), and honor the contributions of those who envisioned the world we enjoy now.
But first, a few necessary updates:
LaRon A. Pettyman is no longer a member of the CCC. Consequently, the “Who’s Who in Phoenix Town” column has been discontinued, indefinitely. We are not seeking a new writer for the column, at this time.
Look! It’s Books! will be hosting a live reading of their September book club selection Sing Into My Mouth by Sasha Banks. If you have not ordered your copy, click here to get it today! The live reading will take place on December 1st at 7pm at the Thurman Thurgood Thespian’s Theatre and tickets are available at the box office now.
Forrest Fiars was spotted in the former city of Oakland on September 28th. Other sources have since scene him running through wooded areas in the former Upstate NY town of Auburn on October 12th, and walking into an abandoned bus terminal in the former city of Aurora on November 3rd.
Did you hear that sound on October 6th? If so, contact The Ghost of Harriett Tubman at aramintainthewoods@sbcglobal.net.
Neighborhood Watch | Do you need a reason?
This week’s message from Neighborhood Watch was channeled by Eb Hollis*
Oh dear ones, you must see
It ain’t just I but we
You’ve seen what waits in store
Can’t be your four and no more
In this or any season
do you need a reason?
We love you. You are seen and sustained.
—Your Neighborhood Watch
Ruinteenth Event Details
In the tradition of Ruinteenth, there are 4 Key Components needed for the successful collapse of an empire: Financial Ruin, Infrastructural Ruin, Perceptual Ruin, and Illusory Ruin. Every year, we choose one Component to celebrate.
Financial Ruin - acts that upend the capitalist structures that enable community pitfalls like the hoarding of wealth, weapons expenditure, bribery, debt entrapment, gross misappropriation of funds, extortion, and overall greed.
Infrastructural Ruin - acts that upend physical structures that create manmade challenges within the community, including but not limited to: gentrification, structural violence, park deserts, gerrymandering, colonization, food deserts, and overall cutoff to access to health, food, water, and nature-related necessities.
Perceptual Ruin - acts that upend the narrative structures that enable chaos, ignorance, and confusion in the community through: manipulation of public opinion and understanding of history, facts, and tactics; dissolution of public ability to perceive propaganda, racism, genocide, lies etc.; and overall obscuring of national and imperial identity.
Illusory Ruin - acts that upend the structures that support the illusion of national goodness, purity, rightness, morality, redemption, security, and overall sustainability of the status quo.
This year’s Ruinteenth will celebrate the 4th Key Component - Illusory Ruin.
This Ruinteenth, we will gather with our community (incarnate and departed) to celebrate the years of collapse that preceded the world we know now. For our newcomers, this includes a very special and very very very very very very, super serious, especially reverent Tri-Spirit Seance in which we will call upon the spirits of 3 community members who contributed to the pursuit of the end of empire.
This year’s Tri-Spirit Seance will call upon the following departed visitors:
Shanille Henry who aided in The Fall from 2024-2025 when she made the groundbreaking scientific discovery of Spontaneous Withdraw, which proved that in instances of arbitrary harassment both initiated and protracted by white women, it was possible to ignore white women until they spontaneously disappeared without a trace, seemingly being withdrawn from the planet altogether. Henry is credited with singlehandedly decreasing the Karen population by more than 46% in just 9 months. Brava, Shanille!
Rell Taylor who aided in The Fall from 2012-2019 by assembling a roster of approximately 50 white hat hackers (including Forrest Fiars) to systematically hack into various collections accounts and cancel the debt of an estimated 88,000 Black civilians. Remarkable, Rell!
Katt Rodriguez who aided in The Fall from 2025-2028 by leaking the tax information of 30 members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and occurring presidents, respectively. To this day, it is unknown how Rodriguez located this information, but the impact was undeniable. Stunning, Katt!
Join us for a beautiful evening of collective memory as we convene with our Tri-Spirit Seance guests to cackle and weep at the collaborative and individual efforts that birthed Phoenix Town!
The event will take place at 7pm on December 19th at Harris Hall (the one on 59th next to the wing shack with the good fried pickles, not the one on 58th with the pickle ball courts. Careful of the confusion).
Uniondale Chorale Society will be gracing us with a stunning performance of Reflections of Revenge, a stunning medley of vengeance ballads sure to inspire feelings of nostalgia, triumph, and good riddance.
Tickets are free for all Neighbors, but do register by November 25th.
The Community Action - Free Palestine.
This has been your bi-weekly newsletter.
—I’m your Neighbor, Sasha Banks. Under the eyes of the future.
image one, photographed by Patricia Gutiérrez Monllor