Saturday, October 9, 2010

Plato Negro's Academy of da Corner





This is a historic pic--five black men reading on da corner!

photo by Gene Hazzard, Oakland Post Newspaper









Plato Negro's Academy of da Corner,
14th and Broadway, Oakland

If you want to learn about inspiration and motivation, don't spend all that money going to seminars and workshops, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.
--Ishmael Reed, poet, novelist, essayist, professor, publisher

Academy of da Corner is a free speech zone in Oakland. It is a space for people to share and release their stress, trauma and unresolved grief. It is a literacy center, a mental health peer group, a micro loan bank. Books are given out for a donation, freely or on credit. It is presently the subject of documentaries by four videographers: Adam Turner, Warren Foster, Gregory Field and Ken Johnson.


It is intergenerational, youth, adults and senior citizens stop by to express themselves. Students are teachers and teachers are students. Marvin X (aka Plato Negro) is the facilitator. Often he says nothing, only listens, but there are times when he rants, or the people rant.

Often the Academy is visited by social activists like Fania Davis, Walter Riley, Bobby Seale, Amiri Baraka; entrepreneurs Geoffrey Pete, Joyce Gordon; judges Horace Wheatley, Gordon Baranco, BART Board director Carol Ward Allen, OCCUR's David Glover, publisher Paul Cobb.
Associate professors include Ramal Lamar, Ptah Allah El and Lumukanda.

The Academy is at the crossroads of Oakland, in the midst of a war zone. Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey was assassinated down the block at 14th and Alice. A young rapper was the victim of homicide half a block away. Even Plato Negro's life has been threatened by youth.

If you would like to support Academy of da Corner, drop off a donation or purchase a book by Marvin X. He's written five books this year:

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Black Bird Press, 2010, 300 pages, $100.00.

Hustler's Guide to Game Called Life (Vol. II, The Wisdom of Plato Negro), BBP, 2010, 300 pages, $100.00.

I AM OSCAR GRANT, essays on Oakland, BBP, 50 pages, 2010,$10.00.

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself, essays on Obama Drama, BBP, 48 pages, $10.00.

Mythology of Pussy and Dick, toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, BBP, 413 pages, $49.95.

Order from Black Bird Press, not available in bookstores or online:

Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com


Bio and Biblo of Marvin X

Marvin X (b. 1944), poet, playwright, essayist, director, and lecturer. Marvin
Ellis Jackmon was born on 29 May 1944 in Fowler, California. He attended high
school in Fresno and received a BA and MA in English from San Francisco State
College (now San Francisco State University). The mid-1960s were formative
years for Jackmon. He became involved in theater, founded his own press,
published several plays and volumes of poetry, and became increasingly
alienated because of racism and the Vietnam War. Under the influence of Elijah
Muhammad, he became a Black Muslim and has published since then under the
names

El Muhajir and Marvin X. He has also used the name Nazzam al Fitnah Muhajir.

Marvin X and Ed Bullins founded the Black Arts/West Theatre in San Francisco in
1966, and several of his plays were staged during that period in San Francisco,
Oakland, New York, and by local companies across the United States. His one-act
play Flowers for the Trashman was staged in San Francisco in 1965 by the drama department at San Francisco State University, later at Black Arts West Theatre, and was included in the anthology Black Fire (1968); a musical version (with Sun Ra's Arkestra), Take Care of Business, was produced in 1971. The play presents the confrontation between two cellmates in a jail—one a young African American college student, the other a middle-aged white man. Another one-act play, The Black Bird, a Black Muslim allegory in which a young man offers lessons in life awareness to two small girls, appeared in 1969 and was included in New Plays from the Black Theatre that year. Several other plays, including The Trial, Resurrection of the Dead,
and In the Name of Love, have been successfully staged, and Marvin X has remained an important advocate of African American theater.

In 1970, Marvin X was convicted, during the Vietnam War, for refusing
induction and fled to Canada; eventually he was arrested in British Honduras, was
returned to the United States, and was sentenced to five months in prison. In
his statement on being sentenced—later reprinted in Black Scholar (1971) and
also in Clyde Taylor's anthology, Vietnam and Black America (1973)—he argues
that

Any judge, any jury, is guilty of insanity that would have the nerve to judge

and convict and imprison a black man because he did not appear in a courtroom
on a charge of refusing to commit crimes against humanity, crimes against his
own brothers and sisters, the peace-loving people of Vietnam.

Marvin X founded El Kitab Sudan publishing house in 1967; several of his books
of poetry and proverbs have been published there. Much of Marvin X's poetry is
militant in its anger at American racism and injustice. For example, in “Did
You Vote Nigger?” he uses rough dialect and directs his irony at African
Americans who believe in the government but are actually its pawns. Many of the
proverbs in The Son of Man (1969) express alienation from white America.

However, many of Marvin X's proverbs and poems express more concern with what
African Americans can do positively for themselves, without being paralyzed by
hatred. He insists that the answer is to concentrate on establishing a racial
identity and to “understand that art is celebration of Allah.” The poems in Fly
to Allah, Black Man Listen (1969), and other volumes from his El Kitab Sudan
press are characterized by their intensity and their message of racial unity
under a religious banner.

Marvin X has remained active as a lecturer, teacher, theatrical producer,
editor, and exponent of Spirituality. His work in advocating racial cohesion
and spiritual dedication as an antidote to the legacy of racism he saw around him
in the 1960s and 1970s made him an important voice of his generation. One of his current projects is Academy of da Corner, downtown Oakland at 14th and Broadway. According the Ishmael Reed, "Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland. If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money going to seminars and workshops, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and observe Marvin X at work."

Bibliography
* Lorenzo Thomas, “Marvin X,” in DLB, vol. 38, Afro-American Writers after
1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers, eds. Thadious Davis and Trudier Harris,
1985, pp. 177–184.
* Bernard L. Peterson, Jr., “Marvin X,” in Contemporary Black American
Playwrights and Their Plays, 1988, pp. 332–333. “El Muhajir,” in CA, vol. 26,
eds. Hal May and James G. Lesniak, 1989, pp. 132–133
--Michael E. Greene




poet; playwright; educator; activist

Personal Information

Born Marvin Ellis Jackmon on May 29, 1944, in Fowler, California; married; five
children
Education: Oakland City College (now Merritt College), AA, 1964; San Francisco
State College (now University), BA, 1974, MA, 1975.

Career

Soul Book, Encore, Black World, Black Scholar, Black Dialogue, Journal of Black Poetry, Black theatre, Negro Digest/Black World, Muhammad Speaks and other magazines and
newspapers, contributor, 1965-; Black Dialogue, fiction editor, 1965-; Journal
of Black Poetry, contributing editor,1965-; Black Arts/West Theatre, San
Francisco, co-founder (with Bullins), 1966; Black House, San Francisco,
co-founder (with Bullins and Eldridge Cleaver), 1967; Al Kitab Sudan Publishing
Company, San Francisco, founder, 1967; California State University at Fresno,
black studies teacher, 1969; Black Theatre, associate editor, 1968; Muhammad
Speaks, foreign editor, 1970; Your Black Educational Theatre, Inc., San
Francisco, founder and director, 1971; University of California, Berkeley,
lecturer, 1972; Mills College, lecturer, 1973, San Francisco State University, 1974-5, University of California, San Diego, 1975, University of Nevada, Reno, 1979, Laney and Merritt Colleges, Oakland, 1981, Kings River College, Reedly CA, 1982.

Life's Work

Formerly known as El Muhajir, Marvin X was a key poet and playwright of the
Black Arts Movement (BAM) in the 1960s and early 1970s. He wrote for many of
the leading black journals of the time, including Black Scholar, Black Theater
Magazine, and Muhammad Speaks. He founded Black House with Ed Bullins (1935--)
and Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), which served for a short time as the
headquarters of the Black Panther Party, the militant black nationalist group,
and a community theatrical center in Oakland County, California. Always a
controversial and confrontational figure, Marvin X was banned from teaching at
state universities in the 1960s by the then state governor, Ronald Reagan
(1911--). When asked in 2003 what had happened to the Black Arts Movement,
Marvin X told Lee Hubbard: "I am still working on it...telling it like it is."
Marvin X was born Marvin Ellis Jackmon on May 29, 1944, in Fowler, California,
an agricultural area near Fresno. His parents were Owendell and Marian
Jackmon; his mother ran her own real estate business. Details about when and
why he changed his name are scarce, but he has been known as Nazzam al Fitnah
Muhajir, El Muhajir, and is now known simply as Marvin X. Marvin X attended
Oakland City College (Merritt College) where he received his AA degree in 1964.
He received his BA in English from San Francisco State College (San Francisco
State University) in 1974 and his MA in 1975.

While at college Marvin X was involved with various theater projects and
co-founded the Black Arts/West Theater with Bullins and others. Their aim was
to provide a place where black writers and performers could work on drama
projects, but they also had a political motive, to use theater and writing to
campaign for the liberation of blacks from white oppression. Marvin X told Lee
Hubbard: "The Black Arts Movement was part of the liberation movement of Black
people in America. The Black Arts Movement was its artistic arm...[brothers]
got a revolutionary consciousness through Black art, drama, poetry, music,
paintings, artwork, and magazines."

By the late 1960s Marvin X was a central figure in the Black Arts Movement in
San Francisco and had become part of the Nation of Islam, changing his name to
El Muhajir and following Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975). Like the heavyweight
boxing champion Muhammad Ali (1942--), Marvin X refused his induction to fight
in Vietnam. But unlike Ali, Marvin X, along with several other members of the
Nation of Islam in California, decided to evade arrest. In 1967 he escaped to
Canada but was later arrested in Belize. He chastised the court for punishing
him for refusing to be inducted into an army for the purpose of securing "White
Power" throughout the world before he was sentenced to five months'
imprisonment. His statement was published in the journal The Black Scholar in
1971.

Despite his reputation as an activist, Marvin X was also an intellectual, and a
celebrated writer. He was most concerned with the problem of using language
created by whites in order to argue for freedom from white power. Many of his
plays and poems reflect this struggle to express himself as a black
intellectual in a white-dominated society. His play Flowers for the Trashman
(1965), for example, is the story of Joe Simmons, a jailed college student whose
bitter attack on his white cellmate became a national rallying call for many in
the Nation of Islam and other black nationalists. Marvin X's own poetry is
heavy with Muslim ideology and propaganda, but it is supported by a sensitive
poetic ear. Perhaps his greatest achievement as a poet is to merge Islamic
cadences and sensibilities with scholarly American English and the language of
the black ghetto.

Like his close friend Eldridge Cleaver, in the late 1980s and 1990s Marvin X
went through a period of addiction to crack cocaine. His play One Day in the
Life (2000) takes a tragicomic approach to the issue of addiction and recovery,
dealing with his own experiences with drug addiction and the experiences of
Black Panthers, Cleaver, and Huey Newton (1942-1989). The play has been
presented in community theaters around the United States as both a stage play
and a video presentation.

After emerging from addiction Marvin X founded Recovery Theatre and began organizing events for recovering addicts and those who work with them. His autobiography, Somethin' Proper (1998) includes reminiscences of his life fighting for black civil rights as well as an
analysis of drug culture. Drug addiction and "reactionary" rap poetry are two
areas of black culture that he has argued have "contributed to the desecration
of black people."

In the late 1990s Marvin X became an influential figure in the campaign to have
reparations paid for the treatment of blacks under slavery. He organized
meetings, readings, and performances to promote black culture and civil rights.
He has worked as a university teacher since the early 1970s, as well as giving
readings and guest lectures in universities and theaters throughout the United
States.

Marvin X has also received several awards, including a Columbia
University writing grant in 1969 and a creative writing fellowship from the
National Endowment for the Arts in 1972.

Awards

Columbia University, writing grant, 1969; National Endowment for the Arts,
grant, 1972; Your Black Educational Theatre, training grant, 1971-72. Recovery Theatre received grants from San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's office, Grants for the Arts, Marin County Board of Supervisors, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

Works

Selected writings

Books

* Somethin' Proper: The Life and Times of a North American African Poet,
Blackbird Press, 1998.
* In the Crazy House Called America, Blackbird Press, 2002.
* Wish I Could Tell You the Truth, essays, BBP, 2005
* How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a manual based on the
12 Step/Pan African model, 2006.
* Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, BBP, 2007
* Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil, a memoir, 2009
* The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, 2010
* Hustler's Guide to the Game Called Life (Volume II, The Wisdom of Plato
Negro, 2010
* Mythology of Pussy and Dick, toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, 2010
* Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez, essays on Obama Drama, 2010
* I AM OSCAR GRANT, essays on Oakland, 2010

Plays
* Flowers for the Trashman (one-act), first produced in San Francisco at San
Francisco State College, 1965.
* Come Next Summer, first produced in San Francisco at Black Arts/West Theatre,
1966. Pre-Black Panther Bobby Seale played leading role in Come Next Summer.
* The Trial, first produced in New York City at Afro-American Studio for Acting
and Speech, 1970.
* Take Care of Business, (musical version of Flowers for the Trashman) first
produced in Fresno, California, at Your Black Educational Theatre, 1971.
* Resurrection of the Dead, first produced in San Francisco at Your Black
Educational Theatre, 1972.
* Woman-Man's Best Friend, (musical dance drama based on author's book of same
title), first produced in Oakland, California, at Mills College, 1973.
* In the Name of Love, first produced in Oakland at Laney College Theatre,
1981.
* One Day in the Life, 2000.
* Sergeant Santa, 2002.

Poetry, Proverbs, and Lyrics

* Sudan Rajuli Samia (poems), Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1967.
* Black Dialectic (proverbs), Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1967.
* As Marvin X, Fly to Allah: Poems, Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1969.
* As Marvin X, The Son of Man, Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1969.
* As Marvin X, Black Man Listen: Poems and Proverbs, Broadside Press, 1969.
* Black Bird (parable), Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1972.
* Woman-Man's Best Friend, Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1973.
* Selected Poems, Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1979.
* (as Marvin X) Confession of a Wife Beater and Other Poems, Al Kitab Sudan
Publishing, 1981.
* Liberation Poems for North American Africans, Al Kitab Sudan
Publishing, 1982.
* Love and War: Poems, Black Bird Press, 1995
* In the Land of My Daughters, 2005.
* Sweet Tea, Dirty Rice, poems, 2010 (late)

Other
* One Day in the Life (videodrama and soundtrack), 2002.
* The Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness (video documentary), 2002.
* Black Radical Book Fair, San Francisco, DVD, 2004
* Love and War (poetry reading published on CD), 2001.
Further Reading
Periodicals
* African American Review, Spring, 2001.
* Oakland Post Newspaper
* San Francisco Bay View newspaper
On-line
* "Chicken Bones: A Journal," www.nathanielturner.com/marvinxtable.htm (April
13, 2004).

* "El Muhajir," Biography Resource Center, www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC (April
16, 2004).

* "Marvin X," Biography Resource Center, www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC (April
16, 2004).

* "Marvin X Calls for General Strike on Reparations,"
www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4714 (April 13, 2004).

— Chris Routledge

The Marvin X archives are at the Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.



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