Black Bird Press News & Review

We Will Always Love You, Whitney

2012-02-15T02:34:00.001-08:00

We Will Always Love You, Whitney

How can a blackbird not sing
ushering the dawn of a new day
calling heaven to hear her song
no words for this pain
the blues we sing
a voice so true so real
yet we overstand the tragic note
in the song we all sing
living in this wilderness
of North America
down here on the ground with
the devil
how can he pay for his sins
not only Whitney
but the millions gone in a whisper
what price for this
worthless dollars at the Federal Reserve
empty the vaults at Fort Knox
will not suffice
stealing the souls of men and women
the many Whitney's gone into the night of no return
Dr. Nathan Hare told us, "...No amount of religiosity,
coke, Crack, alcohol or sex
sufficient to sedate the social angst
shattered cultural striving...."
Oh, Whitney, we are from Allah
to Him we return. We will always

Love you!
--Marvin X
2/13/12

Report: Dr. J. Vern Cromartie at Exhibit Marvin X

2012-02-12T07:14:00.010-08:00

Journalist Lee Hubbard,
Marvin X, Professor Cromartie
photo Gene Hazzard

On Saturday, February 11, poet/sociologist Dr. J. Vern Cromartie presented a lecture/reading at Exhibit Marvin X. He gave a summary of the paper he presented on Marvin X's brief tenure as a lecturer in black studies at University of California, Berkeley, noting the poet taught there with only an A.A. degree from Merritt College. Along with the black studies faculty, Marvin was purged by the administration and more pliant Negroes were hired. Dr. Cromartie recalled Cecil Brown's book What Happened to My Black Studies Department? to suggest an even more sinister move wherein blacks are brought in from the Pan African Diaspora and given tenure because they are even more accommodating to white supremacy academia, the local radical academics being regarded as dangerous to the status quo.

Cromarties noted that even while teaching at UCB, Marvin X had his own Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore where his UCB students performed his myth-ritual drama
Resurrection of the Dead, which included a naming ceremony. Many students kept their names for life, including Nisa Ra (Greta Pope) and Malika Jamilah (Charlene Hunter). Singer/actor Victor Willis had the lead role in this production. He went on to sing with the Village People and wrote such hits as Macho Man, YMCA and I'm In the Navy.

The sociologist put on his poet hat to read two poems dedicated to his teacher whose works he read as a 14 year old in Waycross, Georgia, in particular Black Man Listen, Broadside Press, 1969. The first poem described the poet during his Crack addiction, the second told of Marvin X's love affair with his high school girlfriend, poet-critic-professor Sherley A. Williams. Marvin X was deeply moved at hearing this poem that revealed Professor Cromartie's profound poetic insight. The professor noted that Sherley may have been his soul mate, but apparently the poet has had several powerful soul mates that Cromartie has had the privilege of knowing since he enrolled in the poet's theatre class at Laney College, 1981: Nisa Ra, Hurriyah Asar, Masha Satterfield and Suzzette Celeste Johnson. Cromartie, of Gullah Geeche ancestry, said all these women were beautiful, highly intelligent and spiritual. Yes, Marvin X said, these women were angelic, I was the devil.

Hurriyah Asar, poet's longtime friend

The program climaxed with a reading of the poet's works by Aries Jordan, one of several poets Marvin X is mentoring. Aries read from Marvin X's Land of My Daughters, Black Bird Press, 2005, a collection that made Bob Holman call Marvin X the USA's Rumi.

Aries read What is Love, How to Love a Thinking Woman and Never Love a Poet. Aries said she loves How to Love a Thinking Woman simply because she is a thinking woman, and Never Love a Poet touched her because it deals with the creative personality. Clearly, Aries has absorbed the spirit of her teacher. Her voice is loud and clear, her dramatic technique precise. She read his poems better than he. Now 24 years old,we suspect she will become an expert at reading the poetry of Marvin X before and after he joins the ancestors. Aries concluded with two poems from her collection Journey to Womanhood, Letter to the Elders and That Girl.

Exhibit Marvin X, Sat., Feb. 18, 7pm
presents Dr. Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown on John Douimbia, mentor to the Bay Area Civil Rights and Black Power movements

Exhibit Marvin X continues on Saturday, Feb. 18, 7pm, with a lecture/discussion of Marvin X's mentor, the Honorable John Douimbia (RIP). Dr. Oba T'Shaka, professor emeritus at San Francisco State University and community organizer Norman Brown will make presentations, both were also mentored by John D, as he was affectionately known. Exhibit Marvin X is located at 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. For reservations, please call 510-575-2225.

Exhibit Marvin X thanks the following for their support: Dr. Robert McNight, Berkeley High School Black Studies, Ramal Lamar (Berkeley High, B-Tech), Suzzette Celeste, Phil Johnson, Paul Cobb, Oakland Post Newspaper, Adam Turner, videographer, Amira and Nefertiti Jackmon, Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Contra Costa College.

Exhibit Marvin X presents Dr. Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown

2012-02-12T06:22:00.002-08:00

On Saturday, February 18, 7pm, Exhibit Marvin X presents a discussion of the Honorable John Douimbia (RIP), founder of the Black Men's Conference and mentor to many Bay Area civil rights workers and black liberation activists, including Marvin X, Oba T'Shaka, Norman Brown, et al. John was mentored by Will Ussery, a leader in CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and director of the San Francisco poverty program.

Upon his transition (Marvin X officiated his memorial service), Marvin X obtained his papers that reveal John's work in the black power movement from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The papers give us a vivid history of Bay Area black consciousness activity.

He was also an official in the SF NAACP and worked as an organizer for the poverty program in the Fillmore. In New York's Harlem, he had hustled with his friend, Big Red or Malcolm Little, aka Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.

Dr. Oba T'Shaka, professor emeritus, Black Studies, San Francisco State University

Norman Brown, Community Organizer

On February 18, Dr. Oba T'Shaka and community organizer Norman Brown will discuss the John Douimbia papers (part of Exhibit Marvin X). John Douimbia was a mentor to Marvin X, Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown. He was a voice in the Bay Area civil rights and black power movement. In 1980, Marvin X planned and organized the Black Men's Conference at the direction of John Douimbia, who had long seen the need for a secular organization of black men, had even presented the idea to his Harlem hustling buddy, Malcolm X after he joined the Nation of Islam. As we know, Malcolm followed John's concept after breaking from the NOI. He formed the Organization of Afro-American unity. If possible, this discussion may be joined by Will Ussery and Charlie Walker, two additional associates of John Douimbia. Will Ussery was the leader of CORE and a director of the poverty program. Charlie Walker is a businessman and social activist.
Charlie Walker, businessman,
social activist, "mayor of hunters point," and close friend of former
SF Mayor Willie Brown.

Chauncey Bailey: A Shakespearean Tragedy

2012-02-10T08:00:00.004-08:00

In light of Thomas Peele's just released book, Killing the Messenger, on the Black Muslim Bakery and the assassination of journalist Chauncey Bailey, we present this essay from Marvin X's forthcoming book Who Killed Chauncey Bailey, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2012.

Chauncey Bailey: A Shakespearean Tragedy

On one level, the Chauncey Bailey assassination can be best understood by recalling the drama of classic Shakespeare, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear. Many of his plays dealt with succession rights/rites, often involving themes of jealousy, envy, greed and power. Of course these are general themes of humanity, but the man known as Shakespeare wrote about these matters better than others before and after him. In Othello we find a man duped by his friend and advisor, Iago, so confused by the tricknology of Iago that the great Moorish warrior killed his beloved wife Desdemona, then took his own life.

We can see the parallel in the Chauncey murder. The king dies and there is the fight over which of his twenty sons (there are twenty daughters as well, but this is a patriarchy) shall succeed him. One of the several mothers is determined she and her children should control the empire, but another mother feels the same and moves to secure the throne for her son (s). The first son dies mysteriously in a car-jacking. Her next in line takes over the throne.

Meanwhile, the man who was a dear friend of the king receives information about the succession battle, a piece of dirt that was, for the most part, already public information. But the messenger was sent by his mother-in-law, knowing the message would incite anger in the successor to the throne who was not of her bloodline.

When the message is delivered it is overheard by a former co-wife who immediately relays it to her friend, the wife or widow, whose son has seized control. Apparently she tells her son, the new king, who goes into a rage at his father's friend, not realizing he has been set up by the co-wife who sent the message by her son-in-law.

Also, the new king's advisor, call him Iago, has deep resentment for the old king's friend, for the friend knows Iago is a devil and has been seeking information to expose him. Iago figures he can dispose of his nemesis by encouraging the boy-king to murder his father's dear friend.

Knowing the boy-king is a hot head, Iago (OPD), suggests the plan and it is carried out. He convinces the boy-king he will go free after his dastardly deed, for Iago claims special powers under the color of law. The boy-king is convinced he can commit innumerable crimes because he is under the protection of Iago. He truly believes Iago can get him out of any situation. Yet Iago has his own motivation for inspiring murder, to stop the old king's friend from a possible exposure of his dark deeds that, now involve the boy-king: money laundering, fencing, drug dealing, homicide, prostitution, etc. The boy-king is in too deep, even after considering that his father had a deep relationship with the man he must now dispose.

The co-wife, now widow, had no idea things would get out of hand but she felt entitled to the empire and was not about to settle for her sister-wife inheriting everything.

After the assassination of the old king's friend, Iago takes control of the crime scene, gathers selected evidence and a confession. He refuses to question eye-witnesses at the crime scene for they are irrelevant, he has accomplished his mission, or shall we say his patsy has.

The boy-king soon realizes he has been set up from two sides, the co-wife and Iago, for different reasons. He realizes his deed has caused the death of his father's friend and the possible death of himself by hanging.

Iago is in the corner laughing, yet worried his mentee may one day disclose all the dirty deeds he was asked to perform for Iago, hence Iago is not home free yet. Now he must configure a way to silence the boy-king. Stay tuned.

Don't miss Exhibit Marvin X this Saturday, Feb. 11, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. The poet will most surely discuss the just released book on the Black Muslim Bakery by Thomas Peele. Call 510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited.

On Thomas Peele's book: Killing the Messenger

2012-02-10T07:44:00.002-08:00

Let us cry crocodile tears for Longmire

http://www.ktvu.com/video/28505827/index.html

Lead detective Longmire

It is interesting to note Longmire blames his department for bumbling the Chauncey Bailey murder investigation, but he was the officer in charge of the crime scene who drove off when Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb presented an eye witness at the crime scene. And why would he not have access to tracking devices and phone records on the murder mastermind. What is clear is that Longmire has no intention to be the fall guy for the OPD's pitiful job in the Bailey conspiracy. The OPD had the intelligence to know the murder was going to go down and was scheduled to raid the murder suspect's compound a day before the murder but delayed until the day after, then the Chief lied about it. No matter what, Longmire's hands are as bloody as the Bakery brothers, and his OPD comrades are as well. A murder could have been prevented if only the OPD, including Longmire, had done the right thing, but we know devils are constitutionally unable to do so.
--Marvin X

Marvin X will soon release a book delineating his version of the Chauncey Bailey murder. He does not absolve the Bakery brothers, but suggests the prime role of the OPD. It is crystal clear the OPD could have prevented this assassination of a "community journalist," as Peele and Oakland Tribune Editor Martin Reynolds refer to Chauncey. see www.theblackchaunceybaileyproject.blogspot.com

Black Muslim Bakery Book: Thomas Peele's Killing the Messenger

2012-02-09T22:56:00.008-08:00

Bay Area Black Writers Salute slain journalist, Oakland Post Editor
Chauncey Bailey

Chauncey Bailey Project lead writer, Thomas Peele, releases book on Islam and Your Black Muslim Bakery, including the assassination of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey. The book mainly blames the Bakery brothers rather than focus on the leading

role of the Oakland Police Department in the murder of Chauncey who was also investigating police corruption in and City Hall. The Monkey Mind Media, i.e. the white Chauncey Bailey Project attempts to diminish the talents of Chauncey, claiming he was no Bob Woodward but only a "community journalist, thus how could he investigate police corruption and city hall chicanery. Has anyone seen his notes?

We can only understand the assassination of Chauncey Bailey within the context of global white supremacy. Hundreds of journalists are murdered yearly by oppressive political regimes and corrupt agents of the police. No matter the killers were Black Muslims, as Baldwin said of Malcolm's killers, "The hand the pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullet!" The hands that pulled the trigger of the shotgun and his associates were mentored by an officer of the OPD, Longmire, who was also in charge of the crime scene and led the raid on the bakery compound, solving the murder in less than 24 hours, alas, he recovered the murder weapon and got a confession. Case closed. The fastest solving of a murder case in world history.

While Thomas Peele and his Monkey Mind Media associates at the Chauncey Bailey Project, focused on the Bakery boys, the man who was publisher of the Oakland Post, Paul Cobb, was never called to testify about his editors projects that included the OPD and City Hall. When Paul Cobb suggested police involvement, the DA departed from his office. When he called for the Chauncey Bailey Project, and directed them to pursue the police involvement, he was silenced, especially by Oakland Tribune crime reported Harry Harris, who has been embedded at the OPD so long he sleeps in the police locker room. The police chief got on the elevator with Post Publisher Paul Cobb then pushed all the buttons so the elevator would have a slow ride down, then warned Paul Cobb, "If you pursue the OPD angle, you better get a bullet proof vest." The chief soon took an early retirement, slipping out the door of the den of iniquity. The chief had been caught lying about why the raid on the bakery didn't happen as scheduled, rather than after Chauncey was killed, especially since the OPD had the bakery members under surveillance
for months, phones were tapped and GPA devices on their automobiles.

The story below by Tammerlin Drummond is the Monkey Mind Media's version of the Chauncey Bailey killing, their view of the Black Muslim Bakery and Islam in general, as if Christianity doesn't originate in mysticism, mythology, violence and sexual depravity.

--Marvin X, the Black Chauncey Bailey Project
www.theblackchaunceybaileyproject.blogspot.com

Tammerlin Drummond: New book examines journalist's murder

By Tammerlin Drummond
Oakland Tribune Columnist

Posted: 02/05/2012 12:00:00 AM PST

Updated: 02/05/2012 08:18:27 AM PST

Cover image "Killing the Messenger" by Bay Area News Group/The Chauncey Bailey Project reporter...

In many countries, journalists who investigate political corruption or major crime figures get thrown into prison, gunned down or kidnapped -- never to be heard from again.

In the United States, however, few people have been crazy enough or bold enough to assassinate a journalist to stop a story.

It has happened twice. In 1976, when Arizona Republic Reporter Don Bolles was mortally wounded in a car bombing in Phoenix.

Then, on Aug. 2, 2007, when a brainwashed 19-year-old man with a sawed-off shotgun ambushed journalist Chauncey Bailey as he walked from a McDonald's in downtown Oakland to his newspaper office.

Six months ago, Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, was sentenced to life in prison for ordering two of his underlings to kill the 57-year-old editor of the Oakland Post and former Oakland Tribune reporter.

Bey IV wanted to stop Bailey from publishing a story about his illegal takeover of the bakery and its impending bankruptcy.

Thomas Peele was the lead reporter for the Chauncey Bailey Project, a coalition of journalists from various media outlets that formed to investigate Bailey's killing and bring those responsible to justice.

Peele, a reporter for the Tribune, has just written a riveting account of the events that led up to Bailey's murder.

"Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith, Racism's Backlash and the Assassination of a Journalist," goes on

sale Feb. 7.

It is an exhaustively researched narrative that details the rise and fall of Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Peele uses Bailey's killing as a launching point for exploring the blood-soaked history of the Black Muslim movement in the United States. He examines how virulent racism made blacks ripe for exploitation by charlatans like Nation of Islam founder Wallace D. Fard, his disciple Elijah Muhammad and later the Beys in Oakland.

Peele takes us to Chicago and Detroit to the heart of the Nation of Islam and to Los Angeles where a police shooting at a mosque convinced Santa Barbara hairdresser Joseph Stephens to join the Black Muslim movement.

Stephens who would later rename himself Yusuf Bey, opened Your Black Muslim Bakery in 1971.

He lured followers -- many of them straight out of prison -- with his message of black self-empowerment. He was a respected community leader. Politicians paid homage to him despite his racist pronouncements.

But as "Killing the Messenger" lays out in sometimes stomach-churning detail, behind Bey's carefully cultivated public facade lurked a monster.

A bakery employee once stumbled upon Bey sexually assaulting a young boy in a bathroom.

After he told others about it, he was found shot to death.

Horrors would go on at the bakery for decades while police, politicians and just about everyone else in Oakland turned a blind eye.

"For years the police backed off, and the Beys owned North Oakland," Peele says. "The police didn't want to mess with them."

When Bey died in 2003 he was facing charges that he had raped four girls under the age of 14. Alameda County prosecutors alleged that DNA tests proved Bey had fathered a child with one of them -- among the more than 40 he is believed to have sired with various women.

After his father's death, Yusuf Bey IV seized control by killing off his rivals, including one of his brothers.

He proceeded to run the family business into the ground and sow terror.

His oversized ego made him think he could get away with killing Bailey. I suspect he might have succeeded were it not for the reporters on the Chauncey Bailey project who unearthed important leads that law enforcement had not pursued.

Peele presents an unvarnished picture of Bailey. He was not the great journalist some claimed after his death.

He had in fact been fired from the Tribune for ethical lapses. He was a human being with flaws.

"It's not like they killed Bob Woodward, but that doesn't matter," Peele says. "What matters is they killed a reporter who was trying in his own way to speak truth to power."

Thomas Peele will discuss "Killing the Messenger" at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 at Diesel Books, 5433 College Ave., in Oakland.

Exhibit Marvin X continues this Saturday, February 11, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. For reservations, please call 510-575-2225. Dr. J. Vern Cromatie, chair of the sociology program at Contra Costa College will discuss Marvin X's brief tenure at UC Berkeley.

Aries Jordan Reports on Exhibit Marvin X at Berkeley High

2012-02-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

Today I accompanied my mentor Marvin X to promote the exhibit showcasing his Archives of the Black arts movement of the 1960’s until now. We went to Berkeley Continuation School to show students themselves in the Berkeley Post article. We then went to Berkeley high to visit the Black studies department. There we met Dr. McKnight of the Black studies department. Berkeley high was the first high school in the United States to have a black studies program. Dr. McKnight asked Marvin and I to speak to the class and share poetry.

Marvin spoke about the importance of Archives. For many archives is a foreign concept. Archives are documents and records kept over time. Marvin mentioned that when most of our family members die, we go straight for the gold and trinkets and throw away the papers. For example, when the secretary of the Oakland NAACP transitioned, the State NACCP correspondence from the 1920’s til the present was found in the trash. Family records, journals, diaries and letters are invaluable and are important in documenting our collective history. He encouraged students to keep their letters, emails and diaries because the world wants to know how you survived during this time, what we were thinking and what was happening in our world.But far too many of us we view our lives as invaluable and inherently don't see their life as part of history. Marvin emphasized the urgent need for students to recognize that they are history makers.

He then proceeded to read his Yes poem which discussed our auto response of No to any question, but yes being the language of infinite possibilities, of divinity. I read my poem entitled Know Your Status which promotes HIV testing and awareness. The students enjoyed our poetry and want us to come back. The Marvin X exhibit opens this Saturday and will be open through the end of February on Friday 7-10, suggested donation $20 no one turned away for lack of funds. Hope to see you there!

On Saturday, Feb 11, Dr. J Vern Cromartie will discuss his relationship with Marvin X. He first read the writings of Marvin X when he was 14, growing up in Waycross, Georgie. Cromartie is head of the Sociology program at Contra Costa College. He will discuss a research paper he wrote on Marvin X's brief tenure at UC Berkeley. The permanent archives of Marvin X were acquired by the Bancroft library at UCB.

Journey to Womanhood

by Aries Jordan

Black Bird Press Publishing, Berkeley

Adam Turner, Layout and Design Editor

Journey to Womanhood by Aries Jordan

Review by Marvin X

Aries Jordan is a shaman lady in training, thus she is beyond poetry, though she uses the form to express her wondrous spiritual explorations, delving into the metaphysical world beneath the surface of our everyday reality. We know the self is the actual macrocosm, reality the microcosm, so while Aries addresses the mundane, it is only to take us deep down into the self, that self most of us fear to examine, making our lives, yes, worthless.

She weaves her stories in a kind of prose/poetry that some may call a confusion of form, but it is simply an attempt to grapple with the language that is often incapable of giving expression to the North American African soul, so long caged and confounded that we call it a psycholinguistic crisis, the struggle of a colonized being seeking liberation.

Thus form is not relevant, the process is not more important than the product. Her poem/stories affirm that shaman lady we mentioned at the top. The poems/stories question the life she has encountered in the 23 years, although do not be fooled by ageism, alas, she is much older than 23 in the spiritual clock. This is the wisdom of a child, but similar to that child who taught in the temple when he was twelve. She has already traveled the world on the Scholar Ship, made her journey from coast to coast in the USA, and is being mentored closely on her Journey to Womanhood by myself.

She recalls when I met her at Oakland’s Art and Soul Festival, I immediately made her audition for mentorship by having her read one of my poems. She passed my test in flying colors but it was some months before she accepted my mentorship. When she did decide to come around my Academy of da Corner, her first task was to publish this collection which she did in less than a week. This task was achieved only because of her determination to move ahead. The result is that she has advanced on her Journey to Womanhood by commenting on world events, personal confessions and observations, speaking to the elders and demanding a reply; talking about life in Cali as she walked in her stiletto shoes; questioning those who say they are only doing their job. Those charged with crimes against humanity during the Nazi horror said the same when they faced trial!

But we must say Aries cannot be understood solely by this literary creation, for it only reveals a small section of her awesome spiritual personality. Another dimension is revealed when she reads her words, and another when she promotes and sells her book, for she is a hustler supreme, very much like myself, who understands no part of no, persisting until the customer breaks down to buy her book. But her product is no scam, it is the real deal holyfield of truth from a child moving fast into full womanhood.
Enjoy!

--Marvin X, Publisher, Black Bird Press
11/14/11

Exhibit Marvin X presents Dr. J. Vern Cromartie

2012-02-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

Poet June Jordan, UCB (RIP)

Dr. Barbara Christian, UCB (RIP)

Dr. VeVe Clark, UCB (RIP)

Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Chair of the Sociology program at Richmond's Contra Costa College, first read Marvin X at the age of 14, while growing up in Waycross, Georgia. The poet's writings have inspired him ever since.

When Marvin X taught drama at Oakland's Laney College, 1981, Dr. Cromartie took his class that produced In the Name of Love, a musical drama by the poet. His 2011 drama Mythology of Love is an updated version of the Laney production.

As part of his research, Dr. Cromartie presented a paper on Marvin X's brief tenure as a lecturer in the Black Studies Department at University of California, Berkeley, 1972. The department was purged of radicals like Marvin X and delivered to "tenured negroes" or "careerists" who teach a white supremacy version of black studies, a traditional academic approach that eliminates the community connection.

And yet when several black professors made their transitions due to the hostile work environment, their friends bemoaned the fact that these professors, June Jordan, VeVe Clark and Barbara Christian, were disconnected from community as well as working in a hostile, white supremacy environment. Dr. Nathan Hare, founder of Ethnic Studies, would say they suffered from the Addiction to White Spremacy Type II. See Marvin X's How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Mitchell El, Black Bird Press, Berkeley.

Dr. Cromartie documents Marvin's trials and tribulations as a lecturer in the UCB hostile environment. Marvin lectured with only an A.A. degree but was supposedly banned from teaching at Fresno State University in 1969 because he wasn't qualified, though no degree is required to teach in the college and/or university system. The real reason Gov. Ronald Reagan told the State College Board of Trustees to get Marvin off campus was because he had refused to fight in the Vietnam war. After two exiles, Marvin X was deported from Belize, Central America and returned to America. He spent five months at Terminal Island Federal Prison.

A poet himself, Dr. Vern will also read his poems dedicated to the Master Poet, called the USA's Rumi (Bob Holman) and Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland (Ishmael Reed). Rudolph Lewis says, "He's one of America's great storytellers, maybe second to Mark Twain. Of course, I'd place Marvin X ahead of him even."

Dr. Cromartie's lecture/discussion/reading is Saturday, February 11, 7pm, Black Bird Press Publishing House, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Seating is limited, call 510-575-2225 for reservations.
Dr. Oba T'Shaka, professor emeritus, Black Studies, San Francisco State University

Norman Brown, Community Organizer

On February 18, Dr. Oba T'Shaka and community organizer Norman Brown will discuss the John Douimbia papers (part of Exhibit Marvin X). John Douimbia was a mentor to Marvin X, Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown. He was a voice in the Bay Area civil rights and black power movement. In 1980, Marvin X planned and organized the Black Men's Conference at the direction of John Douimbia, who had long seen the need for a secular organization of black men, had even presented the idea to his Harlem hustling buddy, Malcolm X after he joined the Nation of Islam. As we know, Malcolm followed John's concept after breaking from the NOI. He formed the Organization of Afro-American unity. If possible, this discussion may be joined by Will Ussery and Charlie Walker, two additional associates of John Douimbia. Will Ussery was the leader of CORE and a director of the poverty program. Charlie Walker is a businessman and social activist.
Charlie Walker, businessman,
social activist, "mayor of hunters point," and close friend of former
SF Mayor Willie Brown.

From the Archives: Black History is World History

2012-02-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

From the Archives: Black History Is World History

By

Marvin X

Before the Earth was
I was
Before time was
I was
you found me not long ago
and called me Lucy
I was four million years old
I had my tools beside me
I am the first man
call me Adam
I walked the Nile from Congo to Delta
a 4,000 mile jog
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I lived in the land of Canaan
before Abraham, before Hebrew was born
I am Canaan, son of Ham
I laugh at Arabs and Jews
fighting over my land
I lived in Saba, Southern Arabia
I played in the Red Sea
dwelled on the Persian Gulf
I left my mark from Babylon to Timbuktu
When Babylon acted a fool, that was me
I was the fool
When Babylon fell, that was me
I fell
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I was the first European
call me Negrito and Grimaldi
I walked along the Mediterranean from Spain to Greece
Oh, Greece!Why did you kill Socrates?
Why did you give him the poison hemlock?
Who were the gods he introduced
corrupting the youth of Athens?
They were my gods, black gods from Africa
Oh, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
Whose philosophy did you teach
that was Greek to the Greeks?
Pythagoras, where did you learn geometry?
Democritus, where did you study astronomy?
Solon and Lycurgus, where did you study law?
In Egypt, and Egypt is Africa
and Africa is me
I am the burnt face, the blameless Ethiopian
Homer told you about in the Iliad
Homer told you about Ulysses, too,
a story he got from me.
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I am the first Chinese
China has my eyes
I am the Aboriginal Asian
Look for me in Vietnam, Cambodia & Thailand
I am there, even today, black and beautiful
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I used to travel to America
long before Columbus
came to me asking for directions
Americo Vespucci
on his voyage to America
saw me in the Atlantic
returning to Africa
America was my home
Before Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Inca & Olmec
I was hereI came to Peru 20,000 years ago
I founded Mexico City
See my pyramids, see my cabeza colosal
in Vera Cruz and Yucatan
that's me
I am the Mexican
for I am mixed with all men
and all men are mixed with me
I am the most just of men
I am the most peaceful
who loves peace day and night
Sometimes I let tyrants devour me
sometimes people falsely accuse me
sometimes people crucify me
but I am ever returning I am eternal, I am universal
Africa is my home
Asia is my home
Americas is my home
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY

This poem was written circa 1980.

Suggested reading list

The complete works of J.A. Rogers
The World and Africa, W.E.B. DuBois
Stolen Legacy, George M. James
The African Origin of the Major Religions, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Message to the Black Man, Elijah Muhammad
They Came before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima
"African Explorers in the New World, " Harold La.wrence,
Crisis, June-July, 1962. Heritage Program Reprint, p. 10
The Destruction of African Civilization, Chancellor Williams.
The Cultural Unity of Africa, Cheikh Anta Diop.
Man, God and Civilization, John G. Jackson

Exhibit Marvin X opens Saturday, February 4, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, off San Pablo Ave. For reservations, please call 510-575-2225.

Muhammad Al Kareem on Exhibit Marvin X

2012-02-02T08:34:00.000-08:00

Marvin X, circa 1972.
Hurriyah Asar (Ethna X) designed
and made his shirt of black
velvet with gold trimming.

Dr. Khalid Muhammad (RIP) loved to remind Marvin X he studied the poet's writings while in college. When he heard Huey Newton and Marvin X were on Crack, Khalid came to Oakland to search for them and save them. Marvin was so drugged out when brothers told him Dr. Khalid was looking for him, he didn't know who they were talking about.

Muhammad Al-Kareem on Exhibit Marvin X

Living Black History--

I first met Marvin X in Chicago in front of the old Temple #2, while working for Muhammad Speaks Newspaper (John Woodford was the Editor)--I think in 1969. The FBI was still looking for Brother Marvin X at time of our brief meeting.... I, being so naive with Temple politics, heard that the Poet, Writer and Revolutionary Marvin X was a bad influence on believers at Temple #26.

You had to have known about this type of censorship in order to determine the real from the unreal. Those days manifested my Revolutionary influence. The revolutionary brothers were labeled hypocrites. Like the Brothers Ishmalah who made Fezes at his shop on Fillmore and Bush Streets in SF, and Yusuf Bey at the Black Muslim Bakery, and Minister RT X (Aaron Ali) who had run with Messenger in the early days. More NOI politics!

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
and wife Clara. She held the Nation
together while he ran from black devils
for seven years and spent five years in
prison for draft evasion and sedition.
He was apart from his family a total of
12 years.

Exhibit Marvin X opens Saturday, February 4, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Call 510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited. No one turned away, donation $20.00 adults; seniors/students $10.00.

Exhibit Marvin X Opens with Lecture by Ayodele Nzinga, MA, MFA

2012-01-31T07:44:00.001-08:00

Saturday, February 4th, 7-10pm

Ayodele Nzinga, MA, MFA, will discuss her thirty year artistic relationship with Marvin X. Ayodele directed Marvin X's 1981 production In the Name of Love at Laney College. She also directed his One Day in the Life, 1996-2001, the longest running Black drama in Northern California. Ayo is founder, producer and director of West Oakland's Lower Bottom Playaz.

As a student and associate of Marvin X, Ayo has suffered his "ordeal by fire" but will confess he has made her a better artist and woman. Although she has said he is the most misogynistic man in the world, she must confess he is known to surround himself with some of the most powerful women artist/activists in the Bay Area.
Phavia Kujichagulia

Last March he produced Women's History Month at the Joyce Gordon Gallery (Joyce Gordon is a powerful woman herself). The event titled Mythology of Love, A Womanhood Rite of Passage, included Ayo, Hunia Bradley, Phavia Kujichagulia, Tureada Mikell, Jerri Lange, Michelle LaChaux, Taliba, Aries Jordon, et al.

Jerri Lange

Dr. Julia Hare

Hunia

Alona Clifton

Revolutionary artist, Elizabeth Cattlett Mora

Ayo is well able to discuss the poet's personal and artistic life. Aside from the work of Marvin X, Ayo has produced the plays of Shakespeare, Opal Palmer Adisa, August Wilson and her own.

Exhibit Marvin X officially opens Saturday, Feb 4, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, off San Pablo Ave. Call 510-575-2225. Donation Adults: $20.00, Seniors/students $10.00, no one turned away but reservations only, space limited.
Marvin's Muse, Fahizah Alim

With his favorite musician,
Tarika Lewis

Exhibit Marvin X Lecture Series continues

Saturday, February 11th

Dr. J. Vern Cromartie

will deliver a paper on Marvin X's brief tenure at University of California, Berkeley. He was a student of Marvin X's at Laney College, 1981. Dr. Cromartie, a poet, is Chair of the Sociology Department at Contra Costa College, Richmond CA.

Saturday, February 18th

Dr. Oba T'Shaka

San Francisco State University Professor emeritus, Dr. Oba T'Shaka, and community organizer, Norman Brown, will discuss Marvin X's mentor, the Honorable John Douimbia. The John Douimbia papers are part of Exhibit Marvin X.

Norman K. Brown

Saturday, February, 25th

Marvin X will read from his selected writings, along with Aries Jordan and Toya Carter. Mechelle LaChaux will perform Marvin X's Woman on the Cell Phone.

Poets Toya Carter, Marvin X and Aries Jordan perform at memorial
for Geronimo Ji Jaga at Defermery Park.

Living Black History: Exhibit Marvin X

2012-01-25T15:28:00.000-08:00

Marvin X organized Bay Area Writers/
Chauncey Bailey Book Fair at Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland

photo Adam Turner and Gene Hazzard

Another MX production was the 75th birthday celebration for poet Amiri Baraka at the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center. Dancers Linda Johnson, Raynetta Rayzetta and drummers Val Serrant and Tamani gave Baraka a praise dance, local poets praised him in poetry. "Black Studies went to college but never came home" was the theme of a panel discussion, participants included Dr. Jimmy Garett, Abdul Sabry, Rev. George Murray,
Dr. Dorothy Tsuruta, Amiri Baraka, Marvin X and Cecil Brown.

The Poet performed at Alameda County Juvenile Hall for Xmas, 2011, along with Rev. Blandon Reems, Aires Jordan and Toya Carter.
photo Adam Turner

Ever since graduating from high school in 1962, Marvin X has been on the war path for black liberation. After graduation, he enrolled at Oakland's Merritt College where his classmates were Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, co-founders of the Black Panther Party. They turned Marvin onto Black Nationalism, although his parents were publishers of the Fresno Voice, a black newspaper in Fresno, the central valley town between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA, friend
and associate. Along with Dr. Nathan Hare,
Suzzette facilitated Black Reconstruction,
a mental health peer group, the prototype for
Marvin X's How to Recover from the Addiction
to White Supremacy mental health peer group
based on his manual How to Recover from
White Supremacy, A Pan African, 12 Step Model.

His father was a Race man, a social activist involved with the NAACP and other social organizations such as the Masons and American legion. His dad had fought in WWI and while in Los Angeles, saw Marcus Garvey. His mother became a follower of Christian Science, a disciple of Mary Baker Eddy. There was no medicine cabinet in his mother's house. She believed the "truth" would set you free of all
dis-ease.

Marvin's earliest memories are sitting in his parents newspaper office pecking at the typewriter and selling the Fresno Voice on the street. He later sold the Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender and Detroit Black Dispatch. The family moved to Oakland when his father lost his real estate license due to gambling(with other people's money) . His father became a florist immortalized in Marvin's first play Flowers for the Trashman. The family lived in the back of the florist shop on 7th and Campbell in West Oakland. Marvin attended McFeely, Prescott, St. Patrick and Lowell Jr. High.

Poet, Critic, Professor Sherley Ann Williams
(RIP)

He graduated with honors from Edison High in Fresno, along with poet/critic Sherley A. Williams (RIP), who was his girlfriend and the woman his mother said he should have married. But he fell in love with a Catholic school girl, Patricia Smith, mother of his two sons Marvin K. and Darrel (RIP).

At Merritt College he made the basketball team and won a short story contest, but more importantly, he received a heavy dose of black nationalism from Huey, Bobby, Richard Thorne, Ernie Allen, Ann Williams, Kenny and Carol Freeman, all of whom were associated with Donald Warden's African American Association. Since there was no Black Studies, Marvin and his comrades did independent study in peer groups, often rapping on the steps of Merritt College and at conscious parties. They studied such texts as Facing Mt. Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta, Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon, Black Bourgeoisie by E. Franklin Frazier, History Will Absolve Me by Fidel Castro, Neo-colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah. Of course, Malcolm X was their hero. Marvin heard him speak before seven thousand students at UC Berkeley's Sproul Hall, 1964, and later than night at the mosque on Henry Street in West Oakland.

Although he didn't know it, his comrades recognized his writing talents and were bemused at his intelligence and wisdom at a young age. But in his first private meeting with Huey Newton, Newton asked him, "What is your program?" This meeting took place at Richard Thorne's room when Richard showed Huey Marvin's writings. Marvin had no idea what Huey was talking about since he was a budding writer, not a theoretician. Ironically, Huey would later claim the poet as one of his teachers who brought several BPP leaders into the BPP, including Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier.

As recruiter, Marvin also influenced the Nation of Islam when he was asked to fish his friend, Bobby Jones, into the Nation. Bobby Jones became director of imports. Elijah renamed him Nadar Ali.

He transferred to San Francisco State College, now University, in 1964, joining the Negro Student Association, renamed Black Student Union, and helped lay the ground for the first Black Studies program on a major white college campus. It came about in 1968 after the longest student strike in American history, although Marvin was in Harlem in 1968, now a mover and shaker in the Black Arts Movement, having dropped out of college in 1965 to establish his own theater in the Fillmore, along with playwright Ed Bullins and others.

Black Dialogue editors: Aubrey Labrie, Marvin X, Abdul Sabry, Al Young, Arthur Sheridan, Duke Williams

On a visit to Soledad prison in 1966, he met Eldridge Cleaver and Bunchy Carter when the staff of Black Dialogue magazine addressed the black culture club. This club was the beginning of the modern prison movement in America. Upon his release from prison, Marvin was the first person Eldridge Cleaver hooked up with and they organized Black House, a political/cultural center.
Bobby Seale attended Marvin X's
Black History event at the Joyce
Gordon Gallery, Oakland, Feb. 2011.
Gene Hazzard photo

Bobby Seale simultaneously blames Marvin for keeping Eldridge from the BPP and for dumping Eldridge on the BPP. See Bobby Seale's Seize the Time, Eldridge's Post-Prison Writings and Marvin X's My friend the Devil, a memoir of Eldridge Cleaver.

Eldridge Cleaver and his best friend, Bunchy Carter who,
along with John Huggins, was assassinated in the BSU
meeting room at UCLA by members of the US organization.

Fly to Allah, Marvin's first collection of poetry, is now considered the beginning of modern Muslim American literature. Just as the poets in the Harlem Renaissance were influenced by Marcus Garvey, the Black Arts Movement was deeply influenced by the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X.

When Eldridge Cleaver returned from exile, Marvin helped organized his Born Again ministry, traveling with EC throughout America, Canada and Jamaica. Eldridge, Huey Newton and Marvin X became addicted to Crack. Marvin's play, One Day in the Life, documents his last meeting with Huey in a West Oakland Crack house. When Eldridge made his transition, Marvin officiated his memorial service in Oakland. Eldridge had died, May 1, 1998, the same day Marvin's autobiography Somethin' Proper was released. Somethin' Proper is a classic autobiography of the Black Arts Movement, along with Amiri Baraka's and Haki Madhubuti's.

Since recovering from Crack, Marvin has written at least twenty books, produced events such as the Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, 2001, at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair,2004. His latest drama is Mythology of Love, produced in 2011 at Oakland's Joyce Gordon Gallery. His Academy of da Corner Reader's theatre also performed The Wisdom of Plato Negro at the San Francisco Theatre Festival.

Hurriyah Asar, Marvin's
longtime friend from the
Black Arts Movement

Other projects include Recovery Theatre, Academy of da Corner (he occupies the northeast corner of 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland), First Poets Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists (in planning) and the David Blackwell Institute of Art, Math and Science ( in planning).

Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb and Marvin X have been friends since childhood. Both grew up in West Oakland.
They are standing at Marvin X's Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Ishmael Reed calls him "Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."
Paul and Marvin say the chief role of the Oakland Police Department in the murder of Post Editor, Chauncey Bailey, was thrown under the rug at the trial. As publisher of the Post, Paul was never called to testify on the work his editor was doing, which included investigating the police and City Hall under Mayor Jerry Brown, now Governor.

Exhibit Marvin X runs Saturdays, 7-10pm, through February. It is located at 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA. Please make reservations, space is limited. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Black Bird Press Publishing House
1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702

Exhibit Marvin X Lecture Series

Tentative Schedule

Saturdays, 7-10pm, during February

During February, students and associates of Marvin X will discuss their relationship with the poet and read from his selected writings and their own. The poet will entertain questions from the audience on his life and times.

There will be a special lecture/discussion on Marvin X's mentor, the Honorable John Douimbia, founder of the Black Men's Conference, 1980. The exhibit will display the John Douimbia papers. He was a Bay Area legend who played a critical role in shaping the Bay Area Black Power movement in general and the Black Men's Movement in particular. Professor emeritus Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown will discuss John Douimbia, an associate of Malcolm X during their hustling days in Harlem. Malcolm asked John to help expand San Francisco Mosque #26. John agreed but also wanted a secular organization of Black men. Marvin X became the chief planner for John's 1980 Black Men's Conference at the Oakland Auditorium, 15 years before the Million Man March.

As we know, when Malcolm departed the Nation of Islam, he understood the need for John's secular organization, thus he formed the OAAU or Organization of African American Unity. Norman Brown, also an associate of Mr. Douimbia, will join Professor Oba T'Shaka's lecture/discussion.

Elijah and Malcolm X

Saturday, February 4th, 7-10pm

Ayodele Nzinga, MA, MFA, will discuss her thirty year artistic relationship with Marvin X. Ayodele directed Marvin X's 1981 production In the Name of Love at Laney College. She also directed his One Day in the Life, 1996-2001, the longest running Black drama in Northern California. Ayo is founder and director of West Oakland's Lower Bottom Playaz.

Saturday, February 11th

Dr. J. Vern Cromartie

will deliver a paper on Marvin X's brief tenure at University of California, Berkeley. He was a student of Marvin X's at Laney College, 1981. Dr. Cromartie, a poet, is Chair of the Sociology Department at Contra Costa College, Richmond CA.

Saturday, February 18th

Dr. Oba T'Shaka

San Francisco State University Professor emeritus, Dr. Oba T'Shaka, and community organizer, Norman Brown, will discuss Marvin X's mentor, the Honorable John Douimbia. The John Douimbia papers are part of Exhibit Marvin X.

Norman K. Brown

Saturday, February, 25th

Marvin X will read from his selected writings, along with Aries Jordan and Toya Carter. Mechelle LaChaux will perform Marvin X's Woman on the Cell Phone.

510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited. Group rates available for schools, colleges, organizations.

Admission: Adults $20.00/Seniors/Students $10.00. No one turned away for lack of funds.

1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, between San Pablo and Sacramento Avenues. In the rear.

Berkeley High Students (B-Tech) Enjoy Exhibit Marvin X

The life and times of a North American African Poet

L to R: Muhammad Ali, Hon. Elijah Muhammad, Dr. Angela Davis, professor, author, activist

Marvin X joined the Nation of Islam in 1967, Mosque #26, San Francisco. Along with Muhammad Ali, Marvin X resisted the draft to Vietnam. Marvin X went into exile, then Federal Prison.

In 1969, Angela Davis was banned from teaching at UCLA. The same year, Marvin X was banned from teaching at Fresno State University by Gov. Ronald Reagan, who told the State College Board of Trustees to get Marvin X off campus by any means necessary! Ironically, in 1972 he was hired to lecture in Black Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Hosts Aries Jordan and Toya Carter read from
the selected writings of master poet Marvin X.
He is their mentor and published their
collections of poetry Journey to Womanhood, Aries Jordan, and
I'm Already Famous, Toya Carter, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2011.

Still the undisputed king of black consciousness! And it is gratifying in an era of the sellout, the faint hearted and the fallen, to see that Marvin X is one black man who met the white man in the center of the ring and walked with him to the corners of psycho-social inequity, grappling with him through the bowels of the earth, yet remains one black man the white man couldn't get!
—Dr. Nathan Hare

One of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing.
--Amiri Baraka

His writing is orgasmic!—Fahizah Alim, Sacramento Bee

His language is so strong it will knock the socks off old ladies!—Wanda Sabir,
San Francisco New Bay View Newspaper

Marvin X! Marvin X! Marvin X! Marvelous Marvin X!
--Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University

Muslim American literature begins with Marvin X.—Dr. Mohja Kahf, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

He’s Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland. -–Ishmael Reed

When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express black male urban experiences in a lyrical way.
—James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer

Marvin X is the poorest famous person I ever met.—Toya Carter

He is the most free black man in non-free America! He walked through the muck and mire of hell but came out clean as white fish and black as coal.—James Sweeney

Marvin X was my teacher! Many of our comrades came through his Black theatre, e.g., Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Emory Douglas, George Murray, Samuel Napier...."
--Dr. Huey P. Newton, co-founder, Black Panther Party

Students are shocked to hear the funky style of Marvin X.
"His language is so strong it will knock the socks off old ladies."
--Wanda Sabir, San Francisco New Bayview Newspaper

Black Arts West banner signals Marvin X's role in
the Black Arts Movement on the West coast, although
he was also in Harlem in1968, working with playwright
Ed Bullins at the New Lafayette Theatre. His associates
included Askia Toure, Amiri Baraka, Sun Ra, Nikki Giovanni,
Sonia Sanchez, Larry Neal, Milford Graves, Haki Madhubuti,
Last Poets, et al. Marvin was also associated with the Black
Panther Party, Nation of Islam, Black Student Union at San
Francisco State University and Black Studies.

Students Listen intently as
Marvin X narrates his Exhibit

Shanika facing
camera, Marlene
with back turned

Left to right: Marlene, Ramal, Jordan, James, Marvin, Jahkyl, Tee-Tee, Shanika, Julian, Janye, Aries.

Exhibit Marvin X opened on Friday, January 13, with students from Berkeley High (B-Tech). They enjoyed the exhibit, hosted by Marvin X's student writers, Aries Jordan and Toya Carter. The students were accompanied by Math teacher Ramal Lamar, a student at Marvin X's Academy of da Corner. Ramal is a graduate student in Math at Cal State Eastbay. The Master Poet narrated his exhibit. Aries Jordan and Toya Carter read from his selected writings.

Exhibit Marvin X is open by appointment during January. It officially opens in February on Saturday evenings 7-10pm, reservations only, space limited. Call 510-575-2225.

This is a rare opportunity to view the archives of an internationally known poet called "USA's Rumi," and one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical artistic and literary movement in American history. Marvin X was associated with the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, the Black Student movement and Black Studies. The author of 30 books, his early writings appeared in the major black radical publications during the 60s, i.e., Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Black Theatre, Journal of Black Poetry, Negro Digest/Black World, Black Scholar and Muhammad Speaks. From time to time he writes in the Oakland Post newspaper and maintains several blogs on the internet. His archives were acquired by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Exhibit Marvin X feature his personal archives and will be shown at Black Bird Press Publishing House, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley.

Exhibit Marvin X

Living Black History

The Life and Times of a North American African Poet ( Born May 29,1944--)

The archives of poet, playwright, essayist, educator, producer, organizer, activist Marvin X
on exhibit at Black Bird Press Publishing House 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Refreshments, Q and A, and book signing included.

Schedule

During February, the students and associates of Marvin X will discuss their relationship with the poet and read from his selections writings and their own.

February, Saturdays, 7-10pm

4th

Ayodele Nzinga will discuss her thirty year artistic relationship with Marvin X. Ayodele directed Marvin X's 1981 production In the Name of Love at Laney College. She also directed his One Day in the Life, 1996-2001, the longest running Black drama in Northern California. Ayo is founder and director of West Oakland's Lower Bottom Playaz.

11th

Dr. J. Vern Cromartie will deliver a paper on Marvin X's brief tenure at University of California, Berkeley. He was a student of Marvin X's at Laney College, 1981. Dr. Cromartie, a poet, is Chair of the Sociology Department at Contra Costa College, Richmond CA.

18th

Dr. Oba T'Shaka, professor emeritus at San Francisco State University, and community activist Norman Brown will discuss the Honorable John Douimbia.
Ancestor John mentored Marvin X, Oba T'Shaka, Norman Brown and many other Bay Area activists. He was a friend of Malcolm X in his Harlem hustling days. Marvin X is displaying the John Douimbia Papers as part of Exhibit Marvin X.

25th

Marvin X will read from his selected writings. Mechelle LaChaux will perform Marvin X's Woman on the Cell Phone.
Saturdays, 7-10 pm

510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited. Group rates available for schools, colleges, organizations.

Admission: Adults $20.00/Seniors/Students $10.00. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Exhibit Marvin X

Biography

Marvin Jackmon, aka Marvin X, El Muhajir, was born in Fowler, CA, May 29, 1944 and grew up in Fresno and Oakland. He attended Merritt College and San Francisco State University where he received a BA and MA in English. He taught English, African American literature, drama, journalism, creative writing, technical writing, etc. at Fresno State University, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, UC San Diego, University of Nevada, Reno; Mills College, Merritt and Laney Colleges. He is one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and considered the father of Muslim American literature. He teaches at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. He claims to travel with ten people at all times. These people are invisible.

Awards and Honors

Columbia University writing fellowship
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship
National Endowment for the Humanities planning grants
San Francisco Arts Commission
Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission
Marin County Board of Supervisors grant
Lifetime Achievement Award from Los Angeles Black Book Expo
Inspired Artist Award from the Full Vision Foundation

Chronology

1944 Born May 29, 1944, Fowler, CA. Parents Owendell and Marian M. Jackmon, who published a Black newspaper in the Central Valley, The Fresno Voice. Siblings include Ollie, Donna, Judy, Debbie, Ann, Gayle, Suzzette, Tommy.
1962 Graduated with honors from Edison High, Fresno. Childhood friend: poet, critic, professor Sherley A. Williams (RIP)
1962 First son, Marvin K, born to Patricia Smith. Marries Patricia Smith.
1962 Attended Oakland’s Merritt College with Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, founders of the Black Panther Party.
1964 Attended San Francisco State University, first play produced by the drama department, Flowers for the Trashman. Studied under novelist John Gardner and Leo Litwak. Beat Poet Kenneth Rexroth called him “the best playwright to hit San Francisco State.”
1966 Drops out of college to establish Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore with playwright Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt, Duncan Barber, Hillery Brodous, Carl Bossiere. Actor Danny Glover performed at his Black Arts West Theatre. Bobby Seale performed in his play Come Next Summer.
1967 Established Black House, political/culture center with Eldridge Cleaver, Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt. Flees to Toronto, Canada to resist draft to Vietnam war.
1968 Returns underground to Chicago, Harlem, New York. Joins Ed Bullins at New Lafayette Theatre. Key mover and shaker of the Black Arts Movement, along with Amiri Baraka, Sun Ra, Askia Toure, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti, Last Poets. Associate Editor of Black Theatre magazine, Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Journal of Black Poetry. Contributed to Muhammad Speaks newspaper, Negro Digest/Black World, Black Scholar.
1969 Arrested returning from Montreal, Canada, returns to California to stand trial for refusing to fight in Vietnam. Attempted to lecture in Black Studies at Fresno State University, removed on orders from Governor Ronald Reagan.
1970 Flees into second exile, Mexico City and Belize. Marries FSU student Barbara Hall in Mexico City. Deported from Belize to US, convicted of draft evasion, spends
Five months in San Francisco County Jail and Terminal Island Federal Prison.
1971 First daughter, Nefertiti born.
1972 Establishes Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco’s Fillmore, works with Sun Ra’s Arkestra; lectures at UC Berkeley. Daughter Muhammida born to UC student, Nisa El Muhajir (Greta Pope), marries Nisa in Muslim tradition.
1972 With NEA fellowship, travels to Guyana, South America, interviews Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, published in Muhammad Speaks and Black Scholar.
1973 Daughter Amira born to Barbara Hall.
1974 Graduates from San Francisco State University, BA in English. Lectures in Black Studies, Radio and television writing.
1975 Earns MA in English. Visiting professor at UC San Diego.
1977 Becomes Eldridge Cleaver’s chief of staff, organizes his Born Again Christian ministry.
1979 Lectures at University of Nevada, Reno: English, Creative writing, Technical writing. Planner for Community Services Agency.
1979 Organizes Melvin Black Human Rights Conference to stop Oakland Police from killing black men. Invites Minister Farakhan, Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton. Five thousand attend. Police killing stops, drive by killings begin, introduction of Crack cocaine by US Government.
1980 Organized Black Men’s Conference at Oakland Auditorium. Mentored by John Douimbia.
1981 Taught Drama and English at Merritt and Laney Colleges. Produced play In the Name of Love at Laney. Meets Marsha Satterfield (RIP). Lectures at Kings River College, retires from Academic teaching with 97% student retention rate.
1984-95 Addicted to Crack Cocaine. Recovery assisted by Rev. Cecil Williams at Glide Church, San Francisco. Transition of Marsha Satterfield at 41.
1995 Published poems, Love and War.
1996 Establishes Recovery Theatre with Geoffery Grier and Ayodele Nzingha. Writes and produces One Day in the Life, docudrama of addiction and recovery, longest running African American drama in the Bay. Includes scene of last meeting with Black Panther Huey P. Newton in Oakland Crack house. Playwright Ed Bullins writes one-act play of this scene Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam, produced in New York by Woody King, Jr.
1998 Published autobiography Somethin’ Proper, a classic of the Black Arts Movement.
Performs memorial service for Eldridge Cleaver. Meets Suzzette Johnson, social worker.
2001 Produced Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness Concert at San Francisco State University, included Askia Toure, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Julia Hare and Nathan Hare,
Dr. Theophile Obenga, Dr. Cornel West, Rev. Cecil Williams, Rev. Andreatte Earl, Ishmael Reed, Kalamu ya Salaam, Phavia Khujichagulia, Ayodele Nzinga, Destiny, Tarika Lewis, Marvin X, et. al.
2002 Suicide of son, Darrel P. Jackmon (RIP), suffered manic depression. Marvin X flees to mountain retreat, spends five years in solitude. Writes In the Crazy House Called America, Wish I Could Tell You the Truth, essays, Land of My Daughters, poems, Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality.
2004 Produced Black Radical Book Fair in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco.
2006 Archives acquired by Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
2007 Writes How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy in Beaufort, South Carolina at home of Ethna X. Wyatt (Hurriyah Asar) from BAM. Assassination of journalist Chauncey Bailey by OPD and Black Muslim Bakery brothers.
2009 Writes memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil, in three weeks. Published each chapter on the internet daily.
2010 Writes eight books.
2011 Produces shows at Joyce Gordon Gallery: Black History, Women’s History, drama Mythology of Love. Mentors poets Aries Jordan and Toya Carter. Daughter Muhammida produced Keyshia Cole Day in Oakland. Daughter, Attorney Amira Jackmon, gives birth to Marvin’s seventh grandchild, Naeemah Joy. Daughter Nefertiti writes essay in Oakland Post on father’s 67th birthday. Marvin X in anthology Black California. Performs at Alameda County Juvenile Hall. Paul Cobb and the Oakland Post Newspaper pays Bay Area Black Authors for 150 books donated to Juvenile Hall. His Academy of da Corner has occupied 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, for five years: a free speech zone, sacred space, mentoring center, mental health center, micro loan bank. Ishmael Reed says, “If you need inspiration and motivation, don’t spend all that money attending 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.” Marvin X maintains 20 blogs on the internet. Search Google. He is presently establishing the First Poets Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists and the Charles Blackwell Institute of Art, Math and Science.

2012 Planned books include Who Killed Chauncey Bailey, Revolution from Egypt to the Americas, Sweet Tea and Dirty Rice, poems, and Musings on Economics.

Bibliography

Sudan Rajuli Samia (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1967)
Black Dialectics (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1967)
Fly To Allah: Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Son of Man: Proverbs (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Black Man Listen: Poems and Proverbs (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1969)
Woman-Man's Best Friend (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1972)
Selected Poems (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1979)
Confession of A Wife Beater and Other Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1981)
Liberation Poems for North American Africans (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1982)
Love and War: Poems ( Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1995)
Somethin Proper: Autobiography (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1998)
In The Crazy House Called America: Essays (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 2002)
Wish I Could Tell You The Truth: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)
Land of My Daughters: Poems (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)
Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, Black Bird Press, 2007
How to Recover from White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, 2007
My Friend the Devil: A Memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, Black Bird Press, 2009
The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Volume I,BBP, 2010
Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life, (Wisdom of Plato Negro, Volume II), BBP, 2010
Mythology of Love: Toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, BBP, 2010.
I Am Oscar Grant, essays on Oakland, BBP, 2010
Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself, essays on Obama Drama, BBP, 2010
Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, Guest Editor, Marvin X, BBP, 2010
Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box, BBP, 2010
Soulful Musings on Unity of North American Africans, BBP, 2010

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

Description

The Marvin X Papers document the life and work of playwright, poet, essayist, and activist Marvin X during the sixties, nineties and the first decade of the 21st Century. The papers include correspondence; Marvin X's writings; materials related to the Recovery Theatre; works by his children and colleagues; and resource files. Correspondence includes letters, cards, and e-mails; correspondents include Amiri Baraka, Dr. Nathan Hare, and other prominent African-American intellectuals. Marvin X's writings include notebooks, drafts, and manuscripts of poetry, novels, plays, essays, and planned anthologies. Documents from the Recovery Theatre include organizational and financial records and promotional material. Writings by others include essays, scripts, and academic papers by his three daughters. Resource files include academic articles, e-mails, flyers, news clippings and programs that contextualize and document Marvin X's involvement as an activist, intellectual, and literary figure in the African American community in the Bay Area in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Photographs include snapshots of family, friends, colleagues, and productions at the Recovery Theatre.

Background

Poet, playwright and essayist Marvin X was born Marvin E. Jackmon on May 29, 1944 in Fowler, California. He grew up in Fresno and Oakland, in an activist household. X attended Oakland City College (Merritt College), where he was introduced to Black Nationalism and became friends with future Black Panther founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. X earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from San Francisco State University and emerged as an important voice in the Black Arts Movement (BAM), the artistic arm of the Black Power movement, in the mid-to-late Sixties. X wrote for many of the BAM's key journals. He also co-founded, with playwright Ed Bullins and others, two of BAM's premier West Coast headquarters and venues - Oakland's Black House and San Francisco's Black Arts/West Theatre. In 1967, X joined the Nation of Islam and became known as El Muhajir. In the eighties, he organized the Melvin Black Forum on Human Rights and the first Annual All Black Men's Conference. He also served as an aide to former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and attempted to create the Marvin X Center for the Study of World Religions. In 1999, X founded San Francisco's Recovery Theatre. His production of "One Day in the Life," the play he wrote about his drug addiction and recovery, became the longest-running African-American drama in Northern California. In 2004, in celebration of Black History Month, X produced the San Francisco Tenderloin Book Fair (also known as the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair) and University of Poetry. X has taught Black Studies, drama, creative writing, journalism, English and Arabic at a variety of California universities and colleges. He continues to work as an activist, educator, writer, and producer.

Extent

Number of containers: 8 cartons, 1 box Linear feet: 10.2

Restrictions

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94270-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.

Availability

Collection is open for research.

Youth reading at Academy of Da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Gene Hazzard photo

Please support the many projects of the Marvin X Ministry with a generous donation, especially Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Send your generous donation to Marvin X, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702. Call 510-575-2225. email:jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.

Marvin X on Wall Street Part 1 WBAI Interview

2012-01-13T00:30:00.000-08:00

In this 2007,WBAI (New York) interview Marvin X discusses the Black Arts Movement and reads poetry. After the interview, the poet walked down Wall Street and read in front of the Stock Exchange, see Marvin X at Wall Street on youtube.

In My Classroom, Academy of da Corner

2011-11-15T14:20:00.000-08:00

In My Classroom

In my classroom
Murder over rap contest
Winner lost his life
Stumbled into book store
place of light
eternal darkness for him,
Brother Purple.

In my classroom
Police inspired assassination
Broad daylight, Alice and 14th
Chauncey Bailey went down
“The hand that pulled the trigger
Didn’t buy the bullet, “ Baldwin said
Of Malcolm’s killers
We say the same of Chauncey’s.
Killers mentored by OPD
Kill three
Police mentor goes free.
In my classroom
Oscar Grant rebellion in the streets
14th and Broadway
Where I teach
Occupy the corner
Academy of da corner
Life threatened daily
Teaching truth
Healing sick and broken hearted
Micro loan bank
Dollar for a burger
A coffee
Bus fare
Let the people vent trauma
Let them rant into morning air
Let them shout into my ear
“Fuck the peckerwood
Fuck the peckerwood.”

In my classroom
Occupy Oakland
Wall Street Oakland

Came from Summit hospital that Tuesday
After Visiting sister with stroke
Bus ends route at 20th and Broadway
Join marchers to 14th.
I am proud of them
Though they are mostly white
Hear police shout
“You have five minutes to disperse
Before chemical agent released.”
I knew stampede was coming
Took refuge in Burger King
Tear gas soon followed into Burger King
Eyes nose mouth burning
Marine Vet escaped Iraq
Shot in head by police.

In my classroom
Eyes of the world on Oakland
General Strike called
First since 1946
Nov. 2, 2011
Ten thousand march
Port of Oakland closed
Peace all day without police
Imagine a world with no police
Until night came
agent provocateurs rampage
Police in disguise.

In my classroom
Whites rush pass my book
How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy
Except white girl from Fresno, with boyfriend from Sanger
They buy the book
Even the occupation is white privilege
When have blacks camped in front of City Hall
When have blacks unloaded in bus zones
Without $350.00 ticket?

In my classroom
There is discussion
What do we want from Revolution
What part of the pie
What land
What self determination
What sovereignty
Or shall we again take bottom rung on the ladder
As Neo-Whites assume power.
And we are lost in the multi-cultural chasm.

In my classroom

A sacred space
Free speech zone
Teachers are students
Students are teachers
We only give the MF degree
If you pass the test
If you survive the police
If you survive the nigguhs
You a bad Motherfucker!
In my classroom.

Killers leap from a car
Like paratroopers
In Iraq
Run across the street to Occupy Oakland
Then pop pop pop pop
Man down
Shot in the head
Dead
In my classroom.
Rationale for closing the camp
Police set up for sure.
We are not fooled by black on black murder
The hands that pulled the trigger didn’t buy the bullet, Baldwin said.
Mayor Quan recalled
To be or not to be mayor
All Oakland mayors suffer this conundrum
Become history
Oakland dies slow death
OPD occupation
Consuming every dime
Solving no crime.
In my classroom
Cat and mouse games
Chase the mice
Run hide
Arrest the mice
Close the rat hole cats
Bring in cats from all around
Homeland Security money
No jobs no education no housing
Occupation occupation
Indigenous say don’t use the word
They/we been occupied 500 years
In my classroom.
I need a dollar for the bus
Gimme a dollar man!
Can’t get to my classroom
Monkey Mind Media takes over
Cameras lights cameras lies lies
Like flies lies lies
In my classroom.
Go home Monkey Mind Media
Go home OPD cats
Leave the mice alone
Let them eat cheese in peace.
In my classroom.
Will American go down like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Syria
Will America learn
In my classroom?
Will she study
Pass or fail the finals
In my classroom?

--Marvin X
10-6-11
Revised 11/14/11

Marvin X’s Academy of da Corner is at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Contact him for bookings, readings, performance of his Reader’s Theatre production Mythology of Love. 510-575-2225. jmarinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.

“If you want to learn about inspiration and motivation, don’t spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He’s Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.”—Ishmael Reed

“Marvin X is one of the innovators and founders of the revolutionary school of African writing.”—Amiri Baraka, aka LeRoi Jones

“Still the undisputed King of Black Consciousness.”—Dr. Nathan Hare

Marvin X on Wall Street Part 1 WBAI Interview

2011-11-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

Mythology of Love at Joyce Gordon Gallery, Fri and Sat

2011-11-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Mythology of Love
by Marvin X
Friday-Saturday, November 11-12, 8pm

Joyce Gordon Gallery
14th and Franklin, downtown Oakland
Donation $20.00/Students $10.00
No one turned away
Adult Language
Call 510-575-2225

Aries Jordan, Eternal Woman
Marvin X, Eternal Man

Mythology of Love

A womanhood/manhood poetic rite of passage

(Focus on partner violence and abuse)

Marvin X

writer, director, producer

Reader’s Theatre

(a project of Academy of da Corner,

14^th and Broadway, Oakland)

Mythology of Love empowered me. I didn’t know I had that much power.

--Young Sista

It helped me step up my game.—Young Brotha

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for writing this. I am going

To make my son and daughter read it.—A Mother

He’s the USA’s Rumi!—Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, NYC

He writes the most powerful drama I’ve seen. Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland—Ishmael Reed

His language is so strong it will knock the socks off old ladies!—Wanda Sabir, San Francisco Bay View Newspaper

His writing is orgasmic!—Fahizah Alim, Sacramento Bee

Mythology of Love is an honest account of how modern folk try to claim ownership of their mate’s sexual organ and body, thus causing many of the problems in relationships today throughout the world. Youth who otherwise don’t read, do read his Mythology of Love and even squabble over ownership, as if it were black gold!—Paradise Jah Love

Mythology of Love is based on a compilation of everything Marvin X has written over the past 40 years on psychosocial sexuality, including the 1981 drama In the Name of Love, which he performed while an instructor in the drama department at Oakland’s Laney College. There are those who will miss this opportunity to receive wisdom from our brother because of the language he uses and the perceived objectification of women and men. –Delores Nochi

Mythology of Love

Cast

Eternal Woman, Aries Jordan

Eternal Man, Marvin X,

The Other Woman, Latoya Carter

Parable of a Real Woman, Joyce Gordon

Woman on Cell Phone, vocals, Mechelle LaChaux

Parable of Woman in a Box, Latoya Carter, choreography, dance

Obama, Black Killer for White Supremacy

2011-10-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

Obama, Black Killer for White Supremacy

a fictional interview by Marvin X

MX: Mr. President, thank you again for allowing me this precious time to talk with you.

Prez: Marv, the pleasure is all mine.

MX: Mr. President, you are rapidly gaining the reputation as the black killer President.

Prez: That's a dubious honor, Marv. I certainly would label myself in that manner.

MX: Well, you took out Osama Ben Laden, Al Alaki and now Qaddafy.

Prez: I'm only trying to make America and the world safe for democracy.

MX: Are you preparing to eliminate the President of Syria, Assad?

Prez: We have no plans in that direction, of course if events continue to deteriorate in that nation, we may need to consider some type of action, in coordination with our friends in that region.

MX: Prez, your policy smells of selective action. You certainly are not thinking about taking out those repressive regimes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and elsewhere.

Prez: Well, we must think strategically. Those nations you mentioned are important to us in spite of certain human rights abuses, although we encourage them to extend more freedom to their populations.

MX: So your friends get a pass, is that it?

Prez: That's not the term I would use.

MX: Well it's clear those regimes are nowhere in your radar for radical change, especially as per taking out their leaders. But I want to know how you justify assassinating an American citizen without bringing charges against him in a court of law, considering you are a constitutional lawyer?

Prez: You're referring to Mr. Awlaki, of course.

MX: Yes, the man you took out in Yemen a few weeks ago.

Prez: He was an enemy combatant. He tried to killed American citizens. We had no choice but to go after him with all the weight of the American military.

MX: He didn't deserve a trial in a court of law?

Prez: In a normal situation, perhaps, but this war on terror has presented us with special circumstances.

MX: So do you envision the murder of other American citizens whom you deem a threat to the national security of the US?

Prez: It depends on the circumstances, the danger they pose to the American people.

MX: Have you not transcended former President Bush II in your interpretation of US law?

Prez: No, I'm only doing what I think is best to protect the American people.

MX: You seem to have this Manichean concept of good and evil in the world and that you represent good.

Prez: That is your view, not mine. I will say, as did President Bush, you are either with us or against us.

MX: And this includes American citizens as well, does it? No opposition allowed?

Prez: Marv, I think you're stretching it a bit. Of course, the American people have the right to differ with our policies.

MX: But you just murdered an American citizen, without trial, who differed with your policies.

Prez: He went to far.

MX: Who sets the limits, you, in the tradition of your predecessor Bush?

Prez: Circumstances establish the limits.

MX: Do circumstances supersede the US Constitution?

Prez: Not necessarily. We examine each situation on a case by case basis.

MX: Sir, now that you or NATO have eliminated Qaddafy in Libya, we see you are proceeding on an African campaign. You're quite ambitious and bold, don't you think?

Prez: Marv, I'm only doing what I think is right for the American people and the global community. You're referring to our intention to send troops to Uganda?

MX: Yes, and a few other African nations. Are you now the new King of Africa, especially with the demise of Qaddafy?

Prez: You have quite a sense of humor, Marv, but no, I don't desire to be the King of Africa, but I do desire to prevent mass slaughter in Africa. As a man of African heritage, I am deeply concerned about my people there.

MX: Not to cut you off, but you did receive the Nobel Peace Prize, yet you seem intent on continuing the permanent war policy of your predecessors, from Africa to Asia.

Prez: Don't you think the people of North Africa, specifically, Libya, have the possibility of a better future with the departure of Qaddafy. We all want peace, but sometimes there must be war to achieve peace. I appreciate the Nobel Prize, but I have a job to do, and my job is protecting American interests and human rights around the world.

MX: What about human rights in America? What about the two million men and women in prisons. Have you thought about giving a general amnesty to the mostly poor, ignorant, drug addicted and mentally ill who make up the majority of the prison population in America?

Prez: No I haven't.

MX: Why not?

Prez: I have other pressing issues, such as the economic situation.

MX: Don't you understand that many of those imprisoned were due to economic crimes, the type of crimes that the Wall Street protesters are presently fighting, including the call for a redistribution of wealth?

Prez: Marv, there are many reasons those two million people are in jail, but for the safety of the American people, we have no plans for a general amnesty.

MX: Do you see the Occupy Wall Street movement as a counterweight to the Tea Party movement?

Prez: I see the Occupy Wall Street protests in the American tradition and we support them.

MX: Do you and the Democratic party plan to use them in your reelection strategy?

Prez: Well, where their goals are in harmony with mine, I will call upon them. But I do not believe in class warfare, the rich against the poor. We are one people.

MX: Even when 1% own wealth equal to 99%?

Prez: There must be a some structural change to redistribute the wealth, the insure good wages and job security. I'm for this. But we can continue the Wall Street robbers, nor can we allow crime in the street. We want the rich to recognize their obligation to the poor and middle class.
I'm against corporate greed, but I'm for free trade capitalism.

MX: Are they the same?

Prez: Well, there's enough to go around, no child should be hungry in America, or the world for that matter. We must continue the fight the good fight so that every American citizen can pursue happiness or the American dream. I will do all in my power to convince the people on Wall Street and the people on main street that we must stick together and not destroy the American dream because of greed and selfishness.

MX: Mr. President, thank you for your time.

Prez: You're quite welcome.

--Marvin X
11/21/11

Wall Street Oakland: "He's The Reason!"

2011-10-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Wall Street Oakland: "He's the Reason"

A week ago Marvin X entered the campground of Wall Street Oakland in front of City Hall. The protesters renamed the plaza from Frank Ogawa Plaza to Oscar Grant Plaza, in honor of the slain black man murdered on New Year's Day a couple of years ago. While we honor the martyrdom of Oscar, we should remember Frank Ogawa as one of Oakland's most progressive political leaders, a man who seriously tried to serve the people.

As we walked through the campground last Tuesday, we first encountered a suspected agent provocateur named JR, whom we call the "minister of misinformation." We've had a ten year conflict with JR going back to the video tapes he stole from me after filming me in Newark, New Jersey with the Twin Towers burning in the background. He also stole interviews of me interviewing Mrs. Amina Baraka and Sonia Sanchez. Amazingly, he now calls me the victimizer. Miffed at a recent article I did with Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr., JR shouted at me that he had a big surprise for me, "bigger than Christmas." I proceeded my walk through the campground, stopping at the tent of Everett and Jones (Jack London Square) owner, Dorothy Everett, who sat chatting with City Councilwoman Delsey Brooks.

I departed the camp of mostly young whites and set up my Academy of da Corner on the concrete base of a flagpole at the entrance to the camp. Actually, my Academy of da Corner has been occupying 14th and Broadway for the last five years. As per Wall Street, Youtube has a 2007 video of my poetry reading in front of the Stock Exchange on Wall Street, New York City.

As I put my book display on the concrete supporting the flag pole, a black woman and man came up and asked me what was going on? I thought how shall I answer the woman since she was clearly ignorant of similar events across America and around the world. I told her, "They're trying to free the slaves!" She immediately took it personally, thinking I was calling her a slave.
I made it clear that anyone employed is a wage slave, part of the reason people are protesting against the bloodsuckers of the poor who control global finance, i.e. Wall Street.

When she replied she worked for herself, I said well so do I, so we are not slaves, but she would not have it. She was convinced I called her a slave. Then she spit at me and when a white businessman passed, she said I needed dress like the white man and get a job. She walked away giving me the finger. She walked across the street and from there gave me the finger, then returned, walking pass me to the three police on bikes who had been observing the incident from beneath a shade three. The woman spent about forty minutes talking with the officers who are familiar with me but no longer harass me as they did when I first occupied 14th and Broadway with Academy of da Corner.

The day was looking gloomy until a woman walked up to me that I recognized as Barbara Cox, former wife of Black Panther Field Marshall, Donald Cox, who recently transitioned in Southern France. Barbara had just got off the plane from Philly and took the BART to downtown. I was the first person she ran into and we were elated to see each other again and had a long conversation about DC, Wall Street, the upcoming 45th BPP Anniversary this weekend. Civil Rights attorney Walter Riley joined our conversation.

We had no problem at the camp until Friday when a march was scheduled at 4pm. Protest organizers had mistakenly scheduled Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre to perform at 4pm. My performers arrived to perform but as march time neared the atmosphere became charged with the presence of hundreds of police in riot gear, with a helicopters hoovering above.
When the marchers departed pass my poets and actors, we decided to do what all performers like to do, perform wherever we are. Poet Aries Jordon stood on the flag pole support and read her poem Wall Street, engaging the crowed in a call and response. She said, "If you like a line of my poem, say, 'say it again.'" The crowed chanted after her most profound lines, say it again."

And then another drama began when a black woman emerged from the camp ranting "He's the reason. He's reason. He's the reason I'm homeless, he's the reason my baby don't have pampers.
He's the reason the police are here. He's the reason."

I was in a state of shock, so shocked I couldn't speak and didn't. And then another woman appeared and sat down on top my books, saying she needed to sit down since she was indeed the size of an elephant, but as soon as she sat, she asked me what I thought about the Federal Reserve. What a line of police at my back in full riot gear, I was in no mood to discuss the Federal Reserve, so I cut her off with, "Fuck the Federal Reserve." She then joined the other woman in the chant He's the Reason! I remained silent, shocked but calm enough not to engage with the first woman who was still screaming and hollering that I was the reason Wall Street is the blood sucker of the poor.

Then a young man stood on the pole platform and said so gibberish with the concluding lines, He's the reason, he's the reason. Lastly, the first woman's baby daddy emerged from the camp to join his woman in her tirade, "I done 18 years in prison and I'll die for mine, He's the reason, he's the reason....

As a student of drama, it was clear to me there were agent provocateurs reciting from a script. But I was too sharp to escalate the conversation, knowing the police at my back were eager to give me a head whupping.

Well, I told my poets and actors that we must remain calm and not feed into the action of the provocateurs. This was difficult because some of them were ready to fight. Instead, we eventually packed up and took the taxi to West Oakland to see a performance of Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson, performed by my former student and associated Ayodele Nzingha at her Lower Bottom Playaz. What a relief to see the beautiful performance of her playaz, with half the cast and product
We are scheduled to perform at Wall Street Oakland, Thursday, 5pm. Stay Tuned.
--Marvin X
Academy of da Corner
14th And Broadway,
Oakland CA
19 October 2011

VTS 01 1Marvin X noted poet, playright, author and activisit occupy Wal...

2011-10-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Wall Street and the American White Revolution

2011-10-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 5, 2011

America's White Revolution

Wall Street and America's White Revolution?
Is America in the birth pains of revolution, of joining the struggle of people around the world for social and economic justice? What is the end game of the Tea Party goers and the unions struggling for their definition of social economic democracy? Will there inevitably be a clash between the unionists and workers on the Left and the Tea Party Constitutionalists on the Right? Or will they merge into the American White Revolution? Events are moving fast, from the Middle East to Wisconsin, Ohio, California and elsewhere.

And now Wall Street is under attack, hub of global finance and imperialism. Ultimately the General Strike is in order to close America down, to bring her to her knees and seize the means of production and all institutions that deprive the people of their human rights. It is time to reclaim the wealth from the blood suckers of the poor.

We know dissatisfaction brings change, real change. The unemployed, the wage slave workers and other marginalized people will inevitably reach the breaking point. As the ruling class strengthen their stranglehold on the necks and backs of the middle and lower class, the more possibility for revolution with the great possibility that other ethnic minorities will join the liberation struggle. Sam Anderson has called for more North American Africans and Indigenous people to join the battle at Wall Street, that ancient slave mart that is yet a slave mart.

As in the Middle East and North Africa, things will hit the fan in America when youth take to the streets, suffering marginalization, high unemployment, homelessness and mental depression. The feeling of nothingness and dread shall propel them into forward motion of the radical kind.

The workers, unemployed, students, artists, intellectuals, and religious communities shall see the need for unity and will merge their agendas for the greater good. When the people refuse to accept wage slavery and the concomitant world of make believe perpetuated by the media magicians and the Center Right Democratic and Republican parties in league with the military/corporate complex, the American White Revolution will begin.

We should expect the reactionaries to mount the counter attack with state police power that may approach events in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere, outright mass murder under the color of law, mass incarcerations utilizing the terrorist laws under Homeland Security. The 700 people arrested this past weekend is a clear sign the police will need to get it right and decide what side they are on. Are they part of the problem or part of the solution. Just as the military in Egypt had to decide, the police of America must join the struggle or go down with the reactionaries. They cannot defend the state and the filthy capitalist swine. Their duty is to protect the people.

The Right will attempt to defeat the masses to continue the regime of the American neo-slave system. But a people united cannot be defeated. Fanon taught that all de-colonization is successful. The reactionaries will be forced to put down their butcher knives in the face of people power. They will be forced to share the wealth, to open the coffers of the rich, the financial and corporate bandits and distribute the wealth stolen from the labor of the poor and middle class who have long suffered from the greedy blood suckers of the poor and working class.

With a united people practicing eternal vigilance, the corporate and Wall Street bandits shall be forced to end their hoarding of the wealth they hoodwinked and bamboozled from the workers and poor; the wage slavery, the pyramid scheme loans of the housing industry, the wretched outdated white supremacy curriculum in the schools, the poor devitalized food of the petro-chemical industry and the pharmaceutical directed health care system, dominated by the insurance companies, even under President Obama's health plan that was a capitulation to the bandits.

We smell a fresh breath of air blowing in the winds, yes, the east wind is blowing west. We think white people will be forced to stand from their stunted position, backs broken by the bloodsuckers of the poor, the working poor and middle class.

North American Africans have long suffered a stunted life, full of poverty, ignorance and disease, even the middle class live in the world of make believe, traumatized by the hostile environment and addicted to conspicuous consumption.

So we see the great possibility White America and North American Africans may see their way to Liberation Square, and if necessary, in the manner of the Egyptians, lay their blankets in front of tanks and take a nap, daring the tank driver to run them over, for their best poet told them not long ago: even a tank driver must serve somebody, must answer to somebody.
--Marvin X
4/5/11
Revised 10/4/11

Friday, March 4, 2011

Reply to Marvin X from Rudolph Lewis on the American White Revolution

Rudy:

Dream on dreamer. If you wake up, you're hear the voice of the ancestors, "The worse is yet to come . . . we ain't nowhere near daylight."

Toppling a dictator and replacing it with an exceedingly wealthy military elite does not a revolution make.

Loving you madly, Rudy

Marvin X:

Rudy, you must look into the deep structure of things, far beyond the surface. When the husband beats a pregnant wife, this doesn't mean the baby won't be born. There may be some damage to the fetus but that baby is coming out for we know how much violence the woman is able to withstand, including the act of delivery itself. So we only know we are seeing things people predicted around 2012, a universal phenomenon that is beyond the imagination, and yes, we ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until the boys and girls rise up in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere on the oil lands and lanes. Wait til gas is ten dollars a gallon and a lemon five dollars. Just wait til the midnight hour.

Rudy:

Marvin, you're right: I do not know about the "deep structure of things." I do have my failings. But I suppose if I am expert at anything it is the nature of white people in America. I do wonder whether the same God who made my people made them. And if he did, what was he thinking: they have been a pestilence on the face of the earth. We need to have serious talk with His divine ways.

Let me be a prophet for a moment. As soon as the working class whites settle this matter with the Wisconsin governor, however it ends, they will be back talking about the intrusion of "niggers" in Milwaukee and Madison. Tell me, how do you think Walker got into office. I'll tell you: on a racist tip. These whites falling back into the pack of the poor thought the governor was going to take the war only to the Negroes. And what did they discover belatedly, it's gonna be class warfare and the poor whites and the marginal middle class whites, they too will be a sacrifice to the Koch brothers and other such wealthy bullies.

But this lesson will be short-lived as I suggested. As soo as these working class whites can they will betray the blacks for a farthing. That's a centuries old pattern. let us learn our history.

Hold out no hope for the struggle of black and white together, at least not in this decade.

Loving you madly, Rudy

Marvin X:

We can see from the Middle East that Arab zenophobia of Black Africans has tainted their freedom struggle. Yet this has been a long simmering problem in the Arab world just as it has been intractable and pervasive in the White Supremacy world of the West, especially in America. Thus, it must be clearly understood that liberation without recovery from the addiction to white supremacy, including Arab racism and American racism, will be short lived. As DuBois said, the problem in America is the color line, but we can expand this globally. Farakhan once said wherever he went on the planet earth the black man was on the bottom. When Cynthia McKinney was jailed in Israel she found Africans filled the jail, and we know the racial demographics of American gulags.

Without a global detox and recovery from the addiction to white supremacy in all its forms, and it is cunning and vile, surfacing its head in all religions and economic systems, there shall be no real peace in the world. Racism must be attacked in the Masjed, Church, temple, and all social institutions before the New Man and Woman can stand tall in the sun, racism and gender discrimination are pervasive in the global village. The new consciousness shall not function with any residue of racism and sexism.

We must note the Type II White Supremacy Dr. Nathan Hare speaks about that is the Black addiction to white supremacy mythology. Thus all forms of white supremacy must be eradicated before the modern world will be truly and thoroughly liberated.

Rudy:

Marvin, I speak that which I know and that which I don't know I excuse myself. I wrestled with the situation of Libya for days, reading and listening to as much as I could find before I finally posted the Pan-African piece.

http://www.nathanielturner.com/libyagettingitrightpanafrican.htm

But usually I post several points of view rather than one in that I am so far away from the scenes of counter-revolution. The corporate media is of little help nor is PBS (now under attack by federal defunding). Liberals fear any clarity of things on the ground. The truth I know is somewhere in the mix.

I shy away from ideology. I know with a certainty that foreign wars do not serve the American poor, to paraphrase MLK. We have two in the Mid-East already and an undeclared class war going on here in America. I hope Obama is not fool enough to be suckered into another Mid-East war now recommended by the Republicans and other imperial nuts.

White Americans are a strange breed and have little restraint when it comes to their racial prejudices. We are in the Age of the Neo-Confederacy, that is, white Americans are ever ready to shoot themselves in the foot to spite their face. Liberation is faraway from the dawn. Counter-revolutionatries are on the march and winning.

Loving you madly, Rudy

Prosperity diAries: Day 18, Silence

2011-09-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

Prosperity diAries: Day 18> Silence

The morning was gloomy filled with grayish clouds. It rained which was great it hadn’t rained in months.I let the rain drizzle on me and put my umbrella away. My sis and I went to the East Bay church of religious science. Rev. Elouise talked about giving yourself up to god. To some folks that means sitting up in church every Sunday, reciting holy text, rebuking anyone that is of another faith. For me it means honoring the god within me which goes beyond my doubts, worries, fears and expectations.

People always say “Aries your so patient” but really its the god in me. I believe in the power of prayer and divine intervention. Shoot, I would have givin up a long time ago if it wasn’t for the grace of god. After church, I felt the need to be in silence. No talking, no second opinion, no chatting about mundane things, no mindless talking to feel the air only silence.

I told Lil sis let's not talk for a couple of hours. As much as I love to talk even I have to shut up every now and then. Silence helps me to clear my head and be more in my body. I know folks that always gotta have some kind of noise in the background; radio, TV, gun shots or sirens. I remember in college one of my friends was like it is weird in upstate New York cause you don’t hear helicopters or ambulances like in the city.

We all have soundtracks to our lives that we hear on a regular basis and conversations that seem to keep repeating. When we turn down the volume and give words a rest many things arise. In silence we find the answers that we have been looking for, the clarity we need to move forward and insight if you listen.

In the words of the great Sufi poet Rumi

I took a vow of silence
And my tongue is tied
Yet still,
I’m the speaker without a speech
Tonight.

Enjoy the sweetness of silence. Peace yall

--Aries Jordan

Aries is author of Journey to Womanhood, poems, 2011, Black Bird Press.

Thievery Corporation - Amerimacka

2011-09-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Ode to the Lady Drunk on Self Righteousness

2011-09-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ode to the Lady Drunk on Self Righteousness

Who is this lady who loves modern day lynchings? Who is this lady who is never humble enough to admit her guilt, her fault, her wrongdoing? Who can be perfect every single time? Not one person and certainly not a large institution and never a nation. This nation is deeply embedded with the error of self-righteous ways that she has masked in pursuit of her own wealth, disguised in idealistic terms such as Westward Expansion, Religious Freedom, Democracy, Capitalism, The American Dream, Industrialism, and Rugged Individualism. All of these pursuits have led to the destruction of so many groups and ideals that stood in the way of narrow minded Euro-Americans fulfilling their own dreams. Dreams that have not been consistent with the idealism in that “perfect” doctrine known as the Constitution of the United States of America.

America has never apologized for her treatment of African Americans during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and thereafter. This failure to apologize has caused her tremendous guilt and pain when looking into the face of African Americans; as a result, we can never really deal with one another on equal footing. As a result, she is still able to lynch innocent individuals with no remorse, with no guilt, and with no shame. No matter what the world conscious says, her arrogance, her self-righteousness will not allow her to say or to even consider, “Perhaps I have made a mistake.”

America there has been many mistakes. More than 30 years ago Martin Luther King reminded you of the words of the bible which says, that pride and arrogance goes before a great fall. You are falling and you can’t even see it. You have been warned and you are being warned, but you’re drunk with your own quest for power and wealth. It is time to see that your imbalance will never lead you to seek truth, justice and righteousness on behalf of all of humanity. Wake up, before you begin to be a remnant of the past, like the Incas, the Mayans, the Babylonians, the Romans and other great empires of the past that are only relics of history. Wake up Amerimacka before Injustice comes knocking on your door.

And for those who think this doesn’t apply to you, if you’re not fighting against injustice, your complicity is guilt enough to condemn you.

There's is yet work to do...peace and blessings to all of us, for we are Troy Davis!

Nefertitti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCD99jMMuh0

Serendipity Books, R.I.P., Peter Howard

2011-09-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

Serendipity Books, R.I.P.

By DAVID STREITFELD
New York Times

Who doesn’t love buying online? It offers a bigger selection for less money, ordered from the privacy of your home and delivered there too. But if e-commerce is great for consumers, it is more problematic for citizens. The sales tax that people pay in physical stores helps pay for the upkeep of their communities. The physical stores also provide employment; these workers can afford in turn to buy things and thus keep the economy afloat. Few such benefits flow from e-commerce.

The bookseller Peter B. Howard, shortly before his death.

California, with a colossal hole in its budget and 12 percent unemployment, is confronting this quandary as it tries to compel Amazon.com to collect sales tax. Amazon is so confident that bargain-hunting consumers will rally to its side that it is essentially ignoring the law. Maybe they will.

But as the battle between the state and the retailer was heating up late last week, news came that Serendipity Books in Berkeley was closing. Antiquarian stores like Serendipity were once plentiful. They specialized in winnowing the detritus of the past, plucking the important material for collectors, scholars and institutions. Serendipity was for decades one of the best such shops, and eventually one of the last. In the years to come, people will have a hard time appreciating there were such places, where anyone who wanted to could look and learn and buy, or maybe just while away a rainy afternoon. So let’s spend a moment giving Serendipity its due.

The store was founded by Peter B. Howard in the early 1960s with the notion that the best bookshop in the world would have one copy of everything. It sometimes seemed as if Serendipity fulfilled this dream. Potential customers were confronted with a warren of rooms, some two stories high, with good books stuffed absolutely everywhere, including in shopping bags blocking the narrow aisles. Although there was clearly an underlying order, its nature was hard to discern; there were no signs. People would wander in a daze, sometimes asking, “Do you sell books here?” They thought it was a library or perhaps a museum.

The lack of direction was on purpose and in earnest. Mr. Howard wanted people to search for books and find not just what they were looking for but the book next to it, which they might want more if they only realized it existed. “The bookstore is an infinite array of material and knowledge of which you know nothing,” he said. “If you’re focused, you go to the library.”

Or, these days, you go online. Serendipity largely ignored the Web
as a publicity and selling device and the Internet returned the favor.

Mr. Howard might have created a wonder-filled shop, but on Yelp the reviews were few and grudging. One reviewer complained that prices were too high. Another said the store offered too little when it was buying your old books. Neither seemed to appreciate that the store could exist only because there was a merchant in the middle of these transactions trying to make a living, and that there was a benefit to the community that it was this way.

Mr. Howard bought and sold collections as well as individual books, including the world’s greatest assortment of lost race fiction (a peculiar American fixation in the early years of the 20th century; Tarzan was its most famous exemplar); a 5,000-item gathering of material about baseball dating from 1819; proletarian literature from the 1930s; classic film scripts from all eras; geoscience and paleontology published between 1550 and 1850; pioneering collections of fiction and nonfiction about the oil industry and the Vietnam War. The store featured Carl Sandburg’s guitar and Jack London’s spears. The poetry sections were a trove of obscure versifiers, unrivaled by any store in the country. There were vast holdings of Canadiana, books in Russian from the early Soviet period, every book in seemingly every edition by John Steinbeck, from $20,000 inscribed copies of The Grapes of Wrath to paperback reprints. Mr. Howard believed in volume and breadth.

You needed to know what you were doing to take advantage of Serendipity, which used to be the way the world worked. Finding the books was only the beginning. After you stumbled on things you wanted to take home – perhaps through persistence, perhaps by serendipity – you would be making a mistake to take your choices to the bookkeeper in her alcove, the closest the store had to a checkout till. Instead, the smart customer would take them up to Mr. Howard, pausing first to see if the Giants had won their most recent game.

The fortunes of the team often affected how much he would charge for books. This quirk was so pronounced it was immortalized in print. In Samuel Gottlieb’s “Overbooked in Arizona,” the tale of a book collector gone mad, the protagonist is driving from Phoenix to Berkeley to buy books at Serendipity when the Giants lose a game they had been winning. He cuts across the median and heads back home, knowing the trip is now in vain.

If your chosen books were already priced, Mr. Howard almost always lowered the sum demanded for each unless he didn’t like you. If they were unpriced, four out of five would be less than you hoped while one would be much more. But you had to take all of them if you wanted a similar deal next time. The books would be written up by hand on an invoice, a tedious process but on Saturdays Mr. Howard nourished all comers with pastries and coffee. When the books finally changed hands, money did not necessarily follow. Like a good bar, which in some ways it resembled, Serendipity allowed customers to run a tab and pay more or less when they wanted. As I write this, I owe $388.

Suppose you took a book home and belatedly decided, for whatever reason, you did not want it? All Serendipity catalogs were emblazoned with the remark, “Any book may be returned for any reason.” I returned a book. Once. As Mr. Howard complained about my bad faith, I referred to the guarantee. Mr. Howard’s wife, Alison, who was listening, responded sweetly: “We said we’d accept back any book. We didn’t say we’d do it happily.”

Downloading ebooks was nothing like this. Serendipity was a refuge and an education.

And sometimes a pain. Mr. Howard could be a difficult man. “He always had an instant answer he would throw in your face in the manner of some biblical prophet,” the bookseller David Mason wrote. Yet he was also wildly generous, a quality never more on display than in his famous biannual parties when the store would be swept clean and a fabulous all-day feast put on, with suckling pigs and fine wine. It was a way of rooting himself in the community. Customers would walk in with an interesting tale and interesting books, and Mr. Howard would buy them. “Because I own the building, I can have a lot of books, and because I have a lot of books in a visible place, things can happen,” he said.

Mr. Howard was too irascible to train a successor but when he developed pancreatic cancer two years ago, he began trying to sell the store. The price would have been about the seven-figure sum that it takes to buy a nice house in Berkeley, a pittance really. There were no takers. Who wants a half-million books in the Internet Age?

The bookseller was 72 when he died on March 31, Opening Day, while watching his beloved Giants. He checked out in the bottom of the sixth, when the score was still 0-0 and before the Giants could lose. The store hung on a couple more months as the Howard family considered its options. Late last week, Nancy Kosenka, Mr. Howard’s longtime deputy, posted on her Facebook page that Saturday would be it. Sales were brisk. Late in the afternoon, a first-time customer walked in, scanned the shelves in bewilderment and inevitably asked, “Do you sell books here?” Not anymore.

----

Peter Howard, R.I.P., encouraged the Bancroft Library to acquire the archives of Marvin X. He also was agent for the archives of Eldridge Cleaver and Ishmael Reed.

Congo Square West

2011-09-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Congo Square West

Ancient drum beats
rock Berkeley Flea Market
crossroads of Africans in the Bay
Legba land
drummers at the gate
like Peter
Ptah
rhythms from a land forgotten
land reclaimed
somehow remembered
the ancient dance of Shango
Ogun
Yemanja
fused with blues and holy ghost shout
these are not true Africans, you say
they cannot speak the mother tongue
dance the ritual moves of ten thousand years in Yorubaland
but sincere and pure they beat their congas, batas, djembes
healing what and where they can in the broken brain cells
wives drop off drummers
girls
women join the circle
dancing to the wind
remembering what they can of sacred moves, leaps, twists, turns
the men from Pelican Bay take their turn
don't be surprised at these holy men
who move and shake and raise arms in praise to some most high god of long ago
but they believe
and they move in holy ghost rhythms
the sweat runs down their foreheads
they do the james brown on the concrete
leaping, sliding jumping
there are those on the sidelines chanting in tongues unknown
known only to the insane
yet the healing is in motion
one day at a time.
--Marvin X

How Did I Get Here and How Do I Get Back Home?

2011-09-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

How Did I Get Here, and How Do I Get Back Home?

Marvin X and Master Sun Ra, his mentor.

How Did I Get Here and How Do I Get Back Home?

I listen to the Kora
I wander into the self lost soul lost
how did I get here
yes, in this land of Babylon
stranger in a strange land
I am naked in the street
take me to the hospital
I am sick
it is the music that I hear
not the ancient music of my soul
call it sold music sold out music
demonic sounds of nothingness and dread
nursery rhymes for sleepy time tea children

Oh, Ancestors, deliver me from this unholy condition
lift me up to my Father's House
let the chains of the dungeon fly from my legs
let me fly home
send the space ship to the rescue
Sun Ra
spread your sacred wings around me
devour me in your love
Oh, Sun Ra we call upon your Wisdom
let us escape the box
let the Creator take us in his grace

We are better than this, wiser than this, more holy than this
the Holy Ghost fills us with His Holy Spirit
we talk in tongues
we fly into space
we are not in this place
we are in a world where our bodies dance into the sun
fly into the moon
we spread our wings and fly to Jupiter, Mars, to the Sun
Space is the Place
Space is the Place
--Marvin X
9/1/11

Wall Photos (94)

2011-08-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Wall Photos (94)

A Funny Thing Happened at Berkeley High's All Class Reunion Gathering

2011-08-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

Berkeley High's Reunion

This past Saturday, Berkeley High held an all-class reunion at San Pablo Park. Ironically, although Berkeley High has been known as an integrated school, this all class reunion was 99% North American African. I had the pleasure of the 1%, a drunk white man who somehow found me among the two thousand North American Africans and decided to sit at my feet. And then proceeded to light a cigarette. I asked him to kindly get out of my Motherfuckin' face, which his girlfriend persuaded him to do, after all, it was clear they had wondered into the park, not knowing it was a Black gathering.

FYI, the gathering was a great gathering of Berkeley Black Unity, without incident and totally peaceful, with blues music and vendors selling food and Black Art. Old school mates embraced and enjoyed the sunny day.

Briefly, I stood talking with Dr. Robert McKnight, Chair of African American Studies at Berkeley High. He requested his remarks remain off the record, but I will say Black Studies at Berkeley High is in crisis and the District is doing everything it can to eliminate it, although it is perhaps the first high school Black Studies Department in America. Dr. McKnight gave out his business card that said the following on the back:
We Ain't Going Out Like That
Join the Struggle
"Keep the Legacy Alive"
Kiswahili 1
African American Literature
African American Psychology
African American Journalism
Psycho/sociology of Black Male/female relations
Gospel Choir/Black Student Union
African Dance
African American Economics
African American History

The reality is that Black Studies is under attack across America. It is part of the general attack on Black people, although we think Black Studies is suffering because it has become disconnected from community, thus ignoring its mission to serve the community. Of course, in crisis it returns to community for support to "keep the legacy alive."

We know the radical black scholars were long ago removed from most black studies programs, especially in higher education. The tenured Negroes were brought it and have remained to this day with a Miller Lite version of Black Studies, if not a totally escapist version that stresses Pan Africanism above local or the national needs of North American Africans. After all, the radicals were removed because they focused on local and national needs, putting Black Studies in harmony with community, not white academia that never desired black inclusion or black educational upliftment. Would this not mean the liberation of community or nation time?

We hope Mr. McKnight can save black studies at Berkeley High, although he admitted he is tired, exhausted from fighting the administration at every turn. He may get the community support needed if his program can indeed relate to the critical needs facing our people at this hour.
--Marvin X

We take Credit Cards: Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality

2011-08-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Black Bird Press
Now Again in Print: Marvin X Classic!
Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, essays on consciousness, Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA, 2007, reprinted 2011.

Order now: $19.95, plus $5.00 for s/h.
For credit card orders: call 510-575-2225

This is an encyclopedia of knowledge. He's a griot if there ever was one!
--Mumia Abu Jamal, Live from Death Row

Marvin X has done extraordinary mind and soul work in bringing our attention to the importance of spirituality, as opposed to religion, in our daily living. Someone�maybe Kierkegaard or maybe it was George Fox who�said that there was no such thing as "Christianity." There can only be Christians. It is not institutions but rather individuals who make the meaningful differences in our world. It is not Islam but Muslims. Not Buddhism but Buddhists. Marvin X has made a courageous difference. In this book he shares the wondrous vision of his spiritual explorations. His eloquent language and rhetoric are varied�sophisticated but also earthy, sometimes both at once.

Highly informed he speaks to many societal levels and to both genders�to the intellectual as well as to the man/woman on the street or the unfortunate in prison�to the mind as well as the heart. His topics range from global politics and economics to those between men and women in their household. Common sense dominates his thought. He shuns political correctness for the truth of life. He is a Master Teacher in many fields of thought�religion and psychology, sociology and anthropology, history and politics, literature and the humanities. He is a needed Counselor, for he knows himself, on the deepest of personal levels and he reveals that self to us, that we might be his beneficiaries.

All of which are represented in his Radical Spirituality�a balm for those who anguish in these troubling times of disinformation. As a shaman himself, he calls too for a Radical Mythology to override the traditional mythologies of racial supremacy that foster war and injustice. If you want to reshape (clean up, raise) your consciousness, this is a book to savor, to read again, and again�to pass onto a friend or lover.
�Rudolph Lewis, Editor, ChickenBones: A Journal

Marvin X is available for readings, lectures and performance. jmarvinx@yahoo.com
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

Keyshia Cole Rocks Oakland

2011-08-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

photo Princess O. Davis

Keyshia Cole Day in Oakland

Marvin X reads poem dedicated to Keyshia Cole. The poet was accompanied
by Aries and Toya Jordan. As he ended his reading, Keyshia came on stage and the crowd went wild. Keyshia gave a wonderful micro-concert that revealed her awesome talent. Her remarks showed her love of community and she promised this is just the beginning of her giving something back. We need more conscious artists to advance the cultural revolution among North American Africans.

Keyshia Cole's event organizer was Muhammida el Muhajir,
daughter of Marvin X.

photo Princess O. Davis

Muhammida El Muhajir
Hip Hop, the New World Order

British Hip Hop Interviews Hip Hop Producer, Muhammida El Muhajir Written by Esh
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Muhammida El Muhajir was the first person to make a documentary about global Hip Hop. I was lucky enough to get hold of her and find out about her amazing experiences around the world. Introduce yourself… Muhammida: My name is Muhammida El Muhajir and I’m a producer and the director of the documentary Hip Hop: The New World Order. Why did you make the movie? Muhammida: I was initially inspired to make the film, primarily because here in America we don’t get a lot of information on things that are happening outside of our country, unless it’s… tragedy, you know, we don’t really hear about what young people in other countries are doing. You can find out but you really have to do a lot of research. Whereas I feel in the international countries they all are aware of what’s happening in America, with American youth and our pop culture, and I just knew that Hip Hop was having a really tremendous impact on young people here in our country, and I imagined it was having similar impacts in other countries as well, but we just didn’t get a lot of the information. Being here, you’d be at nightclubs and you’d see these Japanese kids, all decked out with timbs and gold teeth, so what’s happening over there that they are so into it. Also here in the States, for the most part, Hip Hop was looked at pretty negatively, you know, it’s very violent, it talks about women, all things that are very true, but I don’t think people were looking at the positive influences it was having. How did you go about deciding which countries and artists to put in the film? Muhammida: As far as the countries, I thought about places that it was interesting, that Hip Hop was there, or places where it was really popular. So, those were the countries that I went to: I went to Japan, Cuba, France, UK, Germany, Holland, South Africa and Brazil. So, again just being on this side of the water I didn’t have a lot of information about which artists were really big. Usually I would have one or two contacts and once I got to the country I’d find out who’s who and what’s what and be led to the right people like some kind of crazy Hip Hop domino effect. You made some good contacts then? Muhammida: Most of the artists that I interviewed and started some sort of relationship with, they for the most part are like the forefathers of Hip Hop in their respective countries. So it just so happened that those people are the people who set the foundation for Hip Hop in many of their countries. So we talk about Japan, DJ Muro, Zeebra, K Dub Shine, all those guys who are still very influential in the Hip Hop scene there, but were there at the beginning. That goes for pretty much each country. The documentary was a totally independent project so it’s been about 10 years - I’ll stop and I’ll go off on some other project and come back to it. But now it’s like a historical reference. I think that there are a lot of other documentaries that have come out since that time, but I don’t think anything really touches on all those people and all those countries and really shows it - it was a guerilla style project so very intimate - you, me, my little camera and these guys at their homes or in their studios or in their car so you get a kind of birds eye view of these guys talking about their experience, and just seeing them, eating balls of super noodles or whatever it is. It was an interesting glimpse into their lives. I interviewed the director of The Furious Force of Rhymes, Joshua Atesh Litle, who was the 2nd person to do a global Hip Hop documentary… Muhammida: Actually I think I was the first person to do it. Mine came out in various stages, but before I started on my project I have never really seen or heard something similar, maybe something about Hip Hop in Cuba or little things… but I think what people have done has been amazing and just to see the growth and the interest in international Hip Hop, I am really excited about that. So you’re still a fan of international Hip Hop? Muhammida: Yes. I haven’t had an opportunity to see your movie in full yet… Muhammida: Part of that problem is, as I said, it was a totally independent project so it has not been distributed yet, so I’m working on that for next year. Again, I put it on the back burner, but now it is a historical reference piece and when people are studying the art and the culture of Hip Hop, it can be a very useful reference, in addition to a lot of the other projects that you mentioned and have highlighted. What year did you begin with the film? Muhammida: I went to Japan in 1998, that was the first country I went to. It wasn’t like an ongoing project where I shot continuously. I was working full time, so maybe I’d take a holiday and go to another country. It was my own money, I’d raise money… so it was shot over a period of about three years. Hip Hop has a political angle, did you put that in your film too? Muhammida: What I put in my film was, I really tried to show how in each country people are using this art form. For what forms of expression is Hip Hop being used as a vehicle? So all the things that people here hate about Hip Hop are really the things that make it uniquely American. Those are all the things that are part of American culture and society that people are hating… It’s really not the Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a gun that you could use to kill, to do violence, or it could be used to protect your family… it’s not Hip Hop itself that’s violent or negative or misogynistic, it’s really the American experience. Here, we are one of the most violent countries in the whole world. So that experience is going to be reflected in our Hip Hop. I think that other countries where materialism and consumerism and all those issues are not a factor - their Hip Hop does not reflect that. No other place in the world is like it is here in America. I dig that people were using it as a political platform. Artists like Racionas MCs in Brazil - when (former Brasilian president) Lula ran, he tapped into their power and popularity, and that’s a huge force, that can be used for positivity and really it’s become a youth movement. I titled my film Hip Hop: The New World Order because I saw it as this new force and this new movement. If it was used in the proper way it could really make a lot of social change. So being in New York, the Hip Hop capital, do you get a lot of attention for the film? Muhammida: Well definitely in the past, people are looking for it. I get calls every week or so from Universities or somewhere that’s looking to purchase it or screen it and I’ve screened in the past and got lots of press internationally. The people are definitely waiting for it to come… The title, Hip Hop: The New World Order, has some interesting parallels with the music right now… Muhammida: Speaking about conspiracy theories and things like that, people here are looking at this commercial sort of Hip Hop in America as a way to forward some of those capitalism platforms and promote all the things that being in a capitalist country, benefits the system, the consumerism, the ‘me me me’ attitude. Just a lot of those things that are characteristics of this society and help it propel forward whether it’s positive or negative. Then you hear stories about this artist or that artist who are part of the Masons, all those things, on YouTube, so you never know… Part of this New World Order is that we gonna have this common government and common financial and political system, and I thought it was kind of a play on that with Hip Hop because traveling around the world, you see that through Hip Hop, kids are having this commonality of language, of style, of dress. Because I was down with Hip Hop, I was immediately connected to other people - despite language barriers or anything else we had that in common and that immediately bonded us. Tell me about your personal experiences of Hip Hop before you made the movie… Muhammida: I grew up with Hip Hop. I am about the same age, maybe a couple of years younger than what we consider modern day Hip Hop. I am a fan, an observer, an analyst I would say, all those things. I worked in the music industry, I worked in the film industry, I was a casting director. I’ve been involved in Hip Hop and in music in a lot of different levels working with artists and record labels so I’ve had a very close relationship with the music and the culture. Which artists would you recommend right now? Muhammida: I have always loved artists who have been able to really combine social commentary with the art and do it a very cool way so it’s not totally preachy, but you can jam to it to. So I always loved Dead Prez for that, they’ve really been at the forefront of that. I love Mos Def, and some of the new guys out here like Lupe, and I’m still following some of the international artists, mainly the ones that are featured in my film, Anónimo Consejo in Cuba, Oxmo Puccino, he just put out a live album… I mentioned the relationship I had with some of the artists. Oxmo Puccino was in New York and I filmed him just at a café somewhere in New York, it was just crazy. And with Zeebra riding around in his jeep in the streets of Toyko. I love to see the growth that those artists have had… Roots Manuva in London. People who are really innovators in the music and the culture, worldwide - Blak Twang in the UK. A few months ago I ran into DJ Vadim on the streets of New York. These are people who are like the major power players in international Hip Hop, and I was really grateful to have them all as part of the project. Even some of the American artists like Questlove who was in Tokyo when I shot him. Method Man, who really gave a humorous perspective on international Hip Hop with his experiences travelling abroad… Dead Prez were also in the film and I shot them in South Africa, they were pretty much the first US artists to go to South Africa and do a concert. Some really historic things happening in Hip Hop are incorporated into the piece. I cant wait to see it! By: Esh \| IBMCs on Facebook Trailer on youtube:

Mobile Uploads (64)

2011-08-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Mobile Uploads (64)

Keyshia Cole in Oakland, Thursday, Frank Ogawa Plaza

2011-08-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

Keyshia Cole

Oh, Sister Keyshia

Oakland loves you

Like you love Oakland

We honor and respect you

Your creativity, your humanity

The wisdom of your life

Lessons of love between you and your mom and family

All sisters and brothers need to know and master

The unconditional love that is you

The faith and determination

We love your inspiration

We need your love lessons right now in Oakland

We need you to let your little light shine

So we can see through the dark moments that consume us

When love is gone and bitterness makes us drunk

Hateful and spiteful, jealous and envious

Oh, Sister Keyshia

Sing us a happy song

How you got ova

In spite of all the blocks in your path

All the rats and vermin, the roaches and flies

Couldn’t turn you round

Just made you stronger

Made you the beautiful woman we love.

--Marvin X

8/25/11.

Paul Cobb On Chauncey Bailey, Mayor Ron Dellums & Oakland

2011-08-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

Notes on Teaching Youth

2011-08-18T08:01:00.001-07:00

Notes on Teaching Youth

By

Marvin X

Be humble at all times, your future is in your hands, no matter what else, you will not be here always, a new generation is upon us that must be taught our traditions, all the technology of the global village, high finance, the essentials of capitalism no matter if we call ourselves Communist, Socialist, Pan African, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu.

There must be some economic system whereby men and women can engage in commerce, sell, barter, consign. We don’t give a damn what you call it; just organize a way to deliver goods and services to the people.

We only know this: no one should starve in the village, nor be homeless, or illiterate, or in ill health without a medical plan.

Your children shall need your counsel and advice always, so be there for them, first setting example, we know words are cheap. Let the children see us doing the right thing for ourselves, and then they will know what to do, more than likely they are doing the right thing already, just might need a little common sense advice.

In teaching youth, we should consider their level, not our superior educations, whether academic or self taught in the model of Merritt College students Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Ernie Allen, Marvin X, et al.

Was not the purpose of those rallies on the steps of the old Merritt College on Grove St. /Martin Luther King, Jr. to “break it down to the masses”? And so we must break down abstract terminology such as freedom, slavery, racism, capitalism, socialism, Pan Africanism, white supremacy.

Give definitions, break words into syllables. Do not assume a twenty-five year old male or female has any knowledge of the above subject matter. Do not assume they can read. Do not assume they have traveled ten miles out of their turf. Do not assume youth living in Newark have visited New York. Do not assume youth in Oakland have visited San Francisco. I took a twenty-five year old female to San Francisco recently, who grew up in Berkeley/Oakland. When we came up from the BART or rapid transit system, she said, “Wow, look at these big buildings. Wow, they are so tall. Wow, look at all these people on the street. Look at these big banks on every corner. And they treated me so nice at the bank, not like Oakland and Berkeley. I didn’t know this world existed. I have to come over here more often."

Mayor Jerry Brown, now California Attorney General, used to say Oakland was closer to San Francisco than San Francisco, in his racist attempt to gentrify West Oakland. But how often do West Oakland youth get on the BART for a visit to San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, a romantic city based on tourism, yet how many youth are plugged into the multi-billion dollar tourist industry, mainly they are at the wharf as dummies, robots and hip hop dancers. Thank God for that.

But how shall we teach them economic self sufficiency? Get a job and be pimped for life? Become a wage slave and teach your children to go to college so they can also become a cog in the wheel of capitalism and slavery (C. Eric Williams, who himself became a victim of capitalism and slavery as prime minister of Trinidad, see Marvin X, The Black Power Revolt In Trinidad, Journal of Black Poetry, circa 1972).

Micro Credit Loans for Youth

This is a process of loaning small amounts of money, say one hundred to three hundred dollars to youth so they can “come up” in a legal endeavor, not selling drugs, pimping, murder, but some project to deliver what the people need, such as food, clothing, shelter.

Visit the cities of America and we shall see what needs are addressed on the street, not to speak of inside businesses.

On the street youth sell T shirts, incense, oils, jeans and other urban gear. They sell books, especially in New York. And there are Latin youth selling fruit, vegetables, DVDs and CDs, black youth do this also to a high degree, to the point police do not harass them since they are doing something for self and not causing mayhem.

Absent Fathers

No matter the age of your children, connect with them, they need you, whether they say so or not, no matter if your children are 20, 30, 40, 50, they need you, your guidance, wisdom, love and attention. Sons need you, daughters need you. Tell them what a man must do to be a man. Ask their forgiveness for your unmanly or unwomanly actions. And clean up your act. Do better. Make a visible recovery from your wretchedness. Let your children see that you love them and that your love is unconditional, no matter what they do, success or failure, you are with them to the very end of time.

Black on Black Crime

Black on black crime is symptomatic and problematic of the perilous condition under which we live on a daily basis in the hell holes of America. We shall continue killing each other until we come to know who we are as Divine beings in Human form, that our bodies are the temple of the Divine, our bodies and minds, thus we should delete all negative thought such as hatred, jealousy, envy, and other negative thoughts that prevent us from enjoying the Divine plane of life.

On the matter of murder, my wise adviser told me, “When you kill your brother, you kill yourself. Two of you are dead. The killer is a dead man walking. As the Bible says, As Thou Hast Done, So Shall It Be Done to Thee.

Don’t be hypocritical, youth and adults. I know so many youth and adults who have lost loved ones to violence. No one is rioting over their loved ones, no one is protesting their lost. No one cares. The relatives and friends suffer in silence. They cannot discuss their grief with anyone, no one wants to know of their lost.

There are few mental health and grief counselors in the hood. The Oakland Grief Centers the City set up are a good example of what must be done to alleviate the trauma of life in the Wilderness of North America. What can we expect? More importantly, what can we do to advance our agenda for the masses, the wretched of the earth? No struggle, no progress, power concedes nothing without a demand, it never has and never will—our great ancestor Frederick Douglas told us this in the 19th Century.

There must be a higher level of organizing than rioting through the streets. If and when they come down on the people, do you have food, water, generators in reserve? Do you realize one flush of your toilet consumes five gallons of water? Do you have five gallons of water to drink, let alone in your toilet? Have you heard drought and famine are coming? Are you prepared? They taught us in Boy Scouts to be prepared.

Of Scholars and Teachers

Oh, my God, in the spirit of David Walker, let the poor righteous teachers do their duty to children and youth. We honor them and pray they shall remain on their posts, teaching the uncivilized youth who truly seek wisdom and knowledge. One need only converse with them in a moment of quiet, such as jail, prison or a depressed moment in the hood, away from peers and parents, on the street as I have encountered so many times on the streets of Oakland, especially at 14th and Broadway, my outdoor classroom, aka, Academy of da Corner, and the main scene of rioting over the New Year’s Day murder of Oscar Grant by the BART police.

Teachers and scholars must teach a new way. A radical approach is needed at this time, surely we all agree on this? We must at least have food, clothing and shelter, basic needs. All else is talk, hype, sham, don’t believe the hype!

Shall our children and youth be homeless, abandoned, school dropouts, prison bound, or shall we speak to them with parental authority, warning them of death on the streets, in unsafe sexual encounters, hanging out with drinking and gambling buddies. And please consider the tone test when encountering the police. They can kill you, jail you or release you, depending on your tone of voice. You must pass the tone test with another brother and sister as well. Everybody is on edge, stressed, so watch your tone of voice, watch how you look at people, don't stare. Many people come on the street in a mind-altered state, thus they often imagine you have said something you didn't actually say, or they assume you were staring at them when you weren't. So be cool on the street. Teach youth how to act to survive in the urban jungle. There is no other lesson.

Take Advantage of Obama Drama

Youth should take full advantage of this critical moment of change in the history of America and the world. In the next few months, take advantage of economic and educational opportunities the government will offer as a way out of the depression caused by greed and other cancers of the addiction to white supremacy, especially during Obama's reelection campaign. He will spend a billion dollars to get reelected or reselected, so figure out how much of that billion you can get hustling Obama gear, T-shits, caps, buttons, photos, etc. Don't sit around like a frog on a lily pad. You can copy color pictures of Obama for 35 cents, get picture frames from the dollar store, then sell them for $5.00-10.00 or more. Life is a thinking man's game, so think! You can do it, your ancestors did!

--El Muhajir/Marvin X

1 - A Day in the Life - Marvin X and Discussion

2011-08-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Drugs, Art and Revolution, a discussion of Marvin X's classic docudrama of his addiction and recovery from Crack, including the scene of his last meeting with Black Panther Huey P. Newton
in a West Oakland Crack House. This discussion at Sista's Place in Brooklyn, NY, 1997, included Omawale Clay, Sam Anderson, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Elombe Brathe and Marvin X.

Sista's Place produced the New York performance of his play that Ishamel Reed called "The most powerful drama I've seen."

Cut me some slack, A fictional interview with President Obama

2011-08-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Part Two:A Fictional Interview with President Barack Obama by Marvin X

MX: Mr. President, thanks for allowing me to interview you again.
Prez: The pleasure is all mine, Marv. I truly enjoyed our last talk, although, in your style, you raked me over the coals. I'm not going to let you get away with it this time.
MX: Aw, Prez, you can't have thin skin in the game you're in.
Prez: You think I don't know that by now? I'll be lucky to get out of this situation with any skin, thin or otherwise.

MX: Why you say that, Prez?

Prez, Marv, I'm gonna drop a bomb on you. I'm going to give you an exclusive.

MX: Drop it like it's hot.

Prez, I've had just about enough of this bullshit, fake aas job in the White House.
I've said more than once I don't give a damn if I'm a one term Prez.

MX:Prez, you not going to run for a second term?

Prez, Hell to the naw, fuck these peckerwoods and nigguhs too. I don't like being pressured from above and below. I see you can't win in this game, so I'm checking out before I get in too deep.

MX: I can't believe what you're saying.

Prez, I thought about it long and hard, talked it over with Michelle and my girls. They said, Dad, do what you gotta do, we with you all the way, whatever you decide.
Even my mother-in-law said, Boy, use the mind God gave you. I told you these white folks is sick.

MX: So are you going back to Rev. Wright's church?

Prez, Marv, first let me ease out the door of that funky White House. Then let me come up for air. Hell, you know I hated to denounce my preacher, but I had to play the game. You nigguhs act like you didn't understand I was gaming the white man, but I was. You know ain't no way a nigguh could stay in Rev. Wright's church for twenty years and not get addicted to black consciousness, but Rev. Wright understands what I had to do to get over on these peckerwoods. They been lying and gaming us for 400 years.
MX: Sho you right.

Prex, A nigguh better learn some game up in this motherfuckin bullshit called America. And the first lesson a real nigguh need to learn is how to lie to the white man's face just like he been doing us the last 400 years. Lie with a smile.

MX: Prez, you talking like Marvin X?

Prez, Let the truth be told. I tried to play the game but it ain't worth it. Why should I spend a billion dollars for my job when millions of people have no job and little chance of getting one anytime soon. A billion dollars for one job? Just doesn't make sense, I rather be unemployed just like them. Let me go back to community organizing, something I like to do and can see the results. I ain't caught nothing but hell with the political bullshit, hell from both sides. If the pecks ain't downing me, I got to deal with nigguhs like you, Marv, fucking with me night and day, you and Cornel and his sidekick, that bitch Tavis. You nigguhs need to cut me some slack, damn. And naw I ain't invitin you nigguhs to the White House for beer.

MX: Prez, you said from the beginning it wasn't about you, but us, so us is on your ass and gonna stay on your ass til you do the right thing, if that's humanly possible.

Prez: Hell, I been doing all I can do. I got you health insurance, didn't I?

MX, Prez, how a nigguh gonna pay for health insurance with no job?

Prez: Marv, I did what I can. You know all the jobs and money are gone overseas. What the hell can I do? All this was in place before I came into the White House. The jobs are gone to China, India, Brazil, and there's nothing I can do about it? The Indians say they'll come to America and hire our workers but at the same wages paid in India. You know them Coolies are crazy. Ain't no American MBA gonna work for $14,000 per year when they used to $140,000 per year.

MX: Prez, I know you can configure something to get our people and the masses of Americans back to work doing something.

Prez: Hell, seem like there ought to be a few job openings, after all, I sent a million illegals back across the border.

MX: Prez, you know ain't no nigguh doing what the Mexicans do, and work hard at it, and be on time.

Prez: I did what I can do. I can't do everything, I'm not a miracle worker.

MX: But you said change we can believe.

Prez: Yes, change you can believe, but what is belief? I know what I know and I know I'm getting the hell out the White House. I've had enough of those No People. Let them fight between themselves like blind fools, Democrats and Republicans, two sides of the same intractable coin of white supremacy. Didn't you write about it?

MX: Yes, you mean my book How to Recover to the Addiction to White Supremacy?

Prez: I read it. Very insightful. But you know white people ain't ready to recover from white supremacy.

MX: Of course not, too many white privileges. Like Chris Rock said, "I'm a rich nigguh, but don't no white man wanna be Chris Rock. So you have no solution to the job crisis in America?

Prez: Marv, you know the solution is to redistribute the wealth, and who's ready to share the wealth, not the guys I know on Wall Street, people in the military/corporate complex and international finance. They say they will destroy the world before they give up white supremacy. I tried to compromise with them, but you were right when you wrote about them and described them as the No People.

MX: Well, Prez, if you change your mind, let me know.

Prez: Marv, I'm the first Black President. I am satisfied to go down in history as that. Ain't that a hell of a thang? The first nigguh president.

MX: Yeah, nobody can take that away from you, whether you accomplished anything else, guess it don't matter.

Prez: Not to me, fuck it. Let me go home to Chicago. To hell with those hard headed, recalcitrant, incorrigible, die hard, Republican devils and their tea party sycophants. At least I did one thing.

MX:What's that?

Prez: I got that Osama bin Laden bitch.

MX: I thought he died five years ago of a liver condition.

Prez: Marv, my Seals got that motherfucker. Don't believe all that conspiracy bullshit.

MX: Where's the body, Prez.

Prez: We had to dispose of the body. Those Muslims would turn his grave into a shrine for terrorism, you know that.

MX: What about Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia.

Prez: Marv, I'm trying to deal with those issues right now, but we'll still be over there killing for the next hundred years, hell, how long we been in Korea, Japan and Germany. Hey, I gotta get back to work (laughs). We'll talk again soon, I promise.

MX: Thank you, Mr. Prez.

--Marvin X
15 August 2011

How to Stop the Killing in the Pan African Hood

2011-08-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

How To Stop The Killing in the Pan African Hood
By Marvin X

"The reactionaries will never put down their butcher knives,
they will never turn into Buddha heads."—Mao

We are talking about a condition in the hearts of men, an evil sore festering and stinking like rotten meat, to use that Langston Hughes metaphor. It is a spiritual disease more prevalent than HIV, for it consumes whole countries, not only Pan Africa, but it may be said to originate in Europe because lying and murder is the great theme of this culture, and Africa and Africans throughout the Diaspora are victimized and suffer this malady equally with their colonial Mother. See how Europe butchered the butcher's sons in Iraq, or is this the democratic way of life she is bringing to the sand nigguhs?

The problem is how to throw off the vestiges of colonialism to become the New Man and New Woman. Of course, we must first recognize how sick colonialism has made us throughout Pan Africa. Somehow we must bow down and ask forgiveness of our Higher Power, the ancestors, the living and the yet unborn. There must be a cleansing ritual performed until the mud and slime of Western culture is purged from our minds, bodies and souls.

The Western gods must be destroyed, crushed to the earth and stomped into eternity, for they have blessed us with ignorance, superstition, greed, lust and pure evil, allowing us to become worse than beasts in the field, committing the worse atrocities, yea, even worse than all the teaching of our colonial masters.

No doubt Africa is paying for the great sin of sending her sons and daughters into slavery. Has Africa asked forgiveness of herself, yet she wails for apology from the slave master's children. Has she given reparations to her descendants lost in the wilderness of North America? Has she ever sent a symbolic ship or plane to bring them home? So Pan Africa lives a slow death because she allows corrupt, boastful, arrogant leaders to control her nations, her leaders shelter each other, covering their multiple sins, protecting themselves from people's justice who would rightfully hang them like Mussolini and his wife.

Like jack in the box, Pan Africa must jump out of her iniquities, she must call forth the divine energy within the bowels of her soul and step into the New Day of light, breath and health. She cannot allow her children to devour her from coast to coast, sea to sea, from America to Africa, but children only mock the behavior of adults, so we cannot blame them, children are children, so adults must step to the front of the line, no matter how busy they are doing nothing, for they are surely doing nothing if the village is in chaos, security being the top priority of civilization.

Everyone must become the central command, every man and woman must be about the business of teaching new values, new ways of thinking and acting that are not harmful to the human soul and the human condition. The world is so full of wisdom it escapes us because our quest is for the trivial, the low things of life, not the things in the upper room, but those in the basement, in the gutter of our minds and hearts, that is where we dwell, that is our focus and this is why we suffer. Kobe gives his wife a four million dollar rock, but will it placate her soul, will material things correct a spiritual problem of faith and trust?

The West has a sordid history buying people as Pan Africa can attest, but everyone is not for sale, those of integrity will jump ship, will eat the whip and the gun, for persecution is worse than slaughter, the Qur'an teaches.

No, physical weapons cannot solve the problem. Look at Israel, she has the all the modern weapons but she cannot defeat the spirit of a people determined to be free. So Pan Africa's children can and must be armed with a new consciousness. Even Fidel Castro has said the new weapon is consciousness! Like Johnny Appleseed, we must go about spreading consciousness, teaching unconditional love and forgiveness, sharing knowledge and wealth with the poor and ignorant, the brokenhearted and oppressed. I am not trying to be sentimental, but we can and must flip the script as they say in the hood.

Again, like Jack, we must jump out the box of mental and physical oppression by taking a new look at reality, by stopping a moment to wonder at the pleasure in the sun, the trees, the sea and mountains, the glory of being alive each moment to share human love, being grateful we have a moment on this earth to whisper truth to children that they may rise and be a pleasure to the ancestors watching everywhere. Yes, we must transcend block man and block woman, the block within ourselves even, and reach forth into the realm of new possibilities, not allowing evil and her brothers and sisters to control the air and sun that comes each day blessing us with another moment to walk in the light, escaping the darkness of ignorance, greed and lust and violence.

Black men, go into the hood and take the guns from your sons, yes the sons you abandoned, neglected and rejected, the sons who look like you although you deny this, the sons who walk with sad hearts, hardened because they long for you, for your love and guidance, for your wisdom and strength, after all, Mama did all she could to raise her manchild in the promised land.
* * * * *

A Response to "Killing in the Pan Africa Hood"
By Rudolph Lewis

Marvin, there is great wisdom that should be heeded in your essay "How To Stop The Killing in the Pan African Hood." I am aware that a new set of values (though possessed by our enslaved ancestors but now abandoned under the "new world order") and a new perspective of our place in the world, of our past and future are earnestly needed in these dire times.

The most important of these new perspectives is couched in your paragraph that reads as follows:
Has Africa asked forgiveness of herself, yet she wails for apology from the slave masters' children. Has she given reparations to her descendants lost in the wilderness of North America? Has she ever sent a symbolic ship or plane to bring them home? So Pan Africa lives a slow death because she allows corrupt, boastful, arrogant leaders to control her nations, her leaders shelter each other, covering their multiple sins, protecting themselves from people's justice who would rightfully hang them like Mussolini and his wife.

In short, you suggest our critical sword should have a double edge—that is, the slave trade involved African nations and European nations collaborating for the purposes of wealth and power. They got rid of their "niggertrash." Many of those descendants of the tribal kings and chiefs who sold millions of slaves still play significant roles in the politics of today's African nations. And they will sell us again and their people again in the 21st century, if the World Bank and other internationalist (globalist), corporatist agencies offer the right price. (Check out Paul Kingsnorth's essay on South Africa and the ANCA Shattered Dream.)

In the contest for wealth and power, "black" and "white," however, are not real distinctions but illusions, a means for escapism or sidetracking those who wish to do the "good." I know "evil" has become a popular theme in the discussion of international politics and the resistance to corporate imperialism, especially from the bully pulpit of the presidency. So-called righteous men love to stand behind such symbolic bulwarks. I hope we do not become agents of such trite rhetoric—it indeed will lead us astray. It is necessary that we keep on the straight and narrow and keep both edges of our sword whetted sharp.

At no time must we sink back into mythologizing the world for the sake of political convenience, to hear merely the rhythm of our own voices. Beneath most Pan-African rhetoric (from the 19th century to the present), there is this underlying notion of Africa as paradise into which Satan (the white man) introduced evil. I recommend strongly that all Pan-Africanists and sympathizers and all other petty-bourgeois, pseudo-revolutionaries read the Malian Yambo Olouloguem's novel Bound to Violence. Or any non-romantic account of Africa before European trade began. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart will provide some evidence even in the "wholeness" of tribal life, all was not well. Even though there was a sense of justice, and right and wrong. There were some practices or acts that were just horrid, unnecessary, and "evil."
If true be told, there was more evil in Africa than one could shake a stick at. The process of empire building in Africa by Africans themselves and the perennial struggles for power and the retention of power included the wholesale slaughter of tribes (genocide), butchery, debauchery of every sort (religious, political and social), cannibalism, incest, and so on—all these acts of evil existed before modern Europe stepped onto the soil of Africa or worked out its first deal for a cargo of slaves. The emperors, kings and queens, and chiefs—to whom we have become so inured (and want to imitate by dress, manners, and religion)—did not achieve those aristocratic titles by their sweetness and benevolence but by the same means we are familiar with today in those who strive to rule and conquer. That is, they did it the old-fashioned way—by violence, exploitation, and oppression..

The aberrations we see in Africa and at home are not new. This violence for wealth and power is just as old as the first time one brother killed another for his wife or his ass. This contest for dominance has always been bloody and this violence and evil were not invented by Europe or whites. We must do away with this myth—the white man alone as incarnate Devil. Otherwise, in a perverse way, we make Africans less than human—we make them into externally corrupted angels.

There is no sanctity in having a black skin or in Africanity. This type of mythologizing gives our leaders too much credit and too much room for collaboration with corporate power and a means of duping the masses of the poor and the black working classes. It is no longer sustainable that we ask or recommend that the masses of "Pan-Africa" to live vicariously by distant observation and/or proximity to power and wealth. That an elite should live in comfort and security while the great masses attend them hand and foot with all their hearts and souls is no longer acceptable if we truly have egalitarian goals for our society. .
That kind of barbaric nobility is no longer proper in a civilized world in which democracy and human rights have been given revitalized meanings in which every man is a king and queen, or at least be acknowledged with that kind of respect, integrity, and dignity.

Our critical sword should not only land on the heads of the great aberrations of society—the likes of a Idi Amin, a Mobutu, a Bokassa, or a Sgt. Doe or a Charles Taylor, but also those respectable heads of state like Mbeki, Obasanjo, and the other African leaders who smilingly welcomed Bush to Africa and are ever-ready to make their deals with globalization. Such African leaders with such narrow interests sold our ancestors into the Americas.

And not only those African leaders there, but also here at home, we should do some swinging at our black elected and appointed officials (city councilmen, legislators, cabinet secretaries), yes and also corporate and ecclesiastical functionaries, and other notable heads, such as the leaders of civil rights organizations like the NACCP, whose board is ruled by corporate executives or such flunkies and running dogs. They too must be made to pay for their sins of neglect and moral blindness.
If we lapse into the anti-white, anti-American, anti-Western rhetoric, we will sorely miss the point and provide more fuel for these black elites to further misdirect the energies of the masses of Pan-Africa along lines of escapism and support for the status quo.

If we are to make real changes within our communities some of our petty bourgeois aspirations must be abandoned. We can no longer naively defend black middle-class sellout politicians and preachers. We must recognize a real change in the face, rhetorical aspirations, and the present corporate ties that our leaders have established. It is fine to cite Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, as some Pan-Africanist Marxists tend to do. That is well indeed. I am far from a white apologist—a corner in which some may want to paint me. But I do not want to be a black apologist, either -- I was not taught that way.

The NAACP is headquartered here in Baltimore and they just had a conference and they had nothing to say about the 40% unemployment rate here among black males (18-35); the high murder rate (about 300 a year, mostly young black males); a 50% drop-out rate from high school; neighborhoods in which only 25% of adults have a high school diploma. Brothers and sisters are paraded to jails like our ancestors to Goree Island!!! Whatever the justification for their apprehension is inadequate and should cause some shame to those who run this city and those who support the powers to be—which here in a majority black city, means a black middle class and those who work government jobs or receive money from corporate elites.

Damn, brother, we have grown ass men on the corner selling single cigarettes for 35 cents a piece. What kind of enterprise is that? And it is not just a few. Is that any way to gain a livelihood? And our shit-head leaders are worrying about whether Bush or democratic presidential candidates come to their meeting. Ain't that a matter to be indignant and upset about? But it seems we are so spiritually sick we take it as a norm the misery and the downtrodden state of the poor (black and white). That the oppressed are overlooked and allowed to continue to sink into the abyss is a grand betrayal by our leaders. Murder and mayhem is not just coming from the bottom dregs of society. We have a general slavery and devastation in which silence and passivity is imposed by poverty, the gun, and prisons? With these reservations, I support heartily the sentiments contained in your plea for earnest black work, black renewal, and black progress.

Marvin X has taught English, African American literature, journalism, creative writing, drama, technical writing at various colleges and universities, including: University of California, Berkeley and San Diego, San Francisco State University, University of Nevada, Reno and elsewhere. Or write to Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702.

Marvin X is available for speaking/readings, email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com

The Left Crisis and Chickens Coming Home to Roost

2011-08-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

NOTE: A good and necessary analysis- but not sufficient. Leo Panitch does not deal with race/racism either within the Left or within the central core of the capitalist-imperialist system (nor does Panitch deal with patriarchy/gender issues). Unfortunately, this indicates that The Achilles heel of Left Praxis is still alive and well in these most critical of times. To really have a revolutionary impact upon capitalism-in-crisis, racism and sexism must be addressed.

Brother Prof Horace Campbell's analysis (see below: The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost) of the US debt crisis helps us see the urgent need to build a powerful national and international Revolutionary Opposition to Capital's path down the fascist road. The masses of working people everywhere are in some form of uprising- spontaneous, weakly organized or strongly organized- with the US workingclass being the least organized yet sporadically and disconnectedly resisting US-styled austerity policies and union-bashing.

We of the Left inside the Belly of the Beast have a lot of work to do in such a short period of time before new forms of fascism become the rule of the land!

Organize & Unite across race and nationality lines so that Black and Latino workers can take the Revolutionary lead inside the US!

-- Sam Anderson
-------------------------

The Left's Crisis
by Leo Panitch

Socialist Project - The B u l l e t
E-Bulletin No. 536 August 15, 2011
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/536.php#continue

A common response of the left to the financial crisis that broke out in the USA in 2007-08 was often a kind of Michael Moore-type populist one: Why are you bailing the banks out? Let them go under. This kind of the response was, of course, utterly irresponsible, with no thought given to what would happen to the savings of workers, let alone to the paychecks deposited into their bank accounts, or even to the fact that what was at stake was the roofs over their heads. On the other hand, the even more common response was all about asserting state responsibility: This crisis is the result of the government not having done its duty: governments are supposed to regulate capital, and they didn't do so. But this response was in fact fundamentally misleading. The United States has the most regulated financial system in the world by far if you measure it in terms of the number of statutes on the books, the number of pages of administrative regulation, the amount of time and effort and staff that is engaged in the supervision of the financial system. But that system is organized in such a way as to facilitate the financialization of capitalism, not only in the U.S. itself, but in fact around the world. Without this, the globalization of capitalism in recent decades would not have been possible.

It was indicative of the left's sorry lack of ambition in the crisis that its calls for salary limits on Wall Street executives and transaction taxes on the financial sector were far more common than demands for turning the banks into public utilities. It was, of all people, the mainstream LSE economist Willem Buiter (the former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, appointed in November 2009 by Citibank as its chief economist) who in his Financial Times blog on September 17, 2008 a few days after Lehman Brothers' collapse endorsed the "long-standing argument that there is no real case for private ownership of deposit-taking banking institutions, because these cannot exist safely without a deposit guarantee and/or lender of last resort facilities, that are ultimately underwritten by the taxpayer." And he went further: "The argument that financial intermediation cannot be entrusted to the private sector can now be extended to include the new, transactions-oriented, capital-markets-based forms of financial capitalism... From financialisation of the economy to the socialisation of finance. A small step for the lawyers, a huge step for mankind." Credit in the Hands of the State?

Well, this sounds a little bit, if you've ever read The Communist Manifesto, like the call that Marx made - among his list of ten reforms - for the centralization of credit in the hands of the state - which just goes to show that in a crisis you don't have to be a Marxist to have radical ideas if you have any sort of ambition or self-confidence. Most Marxists don't have that ambition and self-confidence today. But you do have to be a Marxist to understand that this is not going to happen by bringing some lawyers into a room and signing a few documents. What Buiter was putting forward was the technocratic notion of how reform happens. But fundamental change can only really happen through a massive class struggle, which would involve a massive transformation of the state itself.

Even in terms of calls for better regulation, with a working-class that is not mobilized to put pressure on, you can't expect this state to simply follow policy guidelines that come from technocrats, progressive liberals or social democrats. So we at least ought to be using our opportunity to do more than offer left technocratic advice to a policy machine; we ought to be trying to educate people on how capitalist finance really works, why it doesn't for them and why what we need instead is a publicly owned banking system that is part of a system of democratic economic planning, in which what's invested and where it's invested and how it's invested is democratically decided.

The sort of bank nationalizations undertaken in the wake of the fallout from the Lehman's collapse - with the lead of Gordon Brown's New Labour government in the UK being quickly followed by Bush's Republican administration in the U.S. - essentially involved socializing the banks losses while guaranteeing that the nationalized banks would operate on a commercial basis at arm's length from any government direction or control. All they asked was that these nationalized banks seek to maximize the taxpayers returns on their 'investment.' As sagely put in the 2010 Socialist Register essay on "Opportunity lost: mystification, elite politics and financial reform in the UK," this really represented "not the nationalisation of the banks, but the privatisation of the Treasury as a new kind of fund manager."

The most important reason for taking the banks into the public sector and turning them into a public utility is that you would remove thereby the institutional foundation of the most powerful section of the capitalist classes in this phase of capitalism. That's the main reason for nationalizing the banks in terms of changing the balance of class forces in a fundamental way. Build Socially Useful Commodities

A second socialist reason for nationalizing the banks would be to transform the uses to which finance is put. Let's take an example. Where I come from in Canada, the backbone of the southern Ontario economy, apart from banking, is the automobile industry. With the layoffs that occurred and the plants that have been closed (this has been going on for three decades, but it was heightened during this crisis very severely) you are not just losing physical capital you're losing the skills of tool and die makers. A banking system that was turned into a public utility would be centrally involved in transforming the uses to which credit is put, so those skills could be put to building wind turbines, so they could be used to develop the kind of equipment we need to harness solar energy cheaply rather than expensively.

We cannot even begin to think seriously about solving the ecological crisis that coincides with this economic crisis without the left returning to an ambitious notion of economic planning. It's inconceivable. It can't be done. We've run away from this for half a century because of command planning of the Stalinist type, with all of its horrific effects - its inefficiencies, but even more its authoritarianism. But we can't avoid any longer coming back to the need for planning. The allocation of credit is at the core of economic planning for the conversion of industry. When we on the left call for capital controls, we can't just think about that in the sense of capital controls that would limit how quickly capital moves in and out of the country. We need capital controls because without them we can't have the democratic control of investment. It's not just capital controls at the border that matter; what matters all the more for socialists is control over capital to the end of directing, in a democratic fashion, what gets invested, where it gets invested, how it gets invested.

Now, people often say that socialists in the last 20 or 30 years have not laid out a programmatic vision. I don't think that's true. As the Socialist Register 2000 volume on Necessary and Unnecessary Utopias showed, there were more writings on what a future socialism would look like in the last two decades of the 20th century than probably ever before. But the detailed pictures of a socialist order they painted - whether involving some combination of plan and market or participatory economic planning - have been exceedingly sketchy on two crucial things. One is immediate demands and reforms. And the other is how the hell would we get there. What are the vehicles? What are the agencies? How are the vehicles connected to building the agencies?

It is certainly very true that, whatever the vehicle or the agency, you are never going to mobilize people simply on the basis of the need to nationalize the banks for economic planning, when they know that can't come for decades, given the lack of political forces to introduce it. People need to be mobilized by immediate demands, as they were by the demands for trade union rights, a reduced workweek, a public educational system a welfare state, etc.

Some 15 years ago, when the FMLN in El Salvador after the settlement of the civil war turned itself from a guerrilla army into a political party, I was one of the people invited to help them set up a party school. And I had a conversation there with Fecundo Guardado who had been subcommandante on the San Salvador Volcano, and who later ran for president under the FMLN banner. He said to me, everybody thinks that the long term is the next election, (which since this was in 1995 would have been in 1999 there). He said: they're completely wrong - in fact, that's the short term. What we have to hope is that by 1999 we will be strong enough, have a strong enough base, to be able to make a decent showing in the next election. The medium term is 2010, when we have to hope that we will have a broad enough representation and a deep enough development of our members' capacities that we actually could have an influence on the direction of the country. The long-term is 2020, when we will be able to get elected as a government that can actually do something, that can transform the state. Angela Zamora who as the head of party's educational program was hosting me, sat there and listened to this and suddenly said, in that case I'm leaving the party. I can't go back to the people who I've been leading in struggle for 15 years and tell them they have to wait for 2020 for immediate reforms. It's impossible. I can't do it. Immediate Demands and Longer-Term Vision

So one needs to figure out how to combine a clear, ambitious sense of immediate demands with this longer-term vision. But in the current crisis the Left's immediate demand could and should have centered around bringing the banks into public ownership. The case for this could have been made in terms of the need for a massive program for public housing. After the Great Society program in the 1960s left-wing Democrats, rather than calling for more public housing to rebuild America's cities instead called for the banks to lend money to poor black communities - in other words, for the problem to be solved by letting black people, who had been largely excluded from the banking system, into it. It was similar to liberal feminism's demand that women should be able to get credit cards, which they were largely not allowed to do by the banks until the 1970s.

Well, you should be careful what you hope for. One of the effects of winning those demands was a channeling of those communities more deeply into the structures of finance, the most dynamic sector of neoliberal capitalism. Clinton carried those reforms much further in the 1990s, appealing to the Democratic Party constituency (Clinton was known as 'the black President' for this) on the basis of we're going to let you succeed at the capitalist housing game. And then Bush, of course, let every crook that he could find into the mortgage business. Of course, there's no reason why black people or women shouldn't want the same rights as everybody else - why shouldn't they look forward to their homes appreciating in market value? But you need to understand the dynamics and contradictions that are involved in trying to win reforms for people through integrating them more deeply into capitalist credit relations. And the results are now clear.

We should be also demanding universal public pensions, as the private pension plans won by trade unions now are coming unraveled for both public sector and private sector workers. And that would contribute to strengthening the working-class, because it would eliminate the kind of competition amongst workers that employers have played on with their private pensions. Indeed, increasingly we see that even the unions in largest corporations today as well as unions of public employees cannot sustain their member's pension plans.

We should also be calling for free public transit - to be available like public libraries, public education and public health care. All of this involves trying to take a crucial portion of what we need for our livelihood, our basic needs, and decommodify them as far as possible within capitalism.

People respond positively to such demands even in North America. The trouble with them, however, is that there's not that much room for manoeuvre left for reform in today's capitalism, because in order to have a major program of public housing, in order to have free public transit, you very quickly run up against where are the funds going to come from? It's possible to argue, given how cheap public bonds are today, that you can go to the bond market, but that also means that you become subject to the kinds of pressures from bondholders that is requiring the Greek and the Portuguese and the Spanish states to do what they're doing to their public sector in order to guarantee that they won't eventually default on those bonds. So you come back fairly quickly to the need to at least begin a process of socialization through taking the banks into the public sector.

We need to try to see this moment of crisis from the perspective of what openings it could create. The limitations of a purely defensive response to the crisis lie in not taking advantage of the opportunity that the crisis creates. Despite the 'Another World Is Possible' rhetoric, the left has been more oriented to attempting to hold on to things than to taking things in a new direction. Whether the struggle has been to prevent water privatization, or whether it's been to protest at G-7 and G-20 meetings, however militant the action, it's often primarily defensive in the demands that are articulated.

This is, oddly enough, one of the limits of a perspective that says you can change the world without taking power, without engaging on the terrain of the state, without transforming the structures of the state. What is on the agenda is mainly to prevent the state doing certain things and what is off the agenda is to change the state in such a way that ensures that when new progressive reforms are won they lead on to further structural reforms. We need to appreciate the reasons for the anti-statism that is so on the Left today; the suspicion of talking in terms of building new parties or transforming the state is understandable. But we need to go beyond protest, or we will be trapped forever in organizing the next demo.

And as this current crisis is transferred down to the regional and local levels, which every central state will try to do, we will run up against the limits of what can be secured in struggles at those levels. We have to learn how defensive and localized struggles can be linked up, and how they can be transformed so they are directed into a struggle for state power. Otherwise, all the protests will run up even more quickly against the kind of limits of the immediate reforms that don't lead on to more fundamental ones.

This is enormously important because we probably are facing the destruction of public sector trade unionism unless there's a shift in the balance of forces in the context of this crisis. Capitalism can only go on so long with the private sector being as limited in its unionization, its density being so low, in terms of collective bargaining rights and recognition, and the public sector being almost universally unionized. It can't continue. Part of the onslaught on state expenditure that is taking place now is to destroy public sector trade unionism. The ability of public sector unions to resist in this crisis is being very severely tested. That's how serious this is.

Speaking more generally, it is increasingly clear that trade unions, as they evolved through the 20th century, not only in the advanced capitalist countries, also in most of the countries of the South, are no longer capable of being more than defensive. They are not able to win new gains, and they are not able to organize in ways that develop the capacities of their members. The challenge now is to build a trade unionism that is actually a class organization, one that goes beyond organizing people by the workplace alone and organizes people in relation to the many facets of their lives touched by this crisis. *

Leo Panitch is a political economist and theorist based at York University, Toronto, and is co-editor of Socialist Register. His most recent book is In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives (with Greg Albo and Sam Gindin). This article is a revised version of a presentation at the Delhi University symposium on "Globalization, Justice and Democracy," November 11, 2010.
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The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost-- US Credit Downgrade
Horace Campbell
2011-08-11, Issue 544
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75607

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On Friday 5 August 2011, one of the world's leading credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor's (S&P), downgraded the United States' top-notch AAA rating for the first time ever in the United States' history. S&P cut the long-term US rating down to AA+ with a negative outlook, citing concerns about budget deficits and political gridlock. In their statement justifying the downgrade S&P stated that:

'The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics.

'More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges.'

Additionally, Standard &Poor's indicated that it might further lower the US long-term credit rating to AA within the next two years if the United States' deficit reduction measures were deemed inadequate. These are strong statements from a private agency bent on disciplining the government of the United States with the threat of a further downgrade. What gives this agency such power? In answering this question, we would seek to understand what is a credit rating agency; the source of a credit rating agency's power; what is S&P's track record and what implications do its decisions have for the international political system, especially for humanity.

In all major capitalist countries, the power of the dominant faction is hidden behind ideology (free market), law (protection of private property), propaganda (corporate-controlled media), the coercive organs of the state (military, police and prison) and the power of finance capital (banks, insurance and financial instruments). Credit rating agencies represent the power of financial capitalists and are usually held in the background to discipline corporations and governments. In moments of crisis these agencies show their hand.

These agencies along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US military have been the weapons against the true self-determination of humanity. United States citizens are now beginning to pay attention to the power that the IMF, credit rating agencies and the military wielded over most countries in the world. US Treasuries (or T-bills) are traditionally considered to be a risk-free investment precisely because in the country's 200+ year history, its rating has never been downgraded and the securities are backed by the government.

The downgrade of the credit rating of the United States by Standard & Poor's is much more than a psychological blow to the prestige of the imperial overlords in the United States. This is a sign of a power shift and another blow to the position of the US as the sole superpower. The most oppressed must organise to break the power of capital and the imperial overlords or humanity will pay a high price.

WHAT IS A CREDIT RATING AGENCY?

Credit rating agencies provide information on issuers of securities whether the issuers are corporations or countries. A credit rating agency informs investors whether issuers of securities (such as debt obligations, fixed income securities) can meet their obligations to those securities. The top three credit rating agencies with international influence are Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings, and Moody's Investor Services. The job of these agencies is to provide an analysis of the risk posed to investors by bonds, companies and countries. The risk analysis provided to investors by the credit rating agencies is supposed to be objective. However, the credit rating agencies are private entities owned by profit-making companies performing what is essentially a regulatory role. Thus, the credit rating agencies cannot truly serve the investing public because they have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders to maximise profit.

The rating agencies achieved their influence over time since the capitalist depression of the 1930s but have become more important to the US economy in the era of financialisation, commencing on 15 August 1971. It was from this date that the US gave unlimited rights to the currency speculators after it reneged on the Articles of Agreement of the IMF that had placed the convertibility of the dollar on par with US$35 for one ounce of gold. This departure from the gold standard, called the 'Nixon Shock' after the president who authorised it now backed the US dollar with the military might of the United States. During the Cold War, international capitalists were willing to shelter under the US military umbrella and one price for this shelter was to accept the political power of US credit rating agencies.

These private corporations were issued permits to be credit rating agencies by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission through the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) therefore turning rating agencies from solely private entities into regulating bodies.

In the past 20 years, the business of credit rating followed the path of centralisation and concentration of capital so that the rating business fell in the lap of the three big firms, affording these organisations the power to make life and death decisions about corporations and countries.

The subjective nature of their ratings will be brought out later but in the aftermath of the clear theft and fraud of the capitalist organization called Enron, the rating agencies in public hearings held by the SEC in 2002 insisted that credit ratings were only opinions and should have a limited role which is to assess the creditworthiness of issuers on an ongoing basis, and the 'likelihood' that debt will be repaid in a timely manner. The fact that ratings are 'opinions' is important in the US legal context in that these big three capitalist corporations seek to be protected by the First Amendment and from civil and criminal liability.

FROM WHERE DO CREDIT RATING AGENCIES GET THEIR POWER?

These credit rating agencies earn their power from the fact that they are owned by the top financial institutions on Wall Street. For example, S&P is owned by McGraw Hill Companies, one of the United States' big media and publishing conglomerates. The board of directors is comprised of the top individuals of finance capital with a few academics thrown in. The shareholders of McGraw Hill are from the top financial houses. McGraw Hill owns 'Aviation Week', which is one of the prime advocates for a section of the US military. Though S&P is a wholly owned subsidiary of McGraw Hill, Moody's, on the other hand, is a publicly-traded corporation. Its largest single shareholder, with 12 per cent of the company's shares, is Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's company. Fitch is more transnational with roots in French finance capital.

Thus, we know that the shareholders of McGraw Hill can ensure that their ratings are sanctified by governmental authorities and most importantly, by the IMF. The power of these credit rating agencies has accumulated over time and has been consolidated within the context of the power of finance capital over the international capitalist economy. By seizing a regulatory role while eschewing clear liability, these agencies gained the political power to be whatever they wanted to be.

Since the Depression of the 1930s, statutes and rules required that mutual fund and money managers of almost every stripe buy only those bonds that have been given high grades by a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization. The effect was to make the three certified rating agencies an oligopoly. It was this power that these agencies used against Asia by providing cover for US companies to buy up assets cheaply in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis (1997-98). This power also played a role in the recent intimidation of European countries, including Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Iceland, to launch austerity measures against workers by downgrading the ratings of these countries.

POWER STRUGGLES WITHIN THE INTERNATIONAL CAPITALIST SYSTEM

There are numerous commentaries on the downgrade of the US but the one commentary that caught my attention was that of Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration and associate editor and columnist at the Wall Street Journal. This is a civil libertarian who was arguing that there is a struggle between the military and Wall Street for power in the USA. In an article published on counterpunch.com, after quoting from the statements of Dwight Eisenhower on the rise of the military industrial complex, Roberts opined that from the time of Dwight Eisenhower till today, the United States has been dominated by the military security complex. According to this analysis of the downgrade, the only challenge to the military was Wall Street and Wall Street was using this downgrade as its leverage to fortify its challenge:

'The main power rival was Wall Street, which controls finance and money and is skilled at advancing its interests through economic policy arguments. With the financial deregulation that began during the Clinton presidency, Wall Street became all powerful. Wall Street controls the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, and the levers of money are more powerful than the levers of armaments. Moreover, Wall Street is better at intrigue than the CIA. The behind the scenes fight for power is between these two powerful interest groups. America's hegemony over the world is financial, not military. The military/security complex's attempt to catch up is endangering the dollar and US financial hegemony.'

Roberts explained that the security establishment has been trying to catch up with the power of the lords of finance by launching wars to enrich themselves and to gain more power in the society:

'The country has been at war for a decade, running up enormous bills that have enriched the military/security complex. Wall Street's profits ran even higher. However, by achieving what economist Michael Hudson calls the 'Financialization of the economy,' the financial sector over-reached. The enormous sums represented by financial instruments are many times larger than the real economy on which they are based. When financial claims dwarf the size of the underlying real economy, massive instability is present.

'Aware of its predicament, Wall Street has sent a shot across the bow with the S&P's downgrade of the US credit rating. Spending must be reined in, and the only obvious chunk of spending that can be cut without throwing millions of Americans into the streets is the wars.'

While notable, what this analysis by Paul Craig Roberts fails to recognise is the rapid integration between finance capital and the military, as manifest by the fact that companies that profit greatly from militarisation, such as Boeing has an established financial arm called Boeing Capital Corporation. Most of the big investment and derivatives firms have established links with the private military industry. All the top private military companies and the military hardware manufacturers that are woven into the military-industrial complex are traded on Wall Street. Many of the top private military companies are subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies that are also traded on Wall Street. In fact, the intricate web of alliance between finance capital, the military and the corporate media/information mind control is now so dominant that we can talk of the finance-military-information complex, instead of the military-industrial complex. McGraw Hill is a poster child of the relationship between the military, finance and information/media. McGraw Hill is the owner of Standard and Poor's, and it is directly owned by some of the biggest bankers of Wall Street. McGraw Hill is also in the TV and media business, with stations across the country. It owns 'Aviation Week' and 'Space Technology'. The latter has been the publication that has been the mouthpiece for the US Air Force, and has been an advocate for high military spending and the acquisition of expensive military aircrafts.

As promoters of the ideology of free market and deregulation (even in the military), the McGraw Hill Companies is also a cheerleader for private military corporations. These private military corporations are involved in protecting international capital in all parts of the world The New York Times reported as far back as 2002 that one such private contracting firm 'boasts of having "more generals per square foot than in the Pentagon."' As a militarist state where all is subordinated to the needs of the financial/military interests, there is no contradiction between the two as Roberts claims.

As international capitalists with no cut-in-stone loyalty to the US state, the financial-military complex is now ready to do to the US what it had been doing to the rest of the world since 1945, intervening to discipline governments to do the bidding of big capital. Temporarily, these financial and military oligarchs need to work through the US government because it is the government that carries the authority to print dollars as long as the dollar remains the reserve currency of the world. This downgrade of the US credit rating is part of the forward planning by the top capitalists to guarantee the political and military hegemony of the richest one per cent of the US population. As the dollar loses its status there will be consequences for the global position of American capitalism. The moguls of Wall Street want to ensure that the political leadership in the United States is sufficiently intimidated so that as the position of the dollar deteriorates and there are deepening crisis for capitalism inside the US, the government will take measures to continue to ensure that wealth is transferred from the working peoples to the capitalist class. Hence this downgrade is part of a long term plan to discipline the working class and the politicians within the United States, just as how the IMF has been used in the past against the rest of the world.

THE TRACK RECORD AND CREDIBILITY OF THE RATING AGENCIES

It is now known that Enron was one of the most corrupt capitalist corporations in the US. Yet, Enron had a triple AAA rating by these credit rating agencies until four days before the company went bankrupt. When the full extent of the fraudulent activities of Enron were revealed, President George W. Bush claimed that this was one 'bad apple', implying that Enron was an aberration. But soon thereafter the duplicitous dealings and accounting practices of WorldCom and Global Crossing were revealed – WorldCom fudged accounts to show inflated profits. Up to the day that Enron sought bankruptcy protection, none of the three rating agencies caught the fraud and corruption of Enron.

Throughout the period of the power of the financial houses, the blatant conflict of interest was too hard to ignore so in the aftermath of Enron and WorldCom, there has been some regulatory response. Congress passed the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006, ending a century of industry self-regulation. The purpose of this law was to promote competition in the rating industry by establishing a transparent and rational registration system for rating agencies seeking NRSRO status. It was also designed to enhance industry transparency, address conflicts of interest, and prohibit abusive practices.

But the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was itself impotent as the world saw from the financial crisis of the collapse of the investment banks in 2008. Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers had enjoyed top ratings from these agencies and the sub-prime products called Credit Default Obligations (CDOs) were given triple AAA ratings, even when these products turned out to be garbage. Of course, this garbage was held by the same bankers who own the rating agencies.

In the aftermath of the fall of Lehman Brothers and the fact that the sub-prime mortgage crisis exposed the securities fraud by the financial houses, for a short time Wall Street was on the defensive. There were dozens of lawsuits filed against the credit rating agencies. Citizens were calling for the fraudsters to be incarcerated but the rating agencies went back to their old line that their ratings are merely opinions and are protected by the First Amendment.

It was then left to Congress to Act and after the public outrage, the financial regulatory reform law adopted in 2010, known as Dodd-Frank Law, directed the SEC and other agencies to undo that link between the 'opinions' of the credit rating agencies and the claim that they could regulate themselves.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act enhanced the SEC's enforcement mechanisms, and added a number of requirements on NRSROs that are immediately effective (i.e. do not depend on SEC rulemaking). The Dodd-Frank Act also required the commission to adopt a number of new rules concerning conflict of interests.

According to the US government and their news sheet, 'the Dodd-Frank Act requires every federal agency to review existing regulations that require the use of an assessment of the credit-worthiness of the security or money market instrument and any references to credit ratings in such regulations; to modify such regulations identified in the review to remove any reference to, or requirement of reliance on credit ratings; and substitute with a standard of credit worthiness as the agency shall determine as appropriate for such regulations.'

What this meant was that from June 2010, the SEC unanimously approved a plan to erase references to credit ratings from certain rulebooks. The agency also adopted a substitute to the ratings, the first of several such changes the commission had to enact. Dodd-Frank created a laundry list of new regulations for the industry, including proposals to make it easier for investors to sue the agencies. The SEC must also create its own Office of Credit Ratings to police the raters, though the agency has yet to open its doors as it struggles to scrape together the needed money.

Since the passing of the Dodd-Frank Act, Wall Street has been pushing back, spending millions of dollars to reverse Dodd-Frank and to ensure that the law is whittled away until it is meaningless. However, while the bankers were seeking to protect themselves, the fact that they were holding on to garbage since the financial crisis was becoming clearer. This is because the depth of the financial crisis was so much that the bail-out could barely touch the surface of the problem. In the past year, the vulnerability of the banks has been heightened by the capitalist crisis in Europe. As a means of pressuring the states of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland and others to implement austerity measures against workers, these rating agencies downgraded these countries' ratings. These downgrades exacerbated the class struggles in Europe where the bankers and the bond-holders wanted to be paid. For the US capitalists, the crisis in Europe threatened the future of the Euro and the collapse of the Euro in the short term would serve the interests of the capitalists on Wall Street. This would ensure that there was no clear challenge to the dollar and the US could continue the military occupation of many countries in Europe, especially Germany.

However, some of these US capitalists were also exposed by the crisis in Europe and US banks wanted to ensure that the European Central Bank imposed austerity measures so that the full exposure of US banks would not be known. However, this crisis is not a simple one; it is structural and systemic and needs fundamental changes in how society is organised. This crisis has intensified in the past three months with the knowledge that states and societies such as Italy and Spain will also need the iron hand of international capital to impose harder burdens on the workers to transfer wealth from the majority to a minority. French banks are loaded up with the debts of Italy and Greece, and American banks are holding positions in these same French banks. Hence, US banks are not immune to the crisis in the Euro zone.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIER

There are some who have stated that the downgrade is cosmetic because the other two rating agencies, Moody's and Fitch, have retained the AAA rating of the USA. This may seem to be the case but those who have been following the troubles of the banks and the fake stress tests know better. The timing of the announcement of the downgrade has some significance in the sense that it followed the false debate and conclusion of the debt deal.

By coming out after hours on Friday night when they knew the state of the markets, the downgrade also provided a false 'public' cover for the well-publicised subsequent fall and rise in global stock markets. Political spinners were able to point to the downgrade as the 'spark' for the drop in stock prices (particularly for the banks). In reality, the true causes are the growing risk and troubles in Europe, the continued lack of growth in the US, and the fact that in spite of all the trillions in bailouts of the banks, accounting rule changes, and the fake stress test exams to show that the banks are doing well, the market participants who understand the true status of the banks revealed that the banks are still in danger of collapsing.

Millions of persons around the world are paying attention and there are already signs that these foreign forces are losing confidence in the safety of US securities by the rise in the price of gold. The other point is that the political alliance that paved the way for this conjuncture is being strengthened by the power brokers in the Treasury/Wall Street/IMF relationship. It is this alliance that will work for the transfer of wealth to the top one per cent and will not countenance increased revenues from this small class.

As we have argued before, ultimately the question is not simply one of revenues and taxing the rich, but a fundamental restructuring of the system. However, in the short run, the call for more taxation and regulation of off shore accounts serve to expose the ways in which the capitalist class is above the law. Yet, these capitalist have to live somewhere and they do not want to live in the offshore sites of money laundering and lawlessness. Hence, they need laws to suppress workers, take away collective bargaining and the safety nets of social democracy.

The downgrade will raise the cost of borrowing; this in turn could trickle down to higher interest rates for local governments and individuals. The iterations of decline and deficits will increase the government debt and the deficit, and S&P has issued the clear threat that another downgrade will be coming after 18 months, if Congress does not follow its advice to impose austerity measures.

THE CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST

US government officials are calling the methodology of the rating agencies flawed and some are calling for nationalisation of the agencies and/or the establishment of an international rating agency under the United Nations. There was no such call when the same agencies were working with the IMF to impose hardships on the rest of the world. Now, we are told that the rating agencies cannot do maths. But the destructive structural adjustment maths that the IMF-rating agencies alliance have used to destroy economies and livelihoods in the global South over the past 30 years were never questioned by those now calling out the S&P for its US$2 trillion error in its computation used to justify the US downgrade. The complaint was that a treasury official had spotted a US$2 trillion mistake in the agency's analysis. Whether it was a mistake or not, a psychological barrier has been breached. The US is no longer beyond the sanction of agencies that it unleashed against other societies.

Since the fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, politicians have sought to cushion the blows to capital by making band-aid remedies. For some, the issue was one of regulation and more control over the financial institutions. There were hearings in the US Congress and the Dodd-Frank law came into being. Through the media, the financiers went on the offensive about a recovery, but there has been no recovery because there was no fundamental alteration in the way capitalist ensured that wealth was transferred from the poor to the rich.

More, importantly the limits of US military power has been put on full display in Iraq and Afghanistan. The center of the world economy shifted to Asia while the USA and Europe were fighting in the Middle East. The ten biggest economies in Asia ring-fenced themselves against the USA and the instability of the dollar. This downgrade will reinforce this need for protection against the dollar. From China there was the warning that:

'International supervision over the issue of US dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country.'

This call for international supervision did not include any statement on the conditions of working peoples who are suffering at present. Inside the USA, the political choices have been sharpened. It is either the articulation of democratic control by the people or oligarchic control by the banks and financial houses. The downgrade was not a challenge to the government but to the working peoples of the USA and the world.

Youths in the streets of Greece, London and Cairo are giving one response. The challenge is to coordinate these responses for a prolonged and sustained struggle to break the power of the financial-military-information complex. Those who have been following the gyrations of the capitalist debacle since 2007 will note that the events associated with the 2011 downgrade are simply precursors to what will continue to happen as the last 20 years of debt-driven growth in advanced capitalist nations unwinds. In the midst of this protracted crisis the rich will seek to transfer wealth from the poor as the only means of sustaining their accumulation of wealth as year 4 unfolds of what is likely to be a 7-10 year recession/depression. The financial-military-information complex will continue to ensure that austerity to manage government debt falls on the backs of working people. Corporations will continue to claim that the only way they will invest some of their trillions in cash to create jobs and lower unemployment is to reduce regulations, lower corporate tax rates and perhaps even lower minimum wages. The American people must realise that the chickens have just come home to roost. The people must organise more and more to link up with working people's struggles around the world to break up the banks, IMF-rating agencies alliance and their military enterprise. Financial institutions should be made to serve the people, not vice-versa.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Horace Campbell is professor of African-American studies and political science at Syracuse University. He is the author of 'Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA'. See www.horacecampbell.net.

Black Studies Journals

2011-08-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dorothy Tsuruta, Ethnic Studies San Francisco State University
International Journal of African Studies

Volume 14 No 1 Spring/Summer 2008
"Sustaining Black Studies in the 21st Century"
Marilyn Thomas-Houston, Special Issue Editor
James Turner
Ester Terry
Molefi Kete Asante
Dorothy Randall Tsuruta
James Stewart
Edmund Gordon
Lee Baker
Kimberle Crenshaw
Josephine Bradley
Carole Boyce Davies
Kevin Gaines
Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Summer Melay
Sylvia Cyrus Albritton
Charles Jones
Abdul Alkalimat
Charles Henry
Warren Whatley
Stanlie James
Nathaniel Norment
Ronald Bailey
Maulana Karnega
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan
Rhett Jones
Daryl Scott
Austin Jackson
Monica Carillo
Irma McClaurin
Terry Kershaw

Socialism and Democracy Journal
"What is African American Studies, Its Focus, and Future?"
John McClendon and Yusuf Nuruddin, special issue editors
John Bracey
Anna Reese
Malik Simba
Stephen Ferguson
Reiland Rabaka
Rose Brewer
Greg Carr
Anthony Monteiro
Carter Wilson
Charles Pinderhughes
Robeson Frazier
Charles Lumpkin
Lenore Daniels
David Gilbert

Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue, Edited by Marvin X
online journal

Volume 4, Number 2, December, 2010

Shaggy Flores
Ras Griot
Phavia Kujichagulia
Chinwe Enemchukwu
L.F. Scott
Rodney D. Coates
J. Vern Cromartie
Dike Okoro
Neal F. Hall
Marvin X
Mohja Kahf
Ayodel Nzinga
Askia M. Toure
Michael Simanga
Amiri Baraka
Kalamu ya Salaam
Kola Boof
Louis Reyes Rivera
Aries Jordan
Ptah Allah El
Hettie V. Williams
Kamaria Muntu
devorah major
Bruce George
Jeanette Drake
Itibari M. Zulu
Renaldo Ricketts
Nandi Comber
Al Young
Ghasem Batamuntu
Mona Lisa Saloy
Eugene B. Redmond
Fritz Pointer
Gwendolyn Mitchell
Felix Orisewike Sylvanus
Rudolph Lewis
Ed Bullins
Mabel Mnensa
Kwan Booth
Tureeda Mikell
Jerry Ward
Mary Weems
C. Leigh McInnis
Haki R. Madhubuti
Everett Hoagland
Charles Blackwell
Jacqueline Kibacha
John Reyonlds III
Darlene Scott
Jimmy Smith, Jr.
Sam Hamod
Opal Palmer Adisa
Amy Andrieux
Lamont b. Steptoe
Avotcja
Anthony Spires
Benecia Blue
Neil Callendar
Tanure Ojaide
Pious Okoro
Tony Medina
Dr. Ja A. Jahannes
Brother Yao
Zayid Muhammad
Nykimbe Broussard
Kiola Maisha
Niyah X
Adrienne N. Wartts
Greg Carr
Darlene Roy
Ishmael Reed
Felton Eddy
Ramal Lamar
Lee Hubbard
Kamau Amen Ra

The Black War Over Obama Drama

2011-08-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

The Daily Beast
U.S. Politics
Newsweek Magazine

The Black War Over Obama

African-American leaders fear academic rebel Cornel West’s fierce attacks on the president could spell trouble in 2012.
Aug 15, 2011 1:00 AM EDT

How did Cornel West become the administration’s No. 1 gadfly? The noted African-American scholar and radio host may have helped Barack Obama into the White House, but he has spent the better part of the president’s term taking shots at him, calling him a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs,” among other names. “These last few weeks have only proven my point about Brother Obama,” West says in his signature “one love” voice as he talks about the debt-reduction debacle on Capitol Hill. “He simply caved in again.”

Never mind the slings and arrows of Tea Partiers. The most politically problematic criticism of Obama these days is coming from his base. And there’s no question that there is a deep reservoir of frustration, confusion, and even rage among many in the African-American community for West to tap into. With unemployment hovering near 17 percent for African-Americans (the national average rate is 9 percent) and 11 percent of black homeowners facing imminent foreclosure, African-Americans have ample reason for anxiety about the coming budget cuts that Obama reluctantly signed into law this month. The Congressional Black Caucus chairman called the recent debt deal “a sugar-coated satan sandwich” that will do little to help communities already struggling.

West and his longtime friend, radio host Tavis Smiley, have taken their criticism of Obama to the streets, launching a two-week, 15-city “poverty tour,” aimed at forcing the powers that be to once again focus on the “least among us” and getting the president to “wake up.” Their efforts are increasingly stoking fears among some African-American leaders that West and Smiley could discourage black voters from turning out when the nation’s first African-American president stands for reelection in 2012.

“The negative discussion Dr. West is having can only put more apathy in the hearts of African-Americans and could ultimately cause them to lose more faith in the entire political process,” says the Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Obama’s former church in Chicago. “Where will that leave us?”

Lately, Obama’s supporters in the black community are fighting back. As West and Smiley pulled up aboard their “Call to Conscience” bus in Detroit in early August, a crowd of hecklers awaited them outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. “We will not stand silent as Smiley and West criticize the man who brought us health-care reform, one of the greatest accomplishments for the poor in this country’s history,” says a spokesperson for Detroiters for Better Government.
Barack Obama

Photo illustration by Newsweek (source photo: Jemal Countess / Wireimage-Getty Images)

The pushback is not just coming from community organizers. “The poor did horribly under every president before Obama, and yet there wasn’t this level of outcry toward them by these men,” says Michael Eric Dyson, professor of sociology at Georgetown. “That makes folks skeptical about the intent.”

West insists he does not intend to suppress support for Obama’s reelection. “If African-Americans choose to stay home this time and not go to the booth, it would be most regrettable -given the options,” he says. “But that can’t stop my message.”

It’s hard to say how much electoral impact the Princeton professor and the media personality might have. Obama retains overwhelming support among black voters. Still, the numbers have been slipping. He received a staggering 96 percent of the African-American vote in 2008. In a poll done by Black Entertainment Television in March, black approval of Obama had slid to 85 percent. According to a recent Washington Post/CBS poll, the number of African-Americans who believe Obama’s actions have helped the economy has dropped from 77 percent in October to about half that this month.

That’s not the kind of news the president’s reelection team wants to hear heading into a campaign year.

Obama’s team has reached out to West several times and invited him to meet with the president, a White House official says, adding that West has declined. For his part, West says he has received a call from White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, but did not get invited to meet with Obama. “A beer summit won’t help our issues,” West adds, recalling the now-famous meeting the president had with a white police officer and Harvard’s Skip Gates following a tense confrontation between the two in 2009.

Gates stands by West, his longtime friend: “He is completely sincere in his concern for the poor. I may disagree, as brothers sometimes do, with the way the message is being handled, but I commend him for his work and his passion.

How did Cornel West become the administration’s No. 1 gadfly? The noted African-American scholar and radio host may have helped Barack Obama into the White House, but he has spent the better part of the president’s term taking shots at him, calling him a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs,” among other names. “These last few weeks have only proven my point about Brother Obama,” West says in his signature “one love” voice as he talks about the debt-reduction debacle on Capitol Hill. “He simply caved in again.”

Never mind the slings and arrows of Tea Partiers. The most politically problematic criticism of Obama these days is coming from his base. And there’s no question that there is a deep reservoir of frustration, confusion, and even rage among many in the African-American community for West to tap into. With unemployment hovering near 17 percent for African-Americans (the national average rate is 9 percent) and 11 percent of black homeowners facing imminent foreclosure, African-Americans have ample reason for anxiety about the coming budget cuts that Obama reluctantly signed into law this month. The Congressional Black Caucus chairman called the recent debt deal “a sugar-coated satan sandwich” that will do little to help communities already struggling.

West and his longtime friend, radio host Tavis Smiley, have taken their criticism of Obama to the streets, launching a two-week, 15-city “poverty tour,” aimed at forcing the powers that be to once again focus on the “least among us” and getting the president to “wake up.” Their efforts are increasingly stoking fears among some African-American leaders that West and Smiley could discourage black voters from turning out when the nation’s first African-American president stands for reelection in 2012.

“The negative discussion Dr. West is having can only put more apathy in the hearts of African-Americans and could ultimately cause them to lose more faith in the entire political process,” says the Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Obama’s former church in Chicago. “Where will that leave us?”

Lately, Obama’s supporters in the black community are fighting back. As West and Smiley pulled up aboard their “Call to Conscience” bus in Detroit in early August, a crowd of hecklers awaited them outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. “We will not stand silent as Smiley and West criticize the man who brought us health-care reform, one of the greatest accomplishments for the poor in this country’s history,” says a spokesperson for Detroiters for Better Government.
Barack Obama.

The pushback is not just coming from community organizers. “The poor did horribly under every president before Obama, and yet there wasn’t this level of outcry toward them by these men,” says Michael Eric Dyson, professor of sociology at Georgetown. “That makes folks skeptical about the intent.”

West insists he does not intend to suppress support for Obama’s reelection. “If African-Americans choose to stay home this time and not go to the booth, it would be most regrettable -given the options,” he says. “But that can’t stop my message.”

It’s hard to say how much electoral impact the Princeton professor and the media personality might have. Obama retains overwhelming support among black voters. Still, the numbers have been slipping. He received a staggering 96 percent of the African-American vote in 2008. In a poll done by Black Entertainment Television in March, black approval of Obama had slid to 85 percent. According to a recent Washington Post/CBS poll, the number of African-Americans who believe Obama’s actions have helped the economy has dropped from 77 percent in October to about half that this month.

That’s not the kind of news the president’s reelection team wants to hear heading into a campaign year.

Obama’s team has reached out to West several times and invited him to meet with the president, a White House official says, adding that West has declined. For his part, West says he has received a call from White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, but did not get invited to meet with Obama. “A beer summit won’t help our issues,” West adds, recalling the now-famous meeting the president had with a white police officer and Harvard’s Skip Gates following a tense confrontation between the two in 2009.

Gates stands by West, his longtime friend: “He is completely sincere in his concern for the poor. I may disagree, as brothers sometimes do, with the way the message is being handled, but I commend him for his work and his passion.”

Popular talk-radio personality Tom Joyner recently joined the fray, writing an open letter to West suggesting that he and Smiley were motivated more by a desire for attention and book sales than a genuine concern for the plight of the poor. (The two co-host a Public Radio International daily radio show, and Smiley owns a book imprint that publishes most of West’s written works. Smiley’s most recent book, Fail Up, was released in May.)

The Rev. Al Sharpton has also voiced concerns that the pair’s efforts may do more harm than good. “African--Americans are struggling with many issues, and serious discussions need to be had by all,” Sharpton says. “But instead, West has resorted to personal attacks … All that does is distract the attention from where it needs to be. I’ve said that to Cornel and explained the damage being done.”

West has openly admitted being angered by perceived slights from Obama after his election. He says he campaigned nonstop for Obama in 2007, hosting more than 60 events, yet he says he didn’t receive inauguration tickets and lost all access to Obama once he was in office. Smiley fell out of favor with many African-Americans prior to the 2008 election, owing to his unrelenting criticism of Obama. Many think his distaste for the president influenced West’s attitude.

Some of Obama’s staunchest allies are confident a truce is near. Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, who befriended both Barack and Michelle Obama in the 1990s, introduced the couple to West in early 2007. Ogletree sounds determined to resolve what he terms a “disappointing distraction” as soon as possible.

“This is not about two very brilliant men squashing a beef,” says Ogletree of Obama and West. “This is about what’s best for this country … The two men will meet before 2011 is over, and this won’t be allowed to impact the 2012 reelection of Barack Obama. That’s simply not an option.”

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Allison Samuels is a senior writer at Newsweek. Her work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, O, Essence and Vibe magazines. She's also the author of Christmas Soul, published by Disney/Jump At the Sun, and Off The Record, (Harper Collins/Amistad).

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

The Mythology of Love

2011-08-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

The Mythology of Love

Beyond Myth

Myth is all there is, like air, without myth we cannot breathe, therefore we die. Myth is the essence of religion. There are no rituals without myth--myth is the story, the word, hence the foundation of ritual. We take the myth and create the drama as in the original Osirian drama of resurrection, first the story then the enactment of the story, followed by the absorption of myth into the social-psychology of a people. Myth then becomes the foundation of culture, the purpose of existence and the goal of after-life.

Yes, culture is all that we do but all that we do is based on the myths we live by. When we suggest transcending myth it is an awesome challenge to the psyche and thus to the society. What white person wants to give up the myth of white supremacy. It is the essence of their being. Shall they become black? But black is not simply a color, it is a culture that is bound by myth as well. When we suggest giving up myth, we realize the task is daunting, for what shall a person stand upon, what rock, what reality?

We want the schools to change but again it shall involve dismantling the American mythology, all the lies, stories, dreams, holidays, statues, images, symbols that abound the society--in short, a decolonialization must occur—or call it detoxification. The teachers cannot teach a different way because they are victims of myth as well, trapped in their madness which is the essence of all they have been taught and certified to teach.

The black American psychologists are grappling with the problem of myth as I write. At their last national conference in Oakland they spoke about casting out Eurocentric psychology and returning to the ancient African healing philosophy. They want to transcend European psychotherapy for a more holistic approach that will embrace the entire being of the spiritually ill person, for sure, the mental is related to the physical to the social to the political to the economic. But as with education, how shall the mental health workers get certified to teach African healing when they have been trained in Eurocentric psychology? And what is the mythological foundation of African healing?

Imagine throwing out white education, but the question is can they heal the black mind with white psychology? As much as we applaud the psychotherapeutic peer group approach, prescribed in my manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, even the peer group is not sufficient unless the group bonds together in a holistic manner to overcome the myriad ills due to oppression.

The myth of love is an example of how we are entrapped in mythology. Love becomes an ever changing illusion based on materialism and economic security, thus it is a physical thing that in the end causes us to cry, "What does love have to do with it?" But in reality love is all there is. God is Love! Yet we spend a lifetime seeking that which is our essence. Surely we must be on the wrong path or in the wrong house of love. And after a lifetime with the beloved, we wonder was it in vain, a waste of energy, a pitiful existence with a beloved who hated our guts, was jealous, envious, greedy, yet this was our mate, this was us.

And so detoxification is in order to begin our recovery from sick mythology. We resist and deny anything is amiss but we must summon the strength to make a change, to jump out the box toward a brighter day. We fight leaving the comfort zone for it is all we know, like the slaves upon emancipation: where shall we go, what shall we do without the master? He was our everything, our god, our lover, our enforcer, our rapist even. But deconstructing alien mythology is the only way out, just as the dope fiend must stop using dope upon the pain of death. Now some choose death, the die-hards who claim dope is the best thing that ever happened to them. So they are not satisfied until they fall into the pit. The society addicted to sick mythology is no better than the common dope fiend. It is determined to commit mass suicide. America is not alone in this manner. It is the same with Israel, North Korea, Iran and elsewhere. Mythology (call it ideology if you wish) will be the final determinant of the political actions in the above nations.

Will they transcend their mythology and live or persist in their inordinacy until they die? The sooner we get beyond myth into a progressive, radical and revolutionary state of mind, the better we shall all be. But it would be a step forward if we simply stopped believing in the superiority of myth. This notion of superiority is probably worse than the myth itself. The myth of white supremacy is no better or worse than other myths, but the problem is when whites want to spread their myth and force it upon others who have their own mythology.

As far as I am concerned, let the whites in the American south keep their confederate flag, just don’t subject it upon me and my people. Keep that shit in yo house, your church or wherever you dwell and I don’t. And if I fly the Star and Crescent, leave me the hell alone. But let’s go deeper into the world of myth for a story is composed of words, thus we must consider linguistics or language when attempting to transcend myth, for the devil is in the language. We may therefore find ourselves in need of a new language in order to transcend myth, for we speak a mythical language, and just as we do not understand the mythology, we do not understand the language. To have a common language suggests we have agreed upon definitions, but again, what do you mean by love, and are you prepared to love your enemy? Can you love yourself, and who or what is yourself? Who is the black self, what is it?

We grappled with this problem in the 60s in trying to define a black aesthetic. What is beauty and truth to us? Suddenly the Negro was ugly and black was beautiful, and for a moment there was a consensus and a people moved forward. And then came the breakdown and the consensus was gone. The natural hair style was no longer en vogue. Ugly became beautiful. Ugly was freedom, although we never got a consensus on what freedom meant, nor do we have one today. What is freedom to you is not freedom to me. You say freedom is a job, and that’s the totality of your freedom. Other people fight for land, natural resources, self determination, but you say just give you a job and you are satisfied. So how can we unite?

You say freedom is having sex between persons of the same sex. Nothing else matters to you in life. But we ask what does sex have to do with it? Were you put aboard the slave ships so you could have sex with the same gender loving persons, is this why your ancestors suffered in the cotton and cane fields, was it for sexual freedom, or what is possibly something that went far beyond pussy and dick, getting a nut in the dark or in some alley, bathroom, park? Again, we need to define some terms before we can move forward into the new era. Let’s list some terms and define them—and how can we do this when terms are ever shifting, for language is dynamic and fluid, Negro, Colored, black, African, Bilalian, Moorish, et al. We are forever changing our identity because we cannot come to a consensus as a people. At least the white people know they are white, they may not know anything else, but they know they are white.

You don’t know if you are black or white, man or woman—for the sands are constantly shifting under your feet—the result of your insecurity, personal and communal. It is an identity crisis of the most profound degree imaginable. So myth is composed with language, from myth to ritual, from ritual to reality, but language is the foundation. The child’s world only becomes real when it takes command of its “mother tongue.” Within the mother tongue is myth which is composed of surface and deep structure terminology and meaning, the said and the unsaid, the seen and the unseen.

We are that child that has yet to master language, hence our world is chaos without solid, safe and secure definitions, leading us not to know what is real and unreal, a confusion of self and kind. We are not certain our brother is a friend or foe. We are not sure if our mate is friend or foe, lover or hater. In a moment of passion we may hear words we never thought was in the heart of our lover, or we may use such words ourselves. Now there is more doubt and insecurity in an already fragile relationship, that more than likely originated in lust rather than anything that can be called love. And so we see the task before us, a psycho-linguistic mythological conundrum that will take centuries to resolve since in the global village our mythology is bound with other mythological tribes and nations, some of which seek our life blood.

We may be forced out of our slumber to shed the old raggedy clothes of worn out mythology, whether religious or political, sexual or social. Elijah told us the wisdom of this world is exhausted—one need only look around and listen to the language, the babble blowing in the wind, in spite of all the technology, all the human advancement. Surely, in spite of it all, reverse evolution has set in, a kind of atrophy, a freezing of the mental apparatus, a paralysis of thought while the very hour challenges us with the need for grand vision to make that great leap forward into the new millennium.
--Marvin X, from the Mythology of Love, essays on male/female relations, 2011

Common - The Corner ft. The Last Poets

2011-08-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

Meet me at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

Toward A Pan African Mental Health Peer Group

2011-08-15T08:34:00.001-07:00

Toward A Pan African Mental Health Peer Group

A few years ago, I called upon Dr. Nathan Hare, our esteemed sociologist and clinical psychologist, and author of the classic The Black Anglo-Saxons, to establish a mental health group we decided to call Black Reconstruction. Along with Dr. Hare, the group was facilitated by social worker, Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA. The group took place at my Recovery Theatre in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Before the group sessions were disbanded for several reasons, including logistics and promotion, we discovered a few things. One, the group should have been divided into the severely mentally ill and the functionally mentally ill, although the dual diagnosed (those with mental and drug problems) could attend either session, for many times the drug addict and mentally ill are indivisible personalities.

Two, Dr. Hare concluded such mental health peer group sessions should be established in every community nationwide. And I add worldwide. A mental health worker need not be present, but following the 12-step model of AA, let the peers facilitate the session, since there are simply not enough mental health workers to serve the population of mentally disabled persons. The US Surgeon General estimated 20% of Americans are mentally ill. Three, although the Pan African community suffers the brunt of mental disorders caused by oppression, “situational disorders” as Dr. Franz Fanon called them, when whites attended, we saw they too suffer and could participate since much of oppression does not discriminate --and more importantly, the colonizer is as mentally ill, if not more so, than the colonized.

The victimizer with his boot on the neck of the oppressed is sick with the idea of domination. So, yes, racism has affected more blacks than whites, but middle and lower class whites are an exploited economic class as well. Capitalism and imperialism do not discriminate--all workers are exploited and they are programmed into the virus of consumerism wherein their paltry wages acquire the cheap goods of a materialistic society.

Half the goods they acquire are not needed, but the workers and their children are programmed by persistent advertising, often of a subliminal nature. And there is only a matter of degree between the exploited white worker and the black worker. For sure, blacks and women lack wage parity. Yes, a white worker with a prison record can get a job quicker than a black worker with no police record, but once on the job, the white worker is exploited none the less and suffers mental trauma as well. His white skin does not save him from wage slavery and the resultant psycho-social diseases, including drug abuse, partner violence and child abuse, emotional if not physical.

Nevertheless, our main focus is healing the Pan African community, those descendants of slavery and colonialism throughout Africa, Europe and the Americas. This book should also have relevance to the Muslim world, Arabs in particular, who suffer as well the ravages of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Yes, Muslims and Arabs suffer from the trauma of white supremacy as the West devours their oil fields and other resources, and permits reactionary regimes to flourish in spite of their anti-democratic behavior.

The ravages of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism (including domestic colonialism) necessitate the formation of Pan African mental health peer groups throughout Pan Africa, whether on the continent, Europe, Caribbean and the Americas, especially North America. Let us all come together in small groups for peer healing sessions.

Radical Pan African mental health peer groups can be a powerful antidote to help heal the lingering, traumatic effects of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. We can see throughout Pan Africa that even when we advance politically and economically, the scourge of cultural imperialism causes mental retardation of a kind that produces stunted men and women who might otherwise continue the radical freedom agenda, but yet (and often in the name of revolution) continue reactionary behavior and practices no different from their former masters. We label such behavior white supremacy, even if it is now black face white supremacy. In the Caribbean they call it, “Black men with white hearts.” Indeed, such behavior is a disease of the heart, of the spirit, and thus no amount of political/economic liberation will suffice--we cannot live on bread alone, but our wretched mental condition stifles real progress toward that divine state of mind wherein we are free of tribal, ethnic, religious and cultural hatred, strife, desires of domination, exploitation, greed and lust for power, i.e., white supremacy.

The advantages and positives of Western civilization do not outweigh the sordid and vile behavior we have inculcated and practice with each other, and thus the time has come to make radical changes as we advance into the new millennium, personal changes in our spiritual consciousness that will transform our political, economic and social behavior. Yes, we are in the era of high technology, but our behavior is often of a bestial nature, for we have lost the civility and serenity of the natural order, even the animals display personalities more at peace than we so-called evolved human beings. As we became urbanized, we are no longer cognizant of natural love for each other and the planet we share with animals and plants. Many city children have never touched an animal, a cow, horse or chicken, a duck, a bird. We may teach gender equality, but we see in the animal kingdom there is leadership based on gender, sometimes the male but often the female. So as we evolve we might need to refer to the animals for wisdom and knowledge of how configure society that decreases psycho-social destabilization that has brought us to the present need for this discussion of how to remedy the most pressing political, economic, social, and spiritual issue of our time: white supremacy.

NOTE:

Until further notice, persons seeking to attend the Pan African Mental Health Peer Group can meet Dr. M at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.
Email me to find out day and time or make an appointment. jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

Thousands Protest US in Africa at Harlem Rally

2011-08-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

RALLY IN HARLEM TO PROTEST ATTACKS AFRICA AND BLACK COMMUNITIES IN THE U.S.

HARLEM: Thousands Protest Attacks on African People on the Continent and in the U.S.

By People's Media Center NYC

Thousands rallied at Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem Saturday, August 13 to protest the attack on African people on the Continent and in the United States. The heinous bombing of Libya by the US and NATO, illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe by the West, and the Bloomberg administration’s destruction of housing, jobs, education, health care and police abuse, are all a systematic assault on African communities.

Special guest speakers included: Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam; Father Miguel d'Escoto, former President of the UN General Assembly and former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua; Dr. Molefi Asante of Afrocentricity International; Viola Plummer of the December 12th Movement; NOI Minister Akbar Muhammad, and many others.

The rally garnered international attention with the participation of Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockman. Father d'Escoto spoke against the “war of aggression on Libya.” Further stating “There is no people in the whole planet who know less about what the United States does abroad than Americans. They are systematically deceived. This is the very foundation of what they call democracy in this country.” Father d'Escoto went on to outline the need for reform in the United Nations, emphasizing the domination of the voting members of the UN Security Council over all other countries.

“We never underestimate our people's ability to analyze a situation. The vast majority of folk are clear about the attack on African people and want to do something to fight back. Mainstream media propaganda about strong African leaders like Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and President Robert Mugabe is just like what they say about Black people here who do not bow down to the status quo,” said Gregory Perry of Queens.

Bronx Coordinator Kamau Brown stated, “Colonel Gaddafi and the people of Libya have built their country from the poorest to the richest country in Africa. He is the key person in the organizing effort to build a United States of Africa. President Mugabe has dared to take back the land stolen by European settlers and give it back to the people of Zimbabwe.”

“The attack on us here is insidious. Police brutality and harassment, gentrification of our communities, housing foreclosures, destruction of public education, closing hospitals, the prison industry, the list goes on and on. They all destroy lives. The NATO bombs in Libya and the illegal sanctions in Zimbabwe kill people. Black people understand that it's time for Pan African Unity.” Brown concluded.

Rally Saturday: Africa for Africans

2011-08-13T07:38:00.001-07:00

Greetings Sister and Brother Leaders:

Hope to find you and your families well. A friendly reminder. Hope you'll join us this Saturday, 8/13, 11 am, at U.N. Plaza in San Francisco (@ Civic Center BART station) for our STAND-UP FOR AFRICANS! STOP THE BOMBING OF LIBYA! REPARATIONS NOW Rally. Many thanks for your consideration.

Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma'at

"Take your righteous steps... and, let our Divine do the rest. Walk in Faith... on each and every day!"

July 6251 KMT/2011

Greetings to our African-Descendant Organizations and Justice-seeking Allies in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area:

In solidarity with the masses of people in Libya, the entire African continent, Haiti—and the millions upon millions facing increased imperialist military, police and corporate violence; as well as worsening conditions of life in communities, workplaces and prisons around the U.S., African Diaspora and internationally—We appeal to you and your organization’s members to join our STAND-UP FOR AFRICANS! Rally for Justice and Healing Gathering, on Saturday, 13 August 2011, at 11 am. We will assemble in the 1945 birthplace of the United Nations, downtown San Francisco, California. Our location is the United Nations’ Plaza, located on Market Street b/w Seventh & Eighth. (Take BART or MUNI trains to the United Nations’ Plaza/Civic Center stations). We are also expressing our unity with the Millions March being organized by the December 12th International Secretariat and others in Harlem, New York (please visit www.millionsmarchharlem.com for more information)

Sixty years ago, in 1951, our courageous Ancestors (such as WILLIAM and LOUISE PATTERSON, LOUIS BURNHAM, JOHN PITTMAN, JAMES MALLOY, HARRY HAYWOOD, ESLANDA and PAUL ROBESON, RUSSELL MEEK, W.E.B. DUBOIS, JAMES FORD, BENJAMIN DAVIS, and many other outstanding activists) organized the WE CHARGE GENOCIDE campaign to the United Nations’ General Assembly. They exposed to the world “The Crime of Government Against the Negro (African-descendants in the U.S.) People”; and sought to secure international support and immediate relief. It is in that great tradition—and the spirit of our collective Victory ten years ago at the U.N.’s “Third World Conference Against Racism” in Durban, South Africa—that WE STILL CHARGE GENOCIDE for the continuing crimes against humanity and nature; and proclaim that AFRICAN NATIONS AND ASCENDANTS DESERVE AND DEMAND REPARATIONS NOW!

We condemn the imperialists’ attempts to murder the Gadhafi family; to disrupt, dismantle, divide and destroy that independent nation’s infrastructure, economy, and self-defense capabilities; and, to accelerate their robbery of oil and militarization of the African continent. We also acknowledge the threat by some in the African Union to withdraw from the U.N. based on the “security council’s” (along with NATO’s and President Barack Obama’s) unjust and bombastic actions, in Libya. We are launching our “Dismantle the United Nations’ ‘Security Council’ Monopoly! Support Equality and Democracy Through One Nation/One Vote: Petition to the People of the World.” Finally, We are reactivating our “Establish a Permanent Forum for African Descendants at the U.N.” effort, from 2009. Your participation, leadership and contributions are most welcome to help popularize these campaigns for truth, justice, peace and Reparations.

In Unity! For those on the west coast who are unable to travel to New York, We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, 13 August, 11 am, at the United Nations Plaza, in Frisco!

Initiated by FONAMI (Foundations for Our New Alkebulan/Afrikan Millennium), Members of N’COBRA in Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, the ANSWER Coalition and other activists

Reach us at:

support@africansdeservereparations.com

510.759.4311 [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311]

Special invitations to participate in this 13 August mobilization extended to a number of spiritual, cultural, political and justice organizations, including: African People’s Socialist Party; All African People’s Revolutionary Party; All of Us or None; Bay View Newspaper; Committee for Defense of Human Rights and SF-8; Committee to Free Cuban Five; Haiti Action Committee; International Longshore Workers Union; It’s About Time/Black Panther Alumni; KPFA/Pacifica Radio; KPOO; Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; Nation of Islam; Party for Socialism and Liberation; Prisoners of Conscience Committee; Wo’se Community Church of the Sacred Way; and other groups.

************************************************************************

STAND-UP FOR AFRICANS!

Rally for Justice and Healing Gathering

Saturday, 13 August 2011

11 am

United Nations’ Plaza, downtown San Francisco

Market Street b/w Seventh & Eighth (at UN Plaza/Civic Center BART and MUNI stations)

WE STILL CHARGE GENOCIDE!!!

End the U.S. and European Terrorist Wars, Torture, Murder, Robbery and (Re-) Colonization of Africans!

Life Over Capitalist Debt and Death! Human Needs, Not Corporate Greed!

Arrests, Trials and Convictions for the Criminal Political, Military and Financial Gangsters and Banksters!

Stop the Bush-Obama Imperialist “AFRICOM” (aka, U.S. African Command) Militarization of Africa!

Dismantle the so-called “security council” of the United Nations! Support One Member Nation, One Vote!

REPARATIONS NOW…

FOR LIBYA, ZIMBABWE, HAITI AND ALL AFRCAN NATIONS AND DESCENDANTS, PALESTINE, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN!!!

This action initiated by the FONAMI (Foundations for Our New Alkebulan/Afrikan Millennium), Members of N’COBRA in Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, the ANSWER Coalition and other groups.

c/o FONAMI P.O. Box 10963 Oakland, CA 94610

support@africansdeservereparations.com 510.759.4311 [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311] [Call: 510.759.4311]

We are in unity with the Millions March taking place in Harlem, New York ( www.millionsmarchharlem.com for info)

Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma'at

Part TWO: 30 Years of Teaching and Writing

2011-08-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Part Two: 30 Years of Teaching and Writing: The Public Career of Marvin X by James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer,1997

copyright (c) 1997 by James G. Spady

...The poetry of Marvin X is deeply rooted in the cosmological convictions of his ancestors and his community. His individual identity is inextricably linked to his communal identity. That is why it functions as a source of power and inspiration. Because he is open to the magico-realist perception or reality and has the authentic experiences of the streets, Marvin's works strike a chord. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in a recent collection, Love and War, 1995.

"Read Love and War for Ramadan!"--Dr. Mohja Kahf, University of Arkansas, Department of English and Islamic Literature

cover art by Emory Douglas, Black Panther Minister of Culture

He introduces the work with these words, "Love and War is my poetic story of rediscovering self love and the internal war (Jihad) to reconquer my soul from the devil who whispers into the hearts of men, Al Qur'an. But I am also mindful of socio political conditions of my people. And this reality fills me with compassion and love, forcing me once again (now that I am clean and sober) to put on the armor of God and return to the battlefield. This collection is a signal of my return to the struggle of African American liberation after an absence of nearly a decade, caused by disillusionment and drug abuse. I return with the spirit of my friend, Huey P. Newton, rip, shaking my bones. He and I were often in the same drug territory and but for the grace of God, I chould have easily suffered a fate similar to his. I came close many times. Praise be to Allah."

"Marvin X was my teacher, many of our comrades came through his black theatre: Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Emory Douglas, George Murray and Sam Napier."
--Dr. Huey P. Newton,co-founder of the Black Panther Party

...Craft is essential to Marvin X's poetry and drama. He knows the possibilities and constraints of the form. And he also knows how to expand. He credits Sun Ra with having helped him to realize the full possibilities of theatre. Marvin read his poetry in San Ra's grand musical energy field and he closely observed Sonny's skillful exploration of our Omniverse and all of its real possibilities. Was int not Sun Ra who told Marvin X that he would be teaching at U.C. Berkeley before it happened?

Marvin X and Sun Ra, both Gemini

...Nearly 30 years ago, Marvin sought to teach the relationship of Islam and Black Art. In his published conversation with Amiri Baraka, he attempted to reconcile and provide voices and faces for the different expressions of Islam in the West.

As a skilled interviewer, he allows Askia Toure and Baraka's divergent views of Islam to be placed into the record. In the afterword he states, "I believe the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is at least ten years ahead of any Black group working for freedom, justice and equality in the hells of North America. The Islamic ideology, discipline and organizational structure permits the masses of our people to fully develop their self-identity, self defense and self-government."

Again, X is out front. He recognized the tremendous influence Islam had on the Black Arts Movement. He is a case study in that type of influence....

Elijah and Malcolm, major influences on Marvin X. He honors both men.

....Marvin X is credited with convincing Eldridge Cleaver to use his advance against royalties from the popular book Soul on Ice, to help set up Black House. The building became "the mecca of political, cultural activity in The Bay Area. Among artists featured were: Sonia Sanchez,Vonetta McGee, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Chicago Art Ensemble,
Avoctja, Emory Douglas, Sarah Webster Fabio, et al. Playwright Ed Bullins joined Marvin and Eldrdige at the Black House, along with Marvin's partner, Ethna X (Hurriyah Asar), and singer Willie Dale, Cleaver's buddy from San Quentin.

Eldridge Cleaver, see Marvin X's memoir, Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the Devil, 2009 Upon his release from Soledad prison, Marvin X was the first person he hooked up with. Later Marvin introduced him to Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

....Marvin X is a teacher of primeval knowledge, a knower of both street poetry and book poetry. In fact, he combines the two in a powerful way. Each verse is a teach act, each stanza--a class. His use of alliteration, rhymes, assonance, dissonance and free rhymes indicates he has absorbed the teachings of the academy. Yet, the street consciousness lying in the cut of its content links him directly to the poets of the new idiom called Rap.

Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale who attended Oakland's Merritt College along with Huey Newton and Marvin X. Bobby performed in Marvin's second play Come Next Summer before founding the Black
Panther Party.

His experimental verses are wholistic, historical and yet dialogical. The dynamic complexities of the situation creates in the reader an urgent need to know more. Can we expect anything elswe from a good teacher?

30 Years of Teaching and Writing: The Public Career of Marvin X

2011-08-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

30 Years of Teaching and Writing: The Public Career of Marvin X

Copyright James G. Spady, 1997

Philadelphia New Observer

Marvin X has been teaching for a long time. He has established his tenacity. As one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement (BAM), he became a teacher in an emerging field called Black Studies. Like Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal, Askia Toure and others, Marvin X both contributed to and later taught those pivotal courses that constituted a new discipline.

For the last thirty years, this gifted poet, journalist, dramatist, oral historian (he appears to be the only participant in the Black Arts Movement that conducted intensive and extensive oral interviews with the key participants, as well as international political, cultural and educational leaders)and teacher, has established an unusual record. Marvin X has taught at the University of California at San Diego, Mills College, San Francisco State University, Fresno State University,
Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland, University of Nevada,Reno, and the University of California at Berkeley.

His peers were among the first to recognize his ability. The well-known African American man of the Arts and Letters, Amiri Baraka, refers to Marvin X as "one of the outstanding African writers and teachers in America. He has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the new revolutionary school of African writing."

One of the best known playwrights in America is Ed Bullins. He refers to X as "one of the founders of the modern day Black theatre movement. He is a Black artist par excellence." The editor of Black Scholar magazine, Robert Chrisman, spoke of Marvin as "an extraordinary distinguished poet who has a powerful sense of meaningful drama"....

After high school (1962), Marvin enrolled in Oakland City College, aka Merritt College. There he met Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who went on to found the Black Panther Party. It was at OCC that Marvin began to undergo a vital change. He listened intently as speaker after speaker addressed the ever-growing members of the cognoscente at Oakland City College. They, like many area colleges, benefited from the organizing and conscious-raising activities of the Afro American Association under the leadership of a young black lawyer, Donald Warden (now Khalid Abdullah Al Mansour). Marvin's early writings appeared in the Merritt College literary magazine.

Upon receiving the A.A. degree, Marvin went on to San Francisco State University, 1964. Marvin wrote a play for one of his English classes. The professor, legendary novelist John Gardner, was sufficiently impressed to carry it over to the theatre department. In the Spring of 1965, Marvin X's one-act play "Flowers for the Trashman" was produced at San Francisco State, a novel experience for an African American. It is even more exceptional in that it was his first play. (Published initially in Black Dialogue, Winter, 1966 and later in Black Fire, edited by Larry Neal and LeRoi Jones).

Marvin X soon met Philly playwright Ed Bullins, introduced to him by Art Sheridan, founding editor of Black Dialogue magazine. Ed and Marvin founded Black Arts West Thetre in the Fillmore. Black Arts West was certainly influenced by the Black Arts Movement in the East, mainly New York and Philadelphia.

The role of Amiri Baraka in shaping national Black consciousness can not be overemphasized. However, Marvin X, Hillary X, Ethna X, Duncan X (as they would become in a few months after joining the Nation of Islam, circa 1967), along with Ed Bullins and Farouk (Carl Bossiere, rip)were part of an indigenous Black Arts Movement....

--Continued--

London Bridges Falling Down, Falling Down

2011-08-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

In solidarity with the family and friends of our son Mark Duggan

The PASCF extends our deepest sympathy and forthright solidarity to the family and friends of our son Mark Duggan. Between 6.15pm and 6.41pm on Thursday 4th August 2011 our 29 year old son Mark was shot dead by London Metropolitan Police gunmen in Tottenham Hale North London.

Coming two weekends before our Marcus Garvey African Family Day with its theme of African Youth Thirty Years On: State Destruction or Self-Liberation, the Tottenham Uprising of 6-7th August 2011 confirms something that was never in doubt: the capacity of our African Youth (and our wider African community) militantly to resist injustice and oppression.

Contextualising the current uprising

There is a rising amount of injustice and oppression around at the moment. The racist ruling class is making working people (Africans especially) pay for the destructive structure and operation of a capitalism increasingly dominated by finance capital. This system commoditises everything (including nothing) in pursuit of super profits. When this blows up in its face with bogus AAA instruments proving to be what they always were - worthless - it is the capitalist state that 'saves' the finance sector and the economy as a whole. It has to do so by printing and borrowing money.

Ideologically right wing capitalists then attack the state for being too large and too debt-burdened. They demand 'cuts' to 'save the nation and posterity.' Poor people pay. The objective noose around the neck of capitalism tightens. The right wing demands tax cuts for the rich. The banks, for their part, as part of 'rebuilding their balance sheets' virtually refuse to lend or lend at interest rates of way above that at which they borrow. The banks pay next to nothing on savings. The finance houses (banks by another name) make super profit by attacking money (the national currencies of all nation-states are commodities that are not just traded but attacked for profits).

This completely irrational aspect of the system cannot be curbed because finance capital is king. And so the crisis deepens. The USA and the EU/Euro Zone and the UK (Sterling) are in trouble. So is Japan (its industrial production-based miracle has run its course). So too is China, the leading lender into this system and itself a social powder keg. The question there is: can a Communist/(Stalinist) party structure successfully manage a corrupt capitalist economy in which workers are exploited in myriad un/traditional ways? Those (like Ghaddafi) who dare to propose currency (absolutely not system) alternatives get targeted for murder/regime change. Well serious!

State oppression brings people’s resistance

Injustice and oppression reign on the streets of the UK (and elsewhere) as well. The Metropolitan Police is not only in bed with the corporate criminals like News International, taking bribes left right and centre. It also has its officers killing, humiliating and criminalising Africans. If they can get away with shooting our sons Derrick Bennett, Azelle Rodney and a Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes (shot some 7/8 or more times in the head in public) why not the killing of Smiley Culture (What were handcuff marks doing on his wrists if he stabbed himself to death using a knife with body-penetrating force?) and why not Mark Duggan on Thursday 4th August. Eye witnesses say Mark was shot dead by armed police after being 'subdued' and fully under their control. The bullet he is alleged to have fired is now being said to have come from a police issued firearm. It is now officially admitted that the media facilitated the police in the telling their usual lies that Mark had shot one of them before himself being shot dead. If Mark's unlawful killing was fuel, the open assault upon a young African sister towards the end of a peaceful demonstration was more fuel, and lighted match.

On top of that, we have a national DNA data base with African people massively over-represented on it! We have Joint Enterprise Statute, dangerous in conception being abused by the police, the state prosecution services and the courts! The Police are in Schools - taking names and information, managing the long-term criminalization of another generation of an entire community as they participate in process of rampant exclusion and false charging of African Youth!

Perhaps more than ever and disproportionately at the expense of African people, the police are dealing in drugs and facilitating gangs of many sorts! The police are abusing stop and Search powers exploiting fears about gun and knife crime in trying to justify this humiliating outrage?

Late on Saturday 6th August PASCF members witnessed a search on Railton Road, Brixton (Starting point of the Brixton Uprising of 1981 provoked by the Swamp 81 stop and search Operation!) The victim of that search was an African who appeared well into middle age. One of the police men doing the search had on surgical gloves and only barely avoided stripping the man, so invasive was he. Our member asked that policeman if, having found no evidence of a crime, he had ever had reasonable grounds for suspecting the African and as he walked off he said the African man would tell us what it was about. The poor victim had no idea what the search had been about. He had been asked for a search and had felt obliged to say 'yes'.

On 8th August the Hackney part of the ongoing Uprising followed immediately upon precisely one of these lawless fishing exhibition type searches by Metropolitan Policemen.

Youth are the spark of the revolution

Of course the struggle continues with London in flames. So far our children are rising up in Tottenham, Enfield, Islington, Waltham Forest, Walthamstow, Wood Green, Camden, Harlesden, Shepards Bush, Ealing, Queensway, Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, Chelsea, Hounslow, Croydon, Brixton, Loughborough Junction, Crystal Palace, Tooting, Streatham, Clapham, Merton, Camberwell, Peckham, Lewisham, Catford, Lee, Blackheath, Woolwich, Surrey Quays, Old Kent Road, Tower Bridge, Bromley, East Dulwich, Ilford, Chingford, Dalston, Hackney, Canning town, East Ham, Barking, Isle of Dogs, Oxford Circus, Bristol, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Surrey and Suffolk. In addition to militarily defeating the British police force, they summoned Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Home secretary, the Mayor of London and other officials all of whom were on holiday.

Not only do our young people presently have the capitalist state on the run but they are demonstrating its logistical limitations for all who have eyes to see. The political pity is that Marx’s working class/proletariat - theoretically history’s appointed "grave diggers of capitalism" - is visible only as one source, along with Black Members of Parliament, of scared, inane and reactionary comments about the spreading Uprising.

Pan-Afrikan Society

Commmunity Forum

07944-204-955

www.pascf.org.uk; pascfevents@gmail.com

Statement of the PASCF on the London Uprisings

11th August 2011

GET YO MIND RIGHT, A Video by Marvin X

2011-08-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

Get Yo Mind Right is Marvin X's version of the barber shop, shot in East Oakland, 38th and MacArthur. The videographer and editor is Pam Pam. Marvin must not only pay for his haircut but the young barbers force him to teach on a variety of subjects, politics, religion, history, manhood and other topics. We also see the neighborhood psychopath doing his thing. One barber is a young Black Panther baby; a customer from Philadelphia is a disciple of Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science Temple. A youth explains why he wears the do rag and cap. Enjoy this video that Fahizah Alim of the Sacramento Bee called "the Real Barbershop."

Marvin X at the Philadelphia International Locks Conference

2011-08-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Black Males in America

2011-08-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

August 9, 2011

Black Males in America, Setting a Path for a Better Future

“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.” W.E.B. DuBois

It has become somewhat cliché to refer to the harsh realities of being a Black male in America as the “Black Male Crisis.” After all, as far back as the 1980’s newspapers and magazines were running features describing the evisceration of African-American men from society. Conferences were held, research reports issued, and some states established commissions; all with the singular purpose of identifying measures to improve conditions for Black men. Despite these good intentions, three decades later, Black males are in a precarious state in America and against the backdrop of a historic recession their prospects are dim unless we move aggressively to alter their course.

Just how bad is it for Black men? A recent report issued by the College Board reached a stunning and sobering assessment of the quality of life for Black males. The report titled “The Educational Experiences of Young Men of Color,” reviewed the current research on educational pathways. The report notes that unemployment is the most likely postsecondary destination for Black males who do not end up incarcerated or meet an early death.

At the CBCF, we have aligned some of our policy initiatives to address issues around young Black men. This work continues today as we continually engage the policy process on issues such as mass incarceration, a more rational drug policy, the improvement of our public schools and job training and employment.

Corporate leadership and wealthy citizens can and must play a pivotal role in providing opportunities for young black males; through training and employment. Just last week New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he would invest $30 million of his personal wealth behind a city initiative aimed at improving the lives of young minority males.

To find out more on the issue of Black males, read the landmark publication by senior research analyst at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Ivory Toldson, Ph.D., “Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-age African-American Males.” http://cbcfinc.org/newsroom/press-room.html.

You are invited to join Dr. Toldson as he releases a follow up of the report “Breaking Barriers Two(BB2) during CBCF’s 41st Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) from September 21-24 in Washington, DC.: The 88-page research report focuses on the roles that schools and communities can play in promoting academic success among African-American males and reducing the disproportionate contact that young black males have with the juvenile justice system. Rep. Cedric Richmond (LA-02), a panel of experts and foundation executives will join Dr. Toldson to discuss national strategies to improve educational outcomes for African-American males.In addition to the release of BB2, the Conference will offer a half dozen issue forums and brain trust sessions confronting this issue and seeking viable solutions. To find out more and to register for ALC visit us @www.alc11.org.

Meanwhile, what can you do? Get involved, share your thoughts with your member of Congress and the White House and voice your opinion. When citizens are informed, engaged and active participants in moving the country in the right direction, our nation is that much stronger.

Darcus Howe BBC News Interview On Riots

2011-08-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

The History of Black August

2011-08-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

The History of Black August

Marvin X Speaks at Howard University

2011-08-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Marvin X at Howard University, Washington DC

Final Notes on Mythology of Pussy Lecture

Marvin X ended his visit at Howard University with a reading/discussion of Mythology of Pussy, specifically focusing on psychosexuality at Howard. But it wasn’t until the end of his lecture/discussion that a female student dropped a bomb on him, telling him the answer he had been seeking: how Howard women deal with the brothers to satisfy their sexual needs. A sister whispered to him, “Mr. X, we get what we want from the brothers by tossing them around. They think they’re tossing us, but we do the tossing. If we want Joe tonight, we get him, then let another sister have him the next night, but he thinks he’s getting over on us—it ain’t so. We calling the shots! If a girl wants Dante and another does as well, we tell one girl to hold up, let sister have Dante tonight, you get him tomorrow. That’s how we do it.”

And so it is. As Nisa Ra said in her comments on Mythology of Pussy, “Men think they are players when, in fact, they are getting played. He thinks it’s his pussy—but he don’t have a pussy!” Howard student President L. Davis, my homeboy from the Bay (Richmond, Ca—and thanks Prez for your assistance while I was at Howard)—said during the meeting that the girls chose “silly nigguhs” rather than real down brothers, real men!

My thought is that silly girls chose silly nigguhs, especially since it’s all about pussy and dick, nothing more, although I called upon students to get to a higher level as Phavia says in her poem Yo, Yo, Yo: “If you think I’m just a physical thing, wait til you see the spiritual power I bring….” Students appeared to understand the need to resocialize and recover from the addiction to white supremacy mythology.

For now though, it’s all about P and D as Sun Ra called it. One brother came to the meeting only to give me five dollars since he had gotten a pamphlet last week. He told me he’d read it and that I was on the right path. He said, “Don’t back up, don’t back up, keep going forward with Mythology of Pussy.”

Indeed, when I asked the audience should I say Mythology of P—they said hell no, say Mythology of Pussy!

In my final remarks on Howard, I must give an evaluation of my host professor, Dr. Greg Carr, one of the finest young scholars black America has produced. From what I heard and observed, he is well loved by students. I would say he is the hardest working man in academia—the James Brown of black scholars—I was exhausted watching him teach. As brother Ptah (another bright scholar from San Francisco State University who is my colleague) noted, “Dr. Carr is like a rapper with his high energy level.” Indeed, he paces back a forth from black board to black board, writing important names, places and dates. He is thorough and detailed, going through the text word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page.

But while this is an index of his acumen, it reveals the abject failure of students coming prepared to his lecture. As he said to me, simply, “They don’t read!” And so he must essentially baby-sit them because they come to class unprepared, forcing him to go through the text they should have read beforehand. This reveals their laziness, sloth and lack of respect for the great mind before them. This is one reason I am not in academia: I would kick those slothful nigguhs out my class. I would not baby-sit them—either come prepared or get the hell out. If I’m prepared, you better be also—don’t disrespect me. I’m here to give you knowledge, you’re giving me nothing except revealing your negrocities (Baraka term).”

But perhaps Dr. Carr realizes the students are victims of American education that makes them dumb at best—compared to what? Not compared to white American students but compared to students in China and India, students whose genius and fortitude is reflected in the rapid advance of their nations in the era of globalism.

This is why the white man is outsourcing to India and China. Why should he pay an American MBA $140,000 per year when he can hire an Indian MBA for $14,000 per year who is just as, if not more qualified than his American counterpart? And so I call upon Howard students to come out of their sloth and give Dr. Carr, Dr. Tony Medina and other young scholars equal energy and effort. In the words of Marcus Garvey, up you mighty people, you can accomplish what you will! And in the words of David Walker, let us dispel our ignorance and wretchedness in consequence of education.
--Marvin X
Howard University
Washington, DC
30 September, 2009

Parable of Desirelessness

2011-08-08T07:09:00.001-07:00

Parable of Desirelessness

During his life, he'd had everything, money, dope, women, more love than any man could handle. In short, he was spoiled rotten. Now he was bored to tears. Maybe he was just an ungrateful bastard, since his cup had run over with goodness and mercy.

While on drugs, he discovered he needed very little, although he desired much. As a dope addict he survived on nothing but dope. No woman, no sex, food, clothes, bath, place to stay. Nothing but dope. For a time he lived in a cardboard box, slept in an alley or doorway. Sometimes he had a woman in the box with him. They smoked dope, made love and prayed in the box.

But it came to a point when he did his dope alone. He hustled alone, coped his dope and went to his room and smoked. In his supreme selfishness, he cut loose his friends. He definitely wouldn't get loaded with them because they were a nuisance. So he lived in solitude except for the demons in his head who visited him nightly. They talked to him and became real people. They were outside his door, he imagined. He could hear them talking. They were going to kill him for sure. They were outside his door discussing how to slay him. He heard them talking in the wind, the rustle of the leaves on the tree. They talked to him each night. It went on for years.

Finally, he did self recovery--no program worked for him, only because he wouldn't work it, thinking he was smarter than the recovery people. They told him to just relax and let himself heal, but he wouldn't. He wanted to continue writing in recovery. They told him not to write, just still himself and heal. So he left the program. This went off and on for years until he decided to recover his way. He went to ocean beach and let the cold ocean heal him. He went to the hot tub and relaxed. People could see he was healing. They could see it in his skin--there was a glow that was obvious to all.

As he recovered, he began to ponder what things he needed to survive. Did he need a woman that was usually a vexation? Most friends were a vexation. He eliminated women and men. Then his car, another vexation. He rode the bus. Got rid of his cell phone. No TV, no video player.
The black movies he found disgusting. He listened to the radio, mainly the news, even though it was bullshit white supremacy misinformation, fiction, his doctor said. He lived in his imagination and devoted time to his greatest joy, thinking and writing.

He gave his writings away on the street. It was his way of giving something back as they teach in recovery. And he shared his wisdom with whomever sought him out, but he sought out no one.
Of course he loved his children and grandchildren and would do anything for them, if and when they needed him.

But mostly, he realized there was nothing out there, but all was inside the self. So where was there to go except inside himself, to unravel the conundrums within his wretched self. Maybe he could raise himself to higher ground, maybe reach the upper room of his father's house. Surely he had been down in the dungeon, the bottomless pit of life. Where else can one go but up. But up is not out, rather within, peeling away the one billion illusions of the monkey mind Guru Bawa taught us about.

What is there to need, what is there to desire, to want? This can be an endless search into the void, the chasm of nothingness and dread. He refused to go there. He'd seen his friends go there, the endless search for things, trinkets, like children in Toys R Us, running here, running there to consume.

And yet there was no need, only desire, and desire was infinite, never ending except in frustration and dread. Desire was an intoxicant, a drug worse than all other drugs combined. The only thing to desire was no desire, to detox and recover from all illusions. Solomon told us all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

And so he looked inside the self, not selfishly, but selflessly with desirelessness. And he found satisfaction, for the more he had nothing, the more he had everything. The more he stilled himself, the more his mind opened to infinite possibilities.

This was not poverty consciousness but the consciousness that all is illusion, transitory and ephemeral. For what do you do when you have everything, yet in an instant it is wiped out. Remember the fire storm in the Oakland/Berkeley hills? And there you stand ready to destroy the self that remains, yet the self was the only reality.

Self is beyond individual. It is communal. Self is the breathing world. When we recognize the personal, we acknowledge the communal, the connection will all that is real and everlasting. Thus the test of the self is in interaction with other selves, no matter how vexing the encounter. Silence will save the day. Listen to the thousand voices in the silence of the wind.

Rumi said it best, "If you come to the garden, it don't matter. If you don't come to the garden, it don't matter."
--Marvin X
4/15/16