Marcus Books Update Jackie Wrigh
tI got this email from Jean Damu---that includes the poignantly real response from Marvin X....I am in the middle of a ridiculous laughing out loud two week campaign fundraiser with Executive Producer Danny Glover's Soundtrack for a Revolution to benefit the NAACP.http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=63366&columnid=
But I stop in my tracks to address this...don't know it all--- I just humbly suggest a Power of Ten (10X10) Campaign. Set up a paypal account and bank account... and ask every contact to give $10 and have them send out to 10 friends to give $10. (Hopefully the general public won't be afraid to loose the price of a movie ticket and those that can dedicate more after vetting the situation will give much more)....
When the media institutions are brought down...it impacts beyond one organization.... As my colleague Jacquie Taliaferro and I stood at the foot of Wells Fargo Bank at Post and Montgomery witnessing a protest by SEIU demanding social economic justice, and not one, not one network news camera was there to capture the story, the need for media advocacy and change was reinforced.
Now we, even those like myself that has had little experience with Marcus Bookstore, cannot afford to see it go down in what appears to be the "carpet bagger" spirit hitting the Black Community and minority communities once again.
If there is anything specific that I can do please let me know, as I have been on the front line working to save property as well.
Friends new to this chain....please read Marvin X's write up below. What I like about the piece in particular is that he is standing up for this treasure in spite of his personal "shaky" at times relationship with the family. Looking past personal differences helps us achieve so much more. Let's work together to pull this property, our history, out of the jaws of hellish void.
Jackie Wright
Jackie WrightWright Enterprises"Yes W.E. Can" since 1997
415 525.0410 (cell)
I talked with Karen today. She said that although they were on the brink the lawyer has pulled them from the edge of the cliff and they fully intend to stay open. HOWEVER they are not out of the woods yet and prefer folks patronize their stores in lieu of a benefit. This is their 50th year in business and they were close to having it be their last.
The family is very appreciative of the love going out and of Marvin’s sincere efforts to put out a call for action. Thanks to all of you who called the store, went by, or started to organize a benefit. Meanwhile please support Marcus Books and also Rebecca’s Books on Adeline a much younger store which is also on the precipice. devorah
Ed Bullins
This is a sad day for me. Marcus Books is closing. Julian Richardson with Raye, his wife, taught me blackness at their knee. Blanche, their daughter, appeared in my first play/stage production at the Firehouse Playhouse Theater in my "Clara's Ole Man" play in 1965. I went to Mr. Richardson's print shop with Arthur Sheridan and Marvin Jackmon to pick up the first issue of the Journal of Black Poetry....so many memories, so many. I just found out that Paul Cobb's phone is down. What can I do?
Roxbury Crossroads Theatre, Boston MA
rct9@verizon.net
Al
YoungDear devorah,
How saddening, and what a loss!I'll do my best to spread the word.
Love, Al
-- Al Young
2149 Cedar StreetBerkeley, CA 94709 USA
510.981.0332
510.981.0545 Fax
alyoung@alyoung.org
http://alyoung.org/
Conway Jones
Marvin, Marcus Books will declare Chapter 11.
Conway
Ken Johnson
Marvin, I been out of town for the pass two weeks, back now. You are right we should not let Marcus Books close no matter what. If there is one time we need to come together it is now. If it don't be for Marcus Books I know I would be dead or in jail.
Ken
Marcus Books is in foreclosure, the victim of a sub-prime loan scam and ponzi scheme. An auction is scheduled to take place next week, unless lawyers delay matters. Because of hubris, the family did not disclose their situation to the pubic or more specifically to the black community until the eleventh hour. Several options are being attempted as we write, including having their property in San Francisco declared a historical monument, since Marcus is no doubt the oldest black book store in America.
Paul Cobb, publisher of the Oakland Post, is leading the charge to save Marcus Books. No matter the cause, the primary objective is to save this historical black business that has meant so much to Bay Area black consciousness. Thanks to Marcus, the little light of blackness is still shining in the Bay. So we want to save Marcus at all costs, even if 100 black writers must post themselves in front of the property on auction day, even if we go to jail.
I want to save Marcus in spite of my personal relationship with the family which has been shaky from time to time, but Julian Richardson was my mentor, so I will fight to save it because of his contribution to black liberation in the Bay and throughout America, since writers, artists and activists from around the world came through Marcus Books, either in person or with their books, and shed light on a people who walked in darkness.
If you want to help, I suggest you call Paul Cobb at the Oakland Post Newspaper. 510-287-8200.
We cannot allow another legendary business to fail. Most recently, we saw the disappearance of
Your Black Muslim Bakery, no matter the reason. So let's save Marcus, no matter the reason.
The Rise of Marcus Books
I first came to Marcus Books (Success Books at the time) around 1964, when I transferred from Oakland's Merritt College to San Francisco State College/now University. The store was located on Leavenworth Street in the Tenderloin. Julian Richardson was the printer for our magazine, Black Dialogue and later the Journal of Black Poetry. Black Power had not arrived, so Raye and Julian Richardson were into Civil Rights or integration. One of the frequent visistors to their store was theologian Howard Thurman. His books were posted in the store window. He was a very quiet man, so I never bothered to converse with him, but he used to hold long conversations with Raye and Julian. I did not know then he was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s teacher and mentor at Boston Seminary. Be careful who you're around in life, people you think are nothing can be very special. In Oakland, I was around another great man named Harry Hayward, a black communist, that I'd met through the Soulbook magazine brothers and sisters, Mamadou and Carol Freeman, Bobby Seale, Ernie Allen and others.
But Marcus Books would turn out to be the meeting place of the Bay Area black liberation movement, even the white revolution for that matter, as their association in the civil rights movement made their space available to all.
When Black Power finally arrived and the Richardson's declared themselves black nationalist, we found ourselves under the tutatege of Julian. He was our mentor who constantly gave us wisdom and direction on the course our revolution should take. We listened as much as youth listen to adults, especially youth being edumaked at the white man's college.
Success Books became Marcus Books when everything turned into blackness as in black power.
But the store and print shop endured some hard times. I remember when the IRS put a chain on the door of their business. And I think this happened more than once.
Things changed when Raye Richardson started teaching black studies at San Francisco State. The family business started thriving from the black revolution in general and the sudden need for black consciousness literature on the campus. Students bought books through Marcus Books.
We saw the Richardson children grow up, Blanche, Karen, Mack, and Billy are the ones I remember. The Richardson were a model family, although Raye used to cut down Julian pretty bad when we entered to see him in the printshop. We had to get past Raye to get to Julian, and Raye being a great talker herself (she ran neck to neck with her husband), would hold us up in the front, and sometimes we thought she was stalling so Rich could finish our printing that would often not be really after many promises. The delay could have been due to many reasons, usually due to press breakdowns or other priorities since our budget was slim if we had one at hall--remember we were students at San Francisco State who sometimes survived on popcorn.
No white printer would have tolerated us coming with little or no money. In short, Richardson became the printer of the the Black Revolution in the Bay Area. He must be eternally honored for his role because there can be no revolution without the printer to produce the propaganda.
The Richardsons prospered, eventually opening a store in Oakland, along with the one in San Francisco. Rich published, among other titles, an edition of Stolen Legacy by George M. James who taught us the African origin of Greek philosophy. He printed several poetry volumes by revolutionary poets, from Janice Cobb, Marvin X, Larry Neal, Jon Echols, Dust, et al, and also Black Dialogue and the Journal of Black Poetry, two of the classic organ of the Black Arts Movement.
--Marvin X
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