Plato Negro at the Crossroads of Oakland

Plato Negro at the Crossroads of Oakland

When the rains cleared, Plato Negro returned to his outdoor classroom at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. The classroom is a multi-purpose center, since in addition to a classroom, it is a free space zone for people to gather, a literacy center, micro credit bank, an on the street mental health peer group session, yes, facilitated by Marvin X, variously known as Plato Negro, Rumi, Jeremiah, Amenhotep.

For Black History Month, the poet has been giving out poster poems of his classic Black History is World History, also Haiti, Oh, Haiti. He offers youth ten dollars to answer the 14 questions on his blog concerning the poem Haiti, Oh Haiti. When they say they know black history, he offers them ten dollars if they can answer a question from his poem Black History is World History.

Of course his best seller is Mythology of Pussy, a manual for manhood and womanhood training.
Grass roots brothers call it the Bible of male/female relations. Man and women literally fight over this pamphlet that has shaken up America coast to coast. The poet did a national tour last year, going through Houston, Texas, Grambling , Louisiana, Jackson, Mississippi, Washington, DC (Howard University), Philadelphia, PA (International Locks Conference, see Youtube), Newark, New Jersey, Brooklyn, NY and Harlem. When he arrived in Harlem at the Schomburg Library, poet Eugene Redman wrote Marvin X a check for $200.00 for five copies of Mythology of Pussy. In fifty years of writing, no piece of his writing has stirred up such controversy or interest, especially with the grass roots. The grass roots are literally fighting over it, men and women. It was reported that in the whore house the girls tried to steal a copy from the madam and she had to check them not to leave with her copy. In Sacramento, California, an OG brother was told by young brothers that he could leave but they were keeping the pamphlet.


Indeed, Marvin X was on the bus headed to his classroom when a brother pulled out a copy and said he needed to read it because he'd been up all night with his woman. Another brother called Mythology of Pussy the "Bible." He said he had been having problems with his women until he read MOP, then it cleared up all his questions. He understood he had bought into a mythology that could kill him or make him kill.

A young sister came by Plato's Classroom and told him MOP empowered her. She didn't know she had such power. And when she told the young brothers she owned her pussy, they submitted.

Plato asked another young sister what she learned from MOP. She said she learned to tell the brothers to clean their fingernails. She said she gave it to her boyfriend but he has not returned it. The young brothers say it helps them up their game. And every brother wants his game upped! When girls were asked at a continuation high school in Berkeley, what they got out of his lecture on MOP, they said it upped their game as well.

Mothers have obtained copies of MOP since it was published, telling the poet they were demanding their sons and daughters read it. One mother said she put it on her daughter's bed so
she could not miss it.

A mother came through the classroom with her daughter and obtained a copy, telling her daughter, "You see that lock on the cover. Girl, do you see that lock?"

The poet was informed at Howard University that in spite of the fact that the girls outnumber the boys 14:1, the females are in control of their pussy. They determine when the boys can have some, contrary to the boys thinking they are in control of the situation because they are a priority, being outnumbered 14 to 1.


At the conclusion of his lecture at Howard, a young lady came up to the poet at the lectern and whispered in his ear, "We control the boys, they don't control us. When we want a brother and another sisters wants him , we say, sista, wait, let her have him tonight, you have him tomorrow, and I will kick it with him the third night. Yeah, that's how we do it. The boys think they playing us but we doing the playing. After all, it's our pussy!

What is clear is that the poet has written a grass roots classic that doesn't need approval of the black bourgeoisie culture police, and nor does he need approval of black intellecutals in perpetual crisis, whether tenured negro professors or femininsts who are dying from lack love from their brothers because they persist in their inordancy, blinding wandering on.

Marvin X said he was through with pseudo white liberals and black bourgeoisie when they told him (the whites) "I could help you if you were part of the family." And the Black bourgeoisie said, "I could help you but you ain't no mulatto."

Marvin X says he will go down with the grass roots. Whites and the black bourgeoisie mulattoes can kiss his black ass.