"The Godfather of Oakland Soul: Marvin X" (Community Voices)
Marvin X
Marvin X! The X Man! The Godfather of Oakland Soul!
King Catalyst for the post Civil Rights, Black Arts Movement of the West Coast, simultaneously with his bi coastal literary arts buddy, Amiri Baraka of the east coast. The Senior Citizen General on the front lines against White Supremacy. Former crack addict who helped save himself and scores of others with his institution of The San Francisco Recovery Theater.
Former university professor and lecturer turned poet, patriarch, philosopher, prophet, psychologists, pastor and parablist at the Academy of da Corner in the heart of "The Town," on 14th and Broadway, where he holds office; not preaching to the choir, but to the common folk who come by seeking knowledge, solace and Father's Milk! Plato Negro, deemed by fellow Oakland play-wright, poet and icon, Ishmael Reed, the modern day Plato of Urban America, because of his school's similarity to the philosopher Plato's "Walkabout" schools in Athens of ancient Greece. Death row prophet Mumia Abu Jamal says, "Marvin X is a griot if there ever was one!"
More than just a Pan African and black nationalist, he's a World Sentinel of Human Decency who I would wager knows more about politics and has a keener, clearer and more humane perspective than most U.N. representatives. And if they had a chair in those hallowed halls for poets, and they should, my choice would be Marvin X!
Marvin's poetry and approach can be rather raw for some. And it may yet be a little early to fit him for a halo and sainthood. However, his current hottest selling of his dozens of books, which he churns out annually, rather monthly (according to the Last Poets, he writes a book a month!), not to mention his newly released $100 book, "The Parables of Plato Negro,"--his hottest is a chapbook called "The Mythology of the Pussy and the Dick." Wanda Sabir says his language knocks the socks off old ladies! Indeed, the title often times ruffles the feathers and suit collars of the bourgeois and academia (who Marvin sometimes accuses of not being able to get past linguistics and vernacular to save people's lives), but it is an honest account of how modern folk who try to claim ownership of people's sexual organs is causing many of the problems in the world and in relationships today, and have done so throughout history.
The message in this book is resonating on a grassroots level, like Eldridge Cleaver''s "Soul on Ice" did when it first came out, and has become a hit amongst urban youth who claim it helps them "step up their game" or realize that they have something - and are something - of value that deserves appreciation and respect. And the youth who otherwise don't read, do read this book and even squabble over ownership, as if it were black gold!
On a similar note, in one of his books of poetry he makes a hilarious and yet poignant point about how people get mixed up with each other intimately without ever getting to know one another. If I may paraphrase from memory: Last night we had sex ... but you don't know me. We're about to get married ... but you don't know me! We're going to have children .. .but you don't know me! We just had a fight ... but you don't know me! You're going to jail ... but you don't know me! We're getting a divorced ... but you don't know me!
Marvin's multitude of disciples include Ptah Allah El, who said, "Black studies went to college and never came home!" Wordslanger aka Ayodele Nzinga, director of the Thea Bowman Theater and founder of the Lower Bottom Playazz, and myself, Paradise, who was introduced to Marvin through one of his seminal classic poems, "Black history is World History."
Marvin can be reached and read on his websites, which has readers from all over the world. His newest project is touring with a local band of world class performing artists in a Readers Theater of parables from his new book, who were recently featured at the San Francisco Theater Festival.
Check out his books and book him and his reading group at these sites:
Black Bird Press News & Review
The Best of Dr. Marvin
YouTube
Parables, Fables, Musings Of Plato Negro By Marvin X
About Paradise Love
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