Monday, January 31, 2011

Americans Must Smash Neo-Slave System












Americans Must Smash Neo-Slave System





I feel so sorry for those Egyptians.
--American black girl


When will Americans dance in the streets for true freedom, justice and equality? When will they decide wage slavery is enough, that the slave system must be overthrown? Yes, the corporate, global finance, military, university complex must be thrown into the dustbin of history.

When will Americans agree to seize the wealth created from their sweat, blood and tears, the work of their hands. Why should the top 1% own wealth equal to the bottom 90% percent? When will they dispose their capitalist bosses, seize them by the necks and cast them into the streets for their greed, mega bonuses and life of conspicuous consumption, while the wage slaves are refused a living wage that will advance them above the working poor level of existence?

Like Tunisians and Egyptians, all sectors of society must come together to end the regime of the slave system, whether in white or black face. We are not fooled by a black skin for we know a duck when we hear it. The duck in the White House is a white swan in black face. He supplicates to those in the den of iniquity, the Wall Street robber barons, the former generals who run the military/corporate machine.

Workers, students, religious people, teachers, artists, trysexuals, all must unite. Even the police and army must unite with the people. Even the gangs must stop killing and unite with the people.

Sadly, this phony democracy must be replaced. Yes, the best democracy money can buy is unacceptable and unsustainable. The rotten Supreme Court has agreed your vote is up for sale and can be bought by the highest bidder.

It cost Obama 700 million dollars to be selected President. His reelection will cost one billion dollars. It will be paid for by Wall Street and the corporations of the complex who are the puppet masters. Obama is merely a puppeteer. When American cities were dying and decaying, black mayors were given pseudo power. When the American empire and Republic is dying and in her death throws, a black president is acceptable. It is an act of desperation by a dying monster, too full of hubris to remove itself peacefully, who yet claims exceptionalism that is based on white supremacy mythology. Empires come and go, but the Emperor wants to hold power forever.

American needs a systematic and structural change, for it doesn't matter whether the Democrats or Republicans are in power, they are one and the same, no matter than they sit on opposite sides of the aisle. They are both part and parcel of the US military, corporate, global
finance, university, prison complex of institutions in the neo-slave system.

All politicians are the hostage of lobbyists for whatever cause. Let us send them one million lobbyists to advocate for our cause. If the one million are not enough, we shall call the General Strike until they board a plane for some other world.

When will Americans understand former generals run the corporations. The universities are part of the war machine. Weapons of mass destruction are invented on university labs. And now your President is calling for the return of military recruiters on campus so the permanent war machine can have its cannon fodder soldiers.

Capitalism is against abortion because it wants your sons and daughters to grow up to be soldiers to maintain the global slave system. Let the boys and girls grow up to be 18 so they can go kill and die to maintain the empire, no matter that they come home in body bags, wounded, mentally deranged, suicidal and homicidal. They are valuable in the slave system.

While our sons are captured by the slave catchers (police) and imprisoned by the slave system to become a valuable commodity of the corporate complex( fifty to sixty thousand dollars per inmate per year, two hundred thousand dollars per inmate per year for juveniles), simultaneously our daughters enroll in the universities, wherein they are brainwashed with white supremacy mythology, hence they too are prisoners in the slave system.

They find themselves with advance degrees yet without an eligible mate since the pool of men is desecrated by the very nature of the slave system. Their potential men suffer the ravages of perennial unemployment, incarceration, drug abuse, mental illness and violence, whether internal or external. In short, by the very nature of the slave system, it must be overthrown, totally and absolutely, no quick fixing, no band aid, only radical systematic and structural change will suffice.

We have no guns, no weapons except ourselves, our bodies marching in unity. So let us dance in the streets of America, coast to coast, sea to shining sea. Let the mighty beast fall.

The government rules by the consent of the governed, they taught us in politics 1A. We must deny our consent. We must stand tall without fear, for we have been full of fear since birth. We have lived in fear, eaten fear for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No more fear. The only thing we fear is fear itself!

The stunted man and woman must stand together for today, tomorrow and all the yesterdays. As poet Amiri Baraka says, "For every hurtful thing...."

Surely you can see the Wall Street bandits have robbed you with pyramids schemes of pure speculation, selling toxic assets, bilking investors of trillions, extorting millions of common people of their basic wealth, their homes, depleting retirement funds of the working poor who retire after thirty years with a phony gold watch and must line up for food handouts to get through the month.

The Federal Reserve is the chief instrument of the Global bandits, the masters of the slave system. It is the den of thieves of international capitalist greed and economic domination.
Your money in the bank is now worthless, it is backed by nothing, only the paper it is printed on.

Soon, you shall go to the restaurant with a wheelbarrow full of dollars to buy a hamburger. Before you finish eating, the price shall rise. They have just released 600 billion dollars of worthless paper. We must prepare our home survival kits of emergency food and other items for survival. We can see that the universe herself is moving to rectify matters that have come to the attention of Mother Nature. If we are not in harmony with Mother, we shall we wiped from the face of the earth, and most especially those in league with the slave system.

Many of you shall never know work, for you are expendable in the slave system. The unemployed, underemployed, homeless, mentally ill, broken hearted, let us march to the White House Gates. Let us announce the New man and woman have arrived. And we shall not be moved.
--Marvin X
1/31/11

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Marvin X Tribute sponsored The Oakland Post, show #1

Bay Area Black Authors Poetry Fest and Book Fair

Bay Area Black Authors and Post Newspaper Group

present

The Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival
Chauncey Bailey Book Fair

Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm

Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th Street @ Franklin
downtown Oakland
free admission






































Sponsors: Journal of Pan African Studies, Black Bird Press, Ethnic Studies Department of San Francisco State University, It's About Time, Eastside Arts, Kakakiki Slave System, Oakland Local, Black Hour, Greg Bridges of KPFA, KPOO Radio, San Francisco Recovery Theatre, Lower Bottom Playaz, Hug a Thug Book Club, Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre, Black Dialogue Brothers.

For more information, call 510-837-5107. Email jmarvinx@yahoo.com.
www.blackbirdpress.blogspot.com. Please make a generous donation to this project. Your donation can be tax deductible. The Post Newspaper Group will purchase books from 15 selected authors for donation to juvenile hall, jails and prisons.


Friday, January 28, 2011

Authors to Attend Poetry Fest and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair




Authors to Attend Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Fest and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair
Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm

Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th Street @ Franklin,
downtown Oakland










Authors we may be blessed to meet at the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Fest and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair include:






Jerri Lange, author, Jerri, A Black Woman's Life in the Media









Phavia Kujichaugulia, Recognizing and Resolving Racism

















Dr. Neal Hall, M.D., Nigger for Life

















Marvin X, Pull Yo Pants Up fada Prez and Yosef, essays on Obama Drama

















Ptah Allah El, Tainted Soul




For more information, please go to:
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
scroll down to Academy of da Corner presents
authors/vendors/sponsors contact
Marvin X at jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Long Live the Egyptian Masses, Down with American Imperialism




Long Live the Egyptian Masses, Down with American Imperialism and all Reactionaries

As predicted, after Friday Prayers the Egyptian masses exploded into the streets signaling the end of Pharaoh Mubarak's thirty year regime and its collaboration with American imperialism. The US government has sustained the dictatorial Mubarak government with a two billion dollar annual bailout that mainly went to the military to oppress the masses.

It was payment for the Egyptian peace deal with the Zionists in Israel, to prevent the liberation of Palestine. The US has done the same with Arab regimes throughout the region. It has forced Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Persian Gulf states to collaborate with Zionism, including the Palestinian Authority as revealed in the Palestine Papers released by Al Jazeera News.

Hamas was democratically elected but isolated by the US, her Uncle Abdullah Arabs and the Europeans. In Labanon Hezbollah has taken de facto power through the democratic process, yet America keeps it on the terrorist list.

America is thus on the wrong side of history and shall pay for her political blindness and backwardness fueled by capitalist greed and white supremacy notions of domination. The ultimate price shall be when the American masses stand up to the US military/corporate/university complex that has kept the American people in poverty, ignorance and disease while the top 1% own wealth equal to that of the bottom 90% of the population.

Obama, the neo-colonial Negro is nothing but an imperialist in black face and he must be discarded along with his white cohorts on the day American masses take to the streets to demand true freedom, justice and equality--liberty or death!

This is the mantra in the streets of the Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere at this hour. The American people must wise up and rise up to their manhood and womanhood, not remain political cowards and economic slaves. We see when the people stand up, the reactionaries stand down, no matter their guns, tear gas, intelligence agencies, phony homeland security spies, snitches and agent provocateurs, no matter their jails, prisons and hidden dungeons throughout America and the world.

Fear is the great monster of the slave system. Once fear is discarded, the stunted man and woman can rise to great heights, reaching the mountain top MLK, Jr. told us about in his last speech. Long live the Arab masses. Long live the American masses!

We see the spirit of the people is greater than all the technology. The cry for freedom needs no cell phone, facebook, twitter! Not even guns can stop the people united! The only thing to fear is fear itself!!!!!
--Marvin X
1/28/11
















After Friday Prayers


After Friday Prayers
After salat
salaam-alaikum
al humdulilah
we shall meet in the streets
to shout no more pharaoh
no more presidents for life
no more American aide for guns and tear gas
no more uncle abdullah
no more
no more reactionary theology
no honor killings
suppression of women's dignity
no more
after Friday prayers
in Tunisia
Cairo
Yemen
Sudan
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Persian Gulf
no more
after Fatihah/Ikhlas
we shall meet the guns of Pharaoh Mubarak
we shall meet the tear gas
even death even
we shall meet
and go to paradise
for freedom
we have no fear of Pharaoh's guns/tear gas
no fear no more
we are mostly young and invincible
we have the model
we shall meet in the streets
to live again
to breathe
to love
to take control of our lives
to feed our families
to fly in the sun of freedom and liberty.
--Marvin X
1/27/11

Marvin X is called the USA's Rumi. He is guest editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue. Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice is his next collection of poems,2011. On Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm, you are invited to attend the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair, Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street @ Franklin, downtown Oakland.
.
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Thursday, January 27, 2011

After Friday Prayers
















After Friday Prayers


After Friday Prayers
After salat
salaam-alaikum
al humdulilah
we shall meet in the streets
to shout no more pharaoh
no more presidents for life
no more American aide for guns and tear gas
no more uncle abdullah
no more
no more reactionary theology
no honor killings
suppression of women's dignity
no more
after Friday prayers
in Tunisia
Cairo
Yemen
Sudan
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Persian Gulf
no more
after Fatihah/Ikhlas
we shall meet the guns of Pharaoh Mubarak
we shall meet the tear gas
even death even
we shall meet
and go to paradise
for freedom
we have no fear of Pharaoh's guns/tear gas
no fear no more
we are mostly young and invincible
we have the model
we shall meet in the streets
to live again
to breathe
to love
to take control of our lives
to feed our families
to fly in the sun of freedom and liberty.
--Marvin X
1/27/11

Marvin X is called the USA's Rumi. He is guest editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue. Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice is his next collection of poems,2011. On Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm, you are invited to attend the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair, Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street @ Franklin, downtown Oakland.
.
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Danny Glover and the Black House, San Francisco



DANNY GLOVER: ... But interesting enough, the first time that I saw Huey P. Newton and had any idea who the Black Panther Party was in 1966, when he came to the Black House and was reading poetry at the Black

House. Huey P. Newton—that’s some footage we should have had—reading poetry at the Black House. And at the Black House, Ed Bullins lived. Eldridge Cleaver lived at the Black House. They were two people who lived at the Black House. So, there was—you could see this, and now we’re looking—certainly looking back in retrospect, but you could see this emerging movement happening around, really, what I believe was extraordinary moments of, as I said before, redefining and reimagining democracy,
organizing, using those skills. Stokely was an organizer. Those members of SNCC were organizing. So, the Black Power movement was about extending that whole sense of organizing and community organizing.







Playwright Ed Bullins



The Black House
by
Marvin X













The Black House was organized by Marvin X and Eldridge Cleaver. Around the same time Cleaver was released from Soledad Prison, late 1966, Marvin X and his partner, Hurriyah (Ethna X) were escaping chaos at Black Arts West Theatre, co-founded by Marvin, Ed Bullins, Hurriyah, Duncan Barber, Hillery Broadous and Carl Bossiere. Art Sheridan had suggested Marvin hook up with playwright Ed Bullins. Marvin's first play had been produced by the Drama Department at San Francisco State College, now University. Ed had some plays going in North Beach, so they hooked up and started Black Arts West near Turk and Fillmore, around the corner from the Sun Reporter Newspaper office, owned by Dr. Carlton Goodlett.

Black Arts West Theatre produced the plays of Bullins and Marvin X. Two of the actors were Danny Glover and Vonetta McGee (RIP). Danny performed the role of Papa in a play by Dorothy Ahmed, Papa's Daughter. Vonetta performed in How Do You Do, a play by Ed Bullins.

When Marvin left Black Arts West Theatre, he soon hooked up with Eldridge Cleaver--the first person Cleaver got with after his release. With Cleaver's advance from his best seller Soul on Ice, he and Marvin rented a Victorian on Broderick Street and established Black House, a political/cultural center. They were soon joined by playwright Ed Bullins and singer Willie Dale, who'd done time with Cleaver at San Quentin.

Black House became a kind of half-way house for persons who got black consciousness from the arts and went into the political movement, especially the Black Panther Party. Emory Douglas came through and became BPP Minister of Culture. Samuel Napier came, got juiced on culture and became the BPP Minister of Distribution of the newspaper. George Murray got his consciousness performing in Baraka's black arts communication project at SF State and black house. George became BPP Minister of Education.

Bobby Seale had gotten consciousness at Merritt College in Oakland, along with fellow students Marvin and Huey P. Newton. Bobby performed in Marvin's second play Come Next Summer before founding the BPP.

Marvin tried to get Huey in his theatre but Huey declined. Yet Huey claimed he learned from Marvin. Maybe his reading poetry at Black House can be attributed to Marvin's influence.

For sure, the politicos learned from the artists. For this reason, Marvin X says the arts was the mother rather than the sister of the political movement. Larry Neal calls the Black Arts Movement the sister of the political liberation movement.

Henry Louis Gates says the Black Arts Movement was short-lived, but time and influence are different matters. The Black Arts Movement fundamentally altered art and literature in America, far beyond the influence and impact of the earlier Harlem Renaissance.

Black House fell from differences between the artists and politicos. Even before the Black Panthers called anyone who wouldn't pick up the gun reactionary, there were ideological differences. For example, Amiri Baraka and Eldridge Cleaver were at Black House but never talked, partly due to Cleaver's Marxism and Baraka's so-called Cultural Nationalism. Ironically, Baraka became a Marxist and Cleaver a spiritualist.

The fall of the Black House was insured after Marvin rejected an order delivered by Lil Bobby Hutton from Huey Newton that the youth clubhouse in the basement must be closed due to out of control youth.

Marvin told Lil Bobby, "Fuck the Supreme Commander!" Shortly after this, the artists were evicted and Black House became the San Francisco headquarters of the BPP.

Before the artists were evicted, those who performed included Sarah Webster Fabio, Avoctja, Chicago Arts Ensemble, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Ed Bullins, Reginald Lockett, Marvin X, Willie Dale and students from Baraka's Communications Project at SFSU, including Jimmy Garrett, Benny Stewart, George Murry, Ellendar Barnes, Jo Ann Mitchell, et al.


For more on Black House, see:


Marvin X, Somethin' Proper, autobiography of Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 1998.

Marvin X, Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the Devil, Black Bird Press, 2009.


Eldridge Cleaver, Post-Prison Writings.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Obama Drama, State of the Nation


Obama Drama, State of the Nation

We must admit this Harvard Negro is well skilled in the art of rhetoric, logic and lying that are so needed for all politicians since time immemorial, especially since the time of Machiavelli and his discourse on The Prince.


Tonight we heard more of the same flowery imagery and metaphors this character is known for internationally.

His ability to stay on the plane of abstraction is remarkable, but while the corporations are flowing with profits and bonuses, and the banks and financial institutions reap new trillions from their bailout after an era of global banditry and pyramid scheme speculation, we yet hear nothing substantial for the poor, the unemployed, the homeless who were tricked by the sub prime loan scam and global outsourcing.

Can we be clear, there is no job program to address the immediate needs of the millions of unemployed. And how shall the millions who are now homeless from foreclosures find remedy? What good is a health plan when one is unemployed and without means of payment?

While his rhetoric seeks to flow from Center to Right, his predilection of placating the Right Wing
Conservatives who reject him at every turn, especially from now to the 2012 elections, he leaves his progressive base in the woods, lost and turned out on the way to grandmother's house!

Iraq is a sham and the world knows it. When the last fifty thousand troops depart, there shall remain 200,000 mercenaries or private contractor killers and torturers, along with the grandest American embassy in the world to oversee the oil contracts and satisfy the reactionary regional regimes, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Gulf States and of course the Zionist regime called Israel.

Obama and his cohorts in the Congress shall be quite unnerved if Egypt suddenly crumbles in unity with the Tunisian revolution. He failed to mention Egypt tonight, while only briefly alluding to Tunisia. And hardly nothing was said about Afghanistan that is lost. We understand all but one province is under Taliban control. Nor was there any mention of so-called terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, except in the Bush/Colin Powell tradition of promising to cut them off.

What if all these nations not only throw out their reactionary regimes but any semblance of American hegemony as well. Will Americans suddenly get a similar idea to send the White House and Congress packing

We heard of long term plans for correcting the corrupt white supremacy educational system with its 50% drop out/push out rate. His call for teachers shall ring hollow, for why should a teacher work for the same wages as a janitor? There are very few Blacks going into teaching these days.
We attended a State Education conference in California with four thousand teachers, yet we doubt if 400 were Black. There are so few Black teachers in Alabama, we understand the state is importing teachers from the Philippines.

And of course nothing was said about the high incarceration rate of young black men, and the many thousands on probation and parole that are destabilizing our community coast to coast.

He ranted about the deficit to capitulate as is his habit. Don't worry, there shall be no shrinking of the military budget as he suggested--it is a scam in the permanent war philosophy of this military/corporate complex. But he called for the return of military recruiters on college and university campuses. Does this sound like a president who is anti-war? He sounds more like Bush with every passing moment.

We must excuse the 18-35 youth who reportedly gave him a thumbs up, for they are simply naive and will gain political maturity with time. With every speech he moves closer to those neo-colonial leaders in Africa, Asia and the Americas. We know they are a most wretched lot and Obama is slowly falling in league with them. The torture chamber of Gitmo continues, including the torture of Bradly Manning for giving information to Wikileaks, blowing the whistle on American global subterfuge.

His address is designed to set the stage for the 2012 election, but 2012 may prove a conundrum of major proportion, especially with all the mythology in the Mayan calendar.

Yes, we initially hailed Obama and supported him enthusiastically, but we seem him as a spineless personality urgently in need of backbone, a man who kisses right wing asses at every turn, and we should expect more of the same going into 2012 since he will need the support of the Wall Street robber barons to finance his billion dollar election campaign.
--Marvin X
1/25/11

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre presents



Academy of da Corner
Reader's Theatre

presents
Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival
Chauncey Bailey Book Fair
Saturday, February 19,
12 noon til 6pm
Joyce Gordon Gallery
14th and Franklin, Oakland













Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Left to right: Human Rights attorney Walter Riley, a supporter of the Academy; Academy student/teacher, historian, videographer Gregory Fields, Blues living legend Sugar Pie de Santo and Chancellor Marvin X ("Plato Negro") According to Ishmael Reed, "Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland...His play One Day in the Life is the most powerful drama I've seen."



Youth reading at the Academy of da Corner
"Crack a book before you're booked for Crack!"
--Paul Cobb, Publisher, Post Newspaper Group








In celebration of Black History Month, the Oakland Post Newspaper is
co-sponsoring the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair, Saturday, February 19, 12 noon until 6pm, at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 14th and Franklin Streets, downtown Oakland.

The JPAS is an online journal of Pan African literature. Marvin X is Guest Editor of the recent poetry issue and Bay Area poets will read their selection at the Joyce Gordon Gallery.

The Chauncey Bailey Book Fair is in honor of slain Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey who loved literature and tried to educate youth. Paul Cobb, Post Newspaper Group Publisher, is asking persons to buy a collection of books by the authors for donation to juvenile hall, Santa Rita County Jail and San Quentin Prison.

Bay Area writers/artists/activists salute slain journalist Chauncey Bailey at
Joyce Gordon Gallery
photo Adam Turner and Gene Hazzard







Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival
and
Chauncey Bailey Book Fair

12 Noon until 6pm

JPAS Poetry Reading 3pm-6pm
Saturday, February 19th

Joyce Gordon Gallery
14th and Franklin
Oakland


Authors/Vendors contact Marvin X: jmarvinx@yahoo.com



Marvin X, Guest Editor
Journal of Pan African Studies



Marvin X has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the innovators and founders of the new revolutionary school of African writing.
--Amiri Baraka

An excellent collection of poetry from some of the best poets in America. The best selection of poems that any Guest Editor has ever put together!--Rudolph Lewis, Editor, Chickenbones.com

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yosef
essays on Obama Drama

Marvin X












Journal of
Pan Afric
an Studies
Poetry Reading

Al Young, California Poet Laureate Emeritus



devorah major, San Francisco Poet Laureate Emeritus








Alona Clifton, Reader's Theatre




Eugene Allen, Reader's Theatre

























Paradise Jah Love, poet, Reader's Theatre





TuReadah Mikell












Phavia Kujichagulia, a Griot / Djialli (Oral Historian), musician, writer, poet, dancer who utilizes music, poetry and dance to heal and reveal history











Hunia, Reader's Theatre














Ptah Allah El, poet, author Tainted Soul, Professor, Academy of da Corner



Marvin X and Dr. Dorothy Tsuruta, Professor of Ethnic Studies at
San Francisco State University, a co-sponsor of this event. Black Studies
went to college and came home to community! (See Ptah's poem in JPAS.
She was one of his professors at SFSU who gave him a grounding in Black literature.)


























Ayodele
Nzingha, Professor of Arts, Academy of da Corner
PhD. candidate












Itibari M. Zulu,
Senior Editor, JPAS,
author Exploring the African Centered Paradigm









Fritz Pointer, author, A Passion to Liberate


























J. Vern Cromartie







Ramal Lamar, Associate Guest Editor,
Professor, Academy of da Corner







Avotcja








Ishmael Reed, author, poet, playwright, essayist, publisher, genius award winner, MacArthur Foundaion






Timonthy Reed, author














Anthony Spires


Renaldo Manuel Ricketts


Not pictured: Kwan Booth, Charles Blackwell, Niyah X, Maisha, Nykimbe,
Aries Jordan

Joyce Gordon Gallery

14th and Franklin, downtown Oakland

Sponsored by:
Oakland Post Newspaper Group
Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre
San Francisco State University Ethnic Studies Department


The JPAS is an online journal that can be downloaded for free. Black Bird Press has a print edition available for $49.95, 475 pages. This is a Classic of Pan African literature in the 21st Century. It is a decolonized world view, so necessary for sanity in a turbulent Age. It is a poetic manual of recovery and healing from the ravages of White Supremacy, the greatest illusion of the modern world. To grapple with this illusion language is the best tool to deprogram, detox and inspire people with the word, yes, in the beginning was the word.



Sponsors

Post Newspaper Group
An Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre
Black Bird Press
Ed Howard, Kakakiki, Inc., Slave System
Journal of Pan African Studies
Joyce Gordon Gallery
Refa One
Ethnic Studies Department, San Francisco State University
Oakland Local
It's About Time/Black Panther Archives
Eastside Arts/Black Arts Movement literary exhibit
Reginald James, The Black Hour
Media documentation: Gregory Fields, Adam Turner, Ken Johnson, Khalid Wajjib, Kamau Amen Ra, Gene Hazzard, Lee Hubbard, Wanda Sabir, Susan Merit, Davey D, KPOO Radio, San Francisco


Notes on the Journal of Pan African Studies
Poetry Issue


If one is serious about getting a precise understanding of the 1960s Black Arts Movement, the most radical artrs and literary movement in American history, that forced the inclusion of ethnic literature into academia, one must grab the recent Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue.

The issue has poems by some of the BAM major players (Baraka, Bullins, Madhubuti, Ya Salaam, Toure, and X, as well as essays and dialogue on the literary productions of BAM, the proposition that the genre called Muslim American literature is based on the BAM Islamic influence, with roots in Moorish Science, Nation of Islam, Sufic, Sunni and Yoruba influences, although the Yoruba is not explained yet self evident in the poetry.

There is discussion on the poetic mission, and in the BAM tradition it is argued that poetry is not an end within itself but a vehicle, a tool, a weapon in the arsenal of liberation, and most importantly, a tool of communication.

The poems are drums of Pan Africa, message to and from the God and gods, ancestors, the living and yet unborn. Entries are from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, United Kingdom, South Korea, New Zealand and throughout the United States.

We tried to give a regional sample from the west coast, east coast, mid west and south. You will find a commonality of themes and concerns, freedom most of all, but listen carefully to the regional rhythms on the poetic drums.

Overall, it represents an alternative world view, the Pan African world view as opposed to the Eurocentric world view. It is the world view of the oppressed, yet the spiritually liberated for the poets are, if nothing else, free spirits that cannot be caged, whipped or defeated, for they say you can kill the revolutionary but can't kill the revolution, thus the word causes forward motion in the ocean of humanity, and such are the contents herein. Magic words, magic truths, wisdom and and prophesy.

It is obvious from the bios that most of the poets are trained in academia, whatever their other origins. For sure the nuances of language transcends traditional English, for it is a language rooted in decolonizaton and liberation. Thus, many of the poets are bilingual, making use of the master's tongue and the tongue of the masses.

The BAM theme of revolutionary consciousness is pervasive. Associate Guest Editor Ptah Allah El says this is the Bible for the 21 Century. So it is! Like Black Fire of the 60s, let it fire up a static situation with the word. Let the Pan African mind move a little closer to home.
--Marvin X
1/15/11

Authors/vendors contact Marvin X @ jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Journal of Pan African Studies is Online


The Journal of Pan African Studies
works to become a beacon of light in the sphere of African world community studies and research, grounded in an interdisciplinary open access scholarly peer-reviewed construct, simultaneously cognizant of the multilingualism of our audience, and the importance of universal access in cyberspace; regardless of geography, economic, social or cultural diversity.

::More Information
::Editorial Board
::Contact The JPAS


::Instructions for submitting a manuscript






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CURRENT ISSUE

Volume 4 • Number 2 • 2010

This special issue of The Journal of Pan African Studies is edited by guest editor Marvin X and dedicated to Dingane aka Jose Goncalves, the publisher and editor of the Journal of Black Poetry, which has published some 500 poets.


Groundation


JPAS: Dedicated to Dingane, Jose Goncalves
by Marvin X
[ view PDF ]


The Poets
by Marvin X
[ view PDF ]



Letters to the Editor
[ view PDF ]



Dingane Joe Goncalves, The Journal of Black Poetry & Small Non-Commercial Black Journals
by Rudolph Lewis
[ view PDF ]
[ view PDF ]


In My Negritude


Shaggy Flores, Ras Griot, Phavia Kujichagulia, Chinwe Enemchukwu, L. E. Scott, Rodney D. Coates, J. Vern Cromartie, Dike Okoro, Neal E. Hall, Marvin X, Mohja Kahf, Ayodele Nzingha, Askia M. Toure, Michael Simanga, Amiri Baraka, Kalamu ya Salaam, Kola Boof, Louis Reyes, Rivera, Aries Jordan, Ptah Allah El, and Hettie V. Williams
[ view PDF ]



Teaching Diaspora Literature: Muslim American Literature as an Emerging Field
by Mohja Kahf
[ view PDF ]



Mother Earth Responds by Askia Toure
reviewed by Kamaria Muntu
[ view PDF ]



Tainted Soul by T. Ptah Mitchell
reviewed by Zulu King
[ view PDF ]



The Whirlwind


Tracey Owens Patton, devorah major, Anthony Mays, Bruce George, Jeanette Drake, Itibari M. Zulu, Renaldo Manuel Ricketts, Nandi Comer, Al Young, Ghasem Batamuntu, Mona Lisa Saloy, Eugene B. Redmond, Fritz Pointer, Gwendolyn Mitchell, Felix Orisewike Sylvanus, Rudolph Lewis, Kamaria Muntu, Ed Bullins, Mabel Mnensa, Kwan Booth, and Tureeda Mikell
[ view PDF ]


Poetic Mission: A Dialogue on the Role of the Poet and Poetry
by Rudolph Lewis (dialogue team: Marvin X, Jerry Ward, Mary Weems, and C. Leigh McInnis)
[ view PDF ]



The Poetic Mission: Art II: Reviewing a Life, A Calling
by Haki R. Madhubuti
[ view PDF ]



Amour of Ancestors


Everett Hoagland, Charles Blackwell, Jacqueline Kibacha, John Reynolds III, Darlene Scott, Jimmy Smith Jr., Sam Hamud, Opal Palmer Adisa, Amy ‘Aimstar’ Andrieux, Lamont b. Steptoe, Avotcja Jiltonilro, Anthony Spires, Benecia Blue, Neil Callender, Tanure Ojaide, Pious Okoro, Tony Medina, Dr. Ja A. Jahannes, Brother Yao, Zayad Muhammad, Nykimbe Broussard, Kilola Maishya, Niyah X, Adrienne N. Wartts, Greg Carr, Darlene Roy, Tantra Zawadi, Ishmael Reed, Quincy Scott Jones, Bob McNeil, Ariel Pierson, Marie Rice, Yvonne Hilton, Bolade Akintolayo, Latasha Diggs, Felton Eaddy, and B. Sharise Moore
[ view PDF ]



Baraka, Politics and News


Medical Mythology
by Ramal Lamar
[ view PDF ]



Qaddafy’s Apology for Arab Slavery: A Dialogue Between Poets
by Rudolph Lewis, Sam Hamud, and Kola Boof
[ view PDF ]



Prize and Award: Chinua Achebe and Haki R. Madhubuti
[ view PDF ]



Two Poets in Oakland: Ishmael Reed and Marvin X
by Ishmael Reed and Marvin X
[ view PDF ]



A Pan African Dialogue on Cuba: From Black Bird Press
by Dead Prez, Carlos Moore, Pedro de la Hoz, and North American African Activist, Intellectuals and Artist
[ view PDF ]



Black Arts West Celebrates Amiri Baraka at 75
a photos essay by Kamau Amen-Ra
[ view PDF ]



Amiri Baraka Entertains SF: ‘Lowku’ versus Haiku Revives Fillmore Spirit
by Lee Hubbard and Marvin X
[ view PDF ]







Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Black Arts Movement at Yoshi's, San Francisco



The Black Arts Movement at Yoshi's, San Francisco

Last night at Yoshi's in the Fillmore, Amiri Baraka and Roscoe Mitchell performed a concert partially devoted to the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baraka photo Kamau Amen Ra


Baraka is godfather of the Black Arts Movement or BAM, and Roscoe Mitchell of the Chicago Arts Ensemble is a BAM Master as well. They were joined by poet Marvin X who opened both sets with a poem. Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre, 1966, was a block or two down from Yoshi's at Turk and Fillmore. With playwright Ed Bullins, essayist Eldridge Cleaver (Soul on Ice) and Ethna X, companion of Marvin X, they established the political/cultural Center called Black House.

The Black House on Broderick Street was the center for radical culture in the Bay Area, 1967. Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Emory Douglas, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Lil Bobby Hutton, Sarah Webster Fabio, Avotcja, Samuel Napier, Ellendar Barnes, Dezzie Woods Jones, Bennie Ivy, Norman Brown, Walter Riley, Rosco Proctor, and numerous arts and politicos congregated at Black House. The Chicago Arts Ensemble had performed. Roscoe remembers the Black House, especially the food. Ethna X (Hurriyah) and Amina Baraka created the food.




photo Gene Hazzard



Tonight was the rare coming together of BAM artists from three regions, although BAM was bi-coastal. Baraka from Newark, New Jersey, Roscoe from Chicago and Marvin X from the San Francisco Bay. Marvin X also worked at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem and with Sun Ra. Sun Ra created music for two musicals of Marvin's Take Care of Business (aka Flowers for the Trashman) and Resurrection of the Dead.

After Marvin's opening poem, Roscoe began with percussion work. He tinkered with bells and other sounds, preparing the way for Baraka, but this opening was himself at his greatest. Calmly he went about his musical work.

A musician who accompanies a poet must be humble to the word, he cannot become self-consumed so that we do not hear the word. Such a musician is thus highly conscious of the word as he is of himself. But the focus is on the word and he respects the word and wants to enhance the word, accent the word.

Roscoe is the man for the job. The first set he was reserved, it was a kind of rehearsal, though there is a natural harmony between the poet and musician, most especially with Amiri Baraka, who highly appreciates music and musicians. This is the BAM tradition.

At Black Arts West Theatre on Fillmore, we used to let the musicians be free. They asked to be free. During our productions they might roam the stage, the audience and go outside on the street to join the sounds of the street traffic and cars, often doing a call and response with car horns: Dewey Redman, Donald Rafael Garrett, Monte Waters, Earl Davis, BJ, Oliver Johnson, were some of the Black Arts West musicians.

Baraka joined Mitchell with tales and poems of his childhood in Newark, what a weird child he was, reading Japanese poetry and coming up with Lowku, the Negro version of Haiku Ku because we don't have time to count syllables. Baraka is the court jester, the comedian, the joker who is more than serious, for he is too bright to be taken lightly, the opposite of the people in one of poems, white racists, who are too ignut to understand what's happening to them, too ignut to be white even.

Baraka began his tribute to MLK with the wedding of MLK and Coretta Scott. He weaved his narrative by chronicling major events of MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. It was a history lesson every child should know, the dates, the events, the names of warriors, martyrs and devils Rosa Parks, Bull Conners, Black Power, Freedom Riders, Student Sit-ins, Black Power, Non-violence.

Baraka, 77 this year, transformed from poet to actor, playwright, singer, doing all the parts of blacks and whites. He sang all the freedom songs throughout his narrative, revealing his knowledge of black Christian culture, for it was the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement, after all, non-violence is a Christian concept, born of Jesus Christ, although at one point Baraka mentioned that Christians need do a body count as a result of their religion.

It was interesting to hear and see Baraka tell the story of MLK from his perspective, a participant/observer, analyst, organizer, living historian, walking history himself. He told the time MKL knocked on his door in Newark, during the Poor People's campaign, Martin had a stubble beard with no tie on. The King said to the king, Le Roi, you don't look like such a bad fellow!

Baraka does not attempt revisionist history, but tells it like it was, even free of strident ideology, propaganda, just the story. All the time Roscoe is dancing from horn to horn, never upstaging but accenting always, a call and response in the African and BAM tradition, which are one.

Only after Baraka ended the King narrative with his assassination did Roscoe take off on his horns, and this was especially during the second set. He took us to a lyrical land of sound and beauty, letting us know he is one of the true Masters of creative sound.

The audience gave the brothers much applause and appreciation. Ninety per cent of those present were whites. A brother whispered to me in the lobby, "Man, I never heard or seen anything like this in my life!"



Baraka could have used some help reading all the parts. Indeed, after the last set, he asked me rhetorically, Marvin why didn't you help me do this?
--Marvin X
1/18/11

Baraka and Marvin at Yoshi's
photo Julian Carroll







Catch Marvin X at the Journal of Pan African StudiesPoetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair,Saturday, February 19, 12 noon til 6pm, Joyce Gordon Gallery, 14th and Franklin, downtown Oakland.