On February 19, 2011
Bay Area Black Authors, and
Post Newspaper Group
presented
Journal of Pan African Studies
Poetry Festival and Chauncey
Bailey Book Fair at
Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland
photos Gene Hazzard
Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale and Marvin X. Before founding the BPP, Bobby performed in Marvin's Black Arts West theatre, 1966.
Ministers of Poetry Phavia Kujichagulia and Marvin X
Bobby Seale gagged
and chained
in court after charged
with disturbing the peace
of the 1968 Democratic
Convention in Chicago
Poet Charles Blackwell
Bobby Seale stole the show at yesterday's poetry festival and book fair, sponsored by Bay Area Black Authors and the Post Newspaper Group at the Joyce Gordon Gallery. The main purpose of the event was to purchase books from local authors for donation to the incarcerated at juvenile hall, country jail and prisons. The PNG purchased ten books from selected authors.
A woman commented to organizer Marvin X, "This is so beautiful and peaceful." We think she reflected the consensus of opinion on the event that had a full house in spite of the rain.
Black Panther Party co-founder, Bobby Seale was called to speak by his friend from Merritt College, 1962-64, Marvin X. Bobby was to told to speak for five minutes, but once he began reciting Bay Area and Black Panther history, the MC, Brother Ptah told Marvin X later, "He was not about to interrupt the Chairman and co-founder of the BPP. "Marvin X, you were the only one with enough stature to tell Bobby give up the mike." Bobby talked about a half hour.
But we didn't want to stop Bobby from giving his narrative on how he and Huey came together to found the organization that became one of the biggest threats to the national security of the United States during the 60s, according to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
After Marvin X recited the list of books that Huey Newton, Bobby and he studied outside of class at Merritte College while they unknowingly became the new black intelligentsia of the 60s, he called out for Bobby to help him remember such books as:
Huey P. Newton, BPP co-founder
Myth of the Negro Past, Melville J. Herskivits
Negro Slave Revolts, Herbert Aptheker
Neo-Colonialism, the last stage of imperialism, Kwame Nkrumah
History Will Absolve Me, Fidel Castro
Black Bourgeoisie, E. Franklin Frazier
Black Reconstruction, W.E.B. DuBois
Wretched of the Earth, Franz Fanon
Facing Mt. Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta
Bobby told how he came into black consciousness while working as an engineer and a Merritt College student. It is quite astounding to her black history from the horse's mouth, not filtered by revisionism. And Bobby's memory is precise, down to names, dates and times covering fifty years of history.
The audience was in a trance at his presence and presentation. He recalled his relationship with Marvin X, even recited Burn, Baby, Burn, a poem by Marvin X on the Watt's Rebellion in 1965. There are those who say this is Marvin X's greatest poem. Marvin X has never told Bobby he was in the audience when Bobby recited Burn, Baby, Burn in Harlem, 1968, in front of the Theresa Hotel, New York's Academy of da Corner at 7th Avenue and `125th Street. By this time there was a rift between the Black Arts Movement and the Black Panthers, so they were not speaking. It was an ideological issue over the use of whether or not to use arms in the black liberation movement.
The BPP denounced so-called cultural nationalists and intellectuals for not picking up arms. The BPP did not come to an understanding of the role of culture and art in the liberation of a people until they attended the Pan African Cultural Festival in Algiers, Algeria, then they softened their attack on artists and cultural activists.
Marvin X introduced Eldridge Cleaver to his friends Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. EC immediately joined the BPP. Bobby Seale has said Marvin kept Eldridge from the BPP, then in another breath blames Marvin for bringing the Minister of Information to the BPP. Marvin did indeed take Eldridge to the the BPP to get him out of the Black House, the political cultural center they had founded, along with playwright Ed Bullins and Marvin's mate, Ethna X (Hurriyah). But when EC joined the BPP, they immediately kicked out the artists and established the Black House as the San Francisco headquarters of the Black Panther Party.
Ironically, Huey Newton said, "Marvin X was our teacher, many of our comrades came through his Black theatre, including Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver (Black House), Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier, George Murray."
This art work by Elizabeth Catlett Mora demonstrates the necessary unity between art and political liberation, as well as the necessity of male/female unity. During his second exile, Marvin X came to Mexico City seeking refuge from refusing to fight in Vietnam. Elizabeth and her husband gave him refuge. When he walked in their casa, Elizabeth was working on this piece.
Bobby told how he used to recite the poem as a prologue in X's second play Come Next Summer. Bobby played the lead role. He told of his arrest for reciting Burn, Baby, Burn on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, at the height of the socalled Free Speech Movement.
On the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Bobby started a one man riot, breaking windows and kicking in doors. His talk ended with a recitation of the preamble to the US Constitution. The audience was ecstatic.
Another highlight was Phavia Kujichagulia's reading of her poem about the Human Race and her classic Yo,Yo, Yo, with the classic refrain on the feminine gender, "If you think I'm just a physical thing, wait til you see the spiritual power I bring." Marvin X used the line as the leit motif in his controversial pamphlet on male/female sexuality that Oakland youth and adults claim it empowers them.
San Francisco's first North American African poet laureate, devorah major, also read her entry in the JPAS. Her father, Reginald Major, was a BPP supporter who authored a book on the Panthers.
Ed Howard was introduced as a member of the West Oakland Renaissance Committee, a group of elders who grew up in West Oakland. Also acknowledged was Leonard Gardner, another member of the group that includes Maxine Ussery, Paul Cobb, Larry Moore, Joe Johnson,
Marvin X, et al. Ed Howard tried to redefine language usage with his call to utilize the term "slave system" rather than refer to us as slaves, since impossible for slaves to build the American civilization. How could slaves design and build the White House? How could slaves fight and die in the American revolution? How could slaves publish a newspaper in 1827, Freedom's Journal?
Queen Mother Jerri Lange read from her book Jerri: A Black Woman's Life in the Media, a narrative of her life as one of the first black women to have a television show in the Bay Area.
Fritz Pointer, professor emeritus of English at Contra Costa College (brother of the Pointer Sisters), read his entry in the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry issue, guest edited by Marvin X. JPAS Senior Editor, Itibari M. Zulu read his poem about wanting to be like Congresswoman Barbara Lee.
Fritz's poem claimed that Oakland residents experienced an "obscene pride" when Mixon shot four OPD officers. Sadly, Fritz claimed, many citizens rejoiced after suffering years of abuse from police under the color of law, down to the present moment with the BART police murder of Oscar Grant, the OPD killing brother Jones and others. Indeed, the Black Panther Party was formed in response to the Richmond police killing of Denzil Dowell. The first issue of the Black Panther Newspaper headlined the Denzil Dowell murder.
Dr. Fritz Pointer
Music was provided by DJ Jah D, drummer Kwic Time and Blues living legend, Augusta Collins.
Ptah Allah El, author of two book under the mentoring of Marvin X, read his controversial poem Black Studies Went to College But Never Came Home. Another author being mentored by Plato Negro, Ishmael Reed's title for Marvin X, is Aries Jordon, who released her first book of poetry at the event. Her entry also appears in the Journal of Pan African Studies that Ptah calls the New Bible because it comes as we enter the new millennium and is an expression of Pan African Consciousness as we end this 25,000 year cycle of history. The JPAS thus presents advance history in accordance with African culture and civilization. Aries Jordon read a poem addressed to the elders and said she still awaits a response.
Members of Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre read from the JPAS: Geoffrey Grier
read an entry from Michael Simanga of Atlanta, Eugene Allen read Letter to the Governor of Mississippi by New York Poet Shaggy Flores, Jermaine Marsh read Dr. Nigger, by Dr. Neal Hall
of Philadelphia. Paradise Jah Love read his classic They Love Everything About Me but Me!"
Poet Marvin X did not read poetry but grabbed his famous grandson Jah Amiel and had the three year old recite the Arabic prayer Surah Al Fatihah after him, then told him, "Now go to you mama!" who was seated nearby. Amira, one of his three daughters, is a an attorney, a Yale University and Stanford Law School grad. Grandfather X told the audience at two years old, Jah Amiel told him, "Grandpa you can't save the world but I can."
Singer, actress Mechelle LaChaux closed out the Reader's Theatre segment performaning Parable of the Cell Phone by Marvin X, about a woman talking on the cell phone in her casket.
The audience went wild with applause.
Of course the event was also a tribute to slain Oakland Post Editor, Chauncey Bailey. Marvin X addressed Chauncey in his opening remarks, quoting what James Baldwin said on the assassination of Malcolm X, "The hand that pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullet." Marvin maintained those accused of killing Chauncey should be expanded beyond the Black Muslim Bakery Brothers to include the Oakland Police Department, since one of their officers mentored the Bakery brothers. Why would the sons of Dr. Yusef Bey kill the man who worked with their father for years at Soulbeat Television?
Marvin alleged it was because the brothers were inspired by their OPD mentor who was supposedly a member of the OPD group of black officers shaking down drug dealers, money laundering, planting false evidence, false arrests, and possible homicide (including the murder of Chauncey Bailey) under the color of law.
The mentor of the BMBB was in charge of the crime scene, no doubt a conflict of interest. This officer refused to interrogate an eye witness at the crime scene. A security guard at the scene recognized the officer as one of the police who used to shake him down back in his hustling days.
Bay Area Black Authors, in cooperation with the Post Newspaper Group, is planning an anthology of essays called The Black Bailey Project, in contrast to the Chauncey Bailey Project that has served as the establishment's version of events in the Chauncey Bailey matter.
Author Ishmael Reed uses the term Jim Crow Media to describe racism in the press. Marvin X says the establishment press represents and defends the state, not the people. The Chauncey Bailey Project has made millions of dollars spreading the state, (including the OPD and City Hall's version) of why Chauncey Bailey was killed: because he was investigating the Black Muslim Bakery bankruptcy proceedings--that was public information, along with the sexual allegations of the founder, Dr. Yusef Bey, though he was deceased.
Ironically, a woman at Saturday's event confronted Marvin X about the Black Bailey Project version. She reminded him that Chauncey had written an article in defense of Dr. Bey when he was indicted for sexual improprieties. If Chauncey defended Dr. Bey, this is more reason why his sons would not rush to kill him, unless they were motivated by their mentor, OPD officer Longmire.
In his remarks, Marvin X drew from Shakespeare's Othello. Chauncey Bailey's case is similar to how Iago planted seeds in the mind of Othello to make him kill his beloved Desdemona when she in fact, had been a faithful wife. Iago was motivated by pure racism, jealousy and envy. The OPD was motivated by fear that Chauncey's investigative journalism would reveal corruption at the OPD and City Hall. Indeed, then Mayor, now Governor Jerry Brown, is alleged to have said, "I'm going to stop that nigger from snooping around the OPD and City Hall." When Jerry Brown departed City Hall his internet records disappeared. Then comes Mayor Ron Dellums who calls upon Jerry Brown, in his persona of Attorney General, to investigate the Chauncey Bailey OPD investigation, when the AG, himself, needed to be investigated! By the way, we never learned the results of AG Jerry Brown's investigation. Don't hold your breath!
Bay Area Black Authors return to the Joyce Gordon Gallery during Women's History Month when the women poets in the Journal of Pan African Studies will read, along with a performance of Opal Palmer Adisa's drama Bathroom Graffiti Queen, a one-woman play directed and performed by Ayodele Nzingha. This Women's History event will be on Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street at Franklin, downtown Oakland.
For more information: jmarvinx@yahoo.com, www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.
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