Black Bird Press News & Review

For the Women

For the women
Who bear children and nurture them with truth
Who cook and clean behind thankless men
For the women
Who love so hard so true so pure
For the women
With faith in God and men
For the women
Alone with beer and rum
Searching for a man
At the club college church party
For the women
Independent of men
Searching their souls
Who smoke crack and freak
Who love only women
Who play and run and never show
Who rise in revolt in hand with men
Who say never never, never again
For the women who suffer abuse and cry for justice
For the women happy and free of maternal madness
For the women who study and write
For the women who sell their love to starving men
For the women who love to make love and be loved by men
For the women of Afrika who work so hard
For the women of American who suffer the master
For the women who turn to God in prayer and patience
For the women who are mothers of children and mothers of men
For the women who suffer inflation recession abortion recession
For the women who understand the rituals of men and women
For the women who share
For the women who are greedy
For the women with power
For the women with nothing
For the women locked down
For the women down town
For the women who break horses
For the women in the fields
For the women who rob banks
For the women who kill
For the women of history
For the women of now
I salute you. A MAN.
--Marvin X
Circa 1981

In honor of Women's History Month, Bay Area Black Authors present

a Celebration of Healing with the Journal of Pan African Studies Women Poets, plus dramatic performances from Colored Girls, Vagina Monologues, Bathroom Graffiti Queen and Parable of Woman on the Cell Phone. There will be a panel on Womanhood Rites of Passage, facilitated by author, media living legend Jerri Lange. Poets, actors, authors, singers include Ayodele Nzinga, Toreadah Mikell, Jasmin Conner, Aries Jordan, Phavia Kujichagulia and devorah major. Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., downtown Oakland. jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.