Inspired Artist Award for Marvin XFamily, Friends and Colleagues, I am excited and honored to be recognized by Full Vision Arts Foundation and lajones&associates during the Inspired Artist Awards Reception and Ceremony on Saturday, May 14th, from 5pm - 7pm at the Paramount Theatre.
This special event is a prelude to the 25th Anniversary of the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition and Festival's Final Competition Round which starts at 8pm. I hope you would consider joining me for the evening to celebrate my special honor. Advance tickets are $55 per person and $100 for couples -- these tickets not only admit you to the VIP and Awards Reception, but also include admission to the Final Competition Round.
To purchase your advance tickets to the special ticketed event ... please visit
http://www.blackcomedyvipawards.eventbrite.com/. if you should have questions, please contact me or LaNiece Jones at
laniece@lajonesmedia.com.
Inspired Artist Awards VIP Reception
& Awards Ceremony 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
5:30pm - 7pm Paramount Theatre Mezzanine Level
(use Broadway entrance & pick up tickets at special VIP event will call table)
VIP table from 5pm - 6:45pm
Award Ceremony Emcee:
Nikki Thomas, Nikki Thomas Network
2011 Honorees
Amanda Elliott, Executive Director, Richmond Main Street
Don “DC” Curry, Comedian / Actor
Joyce Gordon, Proprietor, Joyce Gordon Gallery
Dorothy King-Jernegan, Proprietor, Everett & Jones BBQ
Charleston Pierce, Model Coach Philanthropist Charleston Pierce Presents
Shelly Tatum, Businessman Community Advocate
Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists
Music by: Dr. Terence Elliott
Free Champagne & Appetizers No Host Bar Awards Presentation
Marvin X's Muses: The beautiful, creative, intelligent women who inspire the poet:
Fahizah, Ayo, Phavia, Tarika, Suzzette
\
Black Bird Press Books 2 for 1 Special.
Buy one get one free,
limited copies available. Don't delay
order these classics today!
Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way,
Berkeley CA 94702
Send $19.95, plus $5.00 for p and h.
Wish I Could tell you the truth, essays, 2005, $19.95
In the Crazy House Called America,essays, 2002, $19.95Review of In the Crazy House Called AmericaRarely is a brother secure and honest enough with himself to reveal his innermost thoughts, emotions or his most hellacious life experiences. For most men it would be a monumental feat just to share/bare his soul with his closest friends but to do so to perfect strangers would be unthinkable, unless he had gone through the fires of life and emerged free of the dross that tarnishes his soul. Marvin X, poet, playwright, author and essayist does just that in a self-published book entitled In The Crazy House Called America .
This latest piece from Marvin X offers a peek into his soul and his psyche. He lets the reader know he is hip to the rabid oppression the West heaps upon people of color especially North American Africans while at the same time revealing the knowledge gleaned from his days as a student radical, black nationalist revolutionary forger of the Black Arts Movement, husband, father lover, a dogger of women did not spare him the degradation and agony of descending into the abyss of crack addiction, abusive and toxic relationships and family tragedy.
Perhaps because of the knowledge gained as a member of the Nation of Islam, and his experiences as one of the prime movers of the cultural revolution of the '60, the insights he shares In The Crazy House Called America are all the keener. Marvin writes candidly of his pain, bewilderment and depression of losing his son to suicide. He shares in a very powerful way, his own out of body helplessness as he wallowed in the dregs of an addiction that threatened to destroy his soul and the mess his addictions made of his life and relationships with those he loved.
But he is not preachy and this is not an autobiography. He has already been there and done that. In sharing his story and the wisdom he has gleaned from his life experiences and looking at the world through the eyes of an artist/healer.—Junious Ricardo Stanton
Other CommentsMarvin X has always been in the forefront of pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing. In the Crazy House is solid writing!
--Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones), Newark, New Jersey
In terms of being modernist and innovative, he's centuries ahead of anybody I know.
--Dennis Leroy Moore, filmmaker, Brecht Forum, New York
Courageous and outrageous! He walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out clean as white fish and black as coal.
--from the foreword by James W. Sweeney, Oakland, CA
In the Crazy House Called America is for brothers especially. It is a book all black men should grab hold of and digest, if for no other reason than to experience just how redemptively healing and liberating being honest can be.
--Junious Ricardo Stanton, New York
Marvin X is doing the kind of thing we should be doing, bringing "psychodrama" into didactic nonfiction. Beyond that, it's good literature.
--Dr. Nathan Hare, Black Think Tank, San Francisco
The stories are heartfelt, theoretical, insightful, passionate and private, with psychosocial, political recommendations and commentary on what black folks need to do to get reparations, our "40 Acres and a Mule."
--from the Introduction by Suzette Celeste, MPA, MSW, Richmond California
"The Maid, The Ho', The Cook" was one of the most beautiful pieces about real love I've ever read. The image of "crack-heads" as scandalous and without human dignity is destroyed by Marvin's recollection of this sister with whom he fell in love.
--Lil Joe, Los Angeles, CA
One of the things that makes this book a great joy is the range of subjects vital to all types of Black folks from richest to poorest.
--John Woodford, Editor, Michigan Today, University of Michigan
When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express black male urban experiences in a lyrical way.
--James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer
Marvin X: Eight Books in 2010
The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Volume I
If you want to learn about inspiration and motivation, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.--Ishmael Reed
Hus
tler’s Guide to the Game Called Life, (Wisdom of Plato Negro, Volume II)
Myth
ology of Love: Toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, 416 pages.
This book is the most wanted title in the Marvin X collection.
Youth in the hood fight over it and steal it from each other.
Girls say it empowers them, and the boys say it helps them step up their game.
Mothers and fathers are demanding their sons and daughters read this. Paradise Jah Love says they fight over it as if it's black gold!
I Am Oscar Grant, essays on Oakland, $19.95.
Critical essays on the travesty of American justice in the cold blooded murder of Oscar Grant by a beast in blue uniform.
Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself
essays on Obama Dram
a, $19.95.
Marvin X is on the mark again with his accurate observation of the Obama era. The black community was so excited with Obama being the first Black Prez that they forgot he was a politician-not a messiah. Marvin X brings the community back to the reality of what Obama stands for-at the moment! He has not given up on Da Prez, he simply wants people to see what he stands for and what he still has an opportunity to do for our communities. Make sure you put Pull Yo Pants Up Fada Black Prez & Yo Self on your to-buy list It will be the best book you will read in 2010!--Carolyn Mixon
Marvin X, Guest Editor, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, 480 pages
In honor of the Journal of Black Poetry, Marvin X collects poetry from throughout the Pan African world. This massive issue is a classic of radical Pan African literature in the 21st century. Amiri Baraka says, "He 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."
Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box In this collection he calls upon the people to become proactive rather than reactionary, to initiate the movement out the box of oppression by any means necessary, although Marvin X believes in the power of spiritual consciousness to create infinite possibilities toward liberation.
Soulful Musings on Unity of North American Africans,
150 pag
es
Marvin X explores the possibilities for unity among North American Africans. Available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. jmarvinx@yahoo.com
paperback, 6x9, 384 pages
ISBN: 978-1-59714-146-8
$24.95
Black California: A Literary Anthology
Edited by Aparajita Nanda
150 years of the California African American experience
Black California is the first comprehensive anthology celebrating black
writing through almost two centuries of Californian history. In a patchwork quilt pieced from poetry, fiction, essays, drama, and memoirs, this anthology traces the trajectory of African American writers. Each piece gives a voice to the resonating rhythms that created the African American literary tradition in California. These voices speak of dreams and disasters, of heroic achievements and tragic failures, of freedom and betrayal, of racial discrimination and subsequent restoration--all setting the pulse of the black California experience.
Early works include a letter written by Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of California; an excerpt from mountain man, freed slave, and honorary Crow Indian James Beckwourth; and a poem written by James Madison Bell and recited to a public gathering of black people commemorating the death of President Lincoln. More recent contributions include pieces from beat poet Bob Kaufman, Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, comedian Brian Copeland, and feminists Lucille Clifton and June Jordan. Also included are the writings of Langston Hughes, Marvin X, Reginald Lockett, Ishmael Reed, Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Arna Bontemps, David Henderson, Alice Walker, Al Young, devorah major, Ernest Gaines and Clarence Major, et al.
Advance Praise
"The Black California anthology is a wonderful contribution to the literature. The anthology conveniently places a hundred and fifty years' worth of writings in one volume. Additionally, this publication presents the work of obscure but nonetheless worthy authors alongside those who are more familiar to us."
—Rick Moss, chief curator at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland
"Black California pierces previous perceptions about California's political and social liberalism by presenting its racial history with honesty and human tragedy that is often ignored in the dominant narrative."
—Melba Joyce Boyd, Distinguished University Professor and chairperson of the Africana studies department at Wayne State University
"The essays, fiction, poetry, journalism, and drama Nanda has selected are as varied in tone and timbre as their authors. A fascinating and exciting anthology!"
—Shelley Fisher Fishkin, professor of English and director of American studies, Stanford University
About the Editor
Aparajita Nanda is a visiting associate professor to the departments of English and African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and she also teaches at Santa Clara University. A widely published scholar, she is a Fulbright faculty awardee, a Beatrice Bain scholar at UC Berkeley, and was showcased as part of the “Experience Berkeley” outreach team to students across the United States. Her primary fields of interest are African American literature and postcolonial studies.
Black California Anthology--Marvin X's Entry
Welcome to Mexi-Cali
By Marvin X
Vamanos, vamanos
the Mexicans are coming
to reclaim the land
avenge Blackfoot Cherokee Lakota
Comanche Seminole
Aztecs Mayas Incas
the Mexicans are coming
to make the yankees disappear like
civilizations of old
the guns disease greed for gold silver and blood
the Mexicans are coming
tired of poverty mud huts
washing bathing drinking dirty water in streams rivers
the Mexicans are coming
filling American cities with rivers of human beings
seeking new life love hope
after centuries of slavery oppression corruption
Vamanos
the Mexicans are coming
working three jobs by day stealing by night
to come up and stay up in Gringo land
Let the New Negroes arrive and take control
who will do God's will as Elijah promised
Old Negroes never got the concept
too full of pride selfishness greed
no unity no love for self no sharing
The Mexicans are coming to Cali New York Dirty South
working living loving sharing building
enjoying heaven on earth
better than hell on earth below the border
For whatever reason
the negro refused to transform the ghetto
who cares for reasons
Negro thou dost protest too much
Mexicans are coming
turning ghetto shacks into palaces
even the roaches disappear
ghetto is better'n than dirt floor shacks
no electricity no bath no clean water
Remember the Aztec vision of the Eagle on the catcus
Ahora, the catus now lands on the eagle
llike the catcus they are juice to the lazy gringos
starving for cheap labor
even the negroes are tired down to their dna
Oh, gringo, will you have mercy on the Mexican
Will the Mexican have mercy on you?
Vamanos!
I grew up with Mexicans in Fresno, California, the central valley, the richest agricultural valley in the world. I used to pick cotton and cut grapes with my grandfather who would take my brother and I to Chinatown at 3 or 4 in the morning to board the bus to the fields. I couldn't wait to hear the Mexicans shout "Vamanos" (let's go) at the end of a hard working day in the fields. On the weekends my grandmother would send my mother and my Uncle Stan to retrieve my grandfather who was stuck in some Chinatown bar and gambling joint such as the "El Gato Negro" (the black cat).
During intermission at the show on Sundays, when we took a break from eating popcorn and finger @#%$ the girls, we made our way to the restroom to beat up Mexicans because they were the closest things we knew to white boys, although once in a while white boys made the mistake to visit White's Theatre and found themselves the object of our wrath.
And when Little Richard, Chuck Berry, The Drifters, James Brown, Sam Cooke and others came to town, our main objective was to go fight during and after the concert, and again, Mexicans were the object, unless of course, white boys wanted to rock and roll. The last thing we came to do at the dance was dance. We came to throw down with our hands and sometimes knives but not guns. When we caused a fight during the concert, the Mexicans would be waiting for us outside after it was over. We would meet on the grass and clash like mad fools with nothing better to do. Sometimes people got stabbed, kicked in the head, beat unmercifully.
At school, the Mexicans were the dumbest, according to my white English teacher, although two or three of them were in the honor society with me. For a moment, I had my eyes on a Mexican girl, but my black sisters weren't going for that. My favorite lunch was tacos from the cafe at Walnut and California streets. I can taste those tacos now, and those tamales. Mama used to make us tacos as well.
As a draft resister during the Vietnam war, I found refuge in Mexico City. My contact was revolutionary artist Elizabeth Catlett Mora and she aided me during my stay. She was the witness at my civil wedding to one of my students from Fresno State University whose education I disrupted to come on my revolutionary sojourn.
I traveled throughout Mexico, from Tijuana to Chetumal on the East coast and Oxaca on the West coast. I had no problems in Mexico, especially after I obeyed Betty Mora's warning to stay out of politics, something I didn't do when I ventured down to Honduras, but that's another story.
Mexican poverty was overwhelming, something I'd never seen before. I didn't know people lived on dirt floors watching television with Catholic saints adorning their walls. I didn't know I could have a maid for one dollar a day, that she would do all the cleaning, cooking, clothe washing and shopping for one dollar a day. And yes, even Betty Mora, my revolutionary comrade, had a maid.
I loved Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, near the Paseo de la Reforma, cerca de Metro, which was where I lived. Sundays in the park was for lovers only and families who loved. The Mexicans taught me how to love in ways different from what I was accustomed: their passion was not suppressed as in the US.
And they worked so hard. Recall what I just said about the maid. But all the people work hard or hustle hard. I never saw any lazy Mexicans. Or fat Mexicans either. Where did these ideas come from?
The first thing Betty Mora gave me after dinner was a book on the Mexican revolution. Soon I understood the determination of the people and their will to be free, and the constant sabotage by PRI, the eternal dominant political party until recently. I understood why Betty and her husband Poncho Mora could not let me stay at their house except for a few nights, since they were being watched because they were Communists and radical and non radical people were known to disappear into the night. Just before I got there, students had been massacred at the University and when their parents came to check on their children, the parents disappeared. As I said, Betty told me not to get involved in politics, although I did visit with political refugees who'd fled to Mexico City from throughout Latin America, including Black brothers from the Dominican Republic, Columbia and Venezuela, although the only thing I could say to them was "poder negro" (black power).
In spite of the repression, the poverty, I admired Mexico because at least they had their own country: they made their own soap, own clothes, shoes, own flag, own oil and hated Yankees or gringos, although I was often considered a gringo when they didn't misidentify me as a Brazilian and call me Pele. When they found out I was an American, they could not and would not believe I was without money and poor. After all, their sole objective was getting to America. They lined up around the American Embassy each day for visas. Of course many made the trip north without visas, after all, why do they need visas to visit their own land, now called California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico?
After the rise and fall of the Black Power revolt ignited resistance in other minorities, including white women, gays, grays, Native Americans, Asians and most importantly Latin Americans, the cry "Viva La Raza" was heard throughout the land, surfacing on the East coast as Puerto Rican power and on the West coast as Chicano power. Of course none of these minorities suffered like African Americans, after being named the greatest threat to national security. None had assassinated leaders the stature of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. None gained international recognition like the Black Panthers. But all of these minorities siphoned the Black energy to enjoy social/economic and political benefits after the Black Liberation movement was decimated from within and without, mainly as a result of Cointelpro, the US governments counter intelligence program to destroy the black movement and prevent the rise of a "Black Messiah."
Caesar Chavez did emerge as the leader of the poor, down trodden, exploited Mexican farm workers. And the Brown Panthers attempted to organize the Latin community. But Afro-Latin unity was short lived once Chicanos saw being too closely allied with the Blacks was a liability and furthermore, many Chicanos preferred identifying with white European culture rather than their African/Native Indian roots, although the concept La Raza suggests Native Indian mythology, including the oft-pictured Emiliano Zapata, hero of the Mexican revolution, himself of African/Indian roots, not to mention another revolutionary hero, Vincente Guerrero, the African/Indian George Washington/Abraham Lincoln of Mexico.
But as Blacks no longer worked the cotton, grape fields and orchards of the Central Valley towns, Chicanos and Mexicanos replaced them. On college campuses, Chicano and/or La Raza programs were often empowered at the expense of Black Studies. In other words, Chicanos collaborated with college and university administrations to gain power while black studies was decimated, underfunded or eliminated. There is now a Ph.D. program in Chicano Studies, a Chicano Studies Department on various campuses, but most Black Studies are absorbed in Ethnic Studies or traditional Euro Studies. Many Ethnic Studies programs and/or departments are headed by Chicanos who have no shame in looking out for La Raza, which means too hell with the Blacks.
A similar phenomenon occurs in the prison system. It is a known fact that the white administrators cause division between black and Latin prisoners, especially the prison gangs that are kept divided so they can be contained, preventing Afro-Latin unity. And again, many of the Latin prison gangs have betrayed Afro-Latin unity to align themselves with the white gangs.
A strange thing happened during a performance of my play ONE DAY IN THE LIFE before an audience of exconvicts when several of them marched out in unity because the black former inmates objected to my use of the N word and the white and Chicano excons objected to my Black hero worship. The drug program counselor had to baby-sit these inmates all night, telling them not to be so sensitive, it was only a play.
Moving into the millennium, another strange thing is happening, or perhaps it is not so strange but a demographic reality: Latinos are now the number one minority in America, eclipsing Blacks. A few years ago I was walking with poet Amiri Baraka in New York. He said let's get something to eat. I said what about some Mexican food. He said I was crazy, there wasn't any Mexican restaurants in New York City. If I wanted Puerto Rican food, that was a possibility, but not Mexican. Today, Chicanos are the largest Latin minority in New York.
In California, the ghetto is rapidly becoming AfroLatin, from Watts to East Oakland, Chicanos are moving in, buying property, renting, setting up businesses, especially Chicano grocery stores and supermarkets, also auto shops (since they are known to have ten cars per family—nice racist joke). They can be seen throughout the ghetto hustling on every corner, selling every conceivable item, including Crack and other drugs, but legitimate items Blacks would be arrested for selling or would be told to close down because they lacked various permits, especially health department permits, while Chicanos can sell tacos and burritos without any problem.
The new demographics are indeed creating cultural tensions, but I suggest Blacks learn from their new Latin neighbors who are in many instances simply utilizing the positive aspects of Latino culture, i.e., practicing economic unity, entrepreneurship, political and most of all, family unity. Blacks need to observe the Latinos hustling items other than drugs and do the same. Observe their collective unity Blacks merely talk about during KWANZA. And finally, present Chicanos with a political agenda for Afro-Latin unity that cannot be sabotaged except on the pain of death. Whether we like it or not, Chicanos are the new guys on the block, yes, the hog with the big nuts, so rather than fear them, we should unite with them for mutual political/economic progress. If we sit around playa hatin, we shall slip farther behind in the multicultural ladder and ultimately be forgotten as history marches forward with new people determined to make progress.
I must inform Blacks that employing Latinos to work in Black businesses, because they are cheap labor is no lasting solution to our economic woes. Even though they may be cheap and more reliable, their employment in soul food restaurants such as Sylvia's in Harlem or Lois The Pie Queen's in Oakland, is a disgrace with Black unemployment sky high. Young blacks can and must be found who will work for low wages to gain job training.
Welcome to Mexicali.
Marvin X is one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and the father of Muslim American literature. The author of thirty books, eight in 2010, he recently founded the First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists. www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com
Black California, A Literary Anthology, edited by Aparajita Nanda, Heyday Press, Berkeley CA, 2011, $24.95, 333 pages.
Black Bird Press has a limited number of Marvin X's In the Crazy House Called America, essays, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, essays, 2005. Buy one, get one free. $19.95 each. Include $5.00 for postage and handling. Send money order to Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702
Bibliography of Marvin X
Books
Sudan Rajuli Samia (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1967)
Black Dialectics (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1967)
Fly To Allah: Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Son of Man: Proverbs (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Black Man Listen: Poems and Proverbs (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1969)
Woman-Man's Best Friend (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1973)
Selected Poems (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1979)
Confession of A Wife Beater and Other Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1981)
Liberation Poems for North American Africans (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1982)
Love and War: Poems ( Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1995)
Somethin Proper: Autobiography (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1998)
In The Crazy House Called America: Essays (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 2002)
Wish I Could Tell You The Truth: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)
Land of My Daughters: Poems (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)
Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, BBP, 2007
How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a Pan African 12 Step Model, BBP, Berkeley, 2008
Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, a memoir, BBP, 2009.
Mythology of Love, toward healthy psychosexuality, BBP, 2009
The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parable/fables, BBP, 2010
Hustler's Guide to the Game Called Life, (Vol. II, The Wisdom of Plato Negro), BBP, 2010
Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yo Self, essays on Obama Drama, BBP, 2010
Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box, essays, BBP, 2010
I AM OSCAR GRANT, essays on Oakland, BBP, 2010
Soulful Musings on the Unity of North American Africans, BBP, 2010
Guest Editor, Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, BBP, 2010
Works In Progress
Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, poems, BBP, 2012
In Sha Allah, A History of Black Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1954-2004 (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2012).
Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality by Nisa Islam as told to Marvin X, 2012.
Play Scripts and/or Productions
Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: San Francisco State University Drama Department, 1965.
Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: Black Arts West/Theatre, 1966.
Take Care of Business, musical version of Flowers with music by Sun Ra, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes: Your Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco, 1972.
Come Next Summer, San Francisco: Black Arts/West, 1966.
The Trial, New York, Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech, 1970.
Resurrection of the Dead, San Francisco, choreography by Raymond Sawyer, music by Juju and Sun Ra, Your Black Educational Theatre, 1972.
Woman-Man's Best Friend, musical, Oakland, Mills College, 1973.
How I Met Isa, Masters thesis, San Francisco State University, 1975.
In The Name of Love, Oakland, Laney College Theatre, 1981.
One Day In The Life, Oakland, Alice Arts Theatre, 1996.
One Day In The Life, Brooklyn, NY, Sistah's Place, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Manhattan, Brecht Forum, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Newark, NJ, Kimako's Blues, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Oakland, Uhuru House, 1998.
One Day In The Life, San Francisco, Bannam Place Theatre, North Beach, 1998.
One Day In The Lifee, San Francisco, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 1999.
One Day In the Life, Marin City, Marin City Rec Center, 1999
One Day In the Life, Richmond, Unity Church, 2000.
One Day In the Life, San Jose, San Jose State University, 2000.
One Day In the Life, Berkeley, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2000.
One Day In the Life, Sacramento, New Colonial Theatre, 2000.
Sergeant Santa, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre script, 2002.
Other
Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, Merritt College Student Magazine contest winner, 1963.
Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, SoulBook Magazine, 1964.
Flowers for the Trashman: A One Act Drama, San Francisco, Black Dialogue Magazine, 1965.
Flowers for the Trashman, Black Fire, An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, edited by Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, (New York: Morrow, 1968).
Take Care of Business: A One Act Drama, aka Flowers, (New York: The Drama Review, NYU,1968)
The Black Bird (Al Tair Aswad): A One-Act Play, New Plays from the Black Theatre, edited by Ed Bullins with introduction (interview of Ed Bullins) by Marivn X, (New York: Bantam, 1969)
"Islam and Black Art: An Interview with Amiri Baraka" and foreword by Askia Muhammad Toure, afterword by Marivn X, in Black Arts: An Anthology of Black Creations, edited by Ahmed Alhamisi and Haroun Kofi Wangara (Harold G. Lawrence) (Detroit: Black Arts Publications, 1969).
"Everything's Cool: An Interview with Amiri Barka, aka, LeRoi Jones", Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, NY, 1968.
Resurrection of the Dead, a ritual/myth dance drama, Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, 1969.
Manifesto of the Black Educational Theatre of San Francisco, Black Theatre, 1972.
The Black Bird, A Parable by Marvin X, illustrated by Karen Johnson ( San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan and Julian Richardson and Associates Publishers, 1972).
"Black Justice Must Be Done," Vietnam and Black America: An Anthology of Protest and Resistance, edited by Clyde Taylor (Garden City: Double-day/Anchor, 1973)
"Palestine," a poem, Black Scholar magazine, 1978.
Journal of Black Poetry, guest editor, 1968.
"The Meaning of African Liberation Day," by Dr. Walter Rodney, a speech in San Francisco, transcribed and edited by Marvin X, Journal of Black Poetry, 1972.
Muhammad Speaks, foreign editor, 1970. (Note: a few months later, Marvin X was selected to be editor of Muhammad Speaks until it was decided he was too militant. Askia Muhammad (Charles 37X) was selected instead.)
A Conversation with Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Black Scholar, 1973.
VIDEOGRAPHY
Proceedings of the Melvin Black Human Rights Conference, Oakland, 1979, produced by Marvin X, featuring Angela Davis, Minister Farakhan, Eldridge Cleaver, Paul Cobb, Dezzie Woods-Jones, Jo Nina-Abran, Mansha Nitoto, Khalid Abdullah Tarik Al Mansur, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T-Shaka, and Marvin X.
Proceedings of the First Black Men's Conference, Oakland, 1980, John Douimbia, founder, Marvin X, chief planner, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T'Shaka,Norman Brown, Kermit Scott, Minister Ronald Muhammad, Louis Freeman, Michael Lange, Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones, et al.
Forum on Drugs, Art and Revolution, Sista's Place, Brooklyn, New York, 1997, featuring Amiri and Amina Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath and Marvin X.
Eldridge Cleaver Memorial Service, produced by Marvin X, Oakland, 1998, participants included Kathleen and Joju Cleaver, Emory Douglas, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Dr. Nathan Hare, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Reginald Major, Majidah Rahman and Marvin X.
One Day in the Life, a docudrama of addiction and recovery, filmed by Ptah Allah-El, produced, written, directed and staring Marvin X, edited by Marvin X, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 1999.
Marvin X Interviews Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, former actor in Marvin X's Black Theatre: Berkeley, La Pena Cultural Center, 1999.
"Abstract for An Elders Council," lecture/discussion, Tupac Amaru Shakur One Nation Conference, Oakland: McClymonds High School, 1999.
Marvin X at Dead Prez Concert, San Francisco, 2000.
Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, produced by Marvin X at San Francisco State University, 2001, featuring Dr. Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Destiny, Phavia, Tarika Lewis, Askia Toure, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Rudi Wongozi, Ishmael Reed, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Marvin X, et al.
Live In Philly At Warm Daddies, a reading accompanied by Elliot Bey, Marshall Allen, Danny Thompson, Ancestor Goldsky, Rufus Harley, Alexander El, 2002.
Marvin X Live in Detroit, a documentary by Abu Ibn, 2002.
In the Crazy House Called America, concert with Marvin X and Destiny, San Francisco: Buriel Clay Theatre, 2003.
Marvin X in Concert (accompanied by harpist Destiny, violinist Tarika Lewis and percussionists Tacuma and Kele Nitoto, dancer Raynetta Rayzetta), Amiri and Amina Baraka, filmed by Kwame and Joe, Berkeley: Black Repertory Group Theatre, 2003.
Marvin X Speaks at the Third Eye Conference, Dallas, Texas, 2003.
Marvin X and the Last Poets, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 2004.
Proceedings of the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair, produced by Marvin X, filmed by Mindseed Productions, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre, 2004, participants include: Sonia Sanchez, Davey D, Amiri Baraka, Sam Hamod, Fillmore Slim, Askia Toure, Akhbar Muhammad, Sam Anderson, Al Young, Devorah Major, Opal Palmer Adisa, Tarika Lewis, Amina Baraka, Julia and Nathan Hare, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Reginald Lockett, Everett Hoagland, Sam Greenlee, Ayodelle Nzinga, Suzzette Celeste, Tarika Lewis, Raynetta Rayzetta, Deborah Day, James Robinson, Ptah Allah-El, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Marvin X, et al. (Note: let me please acknowledge some of the historic personages in the audience: Gansta Alonzao Batin (mentor of the Bay Area BAM, made his transition shortly after the conference), Willie Williams of Broadside Press, Detroit, Gansta Brown, Gansta Mikey Moore (now Rev.), Arthur Sheridan, founder of Black Dialogue magazine, also co-founders Aubrey and Gerald LaBrie, Reginald Major, author of Panther Is A Black Cat. Thank you all for making this event historic, ed. MX)
Get Yo Mind Right, Marvin X Barbershop Talk, #4, a documentary film by Pam Pam and Marvin X, Oakland: 2005.
Marvin X Live in the Fillmore at Rass'elas Jazz Club, A Nisa Islam production, filmed by Ken Johnson, San Francisco, 2005.
Marvin X in the Malcolm X Room, McClymonds High School, accompanied by Tacuma (dijembe and percussion, dancer/choreographer Raynetta Rayzetta, actor Salat Townsend, filmed by Eddie Abrams, Oakland, 2005.
AUDIOGRAPHY
In Sha Allah, interview with Nisa Islam, Cherokee, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Nadar Ali, Fresno, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Manuel Rashid, Fresno, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with John Douimbia, Grand Ayatollah of the Bay, San Francisco, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Minister Rabb Muhammad, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Antar Bey, CEO, Your Black Muslim Bakery, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Norman Brown, Oakland, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Kareem Muhammad (Brother Edward), Oakland, 2004.
Love and War, poems, Oakland, 1995.
One Day In The Life, docudrama, Oakland, 1999.
Jesus and Liquor Stores, Marvin X and Askari X, Oakland, 2002
Wake Up, Detroit, Marvin X interviewed by Lawrence X, Detroit, 2002..
Wish I, interview with Pam Pam, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005.
Wish I, interview with Terry Collins, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005.
Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement, interview with Professor James Smethurst of UMASS, Oakland, 2003.
The archives of Marvin X are at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
