May 29, 1944, Fowler, California
Daughter Muhammida
El Muhajir and granddaughter
Mahadevi
photo Sam Anderson
The controversial
$100.00 book
Violinist Tarika Lews,
first female member
of the Black Panther Party
MX and Phavia Kujichagulia,
poet, musician, griot. "If you think
I'm just a physical thing, wait til you
see the spiritual power I bring."
Hunia Bradley,
social activist/educator
Minister of Ceremony,
First Poet's Church of the
Latter Day Egyptian
Revisionists
Master dancer/choreographer
Performed in Marvin 1981 musical
drama, In the Name of Love, Laney
College Theatre, Oakland CA. A woman
of deep political consciousness.
Rama Lamar,
Metaphysician,
Academy of da Corner,
First Poet's Church
Oldest daughter Nefertiti El MuhajirHappy Birthday, Dad!!!!!!!!!!
As much as you are celebrating a new day, I cannot help but to hear the pain of the possibility of death. Life and death exist as one and the same of two continuum's. I thank you for being an example of one who lives out passionately what he believes in and loves.
My prayer for you today, is that you love yourself as much as you have given life to your writings. It is time to love the pain, hurt, guilt and regret away. You've done what you have done. You've caught up, I pray on what needs to be said. I know that as life continues to unfold their will be more to say, but when do you find time to love, truly?
Not a love out of passion, lust, but a love that is inspiring, less based on lust, but based on compatibility and learning how to give what you've been unable to give before. A love that is unconditional, where you give in and embrace the other and you look back and be proud of what you have done, so that you have room to love, and love is not pushed away and put on the back burner.
This is a holistic love born out of all of the knowledge of what you've learned about mind, body and soul. It doesn't look like all of the other relationships. This is a new love, not only for woman, but for man, and for yourself. I thank you for enriching my life with the knowledge that I have, about myself, my people and my history. As much as I have been proud to give credit to all that my mother had invested in me, I realize that I am a beautiful reflection of the two of you, and I love and embrace who I am.
I thank you for the beautiful people that I have met through you which have helped to constantly expand the power of my influence and my knowledge. Although we are far away, I bless you and I thank you on this day and I pray that you will continue to manifest all of the spiritual beauty that is still remaining to come forth from a man who is seeking to be all that God desires of you. With each waking day, it is a reminder that you are still here to grow and not wither. Grow.
Nisa Ra, former wife, still my very dear friend, mother of Muhammida
X, thinking of you, Bro, and giving thanks for your presence on the planet. I trust that all is well with you and that you are making "self care" a priority. Give thanks. Keep the positive works coming. Blessings to you always.
One love, Nisa
Daughter Muhammida
with hip hop diva,Mary J. Blige
A filmmaker: Hip Hop, the New
World Order.
Poet, Critic, Novelist, Professor
Sherley A. Williams (RIP). Marvin and
Sherley grew up together in Fresno.
Marvin Ellis Jackmon circa three or four years old
Amina and Amiri Baraka, close friends since he met Amiri in 1964. Met Amina in 1967
when she came to the west coast along with Amiri to facilitate the Communications Project
at San Francisco State University. Off campus base was Black House, the political/cultural
center founded by Marvin, Eldridge Cleaver, Ed Bullins, Ethna X. Wyatt (Hurriyah Asar).
Mother Marian M. Jackmon
with her brother, Clarence Murrill
(may they both RIP). She taught
her son, "Use the mind God gave
you!" His father, mother and uncle
published the Fresno Voice, one of
the first black newspapers in the
Central Valley. His father was a Race Man
who fought in WWI.
Playwright Ed Bullins and Marvin X founded
Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore District,
1966. Marvin would join Bullins in Harlem at the New Lafayette
Theatre, 1968. Marvin became associate editor of Black Theatre
Magazine.
Marvin was the first person Eldridge hooked up withupon release from Soledad Prison. They organized
the Black House. Marvin introduced Eldridge to
Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, his friends from
Oakland's Merritt College, 1962-64. Eldridge immediately
joined the Black Panther Party. See Marvin's memoir
Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the devil, introduction byAmiri Baraka.
Fly to Allah is the seminal
work of the genre Muslim American literature, according to Dr. Mohja Kahf, professor of Islamic literature at the University of Arkansas. The Black Arts poets are the foundation of Muslim American literature.
Mohja Kahf says read this for Ramadan!
Cover design by Emory Douglas, Black Panther Minister of Culture.
I AM OSCAR GRANT, collection of essays on Oakland, Marvin X, focusing on the cold blooded murder of young Oscar Grant by BART police officer who received a two year sentence.
Michael Vick, NFL quarterback, got four years for killing dogs.
Marvin X first heard Malcolm when he addressed 7000 students outside UC Berkeley's Sproul Hall, 1964.
Marvin X and Gregory Fields, legal advisor, at Academy of da Corner, Marvin's peripatetic school at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.
Marvin joined Nation of Islam in 1967, then
fled to Toronto, Canada to resist going to
Vietnam. Returned underground to US to
join the Black Arts Movement in Chicago and Harlem.
After conviction for draft evasion, fled the US again to
Mexico City and Belize, Central America. Was apprehended
in Belize and returned to the US. Served five months in Terminal Island Federal Prison.
Painters Dewey Crumpler, Arthu Monroe; poets Ishmael Reed,
Conyus, Marvin X, Al Young
photo Tennessee Reed
Grandson Jah Amiel. At two years old, he toldhis grandfather, "Grandpa, you can't save the people but I can!"
Marvin X in Harlem, NY, 1968
photo Doug Harris
Videographer Ken Johnson
and journalist/professor
Wanda Sabir, Marvin.
Wanda's parents read her Marvin's
classic fable of the Black Bird.
Bay Area Black Author
honor slain journalist Chauncey Bailey a Joyce Gordon Gallery,
downtown Oakland. Marvin and
Oakland Post Publisher Paul
Cobb (far right) have established
the Black Chuancey Bailey Project
to counter the Monkey Mind Media's
"Chauncey Bailey Project" that refused to investigate the police role in the murder of Chauncey, even though he was investigating police corruption at the time of his assassination in broad daylight, downtown Oakland. He was also investigating corruption at City Hall under then mayor Jerry Brown, now governor of California.
photo Gene Hazzard and Adam Turner
Lil Bobby Hutton, murdered in shootout with the Oakland Police, 1968. Eldridge Cleaver was wounded.
Lil Bobby was 16 when he became the third member of the BPP, along with
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
The Oakland Post Newspaper Group purchased books from local black authors for Juvenile Hall. Pastor Brandon Reems, Marvin X and poet Ptah Mitchell made presentation at Juvenile Hall.
photo Gene Hazzard
Marvin's longtime artistic associate (since 1980), poet/actress/director/producer
Ayodele Nzinga
Poet/actress Aries Jordan, Assistant to
Marvin X
Angela Davis. At the same time (1969) Gov. Ronald Reagan
was kicking Angela out of UCLA for being a black Communist,
he kicked Marvin X out of Fresno State University for being a black Muslim who refused to fight in Vietnam. He ordered the
State College Board of Trustees to "get Marvin X off campus by any means necessary." Supposedly he was "not qualified" to teach at FSU, but two years later he was hired to lecture at the University of California, Berkeley with the same qualifications.
Daughter Amira Jackmon, Esq.
Graduated from Yale and Stanford.
Decided to do for self with her food
business.
Young men reading at
Academy of da Corner,
14th and Broadway,
downtown Oakland.
Ishmael Reed says"Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland. If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all
that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work."
Tommy Smith and John Carlos
saluting Black Power at Olympics
in Mexico City, 1968. Marvin X
played basketball against Tommy Smith
in high school. Tommy was from Lemoore High,
Marvin attended Edison High in Fresno.
Revolutionary artist Elizabeth Cattlett Mora.
She gave poet refuge in Mexico City during his
second exile, 1969. She warned him not to go down
to Belize, then British Honduras. "It's raw colonialism,
Marvin, please don't go." He was later deported back
to the US for teaching Black Power. While awaiting deportation at the Belize, BH police station, the police gathered around him and begged him to teach them about Black Power.
Marvin and Muhammad Ali both
refused to fight in Vietnam. Ali
said, "Ain't no Viet Cong callled me
a nigguh!"
Marvin and Akbar Muhammad,
International Representative
of Minister Farrakhan.
Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party
Bobby performed in Marvin's theatre before forming the BPP.
He starred in Come Next Summer,1965.
Black Dialogue Magazine brothers,Aubrey Labrie, Marvin, Abdul Sabry,
Al Young, Arthur Sheridan and Duke
Williams. Black Dialogue was one of the critical journals of the Black Arts
Movement.
Poet Ptah Mitchell, Marvin, drummer Kwic Time
Black Man Listen was published
by Dudley Randall's Broadside Press,
Detroit.
Black Fire, edited by Larry Neal
and Amiri Baraka was the Bibl
of the 60s Black Arts Movement.
Marvin at Academy of
da Corner with grandson,
Jah Amiel
Mumia Abu Jamal called Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality
"an encyclopedia of knowledge."
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