BBP Negotiating to Publish Kumasi's History of Prison Movement

Comrade George Jackson,
Messiah of the Prison Movement




Eldridge Cleaver and his lieutenant in the prison movement and later in the Black Panther Party, Alprentis Bunchy Carter













Black Bird Press Negotiating to Publish
Brother Kumasi's History of the Prison Movement

Black Bird Press is honored to announce we are hoping to reach an agreement with Brother Kumasi, griot of the Prison Movement. His minute by minute oral history of the prison movement is impeccable and precise, an astonishing recall by a brother who spent time in prison with George Jackson, messiah of the prison movement (Soledad Brother). Kumasi was also associated with Eldridge Cleaver and Alprentis Bunchy Carter. Cleaver is credited with establishing the Black Culture Club at Soledad Prison, Bunchy was his lieutenant. The Black Culture Club is considered the beginning of the black prison movement in America.

As a member of Black Dialogue magazine, we visited the Soledad Prison Black Culture Club in 1966, observing Cleaver and Bunchy in action. They had the inmates organized in military fashion. In a recent conversation with this writer, Kumasi noted that most revolutionaries go to prison, then upon release start their revolution. In our case, we made revolution within the prison system.

This writer has long felt because Cleaver was a seasoned revolutionary upon his release, thus when we introduced him to Black Panthers Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, he far outmatched them in political chicanery. See my memoir Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the Devil, Black Bird Press, 2009.

We look forward to publishing any and all parts of Kumasi's narrative.

--Marvin X,
Publisher, Black Bird Press



Black Dialogue brothers who visited the Soledad Prison Black Culture Club in 1966. L to R: Aubrey LaBrie, Marvin X, Abdul Sabry, Al Young, Arthur Sheridan, Duke Williams. At the time, most of us were in the BSU at San Francisco State College, now University.





Exhibit Marvin X ends this Saturday, February 25, 7pm, with readings by Marvin X, Aries Jordan and Toya Carter. Exhibit Marvin X is located at 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Call 510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited, no one turned away for lack of funds. Donation requested: $20.00.