Marvin X in the Dirty South and East Coast

Marvin X at Khepera Books, Sat., 4pm

Marvin X will read and sign books tomorrow at Houston's Khepera Book Store. Brother Khepera, on the staff at Texas Southern University, has requested Marvin X hold a session based on his book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, BBP, 2007. He was also requested to speak on his memoir of Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, BPP, 2009.

The event starts at 4pm. Marvin X may cut short his reading to attend the Texas Southern/Jackson State University football game!

Pictured above Marvin X and bookstore owner, Brother Khepera.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Marvin X at the Elders Institute of Wisdom

Pictured above: SHAPE community center founder Deloyd Parker, Elder Alvin C. Harriss, 88, and Marvin X


Today I had the honor to attend the weekly meeting of the Elders Institute of Wisdom at the SHAPE community center. As I arrived early, only a few people occupied the circle of chairs, but before long the room was filled with Elders of various ages, from 65 to the 90s. They possessed a variety of skills, from engineers, teachers, doctors, singers, poets, clothing designers, painters, social workers, nurses.

They continued drifting in while the meeting progressed. It began with a communal song led by a 91 year old blind woman, Mrs. Harris. At the end, Mrs. Harris was asked to recite a poem, but before she began everyone at the center was requested to come listen, including the young people who were preparing the food for lunch.

The facilitator informed the group that I was from out of town and the father of Nefertiti, a member of the SHAPE center. Everyone knew Nefertiti as the petite lady who looks like a young woman but is in her early forties. When we got home from a club last night, Nefertiti said, "Dad, why are these old men always hitting on me?" I said because they know you are an old soul. Maybe so, Dad, because all my friends are older women.

The facilitator asked me to tell the group about myself so I gave them some autobiographical information and the group seemed appreciative of my presence, but the atmosphere became charged when I told them about the Elders Council I attend in Oakland and our project of educating the community about preserving their archives, the letters, notebooks, scrapbooks, photos, leaflets, posters and other items acquired from our sojourn in the wilderness of North America.

The founder and director of SHAPE thanked me for bringing to their attention a vital project and demanded the group begin preserving their archives and informing their children and grandchildren about the value of archives.

Before the meeting ended with the poem by Elder Harris and my Parable of the City of God, the event had morphed into a concert by a local musician and a young opera singer, Lisa Harris, who brought her 88 year old grandmother for the first time.

As the meeting closed, the founder and  director of SHAPE, Deloyd Parker, a veteran of the black liberation movement, who participated in the Congress of African People, went around the circle acknowledging each person and telling a brief history of their lives. For a rare moment in my life, I was totally overcome with joy and happiness.
--Marvin X
Houston TX
9/13/12

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Marvin X Hits the Big H, Houston TX

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables by Marvin X
Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2012
195 pages
$19.95

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables is a post-modern version of the ancient tradition of story telling. Says Rudolph Lewis, "Marvin X has expanded contemporary literature. I suspect there is nothing like them in post-modern American literature." Ishmael Reed declares, "...If I had to pin down the influence upon Marvin X...I would cite the Yoruba texts: texts in the Yoruba language reveal that didacticism is a key component of the Yoruba story telling style.... Marvin X imparts wisdom by employing cautionary tales and uses his own life and mistakes to consul the young to avoid mistakes."

Schedule

Wednesday, September 12

3:50pm, interview on Min. Robert Muhammad's show Connect the Dots, KPFT, Pacifica Radio

6-9pm Cafe 4212, hosted by Brother Omuwali, Chair Emeritus, NBUF

Thursday, September 13

11am Elder's Council, SHAPE Community Center

Saturday, September 15

4pm, Book signing at Khepera Books

Tuesday, September 18

11am  University of Houston, Africana Studies Department

Wednesday, September 19

Interview with Zin on SOS, KPFT Radio

Thursday, Sept 20

Elders Institute of Wisdom

Saturday, Sept 22

Reading and Conversation with Nefertari at the Poetry Place, 9pm
Sunday, September 23

Book signing at Third World Imports

Call 510-200-4164 for more information

Other Tentative Venues

September

New Orleans

Community Book store

Beaufort, SC

Gullah Sentinel Newspaper

October/November

Washington DC

Howard University

Umoja House

Philadelphia

Elliot Bey's

Temple U.

Univ. of Penn