Marvin X fires up crowd at Fresno Kwanza Celebration

Marvin X made a rare public appearance in his central valley hometown of Fresno last night. His talk on Umoja or unity stressed the need for a unified mental apparatus as the prerequisite for uniting the family, community and nation. He was introduced by Professor emeritus of Black Studies at Fresno City College, Kehindi Solwazi. Professor Solwzi told the crowd how he read Dr. M's How to Recover from the Addiction to white supremacy and was blown away, especially by the poet's self criticism, so rare these days. He urged the people to purchase the book and they did.

In his remarks, Marvin X first asked the audience to pray for his friends Amiri Baraka and Dr. Julia Hare. Baraka is hospitalized and Julia Hare is suffering third stage Alzheimer's. Marvin X has long been associated with Dr. Nathan Hare, sociologist, psychologist and founding publisher of the Black Scholar magazine and Black Male/female magazine. Marvin told the folks gathered on a cold valley night that if they can get pass Dr. Hare's foreword to How to Recover they will have no problems with his manual, a 13 step process to recover from white supremacy type II as Dr. Hare calls our condition. Once we detox from white supremacy type II we can begin the long road to recovery of our  mental equilibrium. We cannot unite with anyone while the self is shattered and traumatized.

If you can get off alcohol, crack, meth and other drugs, you can recover from white supremacy type II. There are not enough Dr. Hare's to go around and many of the black psychologists are certified by white supremacy academic institutions thus the black doctors are in need of recovery themselves. He said many of them are now getting certified in African healing methods.

Fear of the self is prolonging our condition. We fear self and fear others so there can be no unity of any kind without eliminating fear which is the first step in the process of recovery from white supremacy type II. We must establish mental health peer groups in our community.

In the peer groups Dr. Nathan Hare and Marvin X facilitated along with social worker Suzzette Celeste called Black Reconstruction, the woman were found to be the most angry and the most militant. Brothers were afraid to say they had fears but when probed they finally admitted they had a plethora of fears. He's scared of himself, his woman, his children, another brother and of course the white man.

The small crowd was overjoyed with his remarks. He is scheduled to appear in Fresno during Black History Month at Fresno City College and in the community at Hinton Center. His Hinton Center appearance is sponsored by the Fresno Chapter of the NAACP, Pamela Young, President.

February 28, March 1-2, he will present at the Black Arts Movement Conference, University of
California, Merced. East Coast people can catch Marvin X at New York University, February 4 at the tribute for ancestor poet Jayne Cortez. To book Marvin X, please call 510-200-4164. Email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com.