Maestro Marvin X, Laney College Theatre, 2016
photo Alicia Mason
People living like they got forever
tomorrow is almost here
afraid to enjoy the blessings of God
afraid to love
be loved
blindly praying when God has already answered
Time
look at your children
growing learning asking wanting seeking
make a world for them
make your mark in history
time
it's hard to struggle sacrifice
our women don't like it
our children don't like it
we push on
gotta have ma freedom
gotta have ma freedom today
rewards few hours long
we wonder where the years went
children tell us
they have not learned to lie
we wonder what will they be
but what path have we cut for them
what roads did we map
there are snakes in the jungle
lions in the forest foxes in the woods
what roads are safe
what are the magic words of life
what is the message of our ancestors
don't you hear them calling
saying rise up be free
rise up be free
don't give up rise up
don't give up rise up
time.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
from Liberation Poems for North American Africans by Marvin X, Al Kitab Sudan Press/Black Bird Press, Oakland CA., 1983.
POEM FOR FIDEL
Fidel and Malcolm X in Harlem
Long live the revolutionary spirit of Fidel and Malcolm X!
Mandela and Fidel
Who helped South Africa's liberation, America or Fidel's Cuba? Long live Fidel, long live the Cuban revolution!
Huey, Bobby and me read his speech at Merritt College, 1962
read Nkrumah Mandela Lumumba Mao Che Malcolm
Elijah Garvey
Last Poets Filipe said to me and audience at NYU
Memorial for Jayne Cortez and Amiri Baraka
Marvin X you a bad motherfucker
Por favor Filipe
El Fidel is the bad motherfucker of the hour and all times
defied eleven presidents of the united snakes
Fidel is the bad motherfucker
defied devils mafia imperialist war dogs
hundred assassination attempts
Fidel bad motherfucker
no matter his negrocities (Amiri Baraka term, he told me to acknowledge his term, don't claim it, Marvin, he said, rip)
Por favor, revolution is not a pretty thing
even the Negro revolution was not bloodless as Malcolm said
Was the blood of Malcolm a pretty thing
Blood of Martin Luther King, Jr
blood of Fred Hampton
blood of Lil' Bobby Hutton
Blood of Samuel Napier
Blood of Megdar Evers
Blood of Emmitt Till
Blood of the many thousands gone
in the woods swamps forests rivers lakes
the blood of cotton pickers
cane field cutters
rise fields slaves
African builders brought to America
Fidel bad motherfucker
Like Simon Simon Simon
liberate the Americas
Ustados Unidos no es de Americas
Ustados Unidos es Ustados Unidos
nada mas
no es Mexico Central South America
Fidel said Cuba no es Ustados Unidos
Cuba es Cuba libertad
Viva Fidel
Viva Fidel
yes no revolution is holy
contradictions
Por favor America revolution had negrocities
Por favor, eslavos Africanos mucho mucho
no libertad para Africanos
hoy no libertad
Viva Fidel
He grew with African revolution
joined African revolution
no say Cubano no Africano
Fidel saluted African roots
defeated apartheid America South Africa Israel
Viva Fidel
No holy man saint
liberator of Cuba
inspired liberation like Simon Bolivar
Simon
gringos go home
come back when you appreciate justice freedom equality
Fuck Monroe Doctrine
Fuck embargo
did it work
did Cuba crumble
did Cuba submit like pitiful slaves to the gringos?
No!
Fidel stood tall
nuts in hand
basta ya gringo
basta ya gringo
enough enough enough
sometimes it takes a devil to kill a devil
saints can'ts kill devils
no heart to kill
saints like to pray and pray and pray
Fidel said kill kill kill your enemies opposition
classic revolution ask Stalin
Mao
ask America Ustados Unidos
don't they kill presidents in America
don't they have political prisoners
jailed since the 60s
do they live in Cuban prisons longer than prisoners in Ustados Unidos
Longer than the Angola brothers
longer than Gerinimo
Longer than Ruchell McGee
Longer than Mumia Abu Jamal
Longer than Imam Jamil Alamin
Viva Fidel
Viva revolution Cubana
Viva revolution Ustados Unidos Africano Latino
Viva revolution Gringo no es rico pero esclavo tambien
Ache Ache Ache
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
11/27/16
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