Tuesday, June 12, 2018

After Warrior celebration, Oakland Blacks party at Lake Merritt


The Warrior Celebration in Oakland continued Black people's occupation of Lake Merritt along Lakeshore Ave. Vendors were numerous with African clothing, jewelry, art work, food, books(Marvin X) and socializing with ample marijuana and alcohol, a celebration of Black Unity, Joy and Entrepreneurship.





We call upon politicians to make the necessary policy changes to make permanent the Black presence at the Lake an extension of the Black Arts Movement District that begins from the Lower Bottom of 14th Street to Lake Merritt. This should be done in the name of racial and economic parity. North American African vendors should be exempt from City and State taxes for five to ten years pending reparations. Lake vending should be a pilot project to extend Black vending along the 14th Street corridor to inspire a Black economic and cultural Renaissance in Oakland, once known as Harlem of the West!
--Marvin X, BAMBD Co-founder
9/12/18
email: mxjackmon@gmail.com 

Catch Marvin X autographing books at San Francisco Juneteenth, Sat. June 16; Berkeley Juneteenth, July 17 and North Oakland Juneteenth, June 23.


1 comment:

  1. As I've probably mentioned before in the handful of reviews I've done for sports movies, I'm not the biggest fan of sports or sports movies in general. Still, I know a good film when I see one and WARRIOR is more than that: it's excellent. Befitting a film that deals with MMA and despite the PG-13 rating, it doesn't pull its punches physically or emotionally. This is probably one of the most intense movies I've seen from a visceral standpoint and on an emotional level. Without getting into too many specifics, the story is about two brothers who have been separated and on the outs for quite a long time. Due to personal circumstances, they both (inadvertently) enter the same MMA tournament and deal with relationship issues that have gone long unaddressed. The two leads, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton, both do an awesome job with the dramatic material while also bringing a believable physicality to their fight scenes. Although they are filmed and edited in a rather chaotic style, I thought that it worked here even if it came with the slight loss of comprehensibility. For the most part, however, you get to see all of the punches, throws and takedowns from a variety of perspectives. Also lending some dramatic heft to the film was veteran actor Nick Nolte, who plays the brothers' father, also on bad terms with his sons for a variety of reasons. He was as fleshed out as were the two siblings and even gets a couple moments that seemed Oscar-worthy. In general, this wasn't some mindless story with a bunch of fight scenes strung together. Every fight had a purpose for the overall story, and there was plenty of back story for each main character to get you fully invested. So much so, that by the time the end comes around you don't know who to root for because they both have such strong motivations. It's like the Sophie's Choice of fight films. My only complaint, which is minor at best, is that once it does come around to the conclusion it lays on the melodrama a bit thick, and the final moment in the ring which was backed by an acoustic song had me rolling my eyes a little bit. Still, this was a powerful drama with incredibly brutal fight scenes that actually meant something. Even if you don't normally go for sports movies, this is one of the few that transcends that genre's limitations and manages to be inspirational without pandering. Highly recommended.
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