Tonight, Oakland poet Marvin X broke down into tears as he tried to read his poem on his recently departed friend Nisa Bey during the Black Muslim Atlantic Conference at Duke University, Durham NC.
photo James Rhodes
He came to the mike following a lecture by famed Islamic scholar Sylvian Diouf on Islam and the Blues.
Marvin got the Islamic Blues soon after arriving in Durham. He received the news in an email from
Khalid Waajid, who was a member of San Francisco Mosque #26 along with Marvin and Nisa Bey, 1967.
Nisa and Marvin X had recently discussed completing their book project Seven Years in the House of Elijah. The poet, tears running down his face (someone ran up to give him a tissue), said he was sad but happy to let the Duke University audience learn about the great woman Nisa Bey, her spirit has gone coast to coast, especially on the occasion of the Black Muslim Atlantic Symposium. He shared comments from writer Fahizah Alim and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson.
"I am so so sadden by the News of the transition of Sister Nisa Bey. Daily she demonstrated her deep, deep love for Black people, she always gave of herself, she sacrificed her own life for our people. We were very blessed to have had her in our Community, a person who spoke “Truth to Power”. Sister Nisa Bey will live on through the many, many lives she touched along her journey! I, we are all in better place today because of the sacrifice, dedication and life of Sister Nisa Bey! May God, Allah take her into the kingdom and give her rest, peace and the rewards she so richly deserve!"
Keith Carson
May Allah forgive her, have mercy on her and admit her soul into paradise...O’ Allah bless her family and grant them patience during their time of grieving for their loss.
ASA, Nadar Ali
NOI Director of Imports
Good-bye Miss Hollywood
For Nisa Islam Bey
The Incomparable Sister Queen Nisa Islam Bey
"It was her fashionable modesty, yet gleaming beauty that captured my attention when I first visited Temple #26, compelling me to find out more about the NOI and later join. We became Sisters In Islam as well as friends...." --Fahizah Alim
Bismillah r Rahman r Rahim
No woman we knew
In the Nation of Islam
Was more flamboyant than you
O great Sister Nisa
National MGT Captain
Trainer of Women
Studied modeling in NYC
Elijah said model for Allah
You said ok but
Them mother Hubbard colors
Got to go
Queens need dresses hot spicy
Like a Houston night
Nisa so hot spicy
Mosque#26 wanted to put her out
Elijah heard so much about her
He said send her to me
He loved her flamboyance
Good hustling spirit
Hard working Virgo
Made her National Sister Captain
Trained women coast to coast
Lived in the house of Elijah
Across the hall from Clara
First lady of Islam
Talked with Clara many nights
Of joy and pain in the Nation of Islam
Sometimes Clara cried
Made Nisa cry
Sisterly disrespect
MGT
Nisa loved a man
Like no woman ever loved
Elijah said no
He ain't the man for you
He cried for her wanting her
Lover man
He ain't the man for you
Elijah said again and again
The man came to Chicago
Begging for her hand
Finally Elijah said ok
Go head damn fool
Hard headed Negro
So called
Marry him
She did
Mr. Wonderful
But. Elijah was right
Mr Wonderful
Wasn't always Wonderful
He fought
She fought back
Said it was her Native American blood
She wasn't no chump
At Elijah's house she was free
Every day til dinner at 4PM
She had to be there
Table talks with the Messenger
He read everybody's mind
Knew their thoughts
Did he kill Malcolm she asked
He said no sister
I loved Malcolm
Then he cried
As salaam alaikum
Warrior Queen
Nisa Islam Bey
Surely we are from Allah
To Him we return.
--MARVIN X
1/30/20
Duke University
Black Muslim Atlantic
Marvin X East Coast Book Tour
Next Stop
Philly, Newark
Oakland
January 25, Saturday, 12 Noon
Marvin X Welcomes NCobra Reparations gathering in the BAMBD
Joyce Gordon Gallery
14th and Franklin Streets
Downtown Oakland
Host Jahahara
Dirty South
Durham, North Carolina
January 30-31
Reading at Duke University
Black Muslim Atlantic Symposium
Host Ellen McLarney, Professor
of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Dr. Ellen McLarney
East Coast, UpSouth
Newark NJ
Friday February 7
4-6PM
Source of knowledge
Book store
876 Broad Street
Marvin X reading/book signing
Friday February 7, 7PM
Pop up Print Shop
83 Halsey Street
2nd floor
Marvin X will read, sign books
Special guest Mrs. Amina Baraka
Left to right: Mrs. Amina Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X and Amiri Baraka RIP, at NYC Riverside Church for Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial
photo Risassi
Sonia Sanchez and Marvin X
2/3/20
photo James Rhodes
Sonia has agreed to join Marvin X in a concert reading with the Oakland Symphony
during BAMFEST, Black August 2020, produced by the Black Arts Movement Business District CDC, directed by Dr. Ayodele Nzinga
Newark NJ Mayor Ras Baraka and Marvin X
Marvin X will interview Mayor Baraka on the "Newark Model"
Marvin is the Political columnist for the Sun Reporter Newspaper,
San Francisco
By Marvin X Before the Earth was I was Before time was I was you found me not long ago and called me Lucy I was four million years old I had my tools beside me I am the first man call me Adam I walked the Nile from Congo to Delta a 4,000 mile jog BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY I lived in the land of Canaan before Abraham, before Hebrew was born I am Canaan, son of Ham I laugh at Arabs and Jews fighting over my land I lived in Saba, Southern Arabia I played in the Red Sea dwelled on the Persian Gulf I left my mark from Babylon to Timbuktu When Babylon acted a fool, that was me I was the fool When Babylon fell, that was me I fell BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY I was the first European call me Negrito and Grimaldi I walked along the Mediterranean from Spain to Greece Oh, Greece!Why did you kill Socrates? Why did you give him the poison hemlock? Who were the gods he introduced corrupting the youth of Athens? They were my gods, black gods from Africa Oh, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Whose philosophy did you teach that was Greek to the Greeks? Pythagoras, where did you learn geometry? Democritus, where did you study astronomy? Solon and Lycurgus, where did you study law? In Egypt, and Egypt is Africa and Africa is me I am the burnt face, the blameless Ethiopian Homer told you about in the Iliad Homer told you about Ulysses, too, a story he got from me. BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY I am the first Chinese China has my eyes I am the Aboriginal Asian Look for me in Vietnam, Cambodia & Thailand I am there, even today, black and beautiful BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY I used to travel to America long before Columbus came to me asking for directions Americo Vespucci on his voyage to America saw me in the Atlantic returning to Africa America was my home Before Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Inca & Olmec I was hereI came to Peru 20,000 years ago I founded Mexico City See my pyramids, see my cabeza colosal in Vera Cruz and Yucatan that's me I am the Mexican for I am mixed with all men and all men are mixed with me I am the most just of men I am the most peaceful who loves peace day and night Sometimes I let tyrants devour me sometimes people falsely accuse me sometimes people crucify me but I am ever returning I am eternal, I am universal Africa is my home Asia is my home Americas is my home BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
This poem was written circa 1982 while Marvin X taught English at Kings River College, his last teaching gig.
Suggested reading list for Black History 101
The complete works of J.A. Rogers The World and Africa, W.E.B. DuBois Stolen Legacy, George M. James The African Origin of the Major Religions, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan Message to the Black Man, Elijah Muhammad They Came before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima "African Explorers in the New World, " Harold Lawrence, Crisis, June-July, 1962. Heritage Program Reprint, p. 10 The Destruction of African Civilization, Chancellor Williams. The Cultural Unity of Africa, Cheikh Anta Diop. Man, God and Civilization, John G. Jackson
Marvin X is now available for speaking engagements readings/performance
Call 510 575-7
send letter of invitation to
mxjackmon@gmail.com
Marvin X and Rap
"When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express Black Male urban experience in a lyrical way."
--, James G. Spady
Philadelphia New Observer
Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra; left, Tacuma King, Val Serrant and David Murray, performing at Oakland's Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival
Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra
photo collage Adam Turner
Marvin and Fillmore Slim
Fillmore Slim and Marvin X in conversation on the game, Black Repertory Group Theatre, Berkeley
photo Adam Turner
Angela Davis, Marvin X and Sonia Sanchez
Notes of a black bird in the middle of the night
If I don't promote myself, who is? If I don't love myself, who is? Philly Sister said,
"Marvin X loves himself so much, he makes me want to love myself more!"
Marvin X says, "You want somebody to love you when you don't even love yourself? People tell me this nigga and that nigga don't like them! I reply, do you think I worry about those who don't like me, who hate me? Wise sister told me long time ago, 'Marvin X, just know this: more people love you than hate you, so focus on those who love you and fuck the haters!'"
Another person said to my haters, "So what if Marvin X is a dope fiend, alcoholic, and a dirty old man who loves ho's, at least he's productive. The Last Poets say he writes a book a month! You clean, sober, vegan, jogging but ain't producing shit! WTF!"
Marvin X is 75 years old, half blind, disabled in one arm, yet writes 24/7. You young, cock strong, ain't doing shit but smoking blunts all day and night. Hell, Marvin X and his comrades in the Black Revolution of the 60s smoked weed 24/7 too, but made revolution. You high but revolution is passing you bye. Yeah, Black Lives Matter, but Black Power Matters more. Hell, whites march with Black Lives Matter signs, then scam you out of your house in the hood, then put a Black Lives Matter sign in the window. Now you in a motherfuckin tent by the freeway and Black Lives Matter? Black Power Matters! Like the Oakland Mothers, occupy any vacant properties and claim housing is a human right. Did not the California Governor Newsome and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and a Land Truth come to the aid of the Mothers? You should now occupy the 40% of single family houses in East Oakland owned by Wall Street investors. Guest what, if you occupy any development, the developers will eventually want to make a deal.
In South Africa, they have a deal: Leave us the keys and git yo ass up outta here! SASame is good for the USA. The homeless should occupy any new housing development that has caused displacement. Stay until an agreement is reached with the developers and the City, but not only for occupation but equity ownership of said property. Let this equity ownership be part of any Reparations Agreement with cities and states throughout the USA. Don't accept kibbles and bits, demand equity ownership under a land trust with life estate titles to each unit. Better Ax somebody as they say in Houston, Texas.
At this moment it will take you 228 years told reach financial equity with the white folks you love so much, but they enjoy the benefit of accrued capital from 400 years of slavery. You multi-cultural but on the last rung of the multi-cultural ladder and don't bring shit to the multi-cultural table. The other multi-culturals at least have consciousness of their culture, economic thrival. You talk about Kwanza but throughout the year won't spend one dollar with another!
black business. Check yourself. Check your daily round and see how much money you spend in your community. President Donald Trump talks about fair trade with Canada, Mexico, Europe, China, Japan. You must talk about fair trade in the hood with Latinox, Arabs, Asians, and
Euro-Americans, wait a minute, fair trade with Africans and Caribbean Diaspora Negoes/Africans too, most of whom hate "Black Americans" (as a result of white supremacy colonialism and neo-colonialism) yet enjoy the fruits of our struggle with the white devil! We know Pan Africa is sick, we know bleaching cream is the biggest fad from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean. I love the sister who wrote on Post- Traumatic Slave Syndrome, but ain't nothing Post in our condition that is severe in the here and now!
If and when you enact failed policies and somebody else's agenda, you qualify for the nut house. Check your dip stick and report to the nut house, tell them you are a danger to yourself and others. Only then will they open the door for you.
What you bringing to the table, nothing! The Latinox, Asians, LGBT and trysexuals come with their agenda, what's yours? And if you get reparations, you don't have financial literacy. Here in the Bay, after the 1989 Quake, Blacks enjoyed Xmas in October, got money for food, clothing, housing, furniture, first and last rent, hotel vouchers, restaurant, but most everything went to the dope man by 12 noon the next day. If you are blessed with reparations, will it all go to the white man and dope man by 12 noon the next day? WTF. Before reparations, we need mental health recovery programs and financial literacy. Alas, we were freed from slavery but had no programs to recover from 400 years of trauma, only things saved us was blues, jazz and gospel music, thank you Jesus!
Only a few of us understood Jesus on the cross and lynching tree! David Walker, Nat Turner understood, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vessey, Toussaint and Desselines understood, Harriet Tubman understood, Henry Highland Garnett understood, Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells understood. Wish somebody would hep me, in JB linguistics.
Off the Record: Election 2020
Twittledum and Twittledee
Sun Reporter Newspaper, San Francisco
Political Columnist Marvin X
And the choice is Twittledum and Twittledee. But if you vote for me, I will set you free. Trump will make you great again. Bernie will give you everything free, a chicken in every pot. Bloomberg (stop and frisk) will give you Reparations from his personal bank account. Biden will be Obama in black face. Vote for me, I will set you free.
Twittledee and Twittledum are choices that are not choices, and so we go into the presidential election 2020 in a conundrum, lost and turned out on the way to Granny's house (the Whispers, Olivia). Demographically, America is at the precipice, the whites are dying out, literally, and the non-whites are baby booming, literally.
We thought Bernie Sanders had possibilities until he suggested African birth control to stop climate change, sounding like Margaret Sanger's birth control racism. But we may see the last white man as president of the United States, thus the desperation of the hour. Whites can see America is turning non-white, especially with Latinox. We can't hate white folks for fighting to make America white again, for it is but the continuation of their perrenial delusional white supremacy mythology. Will the final battle of white men be Trump or Blumberg, the possible battle of the billionaire Twittledee and Twittledum. FYI, former President Obama fears Bernie Sanders will make Trump a shoein. One thing we North American Africans know, freedom ain't free, so we know Bernie Sanders is talking poppycock. For sure free market capitalism is dying and shall ultimately be replaced with a fair market economy, devoid of raw capitalist exploitation of cheap labor and resources, often at gunpoint. Whether it shall be called socialism, communism or some other ism, except white-ism, remains to be seen.
As per the housing crisis, we see housing will soon be recognized as a human right, thus the financialization or commodification of housing shall end. Even Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders ain't quite ready for this. But has any of the Twittledee and Twittledum presidential candidates offered a solution to the critical housing crisis? And why do we think capitalism is the panacea for all human needs? Remember that song Wake Up Everybody? Teachers got to teach a new way, preachers gotta preach a new way, and politicians got to jump out of the Left/Right paradigm. And beyond centrism as well. The Clintons killed centrism, among the other things/people they killed.
And what did Hillary say famously, "What difference does it make?"
We can speculate until the fog comes in, but you know in 2020, it's down to Twittledee and Twittledum.
BAM Co-founders Marvin X and Danny Glover. Danny performed at Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco, 1966, founded by Marvin X and playwright Ed Bullins.
"Marvin X has been ignored and silenced like Malcolm X would be ignored and silenced if he had lived on into the Now. He's one of the most extraordinary, exciting black intellectuals living today."
--Rudolph Lewis, Chickenbones
Dr Cornel West, Moderator Cat Brooks and Marvin X
The Poet and the Philosopher
Dr. Cornel West and Marvin X Electrify at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle
As I walked to Geoffrey’s Inner Circle last Saturday night, downtown Oakland looked a little different. Oakland’s own literary genius, Marvin X, was hosting one of the most iconic voices of the 21st century: Dr. Cornel West. For a minute, Oakland seemed different. As a pastor in Oakland, I mostly do church. But this was different. In the air that night was a display of intellectual genius undisturbed.
The event was well-attended with the usual Oakland diversity in the room.
From people like Darryl Bartlow, a retired probation officer and member of Berkeley High School class of 1965, to Shahid Buttar, a civil rights attorney who is running for Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, the room was ablaze with personality and plain old Oakland swagger.
From Young G’s like James Rhodes, grandson of Marvin X, who took a class taught by West on the Historical Philosophy of W.E.B. DuBois at Dartmouth College, to Old G’s such as Will Ussery, the 91-year-old Bay Area civil rights activist and entrepreneur, the atmosphere in Oakland was electric.
The meeting was moderated by Cat Brooks, former Oakland mayoral hopeful, who was a captivating moderator. She talked about policing being born out of the slave trade. And she brought awareness to the 42 percent of the Oakland budget that is spent on the Oakland Police Department.
When asked about electoral politics, West steered the conversation towards “predatory capitalism,” which means that we have gangsters at the top. “We have too much poverty and not enough self-love, and that means we have a spiritual problem. Loving yourself and everybody else is a spiritual connection,” West said. He cautioned that we must not sell our souls. “Bourgeois, at its worse, is selling your soul for a cup of pottage.”
The room rocked with ovation after ovation for Marvin X as he delivered his Oakland-only, beast mode literary genius. On that lovely night, we get the type of stories that fall from the pen of an exceptional storyteller with truth and transparency. Yes, Oakland was not Berkeley, it was not San Francisco, but it was Oakland, and it was beautiful.
By Curtis O. Robinson, Sr.
Members of the X family and Dr. Cornel West
"He's the African Socrates teaching in the hood...a combination of Thelonious Monk and Marianne Williamson!"--Dr. Cornel West, Harvard University
"He's the USA's Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz...."--Bob Holman
Marvin X and Fahizah Alim
"His poetry is orgasmic.... His love poems will resound as long and as deeply as any love poems ever written by anyone, e.g., Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou or any others."--Fahizah Alim, Editor Emeritus, Sacramento Bee Newspaper
Dr. Mohja Kahf
"He is father of the genre known as Muslim American literature...." - Mohja Kahf, Professor of English and Islamic Literature, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
"Marvin X is one of the innovators and founders of the revolutionary school of African writing."
--Amiri Baraka (RIP)
Marvin X in Conversation with Amiri Baraka RIP, Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2009
Dr. Nathan Hare and Marvin X
"Marvin X is one of the blackest men to walk this earth in consciousness if not complexion...." --Dr. Nathan Hare, Father of Black and Ethnic Studies
Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, "The most dangerous classroom in the world, across the street from Oscar Grant Plaza where political rallies take place and police violence under the color of law. Academy of da Corner is also in the heart of the Black Arts Movement Business District along the 14th Street corridor, proclaimed by t feehe Oakland City Council on January 19, 2016. Marvin is a co-founder of the BAMBD.
Marvin X and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. She supported the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement at Laney College, 2015. See Marvin's play, "Marvin X Driving Miss Libby."
photo Jahahara Alkebulan
Panel on Women and the Black Arts Movement, BAM 50th Anniversary Celebration at Oakland's Laney College, left to right: Elaine Brown, Halifu Osumare, Judy Juanita, Portia Anderson ,Phavia Kujichagulia, Aries Jordan and Producer Marvin X.
Marvin X and Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney in happier times. She thinks
Marvin hates her because she pushed through the legislation establishing the BAMBD but has done nothing since to make Oakland's Black Cultural and Business District a reality. Marvin says he doesn't hate her, he loves story tellers!
Visitors at Academy of da Corner, left to right: Amiri Baraka RIP, Black Panther Co-founder Bobby Seale, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, founder of the BAMBD CDC, Ahi Baraka and Marvin X photo Gene Hazzard "He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."--Ishmael Reed, Emeritus Lecturer, UC Berkeley
"He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."--Ishmael Reed, Emeritus Lecturer, UC Berkeley
Off the Record: The San Francisco Mental Health Emergency and Reparations by Marvin X
Congratulations Judge Teri L. Jackson, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal
Congratulations to Judge Teri L. Jackson, who was sworn in Tuesday to the office of Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Three.
Judge Jackson was the first African American woman tapped for SF Superior Court and is now the also the first to her new post.
She was joined at the ceremony by her sister Porsha, brother-in-law Paul and their/her NBA twin sons Jarron and Jared Collins. They invited Warriors superstar Draymond Green, who was their with his fiance Hazel Renee. Also present was Judge Marty Jenkins, Da Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr., Sutter Health Chief Anthony Wagner, Judge Skip Hewlett and wife attorney Cloey Hewlett, SF City Administrator Naomi Kelly, Attorney Paul Henderson and Jounalists Carloyn Tyler and Amelia Ashley-Ward, just to name a few.
Members of the Commission on Judicial Appointments who approved Governor Gavin Newsom's choice Judge Jackson presided: Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, State Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks on America, 2020
As we reflect on ML King's b day, 2020, we suspect he would say, "Lord have mercy! My God, look what happened to my dream. It's a nightmare that so many people are living on the streets coast to coast in the richest nation in the world. Today as yesterday, we took a check called freedom to the bank but were told there were insufficient funds. Today America is yet the number one purveyor of violence throughout the world. She has learned nothing since Vietnam.
Why is she in Iraq and refuses to leave? Why has she been in Afghanistan twenty years with no victory in sight? Why is her military industrial complex in Syria, Yemen, Somalia and other lands at the cost of trillions? No wonder we can't cash our freedom check, now called Reparations!"
The San Francisco Black Mental Health Emergency and Reparations Photo art by Ted Pontiflet"It's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad!" --James Baldwin, interview with Marvin X, NYC, 1968 As Murphy's law states, things go from bad to worse, and things have certainly gotten worse since James Baldwin told me those words a half century ago. Our mental condition has deteriorated severely from the traumatic slave syndrome effects that has persisted 400 years. America's drug war bombarded our community with toxic chemicals in the form of Crack and germs in the form of STD and HIV/AIDS with the concomitant economic loses in housing and population due to so-called urban renewal, i.e., Negro Removal, that has now morphed into gentrification and dislocation. And mass incarceration has most certainly exacerbated the problem, along with persistent mis-education and ever pervasive racial discrimination in all phases of life. Dr. Nathan Hare told us housing is the first need of persons suffering mental illness and/or drug abuse, if they are to recover their mental equilibrium or a modicum of sanity. Dr. Frantz Fanon taught us in Wretched of the Earth that the only way the oppressed man and woman can regain their mental health is through the process of revolution. But even revolutionaries need housing. Even slaves had housing, although not much better than the tents occupied by today's homeless throughout San Francisco and the streets of America. Today, on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, Supervisor Shamann Walton held a press conference that called for reparations from the City and County of San Francisco. He demanded reparations in the form of decent housing, living-wage employment, proper education. A speaker from the SF Board of Education noted 2020 will be the first year Black History Month will be celebration in the San Francisco Public Schools. Supervisor Walton demanded reparations for police abuse under the color of law, in short, a holistic package of reparations. Another speaker noted that reparations is restorative justice for 400 years of crimes against humanity. The press conference was attended by a multi-cultural group of supporters from the Latinox, Asian, and white community. They were in full support of reparations for North American Africans. With such broad unity, we think it is about time for the San Francisco North American African leadership to unite. If there are mental health issues, ageism or sexism, we say our condition is an emergency and we must come together and talk shop, as Malcolm X told us. There is no reason aside from mental health issues that keep us from solidifying on an issue that is bigger than any individual, any politician, preacher or teacher. Young Turks must reach functional unity with the elders and the elders must submit to the energy of youth by offering guidance and direction. The hour is too late to be on an ego trip. Surely we see perennial racism is unabated, flowing from the Right and often from the Left. We need only recall Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, "...I'd rather be with the KKK than phony white liberals...." But all too often our enemy is internal rather than external, although often they may be both! We cannot continue with the slave mentality in modern dress. What did Ancestor Harriet Tubman tell us, "I could have freed more slaves if they had known they were slaves." Often we are unconscious of our behavior that is the residue of slavery. Supervisor Shamaan Walton said a leadership and community meeting on reparations will be held soon. We urge all those sincerely interested in reparations to be present, especially our beloved Rev. Amos Brown, President, SF NAACP and Paster of Third Baptist Church. Immediately following the press conference on reparations, my editor, Amelia Ashley Ward, asked me to accompany her to Mayor London Breed's office to observe a private meeting she was having with a faith group advocating for senior housing. Before the meeting began, we chatted with the Mayor in her private office. Amelia introduced me to Mayor p Breed, but I told Amelia I knew the Mayor from the African American Cultural Center on Fulton Street. She was the director when my Recovery Theater performed One Day in the Life, the docudrama of my addiction to Crack. Mayor Breed reminded me she grew up in the OC housing projects, OC for Out of Control. She said none of her friends would come there to visit her because it out of control! The only friends she had were those who lived there. I told her I was quite familiar with the OC projects as I had bought Crack there many times. On one occasion I gave a dealer short money by mistake but as soon as I realized it, I rushed back to make it right because I didn't want any problem with the OC brothers. The Mayor laughed because she knew it could have been a serious problem. Amelia and I went into the conference room with the interfaith group. Soon the Mayor entered and the meeting began with a prayer. The group had taken over the Mayor's office some time ago, demanding to meet with her, occupying her office for two hours. She refused to meet with them under duress but agreed to meet today. After introductions, they demanded the City of San Francisco charge seniors no more than 30% if their income for rental housing. After listening to testimonials, Mayor Breed said she could not promise them what they desired. It would take time. She told them she fully understood the problems of seniors since she was raised in the projects by her grandmother whom she had to care for when she developed Alzheimer's. My point is that if this group was unified in their demands and the Mayor was forced to listen. As per reparations, North American Africans must come as a unified group, not divided by intergenerational conflict.
Youth are the vanguard of any people’s struggle, for only youth have the energy and fearlessness to engage the enemy or opposition, and once they grasp the program and ideology of struggle, they are invincible.
Sometimes the problem with the youth generation is the historical discontinuity Harold Cruse wrote about in Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, the gap in knowledge and discipline the old generation doesn’t pass on to the new, causing the new to reinvent the wheel, thus losing precious time making similar mistakes, especially when the old guard doesn’t intervene with direction and wisdom from previous struggle, or the old guard might want to dominate the youth with war stories of battles long ago, rather than guiding youth on strategies and tactics for the war at hand.
We suspect that if the African American leadership will get their heads together and stop ego tripping, the community may indeed secure reparations from the City and Country of San Francisco. Does our leadership suffer mental health issues, if so, we suggest they meet with Dr Nathan Hare since their maladjustment to injustice is severe and is negatively impacting our freedom struggle in this city. In the words of our beloved ancestor Dr Julia Hare, do we have black leaders or leading blacks? There is no reason for two competing Reparation projects. They should and must be merged for the greater good of our community.
Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District and Mother's for Housing
Because of the people's movement, the Oakland mothers who had occupied a vacant house on Magnolia Street have won a victory. After a violent eviction by the Alameda County goon squad that landed the mothers in Santa Rita jail, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Governor Newsome and a Land Trust has negotiated to purchase the house from the investment company after renovations. But it was the mother's radical action that made a successful resolution to their occupation because they were homeless. Their case will no doubt be a model for addressing the homeless crisis in Oakland and perhaps coast to coast. They repeatedly told the media they wanted their situation to spark a movement, which brings us to the Oakland City Council member Lynette McElhaney's move to remove Movement from the name of the Black Arts Movement Business District because it's a dog whistle for radicalism she and her stakeholder sycophants don't desire. We say if there is a lack of desire for radical movement in the BAMBD, it shall become a Negro Museum of California district.
Oakland City Council member McElhaney told someone I hate her since we had to force her to push through legislation to establish the Black Arts Movement Business District in Oakland. And she was president of the city council at the time, 2016.
Since then she has done nothing to make the district a reality except from time to time hold stakeholder meetings. On the other hand, Dr Ayodele Nzinga established the BAMBD CDC and has won several Community benefit agreements with developers, gave out $150,000 in mini grants to community persons, including Asians and North American Africans. The California Arts Council granted BAMBD CDC $200,000 for last year's and this year's Bamfest.
BAMBD CDC advocated $75,000 in the City's general fund for capacity building. Lynette had nothing to do with obtaining the funds but is trying to seize the funds for her agenda, while she's had four years to secure funds for BAMBD, including funds for signage, red black and green banners representing the African Universal Flag created by Marcus Garvey. This year is the 100th birthday of the flag that the City of San Francisco painted on all Third Street light poles in Hunters Point, Black cultural district. She now wants to remove "Movement" from the name of the BAMBD. She and other reactionary Negroes objected to the word Movement from the beginning. Oakland Post Newspaper Publisher Paul Cobb had to inform Lynette and her stakeholder sycophants, "The only reason black people are still alive is because of movement, Civil Rights Movement, Black Radical Movements, including the Black Panther Party and the Black Arts Movement." Our condition in Oakland is surely in need of movement, not less movement, if only a bowel movement! I emailed City Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney that I do not hate her. I love story tellers! There should be a statue of Chauncey Bailey, not a plaque. I write in the spirit of Chauncey Bailey and I continue his work of exposing lies and bullshit!
--MARVIN X
Off The Record
Sun Reporter Newspaper
Political Columnist
San Francisco Supervisor Shamman Walton
Reparations Multi-Ethnic supporters
photo Adam Turner
Sun Reporter political columnist Marvin X, Sun Reporter Editor Amelia Ashley-Ward,
former San Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell
photo Adam Turner
SF Supervisor Shamann Walton and Marvin X
Publisher/Editor Marvin X, The Movement Newspaper, A Poet's Journal of the Black Arts Movement
Schedule
Oakland
January 25, Saturday, 12 Noon
Marvin X Welcomes NCobra Reparations gathering in the BAMBD
Joyce Gordon Gallery
14th and Franklin Streets
Downtown Oakland
Host Jahahara
Dirty South
Durham, North Carolina
January 30-31
Reading at Duke University
Black Muslim Atlantic Symposium
Host Ellen McLarney, Professor
of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Dr. Ellen McLarney
East Coast, UpSouth Philadelphia
Sunday, February 2
Moonstone Poetry
Fergie's Pub
1214 Sansom St
2PM
poets reading
Marvin X, accompanied by Elliott Bey on keyboards
Elliott Bey
Poets Lamont Steptoe and Kirwyn Sutherland
Host Larry Robin
Newark NJ Friday February 7 4-6PM Source of knowledge Book store 876 Broad Street Marvin X reading/book signing
Friday February 7, 7PM
Pop up Print Shop
83 Halsey Street
2nd floor
Marvin X will read, sign books
Newark NJ Mayor Ras Baraka and Marvin X Philadelphia
Saturday February 8
Culture Works
1315 Walnut St
Room 320
Reading, book signing
5-7pm
dinner available
Hosts Sisters Zakiyyah, Nisa Ra
From the Archives: Marvin X in Philly
Left to right: Dr. Molefe Asante, Mrs. Amina Baraka, Marvin X, Middy Baraka, Kenny Gamble
They are on Philly's Theatre Row for Muhammida El Muhajir's Intergenerational Discussion
Black Power Babies. Muhammida is the daughter of Nisa Ra and Marvin X. Muhammida now lives in Accra, Ghana. She urges her father to get his behind to Ghana permanently. She says, "Ghana may not have electricity 24/7 but it doesn't have white supremacy, not 24/7!" The Black Power Babies Intergenerational Discussion was sponsored by Kenny Gamble and Sarah Lomax of WURD Radio.
Nisa Ra, Muhammida El Muhajir, Marvin X
Marvin X was last in Philly for Mumia Abu Jamal's 60th b day, 2014
Sarah Lomax of WURD Radio, Marvin X, Muhammida El Muhajir and Mrs. Amina Baraka
Marvin X is available for readings and speaking engagements coast to coast. Call 510-757-7148
mxjackmon @gmail.com
Marvin X at University of Chicago's Sun Ra Conference on Afro-Futurism
photo B Sunrise
Marvin X and Sun Ra, BAM co-founders, worked together coast to coast, taught together at UC Berkeley, 1972. Sun Ra arranged music for X's play Take Care of Business, Black Educational Theatre, 1972.
Marvin X and Marshall Allen, 93, leader of Sun Ra's Myth-Science Arkestra, at Warm Daddies,
Philly
Marvin X after lecture/discussion with University of California, Merced students
in Dr. Kim McMillan's Radical Theatre class. "My students love Marvin X!"
Marvin X at his alma mater, San Francisco State University, after a lecture/discussion with students in Davey D's class on Hip Hop.
photo Davey D
Marvin X and Fred Hampton, Jr.
photo Kamau Amen Ra, RIP
