Marvin X and the Baraka Brothers at NewArk NJ City Hall

Marvin X and the Baraka Brothers
The Brick City Model
Stay turned for X's report on his east coast book tour
NOTES OF ARTISTIC FREEDOM FIGHTER MARVIN X

NewArk NJ Mayor Ras Baraka in his office during interview with

Marvin X. Note photo on wall of Paul Robeson: Paul and Ras share same birthday.

photo Marvin X

Left to right: Amiri Middy Baraka, Jr., Chief of Staff, Marvin X and the 
Honorable Mayor Ras Baraka

photo Mayor's Office

Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X
Book Tour 2020

Before departing the East coast, we were blessed to interview both Baraka brothers. I've known them since they were baby boys and observed them growing up in the house of Mrs and Mr Amina and Amiri Baraka. 

MX and Amiri Middy Baraka, Jr., Chief of Staff of the Mayor

photo Mayor's Office

They are like my nephews. I'm so proud of them, even more proud after the people of NewArk informed me that under the Mayor Ras Baraka administration they feel a breath of fresh air now that the police have a positive symbiotic relationship with them. 

Mayor Ras Baraka and Marvin X at the beginning of his administration, 2014

Mrs. Amina Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X and Amiri Baraka RIP, at NYC's Riverside Church Memorial for Dr. Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz

photo Risassi

Stay tuned for my report on the East coast Wild Crazy Ride Of the Marvin X Experience. See my column in the Sun Reporter Newspaper: Off the Record, or go to www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

FYI, New York's Pacifica Radio WBAI will broadcast a recorded interview with Marvin X in three parts beginning Tuesday, February 11, 6AM on the Morning Show with King Downing. He will also do a live interview with the indefatigable peripatetic poet who rocked the Brooklyn Commons Cafe on Sunday night, accompanied by Ngoma Hill on flute and violin. WBAI and the Zulu Nation co-sponsored this event.

Brother Shep of the Zulu Nation. When he heard Marvin X was on tour in Philly and NewArk, he was determined the poet was not going to leave NYC out of his tour. He connected with King Downing of WBAI and they co-sponsored his reading at the Brooklyn Commons Cafe.


Marvin X says, "My reading and talk at the Brooklyn Commons Cafe, especially being accompanied by Master Ngoma Hill on violin and flute, was the climax of my book tour. I must admit there is nothing like performing in NYC and the energy it commands of an artist. Performing with Ngoma Hill was a Sankofa moment, back and forward in time into the now. BAM artists know what to do when we connect on stage. We flow with the flow, no rehearsal needed. On the west coast, I have performed with violist Tarika Lewis and harpist Destiny Muhammad for over thirty years and we have never had a rehearsal.

I now have a clearer vision of my proposed performance in Oakland's BAMFEST 2020, Black August, with the Oakland Symphony conducted by Michael Morgan. We must include the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra, including BAM musicians from coast to coast. Sonia Sanchez has agreed to read with me as part of the Poet's Choir. As per musicians, my choices are Tarika Lewis on violin, Destiny Muhammad on harp, Tacuma King on percussion, Paul Smith on drums, and from the east coast, Ngoma Hill on violin, flute and the other 12 instruments he plays as well as his poetry. Can we leave out members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Danny Thompson and band leader Marshall Allen, or perhaps the entire Arkestra. Some may recall Sun Ra and I did a five hour concert without intermission with a cast of fifty musicians, actors and dancers at the Harding Theatre, San Francisco, cerca 1972.