Black Bird Press News & Review: Marvin X: From Burn Baby Burn to Black Lives Matter

Burn Baby Burn is a poem by American poet Marvin X,^[1] X wrote the poem shortly after the Watts Rebellion in 1965^[2]^[3]^[4] to convey the oppression black people faced in white America.^[5]^[6]

Is Burn, Baby, Burn, Marvin X's Greatest poem, written shortly after the Watts Rebellion, 1965?

Burn, Baby, Burn

Tired.
Sick an' tired
Tired of being
sick an' tired.

Lost.
Lost in the wilderness
of white america
are the masses asses?
cool said the master to the slave,
"No problem, don't rob an' steal,
I'll be your drivin wheel."

Cool.
And he wheeled us into 350 years
of black madness
1965 Watts riots photo gallery

to hog guts, conked hair, covadis
bleaching cream and uncle thomas
to Watts.
To the streets.
To the kill.
Boommm...2 honkeys gone.
Motherfuck the police
Parker's sista too.
Black people.
Tired.
sick an' tired.
tired of being
sick an' tired.
Burn, baby burn...
Don't leave dem boss rags
C'mon, child, don't mind da tags.
Git all dat motherfuckin pluck,
Git dem guns too, we 'on't give a fuck!
Burn baby burn
Cook outta sight
watts riots, watts riot, 1965 watts riots

watts riots, watts riot, 1965 watts riots

Fineburgs
whitefront
wineburgs
blackfront
burn, baby, burn
in time
he
will learn.

--Marvin X (Jackmon)
1965
from Soulbook Magazine, Fall, 1965

Burn Baby Burn appears in the anthologies Black Fire and S.O.S., the Black Arts Movement Reader.

One of the key publications of the black arts era was Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (1968). Edited by LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal, the book included poems, essays, drama, and fiction. by some of the movement's leading figures. In fact, writers' presence in Black Fire helped solidify their status as black arts contributors.

This volume brings together a broad range of key writings from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, among the most significant cultural movements in American history. The aesthetic counterpart of the Black Power movement, it burst onto the scene in the form of artists' circles, writers' workshops, drama groups, dance troupes, new publishing ventures, bookstores, and cultural centers and had a presence in practically every community and college campus with an appreciable African American population. Black Arts activists extended its reach even further through magazines such as Ebony and Jet, on television shows such as Soul and Like It Is, and on radio programs. Many of the movement's leading artists, including Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni, Woodie King, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Tour?, Marvin X and Val Gray Ward remain artistically productive today. Its influence can also be seen in the work of later artists, from the writers Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, and August Wilson to actors Avery Brooks, Danny Glover, and Samuel L. Jackson, to hip hop artists Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Chuck D. SOS -- Calling All Black People includes works of fiction, poetry, and drama in addition to critical writings on issues of politics, aesthetics, and gender. It covers topics ranging from the legacy of Malcolm X and the impact of John Coltrane's jazz to the tenets of the Black Panther Party and the music of Motown. The editors have provided a substantial introduction outlining the nature, history, and legacy of the Black Arts Movement as well as the principles by which the anthology was assembled.

References[edit]

^ Negro Youth Culture and Identity: The Case of Hunters Point. University of California. 1967.
^ John F. Szwed (25 July 2012). Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 566–. ISBN 978-0-307-82244-4.
^ Margaret Ann Reid (2001). Black Protest Poetry: Polemics from the Harlem Renaissance and the Sixties. Peter Lang, New York. ISBN 978-0-8204-2482-8.
^ Eldridge Cleaver (28 July 2015). Target Zero: A Life in Writing. St. Martin's Press. pp. 102–. ISBN 978-1-250-09153-6.
^ Waldo E. Martin (30 June 2009). No Coward Soldiers: Black Cultural Politics in Postwar America. Harvard University Press. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-0-674-04068-7.
^ Bobby Seale (1991). Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Black Classic Press. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-0-933121-30-0.

From Burn Baby Burn to Black Lives Matter

Jim Crow North

Powerful my brother! Your truth-telling keeps us going!
--Dr. Cornel West, Harvard University

The parents of Marvin X: Mrs. Marian M. Jackmon and Mr. Owendell Jackmon I at the 1945 San Francisco Peace Conference that led to the United Nations.

Marvin X

Dad used to talk about Jim Crow South

Black Belt south cotton curtain

he and mama used to chant n double a cp all night long

all day long n double a cp

n double a cp this n that

as a baby boy i used to think n double a cp was a person

i was three or four

watching my parents publish their black newspaper fresno voice

same office was their real estate business 1948

i thought jim crow was a man too

but he lived down south

not in central valley fresno

not in oakland when we moved there

but mama and daddy still talked about n double a cp in oakland

on sundays we drove to the berkeley hills

see how rich white folks lived

didn't excite me

i wanted to hear dad say we going to the black belt

fillmore fillmore

seemed like it was more exciting than west oakland

seemed like there was more energy on fillmore street

but 7th street was jumping too

but i loved driving down fillmore

bumper to bumper cars

horns blowing neon lights flashing

black people styling n profiling

pimping n simping

my brother ollie wanted to b a pimp

never wanted to b nothin else

never was

except a client in the department of corrections

they never corrected him

cya didnt

san quentin soledad folsom didnt

mcneil island didnt

he said he had to kill jim crow in prison

said if he didnt kill jim crow

jim crow was gonna kill him

no ifs ands r buts.

--marvin x

5/28/20

When Life Gets Back to Normal

when life gets back to normal
will the hip hop negro pants still sag off his ass
will a black bitch still be a bitch or will she transcend to goddess
queen of universe
mother of civilization
when life gets back to normal
will you hug kiss yr mama daddy real tight
will you make love to yr woman man late into night
will you raise high yr children and teach them right
will you stop trusting the devil and hold God up high
will you walk the lake
dont b lazy like marvin x
when life gets back to normal
will you do 4 self first
self and kind
will you drink wine with buddies who survived covid one nine
will u fight 4 freedom
liberation
reparations
end of patriarchal domination
no wife beating
child sex abuse
clean water to drink
no gmo food
no bill gates global vaccine eugenics
kill nigga african plan
planned parenthood
margaret sanger hillary clinton obama hitler
implant white supremacy dna who china plan
when life gets back to normal
will you kiss yo mama
hug yo daddy real tight
keep home schooling yr children
spare them white edumakation.

--marvin x
5/14/20

Can We Breathe

Can we breathe

ain't no air up in here

grab air squeeze it real tight

don't let it get away

fight

no surrender like cowards

don't let air choke us

lungs with blood

war been here

centuries

welcome sleepy time tea

mask can't save you

home invasions next

they comin' to inject air

will you open door

HR6666

Black Panther Bobby Rush air

he don't care

Congressman now

flipped his bick

long time ago

go outside for air

stand tall breathe

let sunshine fill lungs

dogs can't stop sun

will try

but can't

let sun move you beyond fear

don't breathe fear air

stand

this is The End!

End is yr beginning

you never lived

enjoyed clean air

toxic fumes consumed yr life

walk the forest woods

talk to trees

just be.

--Marvin X

5/27/20

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Parable of the man who went to Ignutville

There was a man who traveled to Stupidville on his way to Ignutville. In Stupidville he observed people doing the most stupid shit imaginable. They talked stupid shit, did stupid shit, lived stupid lives, went to the malls to buy stupid shit, came home and made stupid love in the dark without saying a stupid word to each other. Why say shit to a stupid motherfucker?

The man departed Stupidville and traveled on to Ignutville. After observing the people in Ignutville, he went into shock and was taken to the hospital. After a few days he was released and continued his observation of the citizens of ignutville.

They didn't know the time of day, the year. Didn't know they were slaves and/or descendents of slaves. After all they drove bigger cars than the slave master. While the slave master drove Fords and Toyotas, the slaves drove Escalades and Masaraties, yes, even while they lived in the projects.

If the master knew nothing else, he knew he was white, but the slave wasn't sure if he was black African or white European in black face. He loved the white Jesus, worshipped the white woman standard of beauty. His ignut woman loved wearing a blond wig and in the deep structure of her mind, she wanted her man to be a white man. She would be satisfied if he would become a white man dipped in chocolate. She was so ignut she called 911 so the white man, her real man, would rescue her from any abuse her black man inflicted on her, whether verbal, emotional, spiritual and/or physical.

The white man was her true husband, boyfriend, lover, protector. Such was the level of ignorance in Ignutville.

Parents were so ignut in Ignutville, they sent their children to public schools where the enemy could teach their children the proper white supremacy mis-education. They sent their children to white colleges and universities, then were shocked when their children came home hating them and everything they were about even though the ignut children didn't even know what their parents were about.

The parents didn't understand the children had been taught they were nothing ass black nigga students who were so ignut they couldn't think logically or write coherently. Some of the students suffered mental breakdowns. When the students came home, parents knew their children were not the same. They suspected their children were on drugs.

The ignut parents never imagined their children were in full blown addiction to white supremacy.

The man fled Ignutville trying to figure out how to get to Saneville. He called upon his GPS device to guide him to Saneville.

--Marvin X

7-28-29