Saturday, July 10, 2021
Crusin' Oakland July 2021
photo Alicia Mayor
Marvin X returns to his classroom in the Laney College Theatre, aka Odell Johnson Theatre, opens for Donald Lacy's Color Struck. Marvin read from the scene in his play One Day in the Life, depicting his last meeting with his friend from Merritt College, 1962, Dr. Huey P. Newton, in a West Oakland Crack house. The play became a recovery community cult classic. After his drug recovery drama, Marvin went on to declare that if one can recover from drugs, one can recover from the addiction to white supremacy, alas, the CDC has declared white supremacy is the cause of the mental health epidemic. Now I am known for hyperbole, so let me say the CDC says mental health is epidemic. America appears to still suffer from denial that racism is systemic and the most critical factor of mental illness in America. The American response to Critical Race Theory is clear evidence she is not ready to enter the necessary long term recovery program that would allow neural placidity to occur, i.e., a change in the brain cells due to a changed environment. But let's be clear as Dr. Nathan Hare delineated in his Foreword to Marvin X's manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, "Whites suffer from addiction to white supremacy type I, blacks suffer from addiction to white supremacy type II, and do not mix the two!" Alas, how can the oppressor suffer the oppression of the man with the boot on his neck, as George Floyd suffered? We can't even comprehend the suffering of Officer Derek Chuvin. Perhaps white people can explain Chuvin's addiction to Type I white supremacy. Was his addiction mild, moderate or severe?
Crusin' Oakland
Sunny July day in da bay
Gotta git ta north oakland
'fore chinese cleaners close
San Pablo Stanford
Chinese there before I born
Makin' millions off you know who
never hired nigga in hunid years
nigga don't care
he donkey of world
everybody rides a nigga to success
downstairs in my apartment building
latinx girl children scream hollar in play
everyday
didn't know girls screamed so loud
like a Sun Ra Arkestra John Gilmore
upper register sax sound
let the children scream
Haki said Don't Cry, Scream
Leave North Oakland to Westside
childhood turf
Defermery/Lil' Bobby Hutton Park
vendor tents baseball game
Shout to woman from my car
What's going on here
Police playin' West Oakland she say
I say wow ain't dat nice
Police playin West Oakland
yes it is, yes it is
I heard Mayor Libby and OPD Chief were gonna march today
maybe this was end of march
Baseball game with my westside peoples
Cruise down Adeline to 14th
BAMBD town (Black Arts Movement Business District)
Heard the anti-police terrorism project caravan to Lowell Park for "Pick Nic" pic a nigga
2021 we still say pic nic? Hmmmmm
Well X you still say da N word
WTF I'm from west oakland
nigga wasn't no bad word
but if you called a nigga black
you might have a fight
and don't call his mama black
might git ass whuppin'
At Lowell Park Cat Brooks was speaking
Told how artists as activists can change world
with stories tales of truth paintings murals mind changing
Cat spoke of Carole Fife, new councilwoman of west oakland
we got ya in gul
don't forget how ya got in 'an where ya came from
Cat said we go be on yo ass gul
like roy rogers on trigger
better stand 'n deliver
don't get sucked into Mayor Libby Schaaf's Jerry Brown in drag dreams
police dreams of nothingness and dread
wanna stop da killin'?
give nigga jobs
secure da hood if nothin else
won't let a nigga hold a stop sign on construction sites
an' ya wonder why we kill late into night
don't give a fk 'bout Juneteenth 4th a Jew lie
New Year's auction block day
Easter wit rabbit's laying chicken eggs
Xmas bout a homeless nigga
who came to save world
Crusin' Oakland
Stop by Arab liquor store
Get henny to relax
Did video editing early in da morn
Editor in shock at black studies community style
Raw uncut Marvin X style
Ayodele Nzinga called it education by fire! She ate fire grew strong
Stand on her own limbs
Ife gave her eternal mysteries rituals
Black arts movement understood myth/ritual
Sun Ra Myth Science ARKESTRA
EGYPTIAN KEMET SPACE IS THE Place
Haven’t you heard it’s after the end of the worl
Arab liquor store nigga beggin fa dolla
make me wanna holla
i'm blessed
come out ta give nigga dolla'
I used to hustle too
crack days of yore'
dolla nigga busy talkin ta nigga on bike
I drive on ta da lake
See black watermelon man
stop at watermelon man
Want ta spend money wit a nigga
It’s hard ta spend money wit a niggah
Check yo daily round
How much money ya spend wit a nigga
multi-culticultral fine
But can I spend money wit my people Black African people
Can I spend a dolla? Fifty cents?
See black by lake selling watermelons
black man guarantee his melons
they ain't from Mexico?
I bought melons from Mexico
Threw in garbage
Black man guarantee his melons
No Mexico
Bakersfield
Didn’t tell him I pitched watermelons in Bakersfield
Bakersfield so hot no work after noon
100 degrees plus in Bakersfield
Sunburned bakersfield
I am son of central valley
Raisin cotton watermelons fruit every kind
Told black watermelon man
I'm from Fresno gimme two
Pretty chocolate wife helped put them in my car
Cruise on
check vendors at lake
police got niggas roped off with cones
control niggas with cones these days
better'n police dogs I must say
horses pepper spray
cones contain unofficial vendors
liquor weed vendors
Hey hey hey
got good weed
all a nigga want all a nigga need
good weed
official vendors wanna be wit unofficial
Unofficials make more money
They vice vendors
Fk da OPD Franchise Tax Board County City tax permits
Nigga need moritoritum on taxation without reparations, equity. Gov. Jerry Brown said, “Give moritorium on taxation of certified cultural groups.” As per Oakland and equity, i.e., reparations, the Black Street Vendors Association demand a moratorium on all taxation and permit fees for the next ten years as we assume equity in Oakland’s Downtown Plan for the next 25 to 50 years.
square niggas git nowhere
Square nigga vendors want to make money with
Criminal niggas
Fk square nigga square shit
Cruisin’ Oakland
cruise on to gas station
Park Ave 580
go deep east
Ground zero
Deep east my peoples too
Uhuru House 73rd MacArther
98th and A Black Men’s Conference House
My deep east gul friends loved me
Treated me like a king
One said, “Daddy, can I be wit you by maself?”
I said, “Yes Baby, but now let’s get down with me, you and baby two. What’s wrong wit threesome, you ain’t down wit dat?”
“Yes, Daddy, I down wit three but sometimes I just wanna be wit me and you.”
My deep east guls loved me true. Our threesome love was somethin’ you need to do. No argument no fuss, my guls loved me and you know enough.
Deep east guls
They from west oakland too
East oakland niggas west oakland true
Where day mama daddy from
Uncles aunts
7th Street Campbell Peralta Adeline Magnolia
Cruisin’ 580 to keller
Bancroft to 90th
pass liquor store Olive ground zero
If you know
Liquor store closed down now
used to be waterhole
gamblin' killin'
popo know
store public nuisance
Arab sellin’ guns dope too
won't buy nothin' from a nigga
they sand niggas too
Ain't Hajar they moma
Abraham screwed Hajar when Sarah old
she had Isaac
Hajar Egyptian maid
had Ishmael
Hajar fled from Abraham
well of Zem Zem
For thirst
Mecca in the night of her flight
You are El Muhajir the migrant
You flee city to city
No matter
“Flee in the name of Allah and you shall find in the earth many places of escape and abundant resources.”--Al Qur’an
Cruise down 90th to friend house
raising three boys ain't his
he don't have no kids
boys no daddy
he daddy love 'em true
they stuck on computer games earphones
can't hear me say hello
I say hey stupid
they look up
Don’t wanna be stupid but stupid still
hear me call 'em stupid
Take off earphones
baby boy #3 come in room
I say how ya doin'?
I'm good he say
Oh, you don't do nothin bad
Yeah, I'm bad I beat my big brother
I say kick 'm in da head
he tried
brother blocked his move
Thank God for the fathers
raise children not their own
ungrateful bastards
we call them
how you hate man yo daddy
woman yo mama
never seen real mama daddy
you say man woman raised yo funky ass ain't shit
Fk you ungrateful bastard
I depart deep east
hit 98th Bancroft
'nother nigga beggin' when I turn at light
blow my horn
give nigga the dolla nigga a liquor store didn't want
after he git ma dolla 'nother car call him over
he come past me with pep in step
I see five dolla' bill in his hand
He gone ta see crack man
Didn't know crack was still 'round
but I heard it was
98th to 580 freeway
but goin back #13
I love #13 cause it so green
trees n' things
some niggas never been on #13
sometimes I turn down my cruising music
Jimmy Smith Hammond B-3
wanna hear silence of trees
talk to me trees green leaves
remind me of dirty south roads
glad #13 freeway
get off on Park to my apartment up from Lakeshore
Yeah, I heard the gunshots on Juneteenth from my apartment
Thought the copter was gonna land on my roof
God/Allah told me don't go out yo house on Juneteenth
God/Allah said I'm don't care if a million niggas at lake
peace be still my servant
I listened to My Lord
Sami allahu liman hamida/Allah hears those who praise Him
Rabbana laka al hamd/Our Lord to Thee is due all praise
Al hamdu lilah.
Next day I got email say: "You have been awarded a grant of $100,000."
Peace be still.
As I entered my apartment from crusin' Oakland
young girls were screaming
were they running from the boys?
Let the baby girls scream
They shall run from boys soon enough
Seeking their minds bodies
Be strong young girls
Follow your dreams passions
Beyond wife motherhood dreams
What is your mission passion
Let husband know you dream too
Don’t deny dreams of wives
What shall daughters dream
If mothers don’t dream.
And you may be utterly shocked at dreams of mothers
Their dreams may save you from that terrible night soon come
You call it hospice
The clown shall be funny with jokes
Nurse shall come canning jars morphine
Kill pain no drug can kill except death itself
Death arrives soon enough
It wasn’t cancer covid19
Wasn’t death dreams of unresolved grief trauma of long ago
But surely death came from DNA
Ancestor DNA
Tired in our genes Eldridge Cleaver said in his days of wisdom sanity
Amiri Baraka said don’t let them take your um boom ba boom]
If you let them take your um boom ba boom
Take centuries to get back
Maybe two three hundred years
(let me shut up before I mess up the Master Poet’s poem and he promised to rise from the grave to ask, “Marvin, why you fk up my motherfuckin’ poem? And don’t act like you originated the idea of my poem. Tell ‘em the idea came from me!”
I cruise I cruise
Did you git da news
Don’t be confused
Police march for police things
Mayors politicians same
Anti police march
Social justice thangs
Ain’t same same
Crusin’ oakland.
Got a call from my friend
In wheelchair walked me to end of block
Then returned to his house. Neighbors on porch.
They party hardy. Mother of boys call my friend
Daddy of boys. Then gunshots at neighbors house.
Women shot on the porch. High class woman
Shot on the porch. They followed her. Game follows game.
So happy to be home. I listen to the young girls scream. I pray they don’t scream so loudly when men and boys come to destroy their dreams!
--Marvin X
7/10/21
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