Sunday, March 11, 2018

Marvin X reviews Black Panther, Addendum, Comments


Marvin X reviews Black Panther

Marvin X reviews the film Black Panther

Image result for image of Black Panther film

Let me begin with praise to ancestor Sun Ra and his Myth-Science philosophy. Throughout watching Black Panther, I kept thinking of Sun Ra's film Space is the Place in which  his space ship lands on earth and he deplanes dressed as an Egyptian god, or shall we say Supreme god Ra. I imagined how Sun Ra would have expressed his Myth-Science philosophy with the resources of Disney. But have no doubt Sun Ra would have much praise for the Afro-futurist mythology of Black Panther. He claimed he was from space  via Egypt or Kemet. Black Panther was a myth-science film that clearly projected Ra's teachings, even to the point of the "Negro" (he was half Wakandan) Killmonger identifying with his maternal ancestors who refused to be victims of the European-American  slave system, instead they jumped ship rather than suffer oppression. The Qur'an says, "Persecution is worse than slaughter!" Sun Ra used to say that Africans must pay reparations to North American Africans for selling us to Europeans. Killmonger's final statement redeemed him from his reactionary behavior, especially as a running dog for American imperialism. His body was covered with marks of his life as a killer for imperialism, aka, globalism. We recall a veteran Special Forces Marine who would not read my writings too long because my words made him angry for all the killing he was forced to do throughout the world. He said America should be bombed every day for her murderous deeds throughout the world. Killmonger was a similar victim, although he becomes the villain whose main focus was to seize the throne in a succession struggle, after the old king killed his father in Oakland, of all places, although the Black Panther Party was born and died in Oakland after being labeled by the FBI as the number one threat to the internal security of the USA.

The film's focus on the struggle for succession tackles a constant theme of African or Kemetic culture and history, from the early days of Nile Valley culture. Chancellor Williams writes about struggle over succession rites as a chief reason for migrations when African kingdoms fell into chaos, along with invasions and ecological factors. Aside from being blessed with a precious metal, the above factors may explain the Wakandan xenophobia, or tribalism or narrow minded nationalism. Some critics have called the Wakandans reactionary because they were for themselves first and foremost, rejecting Pan Africanism outright, or any degree of internationalism.  Although after the rebirth of King T'Challa, and his return to the throne, he attempts to change the political ideology of his nation.

Many or perhaps millions who have seen Black Panther and thoroughly enjoyed it as a Hollywood fantasy from the Disney world of make believe, do not want to hear any discussion of the deeper nature of Black Panther. After all, it's not a documentary. But Chairman Mao taught us all art is propaganda and reflects the values and mission of one class or another, either the bourgeoisie ruling class or the oppressed masses. Disney's Black Panther primarily gave us a film glorifying the African ruling class, a class many African revolutions fought to eliminate, especially for their role in the slave trade, in which they accumulated surplus capital along with the Europeans, not to leave out the Arabs. Even after independence, the African ruling class morphed into neo-colonialism. When the white man was called colonizer in Black Panther, the audience laughed. The Wakandans were never colonized but most African nations suffered colonization which morphed into neo-colonialism that Kwame Nkrumah told us was, "Colonialism playing possum."

While the film is a political disaster by projecting African royalty with its tainted past and/or present, those enamored of African culture will enjoy a boost of cultural consciousness. We Africans are a beautiful people, a cultured people, a people of genius in science and technology. If Black Panther replaces sagging pants with Dashikis, surely, the film must be applauded. If it forces women to throw off their wigs as the woman did in the film, it must be applauded. The music, the chants, the communal dancing, the most colorful costumes and traditional ritual face makeup, should help Africanize a starving population of North American Africans. The technology seemed excessive although we need to see African people utilizing science, technology, artificial intelligence, time travel.

Again, the negative is that the only two North American Africans in the film were killed for reactionary behavior, suggesting Black Americans are villains or not "real Africans," which prompted a North American African  woman to depart the cinema shouting "Killmonger for life!" I translate her statement as, "I'm a Nigga fa life!"
--Marvin X
3/4/18

THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018

Addendum:The Psycholinguistic Deconstruction of the word Nisa as per Women in the film Black Panther

In the Arabic language, Nisa has two meanings depending on syllable stress. Nisa means woman in one definition and another syllable stress Nisa means forget her, i.e., to forget the woman. We are thankful for ancestor Imam Warith Din Muhammad for his lecture on Nisa, chiding men for forgetting women. Of course in the patriarchal mythology women are booty at best, i.e., the spoils of war. Females were often buried in the desert sands because they were of no value in the patriarchal society.

And yet, how ironic it was that the wealthy trade woman Khadijah economically uplifted the budding prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdullah when she put him over her resources and most importantly was the one who comforted him when the Angel Gabriel gave him divine revelations that overwhelmed him. He sought refuge in her and she encouraged him to pursue his divine mission.

Still, in the patriarchal society, Muhammad did his best to teach respect of women or Nisa, and taught men not to forget women. Although,  as per family, he admonished believers that Allah is first and foremost, "If your wives, children and the wealth you acquire are dearer to you than Allah, then wait until His command comes, and He guides not the unjust!"

As per plural marriage or polygamy, he said if you can't give justice and equality (and he said you never can) don't even try it. I bear witness the Prophet was right because I could not be just and equal in my polygamous marriages that were a total failure, especially  when I realized the women would never love each other. They didn't even like each other. One wife told me she would have loved her co-wife if I wasn't in the picture, since they were on a similar spiritual vibration. And even after I was separated from them both, they bought and sold from each other at the Berkeley Flea Market.

From the beginning of my polygamous life,  I focused on making my children of three mothers love and respect each other, even if the mothers could not do so, and in fact, taught hatred to my children in the typical manner of mothers in plural marriage no matter in America or Africa and elsewhere.

No matter, my children are closer than I know and are even secretive in their loving sibling relationships. Alas, often they keep hidden from me their deep love and respect for each other. My oldest son Marvin K said long ago, "We're all smart!" He thus acknowledges the DNA or genetic connection between his siblings. 

As per women in the film Black Panther, I neglected to note the most wonderful role they played.. Imagine, a woman military general, a woman scientist, an independent woman seeking to discover her bliss in the best manner of Joseph Campbell,  even though she was loved by and loved the king, but only submitted to him after he had his Osirian resurrection  Women were repeatedly shown as warriors, not to mention their awesome communal ritual powers as dispensers of wisdom. Their physical beauty alone was overwhelming, especially bald headed and locked and their costumes were an antidote to the dress of our women addicted to European-colonial dress.

For sure, African women executed power, beauty and intelligence that should inspire North American African women and all women to transcend the patriarchal mythology, whether African or European!
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
3/8/18

TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018

Dr. Oba T'Shaka comments on Marvin X's review of film Black Panther

 

Hey Marvin,

I'm in the middle of writing my sixth book on African and African American "Mastery Systems" that are basically the same I took time to read your comments on the film Black Panther.  This is just one part of our magnificent culture that you referred to and your art is an expression of.  I haven-t viewed the movie yet.  Your comments are interesting and insightful.  Your comment about the period of chaos in Kemet (Egypt) was the First intermediate period the 6th through 11th dynasties where the rich oppressed the poor, even to the point of denying them (as though they could) the right to eternal life (Osirian rebirth which until then the Pharaoh claimed exclusively).  In general the African collaborators with the European and Euro-American slave traders were state societies, especially Dahomey whose economy was based on slavery.  There were those states that resisted slavery like Queen Nzinga of Angola, and the Swazi whose kings said we will not sell our people because they are not cattle. Ethiopia the oldest Christian nation on earth successfully resisted slavery and colonialism, except for a brief period during World War II.  The African societies that were must resistant to slavery and were preyed upon by African states and Europeans were stateless societies where the people ruled directly.  Whether state or stateless societies the resistant societies were those where what I call "Twin-Lineal" societies existed where males and females shared power.  While neo-colonialism is one of the main reason that Africa is oppressed by a brainwashed African elite, Africa's primary problem is that with so-called independence Africans inherited the European nation state model––a model designed for oppression.    I will forward my reaction to the film whenI see it this week.  

Thanks, T'Shaka

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X: Acknowledgement and In Memoriam



“The artist elects to fight for freedom or slavery.
I have made my choice! I had no alternative!”
--Paul Robeson







Acknowledgement  

All praise is due Allah, Alhamdulillah!
Inna salati wa nusuki wa mahyaya wa mamati lillahi rabbil-alamin
"Verily, my Salat (prayer), my sacrifice, my living, and my dying are for Allah, the Lord of the worlds..  (Qur'an 6:162)
I thank my maternal great grandfather Ephraim Murrill, a pioneer who came to the Central Valley after enjoying the first twenty years of his life as a slave and saw Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, before departing the dirty south. He died in Madera, California at 99, and was given a great obituary in the Fresno Bee Newspaper, 1941. The Fresno Bee said he was honored and respected by Black people and White people..  I am honored to stand on his shoulders and be of his bloodline!

I thank my maternal grandparents, John and Eva Murrill, cotton pickers and grape cutters in the Central Valley. My grandmother was the love of my life. Probably the first black book I read was her raggedy copy of Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery. When my parents moved from Fresno to West Oakland and we spent summers in Fresno, I would always search through her trunk to find Up From Slavery. As a child, I read it  again and again, I especially loved the passage when Booker T. told how he washed his ragged clothes so he could be clean when he went to school. I often recalled Booker T. when my mother bought my clothes from the thrift store and yet I was voted best dressed and most talented by my senior class. I was shocked and scared the GQ niggas were going to jump me because of jealousy and envy.

All praise is due my mother and father, Marian and Owendell Jackmon , Race Woman and Race Man, who published the Fresno Voice, a black newspaper in the Central Valley during the late 40s and early 50s. I am thankful to come from conscious parents in the Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad tradition of Do for Self! I am so thankful that my childhood friend Paul Cobb informed me my father attended meetings at his grandfather’s house on Garveyism. I suspect the female idol of my childhood, dancer and choreographer Ruth Beckford’s parents also attended those meetings. Ruth Beckford took her Marcus Garvey consciousness into creating the breakfast program of the Black Panther Party, making her dancers prepare breakfast for poor hungry children. We honor Ruth Beckford for carrying on the black nationalist legacy of her parents. Geoffrey’s Inner Circle has honored her with a room and museum at his venue in Oakland’s Black Arts Movement Business District.

I thank my children: Marvin K, Darrel, aka Abdul (RIP), Nefertiti, Muhammida and Amira, for their love and appreciation, even though I was often absent and neglectful as a parent and  abusive to their mothers.

I thank the mothers of my children, Pat, Barbara and Nisa, with whom I have a positive relationship these days. At least we can have a civil conversation that was the envy of one of my nephews when he observed me and my former wife, Nisa Ra, having a positive conversation. He asked my daughter, his cousin, Muhammida, how did it feel seeing her parents conversing in a loving manner,  in spite of past abuse and trauma? For sure, he’d never seen his estranged parents doing such. But Nisa and I love our daughter above all else and will do all we can to support her and uplift her to the highest. We urge all parents to do the same, even when they are not together for whatever reason. Our children can be inspired by any semblance of parental unity, even the grandchildren want to know why their grandparents are not together as one of my granddaughters asked me recently.

I thank my grandchildren who are the joy of my life: Jasmin, Jordan, James, Jahmeel, Naeemah, Mahadevi. Even though I am exhausted of this world, they make me want to hang around just to see what they’re going to do, especially after my grandson Jahmeel told me at two years old, “Grandfather, you can’t save the world but I can!”

I thank my lifelong patrons, Mr. and Mrs. Leon and Carolyn Teasley. Drs. Julia and Nathan Hare, my adopted aunt and uncle.

Adam Turner, my adopted son, graphic designer and photographer. Dennis Jeffery, my printer and brother. We both were taught by Master printer Bob Watson (RIP).

My in-laws Nina and Ovis Collins, with whom I partied in the Central Valley like it was 1999, in the words of our beloved ancestor Prince. For sure, ain’t no people like country people.
Appreciate you, Nina and Ovis.

Paul Cobb, my childhood friend from West Oakland, who helped me establish The Movement Newspaper. My adviser Rt. Col. Conway Jones, Jr., who told me the arts was the most dangerous game in town and that I must walk alone through the valley of the shadow of death!

And thank you ancestor The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad for raising me from the dead,  deaf, dumb and blind! Thank you Malcolm X, El Hajji Malik El Shabazz, for your Black Nationalism. I am a revolutionary black nationalist for life, i.e., a nigga fa life!

In Memoriam
Abdul Leroy James, my patron
Sun Ra, my mentor and associate
Amiri Baraka, my mentor, my comrade, my brother
Ollie Jackmon, my brother
Donna Jackmon, my sister
Huey Newton, my comrade
Eldridge Cleaver, my comrade
Rashidah Muhammad (Dessie X), my partner, my comrade
Marsha Satterfield, my partner
Sherley A. Williams, my childhood and high school friend and partner

Friday, March 9, 2018

Black Panther and North American African Conspicuous Consumption


Lexus' Genius Product Placement in Marvel's Black Panther Movie Highlights Growing Influence of African Americans' Buying Power


African Americans continue to have a supersized influence on the U.S. economy. By 2020 African Americans are projected to have a buying power of$1.5 trillion with a cumulative growth of 16% and a compound annual growth rate of 3% from 2015-2020, according to market research firm Packaged Facts in the report African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th E....
Skeptics about the cohort's financial clout have to look no further than the recent success of the 2018 blockbuster Marvel superhero movie Black Panther, which has enjoyed record shattering returns and which to date has grossed more than $900 million globally. The film was a surefire success almost from its creative inception and official announcement four years ago as the news sent a simmering excitement through a black community starved for more minority representation in comic book movies.
While Disney's Marvel Studios cheered the film's success, so too did car maker Lexus. Movie goers got a look at Lexus' new luxury LC coupe which is featured prominently in a major chase scene through the streets of South Korea. The scene marked two years of collaboration between Lexus and Marvel Studios.
Packaged Facts' research revealed that product placement in movies and television shows resonates with African-American consumers. For example, black consumers are more likely to remember the brand name product characters use in a movie and try products they have never tried before that they have seen in a movie. Seeing a product used in a movie is also more likely to reassure black consumers that the product is a good one. Furthermore, when African-American consumers are online or in a store and see a brand name product they recognize from a movie, they are more likely to buy it than its competitor.
Car manufacturers featuring their vehicles in comic book movies isn't anything new. However, as AutoNews.com states in an article, Lexus' multicultural marketing agency, Walton Isaacson, openly admits that the idea to for collaboration and product placement in Black Panther represented an opportunity to link the car maker with a cultural event. 
In addition to the product placement in film, Lexus leading up to the Black Panther release commissioned an original graphic novel, Black Panther: Soul of a Machine, featuring the LC 500 and a Lexus takumimaster craftsman as heroes.  And don't forget the Black Panther-themed Super Bowl ad for Lexus.
In the end it proved to be a shrewd strategy for Lexus. AutoNews.com reveals that there was "an explosion" of ad impressions across TV, social media, and in theater due to the film and the product tie-in. Further, in the week following Black Panther's domestic premiere on February 16, online searches for Lexus at shopping site Autotrader were up 15% from the previous week. Likewise, Autotrader revealed that online traffic for the LC 500 specifically was up 10%.
It's impossible to say how many of these searches were performed by African Americans, However, based on Packaged Facts' previously referenced research on the impact of product placement on African Americans combined with the fact that Lexus is already popular with minority consumers, it's fair to deduce at least a portion of the searches were by black shoppers.
Packaged Facts' data also revealed that African Americans are among the biggest car buyers in America. Between 2012 and 2015 spending by African-American consumers on new cars and trucks increased from $13 billion to $20 billion.  Further, the 51% increase in spending by black households on new automotive vehicles significantly outpaced the 27% increase registered by other households.  But it's not just new cars that get lots of love. Spending by African-Americans on used cars and trucks grew more than twice as fast as comparable expenditures by other consumers.
About the Report 
African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th Edition analyzes recent consumer spending and demographic trends for the African-American population in the United States. View additional information about the report, including purchase options, the abstract, table of contents, and related reports at Packaged Facts' website:https://www.packagedfacts.com/African-Americans-Demographic-10293172/.
About Packaged Facts 
Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services.
For more essential insights from Packaged Facts be sure to follow us on Twitter and Google+. For infographics, tables, charts and other visuals, follow Packaged Facts on Pinterest.
Please link any media references to our reports or data to https://www.packagedfacts.com/.  
Press Contact:Daniel Granderson
240.747.3000
dgranderson@marketresearch.com

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Thursday, March 8, 2018

Addendum:The Psycholinguistic Deconstruction of the word Nisa as per Women in the film Black Panther

In the Arabic language, Nisa has two meanings depending on syllable stress. Nisa means woman in one definition and another syllable stress Nisa means forget her, i.e., to forget the woman. We are thankful for ancestor Imam Warith Din Muhammad for his lecture on Nisa, chiding men for forgetting women. Of course in the patriarchal mythology women are booty at best, i.e., the spoils of war. Females were often buried in the desert sands because they were of no value in the patriarchal society.

And yet, how ironic it was that the wealthy trade woman Khadijah economically uplifted the budding prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdullah when she put him over her resources and most importantly was the one who comforted him when the Angel Gabriel gave him divine revelations that overwhelmed him. He sought refuge in her and she encouraged him to pursue his divine mission.

Still, in the patriarchal society, Muhammad did his best to teach respect of women or Nisa, and taught men not to forget women. Although,  as per family, he admonished believers that Allah is first and foremost, "If your wives, children and the wealth you acquire are dearer to you than Allah, then wait until His command comes, and He guides not the unjust!"

As per plural marriage or polygamy, he said if you can't give justice and equality (and he said you never can) don't even try it. I bear witness the Prophet was right because I could not be just and equal in my polygamous marriages that were a total failure, especially  when I realized the women would never love each other. They didn't even like each other. One wife told me she would have loved her co-wife if I wasn't in the picture, since they were on a similar spiritual vibration. And even after I was separated from them both, they bought and sold from each other at the Berkeley Flea Market.

From the beginning of my polygamous life,  I focused on making my children of three mothers love and respect each other, even if the mothers could not do so, and in fact, taught hatred to my children in the typical manner of mothers in plural marriage no matter in America or Africa and elsewhere.

No matter, my children are closer than I know and are even secretive in their loving sibling relationships. Alas, often they keep hidden from me their deep love and respect for each other. My oldest son Marvin K said long ago, "We're all smart!" He thus acknowledges the DNA or genetic connection between his siblings. 

As per women in the film Black Panther, I neglected to note the most wonderful role they played.. Imagine, a woman military general, a woman scientist, an independent woman seeking to discover her bliss in the best manner of Joseph Campbell,  even though she was loved by and loved the king, but only submitted to him after he had his Osirian resurrection  Women were repeatedly shown as warriors, not to mention their awesome communal ritual powers as dispensers of wisdom. Their physical beauty alone was overwhelming, especially bald headed and locked and their costumes were an antidote to the dress of our women addicted to European-colonial dress.

For sure, African women executed power, beauty and intelligence that should inspire North American African women and all women to transcend the patriarchal mythology, whether African or European!
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
3/8/18

Film Screening: The Rise of Black Business in America by Anthony Brogdon of Detroit, MI

san francisco flyer.jpg

Save the date: Respect Hip Hop Exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California, March 24-August 12, 2018



 

Bay Area folks, don't miss the Respect Hip Hop Exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California, March 24-August 12, 2018. As per the Black Arts Movement as the foundation of Hip Hop, the archives of Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement will be displayed. FYI, the Museum is planning a permanent exhibit of the Black Power Movement, including the Black Arts Movement. The museum is discussing a partnership with Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District, CDC, of which the museum is a venue in the district and a permanent exhibit of Oakland's Black radical political,cultural and economic history is vital to uplift those stuck in the low information vibration, says Marvin X. As a BAM/BAMBD co-founder, Marvin has begun meetings with the Oakland Museum to make the Black Power Exhibit a reality and homage to all those freedom fighters who gave selflessly their sweat, blood and tears. Marvin X says, "Oakland is one of the most radical cities in America, similar to Fallujah, Iraq, a city of resistance that was decimated by US forces. Oakland suffered the same decimation vie Cointelpro, Army, Navy, Marines, National Guard, local police, agent provocateurs and snitches. There were snitches who told of planned rebellions and simply reported on the Black Mood.   

".....Marvin X is a teacher of primeval knowledge, a knower of both street poetry and book poetry. In fact, he combines the two in a powerful way. Each verse is a teach act, each stanza--a class. His use of alliteration, rhymes, assonance, dissonance and free rhymes indicates he has absorbed the teachings of the academy. Yet, the street consciousness lying in the cut of its content links him directly to the poets of the new idiom called Rap." Of course critic James G. Spady placed Marvin X at the very foundation of Rap, whether conscious or unconscious, "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 experiences in a lyrical way!"--James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer Newspaper

Marvin X says, "Of all the rappers in the Bay who absorbed my spiritual energy, only Askari X can claim my crown! Askari, no matter his mental condition, took the torch of Black Islam and ran to the mountain top shouting, "Laeelahah, elaillah, Elijah Muhammad rassululah!" Askari X went on to honor his master teacher, Master J founder of the Ansaru Allah. But Askari recognized me as the reincarnation of Marcus Garvey and addressed me as Marcus Garvey. I recognized his talent as superior to Tupac or any other rappers. Not only could he sing but he had the Islamic mythology that made him stand taller than other rappers stuck on the low information vibration.

Askari X

Askari X

Biography

Askari X, aka Ansar El Muhammed and Ricky Murdock, is a hip-hop artist from Oakland, California. He has 3 albums and is on many compilation albums and as a guest on several albums. He is famous for coining the term RBG. Stic.man and M-1 of Dead Prez talk about Askari X often in music and credit him as one of their main musical influences.
Askari X is known for black power messages combined with spiritual Islamic themes. His lyrics have a message similar to Fred Hampton, Bobby Hutton, Marcus Garvey, Huey P. Newton, and Malcolm X, including the Black Panther mentality and political manifesto of Malcolm X: "by any means necessary." His sound is characterized by slow powerful drum beats and a flow similar to Tupac. His message is similar to rap artists Dead Prez, X-Clan, Immortal Technique, Public Enemy, and Steve B.I.K.O.
Askari X espouses a mixture of ideologies, one being that of a revolutionary, who uses carnal weapons and guns to obtain freedom, along the lines of the Black Panthers and the African People's Socialist Party. The other being that of s/c Black Islam (Teachings of thee Nation of Islam) as taught by Ansar El Muhammad, Thee Select One, thee ALLAH Master J, which is foundated on the teachings of Thee Messenger, Thee Glorious Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, which strictly forbids the use of or even possession of guns or carnal weapons of any sort. Askari X also mixes in various levels glorifying the Thug culture, slang, even drug use at times, all with an intent of capturing the imagination of African American youth with audio imagery similar to the conditions they grow up in. As any movie script writer, director, or producer, Askari X without double standard could be innocent of any negative influence his songs may have on those who listen to his songs.
Askari X stands out from other revolutionary underground hip-hop artists with his powerful, blunt, and direct message in support of the black liberation struggle and for being one of the first artists of the RBG movement. Taking anti-racism to a militant level, Askari X supports a revolution against violent racism that matches the notorious aggression of the white supremacist movement. His genre could be identified as a conscious rap artist.

Black Bird Press News and Review Popular Posts 3/8/18



On Thursday, March 8, 2018, 1:33:06 PM PST, Marvin X Jackmon jmarvinx@yahoo.com [blackantiwar] wrote:


 
cover photo Alicia Mayo
cover design Adam Turner
INTRODUCTION
By Nathan Hare

With the return of “white nationalism” to the international  stage and the White House and new threats of nuclear war, the black revolutionary occupies a crucial position in society today. Yet a black revolutionary of historic promise can live among us almost unknown on the radar screen, even when his name is as conspicuous as Marvin X (who may be the last to wear an X in public view since the assassination of Malcolm X).
This semblance of anonymity is due in part to the fact that the black revolutionary is liable to live a part of his or her life incognito, and many become adept at moving in and out of both public and private places sight unseen. For instance, I didn’t know until I read Marvin X’s  “Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter” that when he put on a memorial service for his comrade and Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, 1998, he was unaware that Eldridge’s ex, Kathleen Cleaver, had traveled from the East Coast and slipped into the auditorium of the church with her daughter Joju. As one of the invited speakers I had noticed her curiosity when I remarked that I had been aware of Eldridge before she was (he and I /had had articles in the Negro History Bulletin in the spring of 1962) and had met her before Eldridge did, when I was introduced to her while she was working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at Tuskegee institute, but luckily for Eldridge I was happily married to the woman who years later would escort Kathleen around San Francisco in what I recall as a failed search for a black lawyer to take his case when he returned from exile in France.
Like many other persons across this promised land, I also thought I knew Marvin X. I can clearly recall seeing him walk into the offices of The Black Scholar Magazine, then in Sausalito, with a manuscript we published in the early 1970s... However, his reputation had preceded him. For one thing, then California Governor Ronald Reagan had publicly issued a directive to college administrators at UCLA and Fresno State University to get Angela Davis and Marvin X off the campuses and keep them off.
Then over the years I continued to encounter him: when he organized the First National Black Men’s Conference, 1980, Oakland Auditorium, that drew over a thousand black men (without benefit of media coverage) to pay their way into a conference aimed at getting black men to rise again.  I was a member of his Board of Directors. I also attended a number of other conferences he organized, such as the Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, San Francisco State University, 2001, and the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair, 2004, as well as productions of his successful play, “One Day in the Life,”  with a scene of his last meeting with his friend, Black Panther Party co-founder, Dr. Huey P. Newton, in a West Oakland Crack house.
I will never forget the time he recruited me and the seasoned psychiatric social worker, Suzette Celeste, MSW, MPA, to put on weekly nighttime workshops in black consciousness and strategies for “overcoming the addiction to white supremacy.” On many a night I marveled to see him and his aides branch out fearlessly into the gloom of the Tenderloin streets of San Francisco and bring back unwary street people and the homeless to participate in our sessions, along with a sparse coterie of the black bourgeoisie who didn’t  turn around or break and run on seeing the dim stairway to the dungeon-like basement of the white Catholic church.
But when I received and read Marvin’s manuscript, I called and told him that he had really paid his dues to the cause of black freedom but regretfully had not yet received his righteous dues.
As if to anticipate my impression, the designer of the book cover has a silhouetted image of Marvin, though you wouldn’t recognize him if you weren’t told, in spite of the flood lights beaming down on him from above like rays directly from high Heaven, as if spotlighting the fact that Marvin ‘s day has come.
You tell me why  one of the blackest men to walk this earth, in both complexion and consciousness, is dressed in a white suit and wearing a white hat; but that is as white as it gets, and inside the book is black to the bone, a rare and readable compendium of Marvin’s unsurpassed struggle for black freedom and artistic recognition.
Black revolutionaries wondering what black people should do now can jump into this book and so can the Uncle Tom: the functional toms find new roles for the uncle tom who longs for freedom but prefers to dance to the tune of the piper; the pathological tom, whose malady is epidemic today, as well as the Aunt Tomasinas, can be enlightened and endarkened according to their taste in this literary and readable smorgasbord.
“Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X” is a diary and a compendium, a textbook for revolutionary example and experience, a guide for change makers, a textbook for Black Studies and community action, including city planners who will profit from his proposals and experiences in his collaboration with the mayor and officials of Oakland to commercialize and energize the inner city, with a Black Arts Movement Business District (BAMBD) that could be the greatest black cultural and economic boon since the Harlem Renaissance.  No longer just talk and get-tough rhetoric, his current project is cultural economics, Oakland’s Black Arts Movement Business District, an urban model evolving in real time in the heart of downtown Oakland, where people like Governor Jerry Brown once tried their hand before they turned and fled back into the claws of the status quo.


I can’t say everything is in this book, just that it reflects the fact that  Marvin, for all he has done on the merry-go-round of black social change, is still in the process of becoming.
Readers from the dope dealer to the dope addict to the progressive elite, the Pan African internationalist, the amateur anthropologist, the blacker than thou, the try to be black, the blacker-than-thous, the try to be white (who go to sleep at night and dream they will wake up white) and other wannabes; in other words from the  Nouveau Black to the petit bourgeois noir and bourgie coconuts, “Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X” is a fountainhead of wisdom, with a fistful of freedom nuggets and rare guidance in resisting oppression or/and work to build a new and better day.
Dr. Nathan Hare
3/8/18

 Dr. Nathan Hare, Father Black and Ethnic Studies, with his student, Marvin X
photo Adam Turner 

Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X
Introduction by Dr. Nathan Hare
Black Bird Press, Oakland, April, 2018
limited edition, signed
paperback
500 pages
$29.95
Pre-publication discount price $19.95
To pay by credit card, call 510-200-4164
email: mxjackmon@gmail.com

Black Bird Press News & Review: The Public Career of Marvin X by James G. Spady

Black Bird Press News & Review: The Public Career of Marvin X by James G. Spady



....Marvin X is a teacher of primeval knowledge, a knower of both street poetry and book poetry. In fact, he combines the two in a powerful way. Each verse is a teach act, each stanza--a class. His use of alliteration, rhymes, assonance, dissonance and free rhymes indicates he has absorbed the teachings of the academy. Yet, the street consciousness lying in the cut of its content links him directly to the poets of the new idiom called Rap.
--James G. Spady, Master Critic

Black Bird Press News Popular Posts 3/8/18

Black Bird Press News and Review Popular Posts 3/8/18