AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM by The Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey
The time has come for the Blackman to forget and cast behind him his hero worship and adoration of other races, and to start out immediately to create and emulate heroes of his own. We must canonize our own martyrs and elevate to positions of fame and honor Black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history.
Sojourner Truth is worthy of sainthood alongside of Joan of Arc. Crispus Attuck and George William Gordon are entitled to the halo of martyrdom with no less glory than that of the martyrs of any other race. Jacques Deselines' and Moshesh's brilliancy as soldiers and statesmen outshone that of a Cromwell, Napoleon, or Washington: hence they are entitled to the highest place as heroes among men.
Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women, in war and in peace, whose lustre and bravery outshines that of any other people. Then why not see good and perfection in ourselves? We must inspire a literature and promulgate a doctrine of our own without any apologies to the powers that be. The right is the Blackman's and Africa's. Let contrary sentiments and cross opinions go to the winds. Oppositions to Race Independence is the weapon of the enemy to defeat the hopes of an unfortunate people.
We are entitled to our own opinions and not obligated to or bound by the opinions of others. If others laugh at you return the laughter to them; if they mimic you return the compliment with equal force. They have no more right to dishonor, disrespect or disregard your feelings and manhood than you have in dealing with them. Honor them when they honor you; disregard them when they vilely treat you. Their arrogance is but skin deep and an assumption that has no foundation in morals or in Law.
They have sprung from the same family tree of obscurity as we have; their history is as rude in its primitiveness as ours, their ancestors ran wild and naked, lived in caves and in branches of trees like monkeys as ours; they made sacrifices, ate the flesh of their own dead and the raw meat of wild beasts for centuries even as they accuse us of doing. Their cannibalism was more prolonged than ours; when we were embracing the Arts and Sciences on the banks of the Nile, their ancestors were still drinking human blood and eating out of the skulls of their conquered dead.
When our civilization had reached the noon-day of progress, they were still running naked and sleeping in holes and caves with rats, bats, and other insects and animals. After we had already unfathomed the mystery of the Stars and reduced the Heavenly Constellations to minute and regular calculus they were still backwoodsmen, living in ignorance and blatant darkness.
The world today is indebted to us for the benefits of civilization. They stole our Arts and Sciences from Africa. Then why should we be ashamed of ourselves? Their modern improvements are but duplicates of a grander civilization that we reflected thousands of years ago; without the advantage of what is buried and still hidden, to be resurrected and reintroduced by the intelligence of our generation and our posterity.
Why should we be discouraged because somebody laughs at us today? Who can tell what tomorrow will bring forth? Did they not laugh at Moses, Christ, and Mohammed? Was there not a CARTHAGE, GREECE and ROME? We see and have changes everyday; so plan, work, be steadfast and do not be dismayed. As the Jew is held together by his religion, the white races by the assumption and the unwritten law of superiority, and the Mongolian by the precious tie of blood; so likewise the Blackman must be UNITED in one grand RACIAL HIERARCHY. Our union must know no climate, boundary or nationality.
BLACK MEN THE WORLD OVER MUST PRACTICE ONE FAITH, THAT OF CONFIDENCE IN THEMSELVES, WITH: ONE CAUSE, ONE GOAL, ONE DESTINY.*
Let no religious scruples, no political machination divide us, but let us hold together under all climates and in every country; making among ourselves a RACIAL EMPIRE upon which, "The Sun shall never set."
Let no voice but your own speak to you from the depths; let no influence but your own rouse you in time of peace and time of war. Hear all but attend only to that which concerns you, your allegiance shall be to your Race, then to your family and your Country. Remember always that the Jew in his political and economic urge is always first a Jew, the white is first a white man under all circumstances; and you can do no less than being first and always a Blackman; then all else will take care of itself. Let no one inoculate you with evil doctrines to suit their conveniences. There's no humanity before that which starts with yourself, "CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME." First to thyself be true and thou canst not then be false to any man.
NATURE first made us what we are and then out of our own creative genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that GREAT LAW. Let the SKY be your limit, and Eternity our Measurement. There's no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our own mind. Mind creates, and as much as we desire in NATURE, we can have through the creation of our own minds. Being at present the scientifically weaker Race, you shall treat others only as they treat you, but in your homes and everywhere possible you must teach the higher development of science to your children; and be sure to develop a RACE of SCIENTISTS par excellence, for in Science and NATIONALISM lie our only hope to withstand the evil designs of modern materialism.
Never forget your Cause. REMEMBER! We live, work and plan for the establishment of a great and binding RACIAL HIERARCHY; the founding of a RACIAL EMPIRE whose only natural, spiritual and political limits shall be: LIBERTY FOR AFRICANS, AT HOME AND ABROAD.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey August 17, 1887 to JUNE 10, 1940 President-General, Pro Temp, United States of Africa
Marvin X Archives on exhibit at Berkeley Juneteenth Festival
Sunday, June 13, 20010
Marvin X will exhibit his archives at Berkeley Juneteenth Festival this Sunday, June 13.
Many of his books, manuscripts, notebooks, photos, posters, leaflets from the Black Arts Movement to now will be on display at his booth. He will also autograph books. The following is a description of his archives at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. The Bancroft Library collection will not be exhibited.
Marvin X Archives
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Finding Aid to the Marvin X Papers, 1965-2006, bulk 1993-2006
The Marvin X Papers document the life and work of playwright, poet, essayist, and activist Marvin X during the nineties and the first decade of the 21st Century. The papers include correspondence; Marvin X's writings; materials related to the Recovery Theatre; works by his children and colleagues; and resource files. Correspondence includes letters, cards, and e-mails; correspondents include Amiri Baraka and other prominent African-American intellectuals. Marvin X's writings include notebooks, drafts, and manuscripts of poetry, novels, plays, essays, and planned anthologies. Documents from the Recovery Theatre include organizational and financial records and promotional material. Writings by others include essays, scripts, and academic papers by his three daughters. Resource files include academic articles, e-mails, flyers, news clippings and programs that contextualize and document Marvin X's involvement as an activist, intellectual, and literary figure in the African American community in the Bay Area in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Photographs include snapshots of family, friends, colleagues, and productions at the Recovery Theatre.
Background
Poet, playwright and essayist Marvin X was born Marvin E. Jackmon on May 29, 1944 in Fowler, California. He grew up in Fresno and Oakland, in an activist household. X attended OaklandCityCollege (MerrittCollege), where he was introduced to Black Nationalism and became friends with future Black Panther founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. X earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from San FranciscoStateUniversity and emerged as an important voice in the Black Arts Movement (BAM), the artistic arm of the Black Power movement, in the mid-to-late Sixties. X wrote for many of the BAM's key journals. He also co-founded, with playwright Ed Bullins and others, two of BAM's premier West Coast headquarters and venues - Oakland's Black House and San Francisco's Black Arts/West Theatre. In 1967, X joined the Nation of Islam and became known as El Muhajir. In the eighties, he organized the Melvin Black Forum on Human Rights and the first Annual All Black Men's Conference. He also served as an aide to former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and attempted to create the MarvinXCenter for the Study of World Religions. In 1999, X founded San Francisco's Recovery Theatre. His production of "One Day in the Life," the play he wrote about his drug addiction and recovery, became the longest-running African-American drama in Northern California. In 2004, in celebration of Black History Month, X produced the San Francisco Tenderloin Book Fair (also known as the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair) and University of Poetry. X has taught Black Studies, drama, creative writing, journalism, English and Arabic at a variety of California universities and colleges. He continues to work as an activist, educator, writer, and producer.
Extent
Number of containers: 8 cartons, 1 box Linear feet: 10.2
Restrictions
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94270-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Finding Aid to the Marvin X Papers, 1965-2006, bulk 1993-2006
Extent: Number of containers: 8 cartons, 1 box Linear feet: 10.2
Repository: The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Abstract: The Marvin X Papers document the life and work of playwright, poet, essayist, and activist Marvin X during the nineties and the first decade of the 21st Century. The papers include correspondence; Marvin X's writings; materials related to the Recovery Theatre; works by his children and colleagues; and resource files. Correspondence includes letters, cards, and e-mails; correspondents include Amiri Baraka and other prominent African-American intellectuals. Marvin X's writings include notebooks, drafts, and manuscripts of poetry, novels, plays, essays, and planned anthologies. Documents from the Recovery Theatre include organizational and financial records and promotional material. Writings by others include essays, scripts, and academic papers by his three daughters. Resource files include academic articles, e-mails, flyers, news clippings and programs that contextualize and document Marvin X's involvement as an activist, intellectual, and literary figure in the African American community in the Bay Area in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Photographs include snapshots of family, friends, colleagues, and productions at the Recovery Theatre.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94270-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted toresearch and educational purposes.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Marvin X Papers, BANC MSS 2006/217, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Alternate Forms Available
There are no alternate forms of this collection.
Separated Material
Printed materials, including poetry broadsides, have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft Library. Videotapes and DVDs/sound recordings have been transferred to the Microforms Collections of The Bancroft Library.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
X, Marvin, 1944-
African American poets
African American dramatists
African American scholars
African Americans--California
Black Arts movement
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The Marvin X Papers were purchased by The Bancroft Library in 2006.
Accruals
No additions are expected.
Processing Information
Processed at the container level by Marjorie Bryer in 2006.
Biographical Information
Poet, playwright and essayist Marvin X was born Marvin E. Jackmon on May 29, 1944 in Fowler, California. He grew up in Fresno and Oakland, in an activist household. X attended OaklandCityCollege (MerrittCollege), where he was introduced to Black Nationalism and became friends with future Black Panther founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. X earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from San FranciscoStateUniversity and emerged as an important voice in the Black Arts Movement (BAM), the artistic arm of the Black Power movement, in the mid-to-late Sixties. X wrote for many of the BAM's key journals. He also co-founded, with playwright Ed Bullins and others, two of BAM's premier West Coast headquarters and venues - Oakland's Black House and San Francisco's Black Arts/West Theatre. In 1967, X joined the Nation of Islam and became known as El Muhajir. In the eighties, he organized the Melvin Black Forum on Human Rights and the first Annual All Black Men's Conference. He also served as an aide to former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and attempted to create the MarvinXCenter for the Study of World Religions. In 1999, X founded San Francisco's Recovery Theatre. His production of "One Day in the Life," the play he wrote about his drug addiction and recovery, became the longest-running African-American drama in Northern California. In 2004, in celebration of Black History Month, X produced the San Francisco Tenderloin Book Fair (also known as the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair) and University of Poetry. X has taught Black Studies, drama, creative writing, journalism, English and Arabic at a variety of California universities and colleges. He continues to work as an activist, educator, writer, and producer.
System of Arrangement
Arranged to the container level.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Marvin X Papers document the life and work of playwright, poet, essayist, and activist Marvin X in the nineties and the first decade of the 21st Century. The papers include correspondence; Marvin X's writings; materials related to the Recovery Theatre; works by his children and colleagues; photographs; and resource files. Correspondence includes letters, cards and e-mails; correspondents include Amiri Baraka and other prominent African-American intellectuals. Marvin X's writings include notebooks, drafts and manuscripts of poetry, novels, plays, essays, and planned anthologies. Documents from the Recovery Theatre include organizational and financial records and promotional material. Writings by others include essays, scripts, and academic papers by his three daughters. Resource files include academic articles, e-mails, flyers, news clippings, and programs that contextualize and document Marvin X's involvement as an activist, intellectual, and literary figure in the African American community in the Bay Area in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Photographs include snapshots of family, friends, colleagues, and productions at the Recovery Theatre.
Series 1 Correspondence1974, 1977, circa 1998-2005
Physical Description: Carton 1
Arrangement
Arranged in order received.
Scope and Content Note
Consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence. Correspondents include Amiri Baraka and other prominent African-American intellectuals; subjects include the 2004 San Francisco Tenderloin Book Fair and University of Poetry, Black Bird Press, and the Recovery Theatre.
Carton 1, Folder 1-3
Letterscirca 1998-2005
Carton 1, Folder 4
Letters #4 - Black Radical Book Fair (San Francisco Tenderloin Book Fair)circa 2000-2004
Carton 1, Folder 5-14
Letterscirca 1998-2005
Series 2 Writingscirca 1993-2006
Physical Description: Cartons 1-6
Arrangement
Arranged in order received.
Scope and Content Note
Consists of notebooks, fragments, typescripts, manuscripts, page proofs, drafts, production notes, grant materials, and publicity materials. Includes poetry, drama, essays, novels, the literary journal Chickenbones, broadside poems, his autobiography, Somethin' Proper, and his long-running play about addiction and recovery, One Day in the Life.
Carton 1-3
Notebooks - #1-60circa 1993-2006
Carton 3
Production Notescirca 2001
Carton 3
Writings/Notes - #1-6circa 1993-2006
Carton 3
Chickenbones: A Journal and Broadside Poems circa 1995-2005
Carton 4
In the Crazy House Called America: Essays - Drafts and Page Proofs 2002
Carton 4
Somethin' Proper: The Life and Times of a North American African Poet - Drafts and Page Proofs 1994-1998
Carton 4
Muslim American Literature (Printed Texts, Compiled for an Anthology) undated
Carton 4
One Day in the Life (A Drama of Addiction and Recovery) - Draft 1996
Carton 4
"In the Name of Love: A Poetic Drama" - Typescript 1999
Carton 4
"Book Project #4: Fables Parables" - Manuscript and Typescript1999, undated
Carton 5
Abstract for a Publishing Grant2006
Carton 5
In the Crazy House - Drafts (#1 and Final) 2002
Carton 5
Love and War: Poems - Corrected Page Proofs 1995
Carton 5
"Why Don't You Say You Love Me" (Poem) - Manuscript (Photocopy)2005
Carton 5
Mama Said: A Novel (Photocopied Manuscript) and Manuscript (Books 1-3) circa 2006
Carton 5
"Marvin X: 5 Plays" ( Flowers for the Trashman, Take Care of Business, Blackbird, One Day in the Life, and Sargeant Santa) circa 1965, 1997, 2002, undated
Carton 5
Sweet Tea, Dirty Rice: Poems - Manuscript and Typescript undated
Carton 5
Toward Radical Spirituality - Parts 1 and 2, Manuscript 2005
Carton 6
"Marvin X: A Critical Look into the Mouth of a Poet" (A Collection of Essays About and Reviews of Marvin X)undated
Carton 6
Up from Ignorance: Essays (Manuscript and Typescript) circa 2003-2006
Carton 6
In Sha' Allah: A Personal History of Black Muslims in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area - Typescript circa 2003
Carton 6
Press Releasescirca 1998
Carton 6
Promotion (Includes Playbills)circa 1997-1998
Series 3 Recovery Theatrecirca 1998-2004
Physical Description: Carton 6
Arrangement
Arranged in order received.
Scope and Content Note
Consists of materials related to the San Francisco Tenderloin Book Fair and University of Poetry, organizational records, grant applications, financial records, and programs, playbills and promotional materials for Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness and One Day in the Life.
Carton 6
Recovery Theatre #1 - Black Book Fair2004
Carton 6
Recovery Theatre #2-#10circa 1998-2004
Carton 6
Programs, Playbills and Promotional Materials1998, 2000-2001
Series 4 Writings by Others2003, undated
Physical Description: Carton 7
Arrangement
Arranged in order received.
Scope and Content Note
Consists of manuscripts by Marvin X's three daughters, Amira Jackmon, Muhammida El Muhajir and Nefertitti Rhodes and a film script based on Marvin X's play, Flowers for the Trashman.
Carton 7
Amira Jackmon - "Notes from San Diego" and "Reparations for African Americans: A Distributive Justice Model"2003, undated
Carton 7
Muhammida El Muhajir - Color Lines and Around the Way Girl undated
Carton 7
Nefertitti Rhodes - "This Is His Love"undated
Carton 7
Mel Stewert [Stewart?] - "Flowers for the Trashman, a Film Script"undated
Series 5 Resource Filescirca 1993-2006
Physical Description: Cartons 7-8
Arrangement
Arranged in order received.
Scope and Content Note
Consists of approximately 26 folders organized by Marvin X as "Articles, Leaflets" and "Ephemera." These consist of news clippings, academic articles, programs, brochures, e-mails, flyers, ephemera, and Xeroxed photographs. These materials document Marvin X's involvement as an activist, intellectual, and literary figure in the African American community in the Bay Area and cover a broad range of topics, including the Black Panther Party, African American writers, African American politics, the Black Arts Movement and African liberation movements.
Carton 7-8
Articles, Leafletscirca 1993-2006
Carton 8
Marvin X - Ephemeracirca 1999-2002
Carton 8
Marvin X - Literary Biographycirca 2001-2003
Series 6 Photographscirca 1993-2006
Physical Description:Box 1
Arrangement
Arranged in order received.
Scope and Content Note
Consists of snapshots and Xeroxed copies of photographs of family, friends, and colleagues, as well as photos of productions at the Recovery Theatre and Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness.
Box 1
Family Photoscirca 1993-2006
Box 1
Recovery Theatrecirca 1998-2004
Box 1
Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness circa 2001
Box 1
Black Radical Photoscirca 1993-2006
➢ Chronology of Marvin X
➢ 1944 Born May 29, Fowler, CA to Owendell and Marian M. Jackmon, second child, brother Oliver born in 1943.
➢ Sits atop desk as father and mother publishes Fresno Voice, the Central Valley’s first black newspaper. Father was a Race man who served in WWI. He introduced Christian Science to wife who becomes a lifelong follower of Mary Baker Eddy. Mr. Jackmon remained a Methodist.
➢ Marvin attended Lincoln and Columbia elementary schools in Fresno. In Oakland
where the family moved, he attended Prescott, McFeely and St. Patrick elementary schools, also Lowell Jr. High.
➢ Wrote in the children’s section of the Oakland Tribune.
➢ 1962 Graduated with honors from Edison High School in Fresno.
➢ Attends Merritt College in Oakland where he meets Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Ken Freeman and Ernie Allen.
➢ Introduced to Black Nationalism. Wins short story contest in college magazine, story published in SoulBook, revolutionary nationalist publication.
➢ Graduates with AA in sociology. Attends San Francisco State College.
➢ 1965 At the request of novelist John Gardner, San Francisco State College drama department produced first play, Flowers for the Trashman.
-Called the best playwright to hit SF State by Kenneth Rexroth.
-Worked as TA for novelist Leo Litwak.
➢ 1966 Writings begin to appear in Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Negro Digest (Black World), Black Scholar, Journal of Black Poetry, Black Theatre, and Muhammad Speaks. Black Dialogue staff visits Eldridge Cleaver and Bunchy Carter in Soledad prison. Marvin is present. Black Dialogue publishes Cleaver’s essay, My Queen, I Greet You, later it appears in Soul On Ice.
➢ Co-founds Black Arts West Theatre with Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt, Duncan Barber, Hillery Broadus and Carl Boissiere.
➢ 1967 Co-founds Black House political/cultural center in San Francisco with Eldridge Cleaver, Ed Bullins and Ethna Wyatt. Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Chicago Art Ensemble, Avotja, Reginald Lockett, Emory Douglass, Samuel Napier, Lil Bobby Hutton, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, attend Black House.
➢ Marvin X introduces Eldridge Cleaver to Bobby Seale. Eldridge joins BPP. Black Panthers plan invasion of state capital at Black House.
➢ Marvin joins Nation of Islam, flees to Toronto, Canada to protest draft and resist Vietnam war.
➢ 1968 Goes underground to Chicago shortly before assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lived on Southside during riots. Meets Don L. Lee, Gwen Brooks, Hoyt Fuller, Phil Choran, Carolyn Rogers, Johari Amini and others of Chicago BAM (Black Arts Movement.
➢ In Harlem joins Ed Bullins at the New Lafayette Theatre. Works as associate editor of Black Theatre magazine. Associates with Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Sun Ran, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Last Poets, Barbara Ann Teer, Milford Graves.
➢ Publishes Fly to Allah, poems that later establish him as the father of Muslim American literature, according to Dr. Mojah Kahf of the University of Arkansas department of English and Islamic Studies.
➢ 1969 Apprehended returning from Montreal, Canada, charged with draft evasion. Defended by Conrad Lynn. Returns to California to stand trial and teach at Fresno State University until removed at the insistence of Governor Ronald Reagan, by any means necessary.
➢ Angela Davis is also removed from teaching at UCLA. Student protesters burn computer center at Fresno State. Students from throughout California attend draft trial in San Francisco.
➢ 1970 Convicted, flees into exile a second time, this time to Mexico City and Belize. Marries Barbara Hall, a student from Fresno State College, in Mexico City. Revolutionary artists Elizabeth Catlett Mora and Poncho Mora witness civil ceremony.
➢ Deported from Belize because his presence was not beneficial to the welfare
of the colony of British Honduras. While in custody, police ask him to teach them about black power. Sentenced to five months in Federal prison, Terminal Island.
➢ Founds Black Educational Theatre in Fresno.
➢ Performs musical version of Flowers as Take Care of Business. Reactionary negroes kill choir director in theatre, put hit out on poet.
➢ He flees to San Francisco, opens Black Educational Theatre in Fillmore District,
joined by Sun Ra’s Arkestra.
➢ Produced five hour musical version of Take Care of Business, with cast of fifty at Harding Theatre on Divisadero, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes.
➢ 1972 Produced Resurrection of the Dead, a myth/ritual dance drama with Plunky, Babatunde Lea, Victor Willis as lead singer (Village People), dancers included Raymond Sawyer, Jamilah Hunter, Nisa Ra, Thomas Duckett.
➢ Lectures at University of California, Berkeley in Black Studies. Marries UCB student, Nisa (Greta Pope)
➢ Awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Travels to southern Mexico, Oxaca, Trinidad and Guyana. Interviews prime minister Forbes Burnham. Interview appeared in Black Scholar.
➢ Published Woman,Man’s Best Friend, poems, proverbs, lyrics, parables, Al Kitab Sudan Press.
➢ 1973 Returns to San Francisco State University, awarded BA.
➢ Earns MA in one semester, English/Creative writing.
➢ Teaches at SF State, black literature, journalism, radio and television writing.
➢ 1975 Lectures at Mills College,Oakland.
➢ Produced musical version of Woman,Man’s Best Friend.
➢ Upward Bound program pressured director Connie Wye to halt production. She refused, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and expired.
➢ Visiting professor at University of California, San Diego. Taught Afro-American literature and Elementary Arabic.
➢ 1976 Organizes Eldridge Cleaver Crusades. Hires staff of Black Muslims for Cleaver’s ministry. Meets Donald Rumsfeld, Charles Colson, Jim and Tammy Baker, Rev. Robert Schuller. Deals with Rev. Billy Graham, Rev. Falwell, Pat Roberson, Cal Thomas, Pat Boone, Hal Linsey, Art DeMoss.
➢ 1978 Returns to Fresno. Falls in love with Sharon Johnson, childhood friend. See autobiography Somethin Proper.
➢ 1979 Lectures at University of Nevada, Reno.
➢ Awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities planning grants.
Produced Excellence in Education Conference. Participants included Eldridge Cleaver, Dr. Harry Edwards, Dr. Wade Nobles, Fahizah Alim, Sherley A. Williams,Ntizi Cayou, Dr. Ahimsa Sumchi.
➢ Publishes Selected Poems.
➢ Returns to Oakland to organize Melvin Black Human Rights Conference at Oakland Auditorium to stop police killing of black men. Participants included Minister Farakhan, Angela Davis, Paul Cobb, Eldridge Cleaver, Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dezzie Woods-Jones. Police killings stop but drive by shootings begin along with introduction of Crack.
➢ 1980 Produced National Conference of Black Men at Oakland auditorium. Participants included Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Oba Tshaka, Dr. Lige Dailey, John Douimbia (founder), Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones.
➢ 1981 Taught drama at Laney College.
➢ Did production of In the Name of Love,a poetic drama directed by Ayodele Nzinga. Eldridge Cleaver said this drama returned theatre to the poetic dramas of Shakespeare.
➢ Taught manhood training at Merritt College.
➢ 1982 Taught English at Kings River Community College, Reedly CA.
➢ Retires from Teaching with 97% student retention rate.
➢ 1983 Incorporated Afrikan Universal Library for Hurriyah (Ethna X.) Vends on streets of San Francisco, organized vendors (mostly white) under his non-profit corporation. Harassed under color of law
➢ 1984 Vends political buttons at Democratic and Republican conventions. San Francisco Chronicle called him the Button King. In Dallas, the Republicans observed his salesmanship and said, “If he makes one more dollar, he’ll be a Republican”
➢ Descends into the muck and mire of hell: Crack drives him into the mental hospital several times.
➢ 1989 Writes article on Huey Newton, based on last meeting in Oakland Crack house.
Article becomes source of Ed Bullins’ play, Salaam, Huey, Salaam. Article is beginning of autobiography, Somethin Proper.
➢ 1990 Begins recovery at San Francisco’s Glide Church with Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani. Transcribes testimonies of Crack addicts.
➢ Writes docudrama of his addiction and recovery One Day In The Life.
➢ 1995 Transition of Marsha Satterfield at 41 years old, cancer. Poet flees to Seattle, WA. Works on autobiography.
➢ Publishes Love and War, poems.
➢ 1996 Produces One Day In The Life with Majeeda Rahman’s Healthy Babies Project, a recovery program for woman and children. Play performed at Alice Arts Theatre.
➢ 1997 One Day In the Life opens at Sista’s Place in Brooklyn, New York, also Brecht Forum in Manhattan and Kimako’s Blues in Newark, New Jersey, home of the Barakas.
➢ 1997 Attends National Black Theatre festival, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Meets Carolyn Turner. She provides him with time and space to finish autobiography, plenty of sweet tea and dirty rice, in the tradition of the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
➢ 1998 Transition of Eldridge Cleaver. Kathleen Cleaver approves poem Soul Gone Home to be read at funeral in Los Angeles. Marvin and Majeeda Rahman organize memorial service in Oakland. Participants included Emory Douglas, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Dr. Nathan Hare, Reginald Major, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Kathleen and Joju Cleaver. Publication of autobiography Somethin Proper.
➢ 1999 Establishes Recovery Theatre. Begins run of One Day in the Life. Gets support from Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco after Uhuru House performance. One Day becomes longest running black play in the Bay. Ishmael Reed says, It’s the best drama I ever saw.
➢ Associate director and lead actress, Ayodele Nzinga; role of Huey Newton performed by Geoffrey Grier; Marvin X played himself or did the opening monologue, clocked at forty-five minutes.
➢ Funded by the Mayor’s office, SF Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Fund, Grants for the
Arts, Marin Country Board of Supervisor’s, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.
➢ 2001 Produces Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness at San Francisco State University. Participants incl ded: Nathan and Julia Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Dr. Cornell West, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Ishamel Reed, Askia Toure, Avotja, Eddie Gale, Rudi Wongozi, Rev. Andriette Earl, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Elliott Bey, Ayodele Nzinga, Destiny, Tarika Lewis, Phavia Kujichagulia, Suzzette Celeste, Tureeda, Geoffrey Grier, Rev. Otis Lloyd, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Ptah Allah-El. Funded by Glide Church and Vanguard foundation.
➢ Video of Kings and Queens screened at New York International Independent film festival. In Newark on 9/11, stopped at airport by police.
➢ 2002 Transition of son Darrel at 38, suffered manic oppression.
➢ Publication of In the Crazy House Called America, essays.
➢ 2004 Produced San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair. Participants included Amiri and Amina Baraka, Nathan and Julia Hare, Al Young, Askia Toure, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Ishamel Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Reginald Lockett, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Davey D, Opal Palmer Adisa, Devorah Major, Fillmore Slim, Rosebud Bitterdose, Sam Hamod, Ayodele Nzinga, Tarika Lewis.
➢ Published Land of My Daughters, poems, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, essays.
➢ Published issue of Black Bird Press Review newspaper.
➢ 2006 Writes Sweet Tea, Dirty Rice, poems; Up From Ignorance, essays; Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality, essays; Mama Said Use The Mind God Gave You, autobiographical novel.
➢ Archives sold to University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library.
➢ Transition of friends: Dr. Salat Townsend, Paula Shular, Alonzo Batin, Dewey Redman and Rufus Harley.
➢ Online writings appear at www.nathanielturner.com, www.aalbc.com, www.konch.com
THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba has learned with profound concern of the criminal attack perpetrated in the early hours of May 31 by the special forces of the Israeli Army on a flotilla of boats which, in international waters, was transporting humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people resident in the Gaza Strip, an attack that provoked death and injury among various members of that flotilla.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its most energetic condemnation of this devious and criminal attack on the part of the Israeli government and calls on the international community and peace-loving peoples to demand the immediate lifting by the Israeli authorities of the illegal, ruthless and genocidal blockade of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Cuba wishes to convey its most heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and reiterates its support for and solidarity with the just cause of the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights, which include the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Havana, May 31, 2010
Translated by Granma International ============================================================================== Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs
Statement
The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Commander Hugo Chávez, emphatically condemns the brutal massacre perpetrated by the State of Israel against the members of the Liberty Flotilla, as a result of the war action started by the Israeli Army against defenseless civilians, who tried to carry humanitarian aid supplies to the Palestine people of the Gaza Strip, who are victim of the criminal blockage imposed by the State of Israel.
President Hugo Chávez, on behalf of his government and the Venezuelan people, expresses his deepest regret and sends his deepest condolences to the families and relatives of the heroes who have been victim of this state crime, and commit to honor their memory and to give the necessary help so that the responsible of this murderers are severely punished.
The revolutionary government of Venezuela will continue denouncing the terrorist and criminal nature of Israel, and it reaffirms, today more than ever, its unbreakable commitment with the fight of the Palestinian people for freedom, the sovereignty and the dignity.
Caracas, May 31, 2010 Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs May 31, 2010
We, the undersigned, take strong exception to the Op-Ed, “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game,” published in the New York Times, April 23, 2010 by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. There are gross errors, inaccuracies and misrepresentations in Gates’ presentation of the transatlantic European enslavement system. Moreover, we are duly concerned about his political motivations and find offensive his use of the term “blame game.” Ittrivializes one of the most heinous crimes against humanity—the European enslavement of African people. Gates contradicts his stated purpose of “ending” what he refers to as a “blame-game,” by erroneously making African rulers and elites equally responsible with European and American enslavers. He shifts the “blame” in a clear attempt to undermine the demand for reparations.
The African Holocaust or Maafa, as it is referred to by many, is a crime against humanity and is recognized as such by the United Nations, scholars, and historians who have documented the primary and overwhelming culpability of European nations for enslavement in Europe, in the Americas and elsewhere. In spite of this overwhelming documentation, Gates inexplicably shifts the burden of culpability to Africans who were and are its victims. The abundance of scholarly work also affirms that Europeans initiated the process, established the global infrastructure for enslavement, and imposed, financed and defended it, and were the primary beneficiaries of it in various ways through human trafficking itself, banking, insurance, manufacturing, farming, shipping and allied enterprises.
No serious scholar of African history or reparations activist denies the collaboration of some African rulers, elites, merchants and middlemen. Indeed, collaboration accompanies oppression as a continuing fact of history. Historians have described collaborators in two other major Holocausts: the Jewish Holocaust and the Native American Holocaust. Yet Gates, ignoring the historical record, makes the morally unacceptable error of conflating three distinct groups involved in the Holocaust of enslavement: perpetrators, collaborators and victims. The Jewish Holocaust had its Judenräte, Jewish councils which chose Jews for enslaved labor and for the death camps and facilitated their transport to them, as well as its kapos, Jewish camp overseers, who brutalized their fellow prisoners along with the SS guards. In the Native American Holocaust, there were also Native American collaborators who fought with the Whites to defeat, dispossess and dominate other Native Americans. Thus, such collaboration in oppression is not unique to Africa and Africans.
Gates makes it clear that the article is written in the context of “post-racial posturing,” eagerly set forth by a nation citing its first Black president as false evidence of the declining significance of race and racism. Indeed, this is a period of resurgent racism reflected in the rise of the Tea Party movement, increasing hostility toward immigrants, open public recommitments to embracing and celebrating the history of racial oppression, joined with the fostering of fear to facilitate the continued denial of civil and human rights.
The purpose for Gates’ misrepresentation of the historical record is to undermine the African and African descendant reparations movement, and to make it appear to be based on unfounded demands. An accurate reporting of the history of the Holocaust of enslavement and the period of segregation and other forms of oppression which followed it, attests to the importance, in fact, the essentiality of reparations. The widespread opposing responses to Gates and the anti-reparations interests and sentiments he represents in his article, provides us with an excellent opportunity to renew the just demand for reparations for centuries of enslavement and continued economic disadvantage and exploitation Black people endured in the Jim Crow era and subsequent years of wage slavery.
Gates’ flawed and misconstrued presentation of the global reparations movement to redress the injuries of the Holocaust of enslavement and subsequent labor exploitation attempts to leave the reader with the impression that the movement is only a product of misguided African Americans. However, legal battles regarding reparations for the European enslavement of Africans are being waged throughout the United States, Jamaica, Brazil, South Africa, The Virgin Islands, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Martinique, Canada, Namibia and Barbados. The United Nations declaration that 2011 is the International Year of People of African Descent will afford yet another opportunity to expand the reparations movement for the longest unpunished crime against humanity --- the European enslavment of African people. In this country, reparations scholars, activists and others will continue their efforts in support of the House Judiciary Committee, HR-40, which calls for a study of the economic, cultural and psychological impact of enslavement on United States citizens.
The record of the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), held in South Africa in 2001, offers additional evidence of the global reach and relevance of the reparations movement and the work of Africans and African descendants in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora. Gates’ omission of these efforts and WCAR seems to suggest either a deliberate misrepresentation or a reflection of his distance from contemporary political movements in the international African community.
We, the undersigned, intellectuals, activists, artists, professionals, men and women from various fields of focus, assemble here from a call by the Institute of the Black World 21st Century united in our profound commitment to African people and with a long history of involvement in national and international issues involving Africa and people of African descent. Signing this letter is not simply to respond to Gates’ clear inaccuracies, misrepresentations and questionable timing, but rather to honor and defend the memory and interests of the victims of the Holocaust of enslavement. We have come together at this historical moment to bear continuing witness to this gross human injury and the continuing consequences of this catastrophic and horrific event and process, and reaffirm our renewed commitment to continue and intensify the struggle for reparative and social justice in this society and the world.
Committee to Advance the Movement for Reparations
Rick Adams Dr. Leonard Jeffries
Atty. Adjoa Aiyetoro Sister Viola Plummer
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante Brother James Rodgers
Herb Boyd Atty. Nkechi Taifa
Dr. Iva Carruthers Dr. James Turner
Dr. Ron Daniels Dr. Ife Williams
Dr. Jeanette Davidson Dr. Ray Winbush
Dr. Maulana Karenga Dr. Conrad Worrill
Signatories
Adisa Alkebulan, San Diego State, President, Diopian Institute
Dr. Mario Beatty, Chair, African American Studies, Chicago State University
Keith Beauchamp, filmmaker
Dr. Melanie Bratcher, University of Oklahoma
Dr. Sundiata Keita, Cha-Jua, President of National Council for Black Studies
Dr. Lupe Davidson, University of Oklahoma
Dr. Joy DeGruy, author of "The Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome"
Dr. Daryl Harris, Howard University
Eddie Harris, filmmaker
Juliette Hubbard, Australian Aboriginal Activist
Rev. Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson, North American President World Council of Churches
Iya Marilyn Kai Jewett, Progressive Images Marketing Communications
Darryl Jordan, American Friends Service Center-Third World Coalition
Prof. Chad Dion Lassiter President, Black Men at Univ. of Penn School of Social Work, Inc
Haki Madhubuti, President/CEO, Third World Press
Dr. Emeka Nwadiora, Temple University
Dr. Patricia Reid Merritt, Stockton State University
Dr. Segun Shabaka, National Association of Kawaida Organizations--New York
Dr. Michael Simanga, Fulton County Arts Council, Atlanta
James Lance Taylor, President of National Conference of Black Political Scientists
Dr. Christel Temple, University of Maryland
Dr. Ronald Walters, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
Dr. Valethia Watkins, Chair, African American Studies, Olive Harvey College
Dr. Komozi Woodard, Sarah Lawrence College
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Pastor Emeritus, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago
Atty. Faya Rose Sanders, President, National Voting Rights Museum, Selma, AL
Leonard Dunston, President Emeritus, National Association of Black Social Workers
Betty Dopson, Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People
Bob Law, National Radio Personality
Marvin X, Academy of Da Corner, Black Bird Press
Contact Information
Press Inquiries and Interviews via Herb Boyd: 917.291.1825 - Email: herbboyd47@gmail.com
General Information and/or Responses: 888.774.2921 - Email. info@ibw21.org
➢ 1944 Born May 29, Fowler, CA to Owendell and Marian M. Jackmon, second child.
➢ Sits atop desk as father and mother publishes Fresno Voice, the Central Valley’s first black newspaper. Father was a Race man who served in WWI. He introduced Christian Science to wife who becomes a lifelong follower of Mary Baker Eddy. Mr. Jackmon remained a Methodist.
➢ Marvin attended Lincoln and Columbia elementary schools in Fresno. In Oakland where the family moved, he attended Prescott, McFeely and St. Patrick elementary schools, also Lowell Jr. High.
➢ Wrote in the children’s section of the Oakland Tribune.
➢ 1962 Graduated with honors from Edison High School in Fresno.
➢ Attends Merritt College in Oakland where he meets Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Ken Freeman and Ernie Allen.
➢ Introduced to Black Nationalism. Wins short story contest in college magazine, story published in SoulBook, revolutionary nationalist publication.
➢ Graduates with AA in sociology. Attends San Francisco State College.
➢ 1965 At the request of novelist John Gardner, San Francisco State College drama department produced first play, Flowers for the Trashman. -Called the best playwright to hit SF State by Kenneth Rexroth. -Worked as TA for novelist Leo Litwak.
➢ 1966 Writings begin to appear in Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Negro Digest (Black World), Black Scholar, Journal of Black Poetry, Black Theatre, and Muhammad Speaks. Black Dialogue staff visits Eldridge Cleaver and Bunchy Carter in Soledad prison. Marvin is present. Black Dialogue publishes Cleaver’s essay, My Queen, I Greet You, later it appears in Soul On Ice.
➢ Co-founds Black Arts West Theatre with Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt, Duncan Barber, Hillery Broadus and Carl Boissiere.
➢ 1967 Co-founds Black House political/cultural center in San Francisco with Eldridge Cleaver, Ed Bullins and Ethna Wyatt. Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Chicago Art Ensemble, Avotja, Reginald Lockett, Emory Douglass, Samuel Napier, Lil Bobby Hutton, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, attend Black House.
➢ Marvin X introduces Eldridge Cleaver to Bobby Seale. Eldridge joins BPP. Black Panthers plan invasion of state capital at Black House.
➢ Marvin joins Nation of Islam, flees to Toronto, Canada to protest draft and resist Vietnam war.
➢ 1968 Goes underground to Chicago shortly before assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lived on Southside during riots. Meets Don L. Lee, Gwen Brooks, Hoyt Fuller, Phil Choran, Carolyn Rogers, Johari Amini and others of Chicago BAM (Black Arts Movement.
➢ In Harlem joins Ed Bullins at the New Lafayette Theatre. Works as associate editor of Black Theatre magazine. Associates with Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Sun Ran, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Last Poets, Barbara Ann Teer, Milford Graves.
➢ Publishes Fly to Allah, poems that later establish him as the father of Muslim American literature, according to Dr. Mojah Kahf of the University of Arkansas department of English and Islamic Studies.
➢ 1969 Apprehended returning from Montreal, Canada, charged with draft evasion. Defended by Conrad Lynn. Returns to California to stand trial and teach at Fresno State University until removed at the insistence of Governor Ronald Reagan, by any means necessary.
➢ Angela Davis is also removed from teaching at UCLA. Student protesters burn computer center at Fresno State. Students from throughout California attend draft trial in San Francisco.
➢ 1970 Convicted, flees into exile a second time, this time to Mexico City and Belize. Marries Barbara Hall, a student from Fresno State College, in Mexico City. Revolutionary artists Elizabeth Catlett Mora and Poncho Mora witness civil ceremony.
➢ Deported from Belize because his presence was not beneficial to the welfare of the colony of British Honduras. While in custody, police ask him to teach them about black power. Sentenced to five months in Federal prison, Terminal Island.
➢ Founds Black Educational Theatre in Fresno.
➢ Performs musical version of Flowers as Take Care of Business. Reactionary negroes kill choir director in theatre, put hit out on poet.
➢ He flees to San Francisco, opens Black Educational Theatre in Fillmore District, joined by Sun Ra’s Arkestra.
➢ Produced five hour musical version of Take Care of Business, with cast of fifty at Harding Theatre on Divisadero, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes.
➢ 1972 Produced Resurrection of the Dead, a myth/ritual dance drama with Plunky, Babatunde Lea, Victor Willis as lead singer (Village People), dancers included Raymond Sawyer, Jamilah Hunter, Nisa Ra, Thomas Duckett.
➢ Lectures at University of California, Berkeley in Black Studies. Marries UCB student, Nisa (Greta Pope)
➢ Awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Travels to southern Mexico, Oxaca, Trinidad and Guyana. Interviews prime minister Forbes Burnham. Interview appeared in Black Scholar.
➢ Published Woman,Man’s Best Friend, poems, proverbs, lyrics, parables, Al Kitab Sudan Press.
➢ 1973 Returns to San Francisco State University, awarded BA.
➢ Earns MA in one semester, English/Creative writing.
➢ Teaches at SF State, black literature, journalism, radio and television writing.
➢ 1975 Lectures at Mills College,Oakland.
➢ Produced musical version of Woman,Man’s Best Friend.
➢ Upward Bound program pressured director Connie Wye to halt production. She refused, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and expired.
➢ Visiting professor at University of California, San Diego. Taught Afro-American literature and Elementary Arabic.
➢ 1976 Organizes Eldridge Cleaver Crusades. Hires staff of Black Muslims for Cleaver’s ministry. Meets Donald Rumsfeld, Charles Colson, Jim and Tammy Baker, Rev. Robert Schuller. Deals with Rev. Billy Graham, Rev. Falwell, Pat Roberson, Cal Thomas, Pat Boone, Hal Linsey, Art DeMoss.
➢ 1978 Returns to Fresno. Falls in love with Sharon Johnson, childhood friend. See autobiography Somethin Proper.
➢ 1979 Lectures at University of Nevada, Reno.
➢ Awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities planning grants. Produced Excellence in Education Conference. Participants included Eldridge Cleaver, Dr. Harry Edwards, Dr. Wade Nobles, Fahizah Alim, Sherley A. Williams,Ntizi Cayou, Dr. Ahimsa Sumchi.
➢ Publishes Selected Poems.
➢ Returns to Oakland to organize Melvin Black Human Rights Conference at Oakland Auditorium to stop police killing of black men. Participants included Minister Farakhan, Angela Davis, Paul Cobb, Eldridge Cleaver, Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dezzie Woods-Jones. Police killings stop but drive by shootings begin along with introduction of Crack.
➢ 1980 Produced National Conference of Black Men at Oakland auditorium. Participants included Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Oba Tshaka, Dr. Lige Dailey, John Douimbia (founder), Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones.
➢ 1981 Taught drama at Laney College.
➢ Did production of In the Name of Love,a poetic drama directed by Ayodele Nzinga. Eldridge Cleaver said this drama returned theatre to the poetic dramas of Shakespeare.
➢ Taught manhood training at Merritt College.
➢ 1982 Taught English at Kings River Community College, Reedly CA.
➢ Retires from Teaching with 97% student retention rate.
➢ 1983 Incorporated Afrikan Universal Library for Hurriyah (Ethna X.) Vends on streets of San Francisco, organized vendors (mostly white) under his non-profit corporation. Harassed under color of law
➢ 1984 Vends political buttons at Democratic and Republican conventions. San Francisco Chronicle called him the Button King. In Dallas, the Republicans observed his salesmanship and said, “If he makes one more dollar, he’ll be a Republican”
➢ Descends into the muck and mire of hell: Crack drives him into the mental hospital several times.
➢ 1989 Writes article on Huey Newton, based on last meeting in Oakland Crack house. Article becomes source of Ed Bullins’ play, Salaam, Huey, Salaam. Article is beginning of autobiography, Somethin Proper.
➢ 1990 Begins recovery at San Francisco’s Glide Church with Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani. Transcribes testimonies of Crack addicts.
➢ Writes docudrama of his addiction and recovery One Day In The Life.
➢ 1995 Transition of Marsha Satterfield at 41 years old, cancer. Poet flees to Seattle, WA. Works on autobiography.
➢ Publishes Love and War, poems.
➢ 1996 Produces One Day In The Life with Majeeda Rahman’s Healthy Babies Project, a recovery program for woman and children. Play performed at Alice Arts Theatre.
➢ 1997 One Day In the Life opens at Sista’s Place in Brooklyn, New York, also Brecht Forum in Manhattan and Kimako’s Blues in Newark, New Jersey, home of the Barakas.
➢ 1997 Attends National Black Theatre festival, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Meets Carolyn Turner. She provides him with time and space to finish autobiography, plenty of sweet tea and dirty rice, in the tradition of the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
➢ 1998 Transition of Eldridge Cleaver. Kathleen Cleaver approves poem Soul Gone Home to be read at funeral in Los Angeles. Marvin and Majeeda Rahman organize memorial service in Oakland. Participants included Emory Douglas, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Dr. Nathan Hare, Reginald Major, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Kathleen and Joju Cleaver. Publication of autobiography Somethin Proper.
➢ 1999 Establishes Recovery Theatre. Begins run of One Day in the Life. Gets support from Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco after Uhuru House performance. One Day becomes longest running black play in the Bay. Ishmael Reed says, It’s the best drama I ever saw.
➢ Associate director and lead actress, Ayodele Nzinga; role of Huey Newton performed by Geoffrey Grier; Marvin X played himself or did the opening monologue, clocked at forty-five minutes.
➢ Funded by the Mayor’s office, SF Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Fund, Grants for the Arts, Marin Country Board of Supervisor’s, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.
➢ 2001 Produces Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness at San Francisco State University. Participants incl ded: Nathan and Julia Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Dr. Cornell West, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Ishamel Reed, Askia Toure, Avotja, Eddie Gale, Rudi Wongozi, Rev. Andriette Earl, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Elliott Bey, Ayodele Nzinga, Destiny, Tarika Lewis, Phavia Kujichagulia, Suzzette Celeste, Tureeda, Geoffrey Grier, Rev. Otis Lloyd, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Ptah Allah-El. Funded by Glide Church and Vanguard foundation.
➢ Video of Kings and Queens screened at New York International Independent film festival. In Newark on 9/11, stopped at airport by police.
➢ 2002 Transition of son Darrel at 38, suffered manic oppression.
➢ Publication of In the Crazy House Called America, essays.
➢ 2004 Produced San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair. Participants included Amiri and Amina Baraka, Nathan and Julia Hare, Al Young, Askia Toure, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Ishamel Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Reginald Lockett, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Davey D, Opal Palmer Adisa, Devorah Major, Fillmore Slim, Rosebud Bitterdose, Sam Hamod, Ayodele Nzinga, Tarika Lewis.
➢ Published Land of My Daughters, poems, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, essays.
➢ Published issue of Black Bird Press Review newspaper.
➢ 2006 Writes Sweet Tea, Dirty Rice, poems; Up From Ignorance, essays; Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality, essays; Mama Said Use The Mind God Gave You, autobiographical novel.
➢ Archives sold to University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library.
➢ Transition of friends: Dr. Salat Townsend, Paula Shular, Alonzo Batin, Dewey Redman and Rufus Harley.
➢ Online writings appear at www.nathanielturner.com, www.aalbc.com, www.konch.com
African American Experience in California, edited by Aparajita Nanda, will include the Marvin X essay, "Welcome to Mexi-Cali" from Chicken Bones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes, posted online 14 April 2006. Copyright (c) 2006 by Marvin X.
African American Experience in California, to be published in June 2011, collects literature past and present that explores the African American experience in California.
Lawyer airs unpublished intro to Malcolm X classic :: NEW YORK - Decrying American race relations as a near-war, Malcolm X expressed hope that his tumultuous life story could help blacks and whites, according to a never-published introduction to his best-selling autobiography.
The introduction, read publicly for the first time last week, underscores the ambition, personal-as-political power and foreboding of ``The Autobiography of Malcolm X,'' published shortly after the civil rights leader was assassinated in 1965.
``I'm writing this book for the best interests of the Negro and the white man in America,'' begins the introduction, read by a Detroit lawyer who bought it from the estate of the autobiography's collaborator, Alex Haley.
``Most sincerely I want my life story to do as much good for America and for both races as it possibly can. ... I give my life to be used to benefit America and humanity, that America will learn that the Negro's problem is a challenge to America's consciousness and that the Negro is America's problem.''
The existence of the introduction, and three other unpublished chapters apparently intended for the 19-chapter political classic, has been known since entertainment attorney Gregory J. Reed bought them at a 1992 auction of Haley's estate. Some pages have been exhibited in a Detroit museum.
But Reed on Wednesday read it publicly for the first time, to an audience of hundreds at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The organization was founded by the civil rights leader's late widow and housed in the building where he was killed.
It's unclear why the introduction or the other chapters weren't in the book, said Morgan Entrekin, who heads the autobiography's original publisher, Grove Press. Now called Grove/Atlantic Inc., the publisher is talking with Reed about possibly releasing the unpublished sections.
The introduction echoes the themes of the book, which traces Malcolm X's evolution from a child who lost his parents to violence and mental illness, to a teenager lured into ghetto vice and crime, to a burglary convict drawn to a burgeoning black Muslim movement and finally to a fiery voice for black empowerment.
Portraying his experience as a reflection of racial oppression, Malcolm X says he aims ``to end the white man's enslavement of the black man's mind.'' Apparently written in 1964, it describes the state of American race relations as ``just this side of war.''
It also reflects Malcolm X's sense that his life was at risk.
``Today I have not the time to write a book merely with the ambition to excite or stimulate some readers' minds,'' he observes, foreshadowing haunting predictions of his violent death.
Reed said he bought the unseen autobiography chapters, as well as the manuscript of the published book, to ensure their conservation. He spent more than $120,000, ``a lot of money for me, but at the same time, it was really a steal for mankind,'' he said in an interview.
He has occasionally given talks about some of the material, including an unpublished chapter setting out a 13-point plan for blacks to achieve economic, social and cultural independence as a prelude to ``true integration.''
The missing chapters delve into Malcolm X's philosophy and ideas for improving the country, rather than focusing on events in his life, Reed says.
One of the civil rights era's most controversial and compelling figures, Malcolm X rose to fame as the Nation of Islam's chief spokesman, proclaiming the black Muslim organization's message at the time: racial separatism as a road to self-actualization. He famously urged blacks to claim civil rights ``by any means necessary'' and referred to whites as ``devils.''
But after breaking with the Nation of Islam in 1964 and making an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, he espoused a more internationalist approach to human rights and began emphasizing that he didn't view all whites as racists. He also took the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
He was shot to death on Feb. 21, 1965, as he began a speech at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom, now the Shabazz center. He was 39.
The only man ever to admit involvement in the assassination, Thomas Hagan, 69, was paroled last month from a prison work-release program. Two men convicted with him - who he said were not among his four accomplices - were paroled in the 1980s. No one else has ever been charged.
Hagan has said the assassins acted out of rage at Malcolm X's criticism of the Nation of Islam's then-leader, Elijah Muhammad.
Often branded a demagogue and extremist during his lifetime, Malcolm X was celebrated with a postage stamp a quarter-century after his death. The autobiography and Spike Lee's 1992 film, ``Malcolm X,'' helped build his stature as an agent of social change.
Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X's daughters, and William Alex Haley, the author's son, said at Wednesday's reading they appreciated Reed's efforts to preserve the civil rights leader's legacy.
As for the missing chapters, ``it doesn't matter what happened to them,'' Haley said. ``It matters that we can read them today.''
