Obama: getting 'poned' Bibi style - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Obama: getting 'poned' Bibi style - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Bolivia Says Yankee Go!

Bolivia's Morales rages against US 'coup-plotting

President Morales is a staunch critic of the US

Bolivian President Evo Morales has accused the US of backing coup attempts against him and other left-wing Latin American leaders.

Mr Morales said US policies to combat drugs and terrorism were pretexts for "intervention" in the region.

He was addressing a meeting of regional defence ministers, including US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.

Mr Gates listened but made no public response to the accusations.

The US embassy later expressed disappointment at Mr Morales's remarks.

In an hour-long speech, Mr Morales accused the US of backing failed coup attempts in Venezuela in 2002, in Bolivia in 2008, and in Ecuador this year.

He also accused it of involvement in the ousting of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

"Latin American compatriots, we must recognise that the US beat us in Honduras, the North American empire beat us. But the people of America also won in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador", he said.

"The score is 3-1".

The US has previously strongly denied involvement in all those cases.

Mr Gates did not respond to President Morales's remarks

Mr Morales did not mention Mr Gates by name, but much of his speech was clearly directed at the US defence secretary and former CIA director.

The Bolivian leader said "nobody" would stop his country from forming the alliances it chose.

"Bolivia, under my leadership, will have agreements and alliances with every one," he said.

'Shared dreams'

Mr Gates did not respond to Mr Morales's accusations when he addressed the conference later in the day.

Instead, he backed a plan to improve disaster relief cooperation to respond to regional events such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile earlier this year.

He also gave his support to a proposal for greater transparency on defence spending in the region to prevent arms races.

"Let us not lose sight of our shared dreams and common aspirations for a free, prosperous and secure Americas", he said.

Mr Gates had earlier warned Bolivia to be careful in its dealings with Iran, which has offered to help it develop nuclear energy.

""As a sovereign state Bolivia obviously can have relations with any country in the world that it wishes to", he said on Sunday.

"Bolivia needs to be mindful of the of the number of UN security council resolutions that have been passed with respect to Iran's behaviour".

Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, is a long-standing opponent of US influence in Latin America and an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

President Barack Obama's administration has been trying to improve US relations with Latin America in the face of the rising influence of China and other powers, but has faced strong opposition from left-wing leaders in the region such as Mr Morales and Mr Chavez.

Womanist Musings: The F.B.I. and the NSA Are Not Cool: By Kola Boof

Womanist Musings: The F.B.I. and the NSA Are Not Cool: By Kola Boof

Dr. Yacoub's America

Dr. Yacoub's America


In the populist black studies of Elijah Muhammad, we are taught a big-head scientist genetically engineered the white man by separating the dominant and recessive genes from the aboriginal Asiatic black man. Yacoub's bio tech lab was not much different from the bio-tech labs operating in Berkeley and Emeryville, a few blocks from my house. We have no doubt they have cloned a man in these labs, but are simply delaying the announcement.

According to Elijah's Myth of Yacoub, the young scientist found the magnetic attraction between two pieces of steel. We maintain America is the land of Yacoub's children who love playing with steel. America spends a trillion dollars making weapons of steel, making her the number one arms merchant of the world. Children in the hood are addicted to steel as well, whether guns to mainly kill each other or cars they turn into weapons of destruction, using cars in "side shows" where people are needlessly injured or killed. The children will stand in the street or walk directly into a two thousand pound piece of steel and plastic, fearing nothing. If you stop before hitting them, they will curse you and/or pull out a piece of steel to shoot you. They use steel to resolve all disputes, sometimes before a discussion or conflict resolution.

Yocoub utilized three workers on his bio-tech project: the doctor, nurse and undertaker. These workers conspired to create the man of steel or devil. They practiced a form of selective breeding, allowing the black to mate with a brown and a brown with a lighter person until the white devil was created after hundreds of years, 600 to be exact. Two blacks were not allowed to mate in this experiment. Even today, there are some blacks who demand their children not marry another black skinned person, only someone lighter. This is no doubt residue from the Yacoubian psychopathology. If two blacks produced a baby, the doctor, nurse and undertaker would conspire to murder the baby to keep the experiment on track.

In modern America, we must note the three workers, doctor, nurse and undertaker, are aided and abetted by workers from the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry, who are determined to fulfill their wish, "let us make a man." The petrochemical workers produce the food in oil, not earth. As much as possible the crops are genetically engineered. If not, they are created by a healthy dose of insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and dyes.

Naturally, the oil based rather than soil based food leads Yacoub's children directly from the fruit of petrochemical workers into the hands of pharmaceutical workers in league with the doctor, nurse and undertaker. The prescription drug dealers connect with insurance companies to guide the patient into the hands of the doctor, nurse and undertaker.

When poor Michael Jackson was found dead at the hands of his doctor, we knew the Myth of Yacoub was alive and well. Michael was so addicted to the Myth of Yacoub that he exceeded the limit of propriety in attempting to alter his blackness in favor of the Yacoubian ideal of whiteness. But note his doctor administered the hemlock that took him into oblivion.

There is almost no way to avoid the scheme or conspiracy of the Yacoubian team of workers, the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, medical and funeral agents.

When a man entered prison, the inmates warned him, "Don't get sick. Whatever you do, don't get sick up in here. There's a prison graveyard full of nigguhs who got sick." And so it is the same in America, don't get sick. Yacoub's team of workers are eagerly awaiting you, sharpening their knives until you get to the doctor and nurse, and finally the undertaker.

The only solution is to avoid stress, for dis-ease is brought about from stress, thus the food (petrochemical) is useless and dangerous; the medicine (pharmaceutical) is useless and dangerous as it is not designed to heal only prolong the illness unto death. Part of the last rites administered to the victim of Yacoub is that ride in a steel hearse.
--Marvin X
11/21/10

Veterans: Soviets in Afghanistan - Programmes - Al Jazeera English

Veterans: Soviets in Afghanistan - Programmes - Al Jazeera English

Brazil Celebrates Black Consciousness Day

Brazil commemorates Black Consciousness Day recalling fugitive slaves’ leader

Hundreds of cities, towns and villages throughout Brazil commemorated Saturday Black Consciousness Day with different festivities and cultural activities. Brazil is considered the second Black Country in the world behind Nigeria, with 75.8 million African-Brazilians and is still exposed to the consequences of racial discrimination.

Zumbi dos Palmares, a symbol for Afro-Brazilians

A hundred twenty two years after the abolition of slavery in 1888, Brazil recalls and honours on November 20th “Zumbi dos Palmares”, the last chief of a republic of fugitive slaves.

Killed on November 20, 1695 by the big landowners of the time he has become a symbol of resistance against slavery and has only lately been recalled as such.

According to Brazil’s statistics office, IBGE, of the 10% poorest and indigent Brazilians, 74% are black or coloured.

Afro-Brazilian organizations admit that some progress has been achieved by Afro-Brazilians in publicity or in less-demeaning roles in the country’s famous soap-opera industry. Similarly the colour of skin is less linked to household cleaning and maintenance services.

In Rio do Janeiro Black Consciousness Day inspired three plays in local theatres, with one of them particularly touching. ”The whip revolt” occurred a century ago, 22 November 1910 when a black officer from the Brazilian navy, Joao Candido, the son of former slaves and crew members of the cruiser “Minas Gerais” mutinied in the bay of Rio do Janeiro.

Candido and the 1.173 men on board threatened to bombard the city with the powerful guns and cannons of the cruiser unless the long established practice of corporal punishment and whip lashing were not abolished by the navy.

It was all triggered when a crewmember was sentenced to a punishment considered exaggerated: instead of the customary 25 whip lashes he was to receive 250 lashes.

United States also adhered to the celebration with a message from the State Department.

“The United States Government and the American people congratulate the people of Brazil as they recognize Black Consciousness Day, also known as Zumbi dos Palmares Day, on November 20. The life of Quilombo leader Zumbi and his unrelenting struggle against slavery stands as an enduring symbol of freedom and justice.

“Today, both Brazil and the United States recognize the important contributions of Afro-descendants in our societies and the imperative of combating discrimination, which has negatively impacted both of our countries. Just last month, our governments, in partnership with civil society and our private sectors, met for the third time in Salvador da Bahia under the historic U.S. – Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality. Together we are celebrating the diversity of our heritage and developing and sharing best practices to ensure equal opportunity for Afro-descendants and indeed all citizens of our nations.

“On this significant day, we congratulate the people of Brazil and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership as, together, we provide leadership and examples of democracy, diversity, and social justice to our Hemisphere and to the world”.

Elijah Muhammad's Great Grandson heads Schomburg

We know the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Clara Muhammad are smiling to know their great grandson Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad will head the world's greatest collection of black history that is housed at the Schomburg Library in Harlem. We think Malcolm and Betty Shabazz are smiling as well.
--Marvin X

Meet the new director of Schomburg
http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/meet-next-director-schomburg-center-drkhalil-gibran-muhammad?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4ceabfb290a32b30,0#comment-3131

Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad to head the Schomburg Center

By Herb Boyd
Special to the Amsterdam News

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a scholar of African-American history from Indiana University, has been named the new director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

There were more than 200 nominees or scholars seeking the position since the announcement that Dr. Howard Dodson, Jr. would retire from the position next year. Dr. Muhammad, who is the son of the noted New York Times photographer Ozier Muhammad and the great-grandson of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, assumes the position next July.

“I am extremely excited to be selected to fill this prestigious position,” Dr. Muhammad said in an interview Wednesday afternoon at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I hope I can fulfill the legacy left by Dr. Dodson.”

Over the last several months the Schomburg Center has been mired in rumors that the center was imperiled and ever more so upon the notice that Dr. Dodson would no longer be at the helm. Furthermore, there was an outcry from the community with the demand that Dr. Molefi Asante of Temple University be appointed the new director.

“Yes, I am well aware of all the controversy and the first thing I want to do is to secure the trust of the community and the staff here at this historic institution,” Dr. Muhammad said. “This position affords me a national platform to contribute to conversations and even policy debates on issues pertaining to the arts and culture.”

A native of Chicago, Dr. Muhammad served as assistant professor of history at Indiana University for five years, where he completed a major scholarly work The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (Harvard University Press, 2010).

According to Dr. David Levering Lewis, who nominated Dr. Muhammad for the position, the new director’s book “renders an incalculable service to civil rights scholarship by disrupting one of the nation’s most insidious, convenient, and resilient explanatory loops: whites commit crimes, but black males are criminals.”

“I am currently working a book that will deal with the history of racial politics surrounding the creation and swift dissolution of Prohibition-era ‘tough-on-crime’ laws, specifically New York’s four-strikes law of 1926,” he said.

When asked about some of his immediate plans, Dr. Muhammad said he would devote time and attention to some of the programs already underway at the Schomburg and initiated by Dr. Dodson. “I certainly will continue his thrust into digital technologies, particularly as we reach out to the younger members of our community.”

At 38, Dr. Muhammad, who grew up on the Southside of Chicago, is vitally in touch with the mood, attitude and aspirations of many in the Black and Latino community. A 1993 graduate of University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in economics, he received his Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University in 2004, specializing in 20th century U.S. and African American history.

“I know that his career at the Schomburg Center will be one of excellence and innovation,” said Dr. Paul LeClerc, president of the NYPL.

Dr. Muhammad, who is married with three children, said that he will be convening a town hall meeting to get to know the community and for the community to get to know him.

“There has never been a more exciting time in the history of the Schomburg Center,” said search committee member Aysha Schomburg, great-granddaughter of Arturo Schomburg, the center’s founder. “Without any doubt, Khalil has the skills and the passion to build on the legacy. This is a great day for New York and especially for Harlem. We welcome him.”

Poet/Playwright Returns Home to West Oakland, Performs at Black Dot Cafe

Poet/Playwright Returns Home to West Oakland

Performs at Black Dot Cafe

On Saturday, November 20, Marvin X. Jackmon, poet/playwright/essayist/producer/organizer/teacher, returned to his childhood neighborhood in West Oakland where he attended Prescott elementary and Lowell junior high school.

On Saturday afternoon he had a conversation with actors in the Lower Bottom Playaz who have been performing his first play Flowers for the Trashman, 1965, San Francisco State University Drama Department production while he was an undergrad.

He told the young actors he was flunking an English literature class taught by legendary Medievalist professor/author John Gardner. Gardner asked him what he wanted to do pass the class. The poet said write. The professor said write what. Write a play. Gardner said write it! Flowers for the Trashman was the product. The play became a classic of the Black Arts Movement and established Marvin X as one of founders of the most radical movement in American literature. BAM forced America to include ethnic and gender literature in the academic curriculum. See the Black Arts Movement by James Smithurst, University of North Carolina Press.

The poet described his childhood in West Oakland, Harlem of the West. While I was growing up, West Oakland was the Harlem of the West. I grew up on 7th and Campbell, in my parents florist shop. West Oakland was booming with a vital economic and cultural community on 7th Street, with shops, restaurants, cafes, clubs, associations. It was the end of the railroad line, home of the first black union, the Pullman Porters, led by C. L. Dellums, uncle of Oakland's Mayor Ronald Dellums.

My mother and father were Race people, the name accorded to those who had racial consciousness in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. They were activists in many social organizations, especially the NAACP. Before the family moved to Oakland, his parents edited the Fresno Voice, the first black newspaper in the Central Valley. His maternal great grandfather, E. Murrill, was mentioned in 1943 edition of the Fresno Bee Newspaper. He was so well known the newspaper noted that whites and blacks attended his funeral. His maternal relatives were pioneers to the West coast.

After the war, his parents left Fresno and came to Oakland. There my parents opened a florist shop while my mother worked at the Navy Supply Center as a clerk. The Army base at the end of 7th Street employed many blacks who migrated to the Bay Area during WWII. Seventh Street was bumper to bumper cars, especially on the weekends. The street was crowded with people enjoying Negro life and culture. See Marvin's autobiography Somethin' Proper, Black Bird Press, 1998.

The poet told of his introduction to drama at New Century Recreation Center on 5th Street at McFeely School where he attended elementary school. He recalled a dance teacher at New Century was Ruth Beckford, queen of African choreography in the Bay Area. She was one of the most beautiful women of my childhood with her short natural hair, African body and black velvet skin. I adored her whenever I could catch a glance of her. So fine, so fine.

While doing a play at children's play at Mosswood Park, the poet said he was in the sandbox when a little white girl called him a nigger for the first time and told him to get out of the sandbox. In those days, we didn't go to Mosswood Park often and definitely did go to Lake Merritt, only on holidays such as the 4th of July. A nigguh would get his ass kicked by white boys if caught at Lake Merritt.

Pine Street, where the Black Dot Cafe is located, was the ho stroll, from 7th to 16th by the Southern Pacific train station. There was a hotel near the train station where you could rent a room for a few minutes. Although the area where Black Dot is located is gentrified, someone in the audience informed the poet the hotel is still there.

As a child, the poet used to play up and down the streets in the vicinity of Black Dot Cafe, and later he used to sell black newspapers and magazines in the area, including Jet, Ebony, Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Currier, Detroit Black Dispatch, et al. As a child, he also wrote in the Children's Section of the Oakland Tribune.

As per the play, the setting is a jail cell with the lead character the poet as a young college student with his ghetto friend. They had an encounter with the police coming from a dance and end up in jail for failing the tone test with the police. In jail, the story evolves into a narrative of the father/son relationship, although most critics focus on the rage expressed by Joe, the militant college student who goes off on the white man in the cell. This rage made it a classic of the Black Arts Movement nationwide and worldwide. The play was produced in Europe as well. It appeared in Black Dialogue Magazine and the 60s classic anthology Black Fire, edited by Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka.

In conversation with the actors, they told the poet how the play affected them as fatherless young men, suffering the estrangement and abandonment by their fathers. For them, the play was/is a play within a play, thus giving a level of consciousness as they performed the ritual and were transformed by it. The poet told them this is the purpose of drama, to transform.

He said on one level, the drama reveals his failure as a father since when it was written he had fathered two sons by the age of twenty-one. The play ends with his lines "I want to talk with my sons. I want to talk with my sons." The poet noted that he had been able to talk with one of his two sons, but not with the other who is now almost 50 years old. This son still has feelings of abandonment and neglect. The poet told the young men and women we must break the cycle of such trauma. Otherwise it shall go on forever. Such is the purpose of Flowers for the Trashman, a man-hood training ritual drama to transform lives.

He spoke on the function of ritual drama to transform. This play Flowers for the Trashman is a manhood training ritual so that young men are changed by witnessing it. They will get over some of their hatred and trauma with fathers, for soon they shall be fathers and how shall they behave? Shall their sons hate them, shall they hate their sons, when shall it end?

Truth is, we were not brought over here to have healthy relationships, father/son, mother/daughter. We were brought here for our labor, to be slaves and later wage slaves, coming down to the present. In a 1968 interview with the poet, James Baldwin told him, "For a black father to raise a black son is a miracle. And I applaud the men who are able to do this. It's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad!"

--Marvin X
11/20/10

Introduction

Introduction to Poets

We are supremely honored to have the privilege to assemble this collection of poets from throughout Pan Africa and the Afro-Asian-Indigenous world. We are simply elated to present a variety of poetic expressions from North American Africans of every region. We think the reader shall find what Diop called the Cultural Unity of Africa, a kind of basic mythological order in the deep structure of the poems, expressing the eternal unity of a people, no matter their post traumatic slavery stress syndrome. We see the ancestors, the gods, the living and yet unborn are represented widely by poets from Africa, the Caribbean or America, suggesting the long held notion that African survivals are alive and well, not only in the mythology but psycholinguistics as well.

Concerns include the necessity of calling upon the ancestors and gods, the election of Obama, the continued contradictions of the democratic society in America and the emerging democracies in Africa. Ancestor Emmitt Till is called upon by several poets, including Al Young, Opal Palmer Adisa and others. Shaggy Flores mentioned Till and other tragic heroes of our liberation struggle.
Marvin X and Kalamu Ya Salaam mention the sheroe Dessie X. Woods or Rashidah Muhammad, the valiant woman who killed her rapist in the south, emancipated from prison, she went north and lived an activist life until her transition. The people of Oakland honored her with a street naming.

In dedicating this issue to the Journal of Black Poetry, we were conscious of Dingane's effort to make poetry a tool of communication for liberation. The general theme is Pan Africanism, but we wanted to continue his concept letting a hundred flowers blossom , let a hundred schools of thought contend, in the words of Mao. The reader will see this in the poetry and in the dialogue on the poetic mission, including Haki Madhubuti's statement.

We think the poets represent an inter-generational collection, although we invited hip hop poets and spoken word artists to represent themselves. We certainly didn't want this issue to be a collection of senior citizen poetry. For sure, we think we have gathered together some of the very best writers in America and Pan Africa. The USA regional representation should be balanced enough to see regional and national concerns and rhythms.

We thank Itibari M. Zulu, Senior Editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies for allowing us to edit this issue. It is indeed a labor of love. We also thank all the poets who answered our call. Those who were rejected or who sent poems that may have gotten lost in traffic, please accept our apology but keep on keepin on.

Let us close with acknowledgment of persons who recruited poets for this issue, especially Louis Reyes Rivera, Bruce George, Gwendolyn Mitchell, Eugene Redmond, Muhammida El Muhajir and Tony Medina. Salaam to my associate guest editors, Ramal Lamar and Ptah Allah El. They gave me an oral reading of the material, helped make selections and helped keep me focused on Pan Africanism as the general theme, since they are the next generation of Pan African scholars and poets. Let us not fail to acknowledge the contribution of Rudolph Lewis of Chickenbones.com. His compilation of material we used on the Journal of Black Poetry, and other critical magazines of the period and Dingane's role as publisher/editor was priceless for the historical narrative. Thank you, Rudy.
--Marvin X

Fifty years after the sixties - RIZ KHAN - Al Jazeera English

Fifty years after the sixties - RIZ KHAN - Al Jazeera English

Dr. Nigger

Dr. Nigger

Dr. Nigger
Can you cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Can you save my life
without changing my life
Can you dance soft-shoe while
humming those negro tunes
when my white life codes blue
Can you reach inside yourself
beyond the shit we put in you…
past painful moments we put in you…
past despair and hopelessness
we’ve put in you and
find that old black magic in you
to save my life without changing
all the shit we put in you
Dr. Nigger
Can you breathe in me
air free of nigga
from a nigger not free
to breathe in free air
Can you stay on the colored side
of the color line and reach across
without touching me with nigga hands
to restart my blue heart without
changing my cold heart
Can you reach past the life
we’ve taken from you to
save my life and not
let white life pass me by
Dr. Nigger
save my life
without taking my life
Cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Dance soft-shoe while
humming negro tunes
while you save my life
without changing my life
when my white life codes blue
Copyright © 2009 by Neal Hall, M.D.

Nigger for Life, NealHall,2009.

Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies

NEXT ISSUE

Volume 4 • Number 2 • December, 2010

The next issue of The Journal of Pan African Studies will feature a poetry anthology edited by guest editor Marvin X. He is well known for his work as a poet, playwright and essayist of the Black Arts Movement. He has worked with Ed Bullins in the founding of Black House and The Black Arts/West Theatre in San Francisco, California (Black House served briefly as the headquarters for the Black Panther Party and as a center for performance, theatre, poetry and music). Marvin received his B.A. and M.A. in English from San Francisco State University and has received writing fellowships from Columbia University and the National Endowment for the Arts, and planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

MARVIN X, GUEST EDITOR

Associate Guest Editors:

Ramal Lamar, Ptah Allah El

Senior Editor, Itibari M. Zulu

Dedicated

to

Dingane, aka, Jose Goncalves,

Publisher, Editor

Journal of Black Poetry

Contents

Photo Essay: Journal of Black Poetry Poets

Dedicated to the Honorable Dingane, Jose Goncalves, founder, Journal of Black Poetry

Those 60s Journals: JBP, Black Dialogue, Soulbook,Black Theatre, Black World/Negro Digest,Umbra

Compiled by Rudolph Lewis

The Poets

Part One: In My Negritude

Shaggy Flores

Ras Griot

Phavia Kujichagulia

Chinwe Enemchukwu

L. E. Scott

Rodney D. Coates

J. Vern Cromartie

Dike Okoro

Neal E. Hall

Marvin X

Mohja Kahf

Muslim American Literature, An emerging field: Dr. Mohja Kahf

Ayodele Nzingha

Askia M. Toure

Review by Kamaria Muntu: Mother Earth Responds, Askia Toure

Michael Simanga

Amiri Baraka

Kalamu ya Salaam

Kola Boof

Louis Reyes Rivera

Aries Jordan

Ptah Allah El

Review by Zulu King: Tainted Soul by Ptah Allah El

Hettie V. Williams

Part Two: Whirlwind

A Dialogue on the Poetic Mission: Marvin X, Rudolph Lewis,

Jerry Ward, Mary Weems, C. Leigh McInnis

Haki Madhubuti on the Poetic Mission

Tracey Owens Patton

devorah major

Anthony Mays

Bruce George

Jeanette Drake

Itibari M. Zulu

Renaldo Manuel Ricketts

Nandi Comer

Al Young

Ghasem Batamuntu

Mona Lisa Saloy

Eugene B. Redmond

Fritz Pointer

Gwendolyn Mitchell

Felix Orisewike Sylvanus

Rudolph Lewis

Kamaria Muntu

Ed Bullins

Mabel Mnensa

Kwan Booth

Tureeda Mikell

Part Three: Amour of Ancestors

Everett Hoagland

Charles Blackwell

Jacqueline Kibacha

John Reynolds III

Darlene Scott

Jimmy Smith Jr.

Sam Hamud

Opal Palmer Adisa

Amy ”Aimstar” Andrieux

Lamont b. Steptoe

Avotcja Jiltonilro

Anthony Spires

Benecia Blue

Neil Callender

Tanure Ojaide

Pious Okoro

Tony Medina

Dr. Ja A. Jahannes

Brother Yao

Zayad Muhammad

Nykimbe Broussard

Kilola Maishya

Niyah X

Adrienne N. Wartts

Greg Carr

Darlene Roy

Tantra Zawadi

Ishmael Reed

Quincy Scott Jones

Bob McNeil

Ariel Pierson

Marie Rice

Yvonne Hilton

Bolade Akintolayo

Latasha Diggs

Felton Eaddy

B. Sharise Moore

VIEWS, REVIEWS, NEWS

Medical Mythology, Ramal Lamar

Dialogue on Qaddafy’s Apology for Arab Slavery:

Sam Hamud, Kola Boof, Rudolph Lewis

Two Poets on Oakland CA: Ishmael Reed, Marvin X

A Pan African Dialogue on Cuba

Carlos Moore, Dead Prez, Black Intellectual/activists

Letters to the Editor

Black History: San Francisco Bay Area Celebrated Amiri’s 75^th by Lee Hubbard and Marvin X

Photos by Kamau Amen Ra

Dr. Nigger

Dr. Nigger
Can you cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Can you save my life
without changing my life
Can you dance soft-shoe while
humming those negro tunes
when my white life codes blue
Can you reach inside yourself
beyond the shit we put in you…
past painful moments we put in you…
past despair and hopelessness
we’ve put in you and
find that old black magic in you
to save my life without changing
all the shit we put in you
Dr. Nigger
Can you breathe in me
air free of nigga
from a nigger not free
to breathe in free air
Can you stay on the colored side
of the color line and reach across
without touching me with nigga hands
to restart my blue heart without
changing my cold heart
Can you reach past the life
we’ve taken from you to
save my life and not
let white life pass me by
Dr. Nigger
save my life
without taking my life
Cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Dance soft-shoe while
humming negro tunes
while you save my life
without changing my life
when my white life codes blue
Copyright © 2009 by Neal Hall, M.D.

Hypocrisy of Neo-liberial, pseudo leftist KPFA

Hypocrisy of Neo-liberial, pseudo leftist KPFA Radio

In his letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said he would rather be with the KKK than phony white liberals. The OJay’s told us “They smile in your face but all the time they want to take your place….”—or shall we say keep you in your place!

The arrogance of KPFA’s addiction to white supremacy or the intention to maintain a Jim Crow media is evident in the recent moves to eliminate quality programming, especially such programs as the Morning Show with Amy Allison, Hard Knock Radio with Davey D, Africa Today with Walter Turner and Transitions on Tradition with Greg Bridges. Clearly, to eliminate these shows is tantamount to eliminating the Black presence on this socalled progressive station.

But the supreme irony is how KPFA can eliminate Black shows while simultaneously beg for money by airing its extensive archives of Black social justice activists such as Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz, Martin and Coretta Scott King, James Baldwin, Cornell West, Angela Davis and others. It appears KPFA is squarely in the white supremacy tradition of “You love everything about me but me,” as Paradise tells us in his classic poem. If I may paraphrase, “You love the black voice, you love the black sound, you love the black knowledge, you love the black philosophy—you love everything about me but me!”

Yes, while the station is kicking black programs off the air, it is raising thousands of dollars for the continued pseudo leftist/Zionist programming. How arrogant can you be to think in 2010 only white people are qualified to discuss national and international affairs, or local affairs for that matter?

The American tragedy is that she never asked the descendents of kidnapped and enslaved Africans what they think about the world. We must listen to sick, depraved white people who think they are so damn smart but don’t know shit about the world as former Brazilian president Lula informed his French counterpart. “You blue-eyed people think you are so damn smart but it’s obvious you can’t solve the world’s problems because you are the cause of them.”

And yet you have the never to pimp the voices and wisdom of our ancestors for the benefit of white supremacy. Ishmael Reed is correct, you are the Jim Crow Media and the Nigger Breakers!

--Marvin X

Marvin X released five books in 2010: The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Mythology of Pussy and Dick, toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, I AM OSCAR GRANT, Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yosef; The Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life (Volume II, the Wisdom of Plato Negro). Available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. His Reader’s Theatre recently performed at the San Francisco Theatre Festival. He is the guest editor of Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies.

Academy of da Corner,

14^th and Broadway, Oakland

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

Final Preview, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, December 2010

Preview #22, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, Marvin X, Guest Editor

Deadline 15 November, 2010

Ptah Allah El, Richmond CA

photo Kamau Amen Ra

BLACK STUDIES WENT TO COLLEGE

AND NEVER CAME HOME

Black Studies went to college and I miss her

And when she comes home, I will hug and kiss her.

Black went to college and started a strike

Then the Third World Liberation fronted the mic.

Black Studies went to college, became a controversy started

Killed Bunchy Carter.

Black Studies lost her destiny and fate

She changed after 1968.

Black Studies went to college got her BA, MA, and PHD.

Now she petty bourgeoisie.

Black Studies went to college and forgot where she came from

She so damn smart, the community going dumb, dumb, dumb…

Black Studies went to college now she ain’t no good

Forgot all about the hood.

Black Studies went to college and pledged Greek

Now she don’t even speak.

Black Studies went to college and became Afrocentric

So complex, she simplistic.

Black Studies is acting like charades

Too many African costume balls and masquerades.

Black Studies went to college and I miss her

When she comes home, I will hug and kiss her.

Ptah A. Mitchell El M.F.D.

Ptah Mitchell is an educator and poet that is dedicated to keep the legacy of African American intellectuals and artists alive in the 21^st Century. Ptah is also the first student to graduate from the University of Poetry, founded by Marvin X. He has written two books, Ghetto Folklore and Tainted Soul.

Shaggy Flores, New York

Negritude

For Pedro Pietri, Tato Laviera, Jesus Papoleto Melendez and Trinidad Sanchez Jr.

We be those Negroes

Born to Slave Hands

Resurrecting forgotten African Gods

When Transplanted to New Lands

Mixing Ebonics

With Splanglish Slang

We be those Negroes

Children of Yoruba y Ibo

Bilingual and Indio

Afro-Caribes

Masters of plantation work

Race mixing

And Orisha Spirit raising

We be those Negroes

Creating Jazz with cats

Named Bird, Dizzy, Duke, and Armstrong

Cubop Bugalu Sal-Soul Searching Journey men

Mongo-Santamaria/Chano Pozo Drum Gods

And Celia Cruz

AZUCAS!

Legends leaving our cultural footprints

On the muddy minds

of the mentally dead

We be those Negroes

Creating Schomburg museums

of Black Studies

In Nuyorican Harlem streets

Where we once dance

during zoot suits riots

to Conga

Maraca

Bata

Break beats

and Palladium Massacres

We be those Negroes

Drawn as Sambos and Jigaboos

By political cartoonist

Who couldn’t erase

The taste of

Africa

From Antillean Culinary

Magicians

Creating miracles

with Curries call SoFritos

We be those Negroes

Younglords

Island Nationalist

Black Panthers

Vieques Activist

Santeros

And Guerreros

Brothers of Garvey

Children of Malcolm

Black Spades

Savage Skulls

Chingalings

And Latin Kings

We be those Negroes

Like Harvard Educated Lawyer

Don Pedro Albizu Campos

Stationed

In all Black regiments

Learning the reality

Of Jim Crow Society

And their gringolandia

Government Race public policies

Calling Bilingual Niggers

Spics

We be those Negroes

Before Sosa

Before Clemente

Before Jackie

Giving Negro league

Baseball legends

A place

Under the sun

to call home

When no one else

Would have them

We be those Negroes

Dancing

Moving

Breaking

Egyptian

Electric Boogalooing

Locking

On concrete jungles

To Cool Herc

Jamaican

Sound Boy Systems

And aerosol

symphony backgrounds

We be those Negroes

Charlie Chasing

Rock Steadying

A dream call Hip-Hop

In Bronx Backyard Boulevards

Between

Casitas and Tenements

With Roaches for Landlords

We be those Negroes

Writing Epics

Like Willie Perdomo testaments

Called “Nigger-Recan Blues”

And Victor Hernandez Cruz

Odes to “African Things”

Hiding our dark skinned

Literary Abuelitas

With Bembas Colora

In places where the Whiteness police

could never find them

We be those Negroes

Denied access to Black Nationalist run

Karenga Kwanza Poetry readings

Because we remind the ignorant

Of the complexity that is their culture

Neither Here nor There

Not quite Brown

Not quite White

We navigate uncharted

Waters

Of Black Identity Boxes

We be those Negroes

Mulatto

We be those Negroes

Criollo

We be those Negroes

Moreno

We be those Negroes

Trigueños

We be those Negroes

Octoroons and Quadroons

We be those Negroes

Cimarrones and Nanny of the Maroons

We be those Negroes

Cienfuegos y Fidel

We be those Negroes

Luis Pales Matos and Aime Cesaire

We be those Negroes

Puentes,

Mirandas,

Riveras,

Colons,

Felicianos,

Lavoes and

Palmieris

We be those Negroes

Judios

Y a veces

Jodios

We be those Negroes

Dominicanos y Cubanos

We be those Negroes

Jaimiquinos y Haitianos

We be those Negroes

Panameños y Borinqueños

We be those Negroes

Seeking freedom from

Irrationality

In an age of Nuclear

Goya Families

And Television

Carbon Copy Clone

Univision/BET/MTV

Slave Children

We be those Negroes

Known by many names

And many deeds

Spoken of in Secret

By African-American

Scholars

In envy during their nightly

Salsa

Dance classes

As they try

To pick up White Girls

We be those Negroes

Caribbean

Negritude

Heroes

Sometimes negating our destiny

But always finding

Peace

In the Darkness

Of Sleep

We be those Negroes

Negroes

We

Be

--Shaggy Flores

Shaggy Flores Nuyorican Massarican Poeta

Tainted Soul

By T. Ptah Mitchell

Blackbird Press, Berkeley, 2010

Pages.148 , $15.00)

This book is a film script about one of the North American Africans ( NAA's) who hijacked a plane, landed in Cuba, got fronted on by the government, thrown in the dungeon, and politicized with 'los gentes veridad', the unspoken mass of 'Afro-Cubans' who go through the same shit as their fellow NAA's here in America. The reader is exposed to a non-romanticized survey of modern Cuba, as well as the classic contradictions of Pan Afrika and the so called Afrikan Diaspora. Without taking a side in the dynamics of this ongoing dialogue on 'how to struggle and how to win', the author does introduce the reader to a world where you don't have to hop on a plane, risk extradition or even xenophobia, since the perspective and stylistics is really first person even when written from second or even third person.

The screenplay was inspired from a book. Reading the script only makes one want to see the movie.

Michael, the main character, is an average nigga from the local NAA community; one of the lumpen, if you will. He has an idealized notion of revolution and Cuba as a haven for North American revolutionaries based on the social climate, recent events and heresay. His main problem is that he is an affiliate of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and not a member per se, like many in the community who loved and supported the Party but did not follow the ideological and organizational rules to a tee. So Micheal's loyalty to the movement while unquestioned on his part, was questioned by some of his so called comrades. Since he was not part of the 'inner circle' his lines to Cuba are not solid. In fact he might have been led on to do an impossible mission because some of the brothers , doubting Micheal, didn't believe he could pull it off. But when he did pull it off, with little strategy and tactic, no means were provided to support him. He essentially hijacks the plane because he was informed that if he did so, he would be greeted with open arms from the revolutionary Cuban government as an ally against the spread of American imperialism. The problem was that he did not receive authorization and support from the Central Committee of the Party; also, during the hijacking, he made the mistake of jacking a high level undercover agent from Cuba on the plane,who was coming back to Havana to debrief his supreiors.

To Micheal all white people, (except his white ho back in Berkeley of course), were the enemy, so he had no clue that there was another revolutionary on the plane besides him. So by the time the plane landed in Cuba, Cuban did not know whether Micheal was an agent of revolutionary blacks in America, a spy for the American government, since there was no communique between Cuba and the Black Panther Party of this specific activity.

Micheal is thrown in jail after Cuban officials decide that he's an American spy and not a revolutionary and sentences him to 12 years in Havana prison. It is this unknown aspect of Cuban society that for the first time I've seen (save Carlos Moore's book "Castro, the Blacks and Africa") is explored and illustrated, where the parallels of black life in Cuba are similar to black life in the USA. We fill the prisons there, we're dropping out of school there, we're at the bottom of society there. We're labeled as the thugs, criminals and any original social practices we demonstrate become either illegal or subsidized. Sounds familiar?

Here Michael learns from the majority of the Cuban prisoners the harsh reality of Cuban society. The bottom of the slave ship, all these African's from all over the Western Hemisphere, imprisoned for so called 'counterrevolutionary' activities: from attempting to leave Cuba, to criticizing government, etc. But these people never met a real nigga from the USA, and they could not understand why Micheal wanted to come to Cuba so bad, how loud, audacious, courageous and principled he was, even in the face of the Cuban police.

One crucial thing I must say, the ability for Ptah to tell this story and remain objective, authentic and loyal to the audience, with out taking sides requires skill and diplomacy. At times I doubted if this was a 'reactionary' story of a 'revolutionary' story, because so many contradictions come up. Many times I asked myself, do I support Michael smashing on the Cuban government? I mean they have done much to help us Afrikans in America, from medical school, to Assata, Robert F. Williams to Hip Hop. But then I remembered something Kwame Ture (RIP) said to the effect that the principles of socialism and revolution will always remain in tact, it is the human organization we must work on. This informs me that the Revolutionary Government will remain in principle as long as she is honest with herself and accepts criticism from inside as well as from outside. And we must remain vigilant and militant that criticism should be not considered or labeled as 'reactionary' or 'counterproductive'.

Nowadays movies are much like music, if you're promoting revolutionary culture, you'd best have independent means to put out your own art and technology. Kudos to Black Bird Press for putting out the book. As the author says in the introduction, everyone in L.A. has a cousin who is a big shot in Hollywood. So either wait (forever) for some one else to put your movie out for you, or do it your self. Perhaps the more who read Tainted Soul will demand a movie version, as the people demanded a movie that documented one of the most revolutionary acts of modern afrikan history, the liberation of Haiti. A task, that our most ablest of Pan Afrikan artists, Elder Danny Glover so aptly assumed responsibility of.. Tainted Soul in no way compares to a historiography of Haiti, but does contribute to that 'great pan African conversation' and does bring local hood heroes to the forefront of international affairs. Hopefully, we don't have to wait too long for the movie.

--Zulu King