Notes by Dr. Ayodele Nzinga on August Wilson's King Hedley II

Blood on the Mountain, III by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

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Growing Family in the Land of Rocky Soil or Blood on the Mountian, II by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

Tonya does not want to have anymore children. Not in a world where "their friends might kill them, the police might kill them, in a world that don't respect life." She says her 17 year old daughter with a baby is falling down a hole that it will take her a lifetime to dig her way out of. As a part of her argument for an abortion she details the story of a mother learning that her son has been shot down. She receives the news as she is washing his clothes and preparing his dinner not knowing he will never eat the meal or wear the laundry she has washed. It is delivered as part of a chilling monologue that helps to explain why the Lower Bottom Playaz offer a different brand of Wilson than you may have come to expect.

We play Wilson from the experience of our lives. We have lived beyond the playwrights observations and see his descriptions of the now pass as vivid depictions of our lived reality. The realty of drive-bys in the eighties has given way to the police terror and continued inter-group violence on steroids. We have seen the connection from the pass to the present that Wilson intends and we see beyond it to an even more blasted and blistered current moment.

Tonya's monologue is a political position. She is in resistance to death with her refusal to bear life. Her decision is also influenced by her man's choices. His choices are influenced by his reality. But his answer is to make something/life in the absence of all it takes to insure and sustain that life. He insist they try even if they have to call the undertaker.

She has a baby daddy in jail and fears her current man who has done time for murder is on a path back to jail. He, King Hedley, II is trying to make life grow in the rocky soil he has inherited. He never considers remaking the box his life came in --he is bound by his perception of  personal history, national history, blood, and honor and out of that lens of those contexts and grim necessity he is using what he has been given to create what he perceives he needs. His ability to do so is impacted by other men who have their own rocky soil. It seems everyone's garden in the land of rocky soil is watered by blood. Tonya's babies father's have blood on their hands as she fears, instructed by her lived experience, the possibility of her unborn child being bled of life.

King wants the baby in order to put something in the world. He plants a seed in the less than optimal soil of his backyard and sees it struggle to grow and reasons a child deserves a chance at life, he advised Tonya against putting it in a coffin before it draws breath. He wants to plant a seed in life even if the soil is not all it could be. How else can we go forward? How else can we get to the top of the mountain?

King Hedley, II is a tale about men and blood honor. It is a tale of women and longing for a life with good soil where love family and dreams can grow. It is a saga about struggle, the weight of things older than us, resistance and the prayer for redemption.

See it at the Flight Deck now through September 6, 2015.

Notes on Blood as a motif in King Hedley II

Blood is a motif in King Hedley, II. It is a strong and instructive note. It signals the life and death struggle to create and maintain life in marginalized spaces. The tension between the discussion of abortions and blood feuds destined to end in blood carry us through this speeding train ride that can only end in a tremendous wreck. What else can happen when the doors are all barred and life is on the other side.

King's desire to sit on top of the mountain -- with the key given the righteous requires -- he wipe the blood off his hands. He is told the key is forgiveness but he is bound by codes of honor which dictate his actions. Blood for blood is a mantra carried by his reflection in the character of Mister. Mister outlines the tenets of honor and explains that blood spilled requires the spilling of blood, especially in the defense of your blood. It is a matter of honor. If a man kills your blood you ain't supposed to be looking at him long. Someone must die. Blood is energy, it is life, your bloodline is your most intimate legacy, you are required to defend it.

What pathology is engendered at the event of the interruption of a man's ability to care for his blood.  How then does one proceed with honor in the world? At what point is crossing the line to ensure your blood survives permissible? What would you do to insure your unborn child's right to live in a world big enough to dream in? At what point does the world get so small that the thought of new life, rather than inspiring joy,  births fear and desperation along with the consideration of killing it before it breathes? Who turned the world around like that and how do we find a way to thrive in a world where the path to life is blocked by barbed wire or something even harder to cut through?

One of Wilson's greatest skill displays in the work of The American Century Cycle, is to show you the world-changing as the North American stands in the same place, or even more disturbing as the ground beneath him literally shrinks.  The lack of work and the great difficulty encountered by those who dream of thriving in a country they helped to build with blood and sweat. Blood on the ground but no way into the dream. King remarks that he was once worth $1200.00 during slavery but in 1985 he is reduced to $3.35 an hour he says he is going backwards. Mister observes the woman with the store got a bigger store and bigger house to go with it, he speculates, if she could drive she would have a bigger car. As the country moves forward North American African's  have moved further from center.

In our current moment the ruthless gentrification of formerly affordable communities and the continued economic inequity experienced by large numbers of North American Africans  coupled with a cannibalistic educational system/carceral system and an escalation of inter-group violence informed and encouraged by systemic violence perpetrated against them magnifies the moment in which our characters live. We know this dark moment goes on, gets deeper, becomes as consuming as an ocean.

King Hedley like many young men today carries a gun because he fears violence being enacted upon him.  He has killed one man and is looking to kill the man's kin to stop him from retaliating against him. He is also about to become a father for the first time.  While the sooth sayer calls on him to wash the blood from his hands I wonder how he might go about that. Some of the blood on his path is older than him. The sooth sayer says he can right the house of his father even though it may be torn asunder, but even the sooth sayer calls for the remission of blood. Blood is the new life coming extending King's blood line and ultimately his possibles in life. The question of honor may require him to shed blood in order to live long enough to help sustain this new life.

Come and see who survives and what the blood cost of honor is. See King Hedley, II now through September 6.

http://www.lowerbottomplayaz.com

Sekou Osei responds to comments of the "real" New Black Panther Party on the beating of Dhoruba bin Wahab, et. al

 Black Panther Party Elder Dhoruba bin Wahab

These are nice words but rather late. I just want to know about any charges of "assault" on the members of the NBPP who carry this attack out? And a public notion of the reasons for the attack at an open table discussion that was to be led by the NBPP in ATL. 

Now, its almost September and I am receiving in my E-mail of platitudes on the physical safety of elders and nothing about the performance "militancy" of the NBPP or it counter-revolutionary practice of selling "wolf tickets" in an attempt to create a popular base or presence. For it must be noted that this attack still would been counter-revolutionary even "if" Dhoruba was 26 or 36 or 46.

At this point, I haven't seen the deeper questions addressed or a deeper political analysis given. What needs to be assessed what role has Messianic leadership had played in the catalyst in the development of the NBPP through Khalid Abdul Muhammad after he broke with Mister Louis Farrakhan. 

Nonetheless as we look at our history, we can see that the Messianic forces can only  apply violence upon Black people and confronting the state is only been a pipe dream of theater. 

  

As we look at our history,  we now have a second platitude of selling wolf tickets this October in calling for the need for ten fearless thousand men in the vacant posture of "Justice or Else." It must be noted that Farrakhan in his history has never done anything to give retribution of racists or state violence against Black people, he's never busted a grape in that area of struggle. The only activity in Farrakhan history was creating the social and public environment and the "rationalization" for the assassination and murder of Brother comrade Malcolm X.  

What has to be noted in carrying out any political decision it is never a public call for 10,000 fearless men this only create chaos to be calm down by the newly emerging broker-of-discontent to keep the calm. 

I once thought the NBPP was trying to fulfill that role through Khalid. But Khalid early passing that never came to flower in a real way. While, our community has a number of so-called historians, but they are as helpful as a colorful broken clock. As we examine our history we all need a systematic and historic assessment of the nature and character of Black opportunism. And to give clarity on the practice and conclusions of its betrayal of smothering a truly radical offensive.

Peace Your Brother

        Sekou      

The "Real" New Black Panther Party comments on the beating of Elder Dhoruba bin Wahad, et al.

Greetings and Black Power,

This letter is to serve as an official statement from National Central Committee of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense from the office of the National Chair Krystal Muhammad.  

It has come to the attention of the NBPP and the Nu Afrikan community that an Elder Black Panther, Dhoruba Bin Wahad , Kalongi Jama Changa and several other activist were subjects of assault on August 8, 2015 in Atlanta, Ga. 

during a Black Power event hosted by Hashim Nzinga.  We do not condone the use of excessive force on any Nu Afrikan or human being ESPECIALLY an elder.

For the record Malik Zulu Shabazz is not the leader of the New Black Panther Party as of October 2013 when he resigned his post as NBPP National Chair  and called for the election of a new National Central Committee of the NBPP. A national summit was then called for Nov 30 – Dec 1, 2013 in Atlanta, Ga.  

Days after Malik's resignation he then got on public blogtalk radio and called for martial law on the NBPP and for calling off the elections. He then went on to say he was appointing Hashim Nzinga as  National Chair and a few other officers as owning the NBPP into perpetuity.  Despite Malik’s counter-revolutionary declaration , a national NBPP Summit was convened November 30 – Dec 1, 2013 in Atlanta, Ga . The NBPP leadership and rank and file members held an Nu Afrikan democratically centered election. As a result , Krystal Muhammad was elected as National Chair and a new National Central Committee.

As stated previously , we the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense do not condone the use of excessive force on any New African or human being ESPECIALLY an elder . Furthermore none of the members of our formation were involved or present during this unfortunate incident. Black Power!

Sincerely,

Krystal Muhammad, NBPP National Chair

Bobby Johnson, NBPP National Minister of Defense

Sharif Amenhotep, NBPP National Field Marshall

Nat Turner, NBPP National Minister of Information

Leonardo Muhammad, NBPP National Spokesman

David X, NBPP National Minister of  Communication

Queen Sheena, NBPP National Director of Community Programs

Khadijah Shakur, NBPP National Minister of  Health

Keisha X, NBPP National Minister of  Finance

Jumoke Ifentayo, NBPP National Minister of  Culture

Queen Azania, NBPP Deputy National Field Marshall 

Zayid Muhammad, NBPP National Minister of Culture, Emeritus

KPFK's Dedon Kamathi joins Ancestors

From: Michael Novick mnovick.kpfklsb@gmail.com;
Subject: Passing of brother Dedon Kamathi
Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2015, 2:28 PM


 Dedon Kamathi

I just received a call with the sad news of the passing of brother Dedon Kamathi, long time host of Freedom Now here at KPFK, a former member of the Pacifica National Board and the local board, former member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense out of San Diego and an international figure in the struggle for the liberation of Africa and of all oppressed and exploited people. This is a great and grievous loss for the movements and for Pacifica. As we get more details, we will keep people informed of where and how to express their condolences.


Marvin X on Dedon Kamathi:

We are deeply saddened by news of Dedon's transition. We recall his recent interview of Norman Richmond and myself on the anniversary of the Vietnam War. May he rest in peace.

Long Live Black Liberation fighters,
Marvin X

The "Real" New Black Panther Party on the Beating of BPP Elder Dhoruba, Kalongi, et al.

From: Krystal Muhammad <nbppnationalchair@gmail.com>
To: panthershepcat <panthershepcat@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Aug 25, 2015 8:08 pm
Subject: Fwd: NBPP STATEMENT ON DHORUBA, KALONGI AND OTHERS

 

August 18, 2015

Greetings and Black Power,

This letter is to serve as an official statement from National Central Committee of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense from the office of the National Chair Krystal Muhammad.  

It has come to the attention of the NBPP and the Nu Afrikan community that an Elder Black Panther, Dhoruba Bin Wahad , Kalongi Jama Changa and several other activist were subjects of assault on August 8, 2015 in Atlanta, Ga. 

 

during a Black Power event hosted by Hashim Nzinga.  We do not condone the use of excessive force on any Nu Afrikan or human being ESPECIALLY an elder.

 

For the record Malik Zulu Shabazz is not the leader of the New Black Panther Party as of October 2013 when he resigned his post as NBPP National Chair  and called for the election of a new National Central Committee of the NBPP. A national summit was then called for Nov 30 – Dec 1, 2013 in Atlanta, Ga.  

 

Days after Malik's resignation he then got on public blogtalk radio and called for martial law on the NBPP and for calling off the elections. He then went on to say he was appointing Hashim Nzinga as  National Chair and a few other officers as owning the NBPP into perpetuity.  Despite Malik’s counter-revolutionary declaration , a national NBPP Summit was convened November 30 – Dec 1, 2013 in Atlanta, Ga . The NBPP leadership and rank and file members held an Nu Afrikan democratically centered election. As a result , Krystal Muhammad was elected as National Chair and a new National Central Committee.

 

As stated previously , we the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense do not condone the use of excessive force on any New African or human being ESPECIALLY an elder. Furthermore none of the members of our formation were involved or present during this unfortunate incident. Black Power!

Sincerely,

Krystal Muhammad, NBPP National Chair

Bobby Johnson, NBPP National Minister of Defense

Sharif Amenhotep, NBPP National Field Marshall

Nat Turner, NBPP National Minister of Information

Leonardo Muhammad, NBPP National Spokesman

David X, NBPP National Minister of  Communication

Queen Sheena, NBPP National Director of Community Programs

Khadijah Shakur, NBPP National Minister of  Health

Keisha X, NBPP National Minister of  Finance

Jumoke Ifentayo, NBPP National Minister of  Culture

Queen Azania, NBPP Deputy National Field Marshall 

Zayid Muhammad, NBPP National Minister of Culture, Emeritus

Playwright August Wilson and Oakland's Lower Bottom Playaz

The Lower Bottom Playaz and The American Century Cycle Project. by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

King Hedley II is the beginning of the end of The Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc., momentous American Century Cycle Project. King Hedley is currently running at The Flight Deck on Broadway in Oakland CA. It opens The Playaz, main stage for Season16.Continua: The American Century Cycle Project and only leaves Radio Golf which will be main stage in December 2015 at The Flight Deck, concluding both Season 16 and The American Century Cycle Project.

The Playaz began production of The American century Cycle in 2010 after producing Gem of the Ocean in 2009 and falling into relationship with the spirit and intention of August Wilson, America's greatest playwright living or dead. In 2010 I announced our intention to be the first company to ever fully stage the Cycle. In 2015, with Hedley up and running my troupe and I are poised on the edge of the completion of a ritual never fully enacted. We play for the Master in most humble gratitude for his generous blessings upon us as we have struggled to manifest this work. It has been a journey that has taken us places we could not have imagined and even more important it has brought us home.

We are producing Hedley and Golf in our new house in uptown Oakland. The journey from our own out door theater in West Oakland to a residency in an indoor 100 seat black box in uptown has been a tumultuous journey full of pathos, falling to rise higher, refusing to fail, striving and daring to fly in the dark to find our light. We are going to be the first to formally stage the Cycle in chronological order. No other company has ever done so. The Green Room recordings were done after we started our journey with Wilson and they come as close to chronological production as anything ever done but they are recordings of readings. Some companies have staged all ten works in the order Wilson wrote them. No company has ever achieved what we are poised to accomplish.

"You die by how you live". August Wilson- Gem of the Ocean

In some ways its been a lonely journey. Not a lot of attention has been given our effort. We are a small company that started out as a Gypsy theater performing in non-traditional spaces including half way houses for reentry populations and shelters for the homeless.  A 100 seat outdoor theater was built for us in West Oakland where we did 13 Seasons of theater. We did Shakespearean adaptations, established the Shakespeare in the Hood series, toured Mack A Gangsta's Tale to violence riddled areas of Oakland and Richmond, CA. We did an original work, Mama at Twilight: Death by Love that frankly examined the HIV growth in black communities by interrogating gendered roles and community taboos. We established our brand around telling stories that facilitated vitally important community discussion. We honed our craft and survived and very quietly became one of the greatest opportunity for black actors and theater makers in the East Bay. The community organization that partially funded our work stopped funding our productions mid way through our production of The Century Cycle and we became the only theater company to produce in The African American Museum and Library at Oakland CA. where we independently produced Fences. We then took up residency in The Flight Deck where we produced Two Trains Running and Jitney.

We are so very proud to reach the conclusion of our commitment to August Wilson who in many ways has guided our growth, instructed our direction, and renewed our commitment to our craft, our communities, and our selves. Wilson is the only work we have not felt a need to make site specific as is our habit. In Wilson we see ourselves and we see ourselves as part of the nation in the nation behind the veil in North America, and the universal nature of Wilson's site specific Cycle (all the plays take place in the Hill Distinct of Pittsburgh PA with the exception of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom). We recognize and have come to overstand Wilson's song of North America; its our lives, we have lived it, bled it, and learned to sing it with honor and dignity as we have walked with Wilson.

If you have seen our work you know we do Wilson with integrity and passion. If you have not a great theater experience is waiting for you. Join us at our new theater to be a part of our red carpet season as we conclude The Century Cycle Project.

Book tickets for King Hedley, II and Radio Golf today:  http://www.lowerbottomplayaz.com/box-office.php

In the spirit of Jesus, Allah and Sun Ra, let us be in this world but not of it.

We can transcend this mentally retarded bullshit of white supremacy illusion. Don't get sucked into it. Amiri Baraka told us how the Sirens call you but you must not answer. If you answer, then they got that ass. You then submit to all the messages of the Sirens, calling you to madness and insanity.

Dr. Hare says, "If you don't want the harlot, don't go to the harlot's door." He adds, "Without those willing to be slaves, there can be no masters."

What does the Qur'an say, "Only because the devil called you, you came." You do not need to heed the whispering of the devil who whispers into the hearts of men and jinn."

And the Christians tell us, "Resist the devil and he shall flee from you."

There are those of you who submit willingly to the devil, only because you don't exercise the power of resistance.  We must say, "Aoozo Bil-laa-hi mi-nash shay-tann-nir rajeem. Translated: I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed devil.

The devil is an illusion we submit to when we are in a weak mental and spiritual condition. We submit to the world of make believe, believing it is the real deal yet it is an illusion from the world of make believe and conspicuous consumption or materialism, a dream world for dreamers who must be awakened from their dream state.

Marvin X recalls his 1968 interview with James Baldwin

 photographic art by Ted Pontiflet, Oakland CA, Joyce Gordon Gallery Exhibit

Marvin X confesses, "After I saw Ted Pontiflet's photographic art of James Baldwin,
I had to reconstruct my esthetics of Blackness and admit that no matter how much I had
imagined James Baldwin as an ugly man, yet positioned with African sculpture in the background, I was forced to say he was beautiful in the African esthetic tradition, thus cast out my
Eurocentric esthetics or concept of beauty."

In my December, 1968, interview with James Baldwin at his New York apartment, yes, without heat, he told me a host of things on Blacks in America and throughout the world, especially those ex-patriots in Paris, in particular Richard Wright, the man he dethroned as the heavy weight champion of Black literature. I will get to his comments on Richard Wright in a moment, but one of the most important things he said to me was, It's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad as Black people in America. It's a miracle for a Black father to raise a Black son under these conditions and I applaud the men who are able to do so.

"How can these people talk about the Prince of Peace while they bomb the hell out of the Vietnamese during these Holy Days?  Your condition proves they don't believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ!"

It was James Baldwin's script that Spike Lee used to make his film Malcolm X. But in 1968 there were many people who questioned Baldwin's ability to write such a script about a man who symbolized Black manhood. When I asked him about their reaction, he retorted, "Hey, I pay my rent, I write what I want!"

As per Richard Wright, he felt Richard Wright lost his roots in exile; he became disconnected from the reality of Black life in America, even in Africa for that matter. When he went to Africa, he misinterpreted some things that I came to understand about Africa and my relationship to Africa. When I came to understand my father, I understood he was an African priest/preacher transferred to America, and he ruled his church and his family as part of an African village of which he was the king. I don't think Richard understood he was not an African but an American, for better or worse.
I understood this and had no problems with it! I knew I had to make peace with the America nightmare, I had to understand those airless rooms Americans live in." In one of his essays, he wrote, "The idea of white supremacy has led white people to rationalizations so fantastic it reaches the pathological."

Notes on Straight outta Compton and August Wilson's King Hedley II

 

Straight Outta Compton and August Wilson's King Hedley are the major theme  of North American African cinematic and literary tradition, i.e. the Slave Narrative or How I Got Ovah. Ancestor Amiri Baraka was asked at a UC Berkeley poetry reading what was his greatest accomplishment? He replied, "I survived!"



Watching August Wilson's stage play King Hedley II  and a viewing Straight Outta Compton were similar in several ways, although I only saw the first half of King Hedley produced by the Dr. Ayodele Nizinga's Lower Bottom Playaz at the Flight Deck Theatre, downtown Oakland. Although August Wilson's play was about the 1950s and Compton was about the 80s and 90s, both presented the pervasive violence in our lives, the internal violence with each other and the external violence of the police.  The film and the play revealed the awesome violence we are confronted with daily. Ice Cube was so on time when he wrote those lings about just getting through the day without using my AK. All the brothers in the play and film were packing guns as a natural part of our daily round. This has been true for the 50s, 60s, 80s, 90s until the present moment, 2015.

Both play and film revealed the economic violence as well, e.g., the pimping in the music industry or the the wage slavery in Hedley. In short, we are in a constant state of war within our community and with external forces that seek to exploit and rob us at every turn.

It was most timely for the film to show why we are NWA's or Nigguhs with Attitudes, especially with respect to the police. After watching the film, perhaps some people will better understand why NWA wrote FUCK THE POLICE and why in 2015 we are saying the same Fuck the Police. Just for your information, after the 1965 Watts Rebellion, my poem Burn Baby Burn, included the lines

"Motherfuck the police

and (Chief) Parker's sister too!...",

--from Burn Baby Burn by Marvin X, Soulbook Magazine, 1965

The Black Arts Movement was also threatened with arrest by the police for the plays of Amiri Baraka, Ed Bullins and myself. Yes, we had to deal with freedom of speech here in the Bay Area at our Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco, and at a Laney College performance. In 2015, we don't think the Heldley play will be stopped because of August Wilson's line, "God is a bad motherfucker!"

We appreciate the raw but common language used in the film and play, although we know the Black culture police will try to have some pseudo moral comment about the language usage in the film. But Rap music cares nothing about the pseudo morality and the psycholinguistic crisis of the Black Bourgeoisie, for, as E. Franklin Frazier told us, they live in the land of make believe. As Ice Cube told a white journalist in the film, "Rappers are just journalists reporting the news in our community."

The film and play reveal how Black bodies respond to place and time. We are still in the Sisyphus  syndrome, rolling the rock up the hill only to have it fall down so we must repeat the same process for eternity until we indeed get Straight Outta Compton, a mental condition that we cannot overcome until we decide to do for self like Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and other rappers and artists with consciousness and business acumen.

August Wilson's King Hedley II runs through September 6 at the Flight Deck Theatre, downtown Oakland. We demand you go see the Lower Bottom Playaz production of this classic.
 --Marvin X
23 August 2015

 

John Legend on Police Profiling and Black Lives Matter

I’m writing you today to talk about an issue that is deeply personal to me -- the epidemic of racial profiling and police brutality that threatens the lives and liberty of far too many people of color and minorities.

As a black man, racial profiling is something I am far too familiar with. 

I was shocked to hear that my home state of California has one of the weakest racial and identity profiling laws in the country.(1) That’s why I joined my friends at Courage Campaign to support a landmark bill that could fundamentally fix our state’s broken law, and I’m asking you to join us.

SIGN ON to ask your state legislators to support the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (AB 953) to fix our profiling law, improve public safety, protect the rights of all Californians, and advance police-community relations.(2)

As a nation, we are at a crossroads. Since the police killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Ezell Ford, and more, the Movement for Black Lives has captivated the world and shined a bright light on the desperate need for systemic changes to policing nationwide. And while many of us are talking about the problem and taking steps to address it, it seems that every day, we hear another horror story of a person of color being stopped, assaulted, or killed by the hands of law enforcement. Each story makes my heart hurt. This can’t go on.

It goes without saying that not every police officer is a racist and not every person of color that is arrested is innocent. But when the evidence clearly shows that Blacks are stopped TWICE as often as their peers, and Blacks and Latinos are searched at THREE AND TWO TIMES the rate of Whites, respectively, it would be naive not to acknowledge that there is something fundamentally and tragically wrong.(3) And we can’t stand back while my life, and the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters continue to be threatened.

This is California’s moment to do the right thing and address the urgent cry to fix our broken racial profiling laws to improve law enforcement transparency and accountability.

JOIN ME to ask our state leaders to support the Racial and Identity Profiling Act (AB 953) to help California lead the nation against profiling and police brutality.

The issue doesn’t stop with racial profiling. The underlying structural issues that contribute to our country’s overwhelming problem of mass incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline run much deeper than that. And right now, there is an unprecedented opportunity for California’s state legislators to pass substantial criminal justice legislation that addresses the root causes of crime and violence, beyond AB 953, that could serve as models for the nation.

Courage Campaign and I are supporting the following bills that would dramatically improve the health and well-being of children, mothers, fathers, and siblings who are currently incarcerated, and I am asking you to join us and support them:

• SB 124 (Leno) – a bill that would that would end solitary confinement for children;
• SB 261 (Hancock) – a bill that would make certain individuals – who were under the age of 23 when they committed the crime – eligible for a youth offender parole hearing after serving a lengthy prison sentence;
• SB 219 (Liu) – a bill that would codify and expand access to the existing Alternative Custody Program so that women can retain close family ties and help end the intergenerational cycle of incarceration; 
• AB 1352 (Eggman) – a bill that allows defendants to withdraw a guilty or no contest plea to avoid harsh and unintended consequences;
• and AB 1056 (Atkins) – a bill that would create the Second Chance Program for Community Re-entry and provide direction to the Board of State and Community Corrections grant-making process to prioritize community-based alternatives.

JOIN ME to support AB 953 and these other bills to positively transform our state’s current juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Yours in the fight for racial and criminal justice,

John Legend

Huey P. Newton, the Canadian Connection

Huey P. Newton (1942-1989): The Canadian Connection


The Canadian Connection

By Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali


Huey P. Newton was murdered 26 years ago in Oakland, California during
the month of August. Because Black freedom fighters like George and
Jonathan Jackson, Khatari Gaulden and others lost their lives during
this month, revolutionaries inside the California prison system have
deemed it Black August.

It is August 22, 1989 at about 8:30 a.m. the late Gwen Johnston, the co-owner
of Third World Books and Crafts (Toronto’s first African Canadian
owned bookstore) phones me. The news is shocking, dreadful even. Mrs.
Johnston is in tears stating, “Otis they have killed Huey”.

Mrs. Johnston and her husband Lennie were huge supporters of Newton,
the Black Panther Party and the struggle for African and human
liberation.

When Newton returned to the United States after his exile in
revolutionary Cuba in 1977 he first landed in Toronto. He was detained
in Brampton, Ontario and was represented by the progressive
Euro-Canadian lawyer, Paul Copeland. Toronto’s African community
supported Newton and the Panthers had several chapters in this county.

Toronto’s African community was represented by Owen Sankara Leach,
Lennox Farrell, the late Sharona Hall, Mitch Holder, Bryan Hyman,
Cikiah Thomas and others at the Brampton courthouse. It was covered by
the Toronto dailies and even was discussed by Walter Cronkite on the
CBS Evening News.

Spider Jones discusses his brief tenure with the Black Panther Party
in his autobiography “Out of the Darkness: The Spider Jones
Story”.Another African born in Canada  Rocky Jone created a Black
Panther Party chapter in Halifax,Nova Scotia.

Whatever his shortcomings and there were many, Newton led many of us
ideologically. For a brief moment in the history of Africans in
America Newton was” the tallest tree in the forest”.

Malcolm X was the first national leader in the African community in
the United States to oppose the war in Vietnam. Dr. Martin Luther King
later followed Malcolm’s lead on this issue; Newton took it to the
next limit. He offered troops to fight on the side of the North
Vietnamese. In 1970, when was released from prison in California, his
first act was to offer troops to fight in Vietnam on the side of the
Vietnamese people.

On August 29, 1970 Newton wrote "In the spirit of international
revolutionary solidarity the Black Panther Party hereby offers to the
National Liberation Front and Provisional revolutionary Government of
South Vietnam an undetermined number of troops to assist you in your
fight against American imperialism. It is appropriate for the Black
Panther Party to take this action at this time in recognition of the
fact that your struggle is also our struggle, for we recognize that
our common enemy is the American imperialist who is the leader of
international bourgeois domination."

Newton also raised the questions of the liberation of women and even
gays. At that time in our history this was not fashionable.

Nationalists, Pan-Africanist and even some socialist formations did
not wish to touch the hot potato of gay rights. Newton did. He was the
bold one. His speech given on August 15, 1970 created a firestorm in
the African liberation movement. At that time I did not support
Newton's thoughts on the issue of gays and lesbians.

Newton said: "We should be careful about using those terms that might
turn our friends off. The terms 'faggot' and 'punk' should be deleted
from our vocabulary and, especially, we should not attach names
normally designed for homosexuals to men who are enemies of the
people. Homosexuals are not enemies of the people. We should try to
form a working coalition with the gay liberation and women's
liberation groups. We must always handle social forces in the most
appropriate manner."

Newton was born in Oak Grove, Louisiana on February 17, 1942.

Louisiana has always been a problem for the ruling circle in the
United States. Queen Mother Moore, Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, Raymond
“Maasi” Hewitt, Elmer
"Geronimo" Pratt, Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown), Paul
Mooney Richard Williams (father of Serena and Venus Willisms )and
Newton all hail from Louisiana.

Queen Mother Moore from New Iberia, Carter and Hewiitt from Shreveport, Geronimo
from Morgan City, Imam Al-Amin from Baton Rouge and Newton from Oak Grove.

There were 74 chapters of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement
Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) in Louisiana
alone. Tony Martin pointed  this out in his volume, “Race First: The
Ideological and Organizational truggles of Marcus Garvey and the
Universal  Negro Improvement Association”.

In the 1950s and 1960s the militant Deacons for Defense sprang up in
the pecan state. Jesse Jackson won the primaries for the Democratic
Party in 1984 and 1988. Barack Hussein Obama, rode a wave of black
support to victory in Louisiana.

The state has also produced its share of sell-outs, buffoons and idiots.

As we commemorate the 39th Anniversary of Black August and the 26th
anniversary of Newton joining the ancestors we should remember the
words of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Says Mumia: "Huey was, it must be said, no godling, no saint. He was,
however, intensely human, curious, acutely brilliant, a lover of the
world's children, an implacable foe of all the world's oppressors."


Norman (Otis) Richmond, aka Jalali, was born in Arcadia, Louisiana,
and grew up in Los Angeles. He left Los Angles after refusing to fight
in Viet Nam because he felt that, like the Vietnamese, Africans in the
United States were colonial subjects. Jalali is producer/host for the
Diasporic Music show on UhuruRadio.com every Sunday at 2pm ET. His
column Diasporic Music appears monthly in The Burning Spear newspaper.
He  can be contacted Norman.o.richmond@gmail.com

Parable of a Happy Black Man

Some young people have come by Marvin X's Academy of da Corner at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland and after looking at the spread of conscious literature, broke down in tears at the beauty of blackness before their eyes, something they'd never seen before. Those of us who are conscious and have been conscious since the 60s, take for granted that all of our people are aware of black consciousness literature, but this is presumption that must be discarded. Many of our people have never seen a black book, sadly, in many homes there are no books, newspapers, magazine or other reading material. Some parents are so ignorant they tell their children, "Don't bring nothing home from that damn school."

 Dr. Nathan Hare, Father of Black Studies

As a teacher, I have long told educators  when they ask me to speak with students that I would prefer talking with their parents for students are not the problem. Recently, when I told an administrator in the Oakland Public Schools I only wanted to speak with parents, he replied, "This can be arranged easily through the Housing Authority because parents are required to attend meetings in the projects." We know few parents attend PTA meetings at schools, i.e. Black parents. I have gone to parent meetings in Berkeley where my grandchildren attend school and  the white parents are there at 8AM in the morning.

But let me get back to Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, the most dangerous classroom in the world, a teacher's self definition, but it has been the scene of numerous rallies, protests, rebellions and riots, from Oscar Grant to Occupy Oakland to Ferguson to Baltimore to Black Lives Matter, Port of Oakland General Strike  and beyond.

In partnership with sociologist and clinical psychologist, Dr. Nathan Hare and educator Dr. Julia Hare, I am able to give out books for free to the poor, others are requested to give a generous donation.

This week I was giving out books to those without money (alas, free phone, now a free book!), two persons  who witnessed me were Blues Hall of Fame member Augusta Collins and former Nation of Islam official, Brother Jerry of Mosque #26, San Francisco. They were present when one young man came up to my table without funds. I handed him a book and he gave me a strange look, walked a couple of feet then turned back to me, saying, almost in tears, "Brother, I really don't know how to take this because ain't nobody ever gave me nothing before, " and he crossed the street.

Brother Jerry said, "Brother Marvin, some of our people have never been given a gift in their life. They don't know how to take it. Keep doing what you are doing, Marvin X. You are doing a great work. May Allah be pleased with you." Augusta Collins said, "Marvin X, when I get home I'm going to write on Facebook what I saw you doing today. This is beautiful."

After a day at the Academy dealing with the poor, mentally challenged, the petit bourgeoisie,  whites suffering addiction to White Supremacy Type I (Dr. Nathan Hare, see his foreword to my manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy); whites in denial of course, although one young white lady made a generous donation for a collection of books to help her people suffering Type I Addiction) but after a day dealing with mainly those suffering unresolved grief and trauma from the  American neo-slave system(Addiction to White Supremacy Type II, Dr. Nathan Hare), when I got home, I called Dr. Hare to tell him of the day's events.

"Dr. Hare, I tell them to take one each of your and Julia's several titles and give a generous donation. Give what God puts in their hearts. Some have only given one dollar, some have given donations of  twenty, forty, fifty dollars, so it all works out."

Dr. Hare said it was fine with him and encouraged me to keep on doing what I'm doing. This is better than keeping the books in storage and getting nothing; if we get two dollars per book, it's better than nothing!"

"Doc, I rather give the people the discount than a distributor. At least the people smile. Distributors and bookstores usually have an ugly frown when you come for your money." I told Dr. Hare about the brother who was given a free book and almost broke down after receiving his gift."

Again, Dr. Hare said, "Keep on doing what ya doing, Marvin X!"

Academy of da Corner, Bay Area Locations

During the week, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland
Saturdays, Lakeshore Avenue, across from the Farmer's Market
Sunday, Berkeley Flea Market, ASHBY BART STATION

As a senior citizen, Marvin X appears at Academy of da Corner as per his energy level or when he feels like it. Best to make an appointment: 510-200-4164.

We know many of you have only read the writings of Marvin X since the sixties until now,  persons on the social media have read his writings but never met him in person, the same with persons who heard him on KPFA and KPOO radio.

If you'd like to meet and greet him at any of the above locations, it is best to call to make sure he will be there.

Marvin X is presently working to establish the Black Arts Movement Business and Cultural District along the 14th Street corridor, from the Afro-American Museum/Library at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way to Alice Street. He is forming a community task force to help him plan the district in partnership with the City of Oakland. If you'd like to be part of the BAM Business and Cultural District Community Task Force, please email me some of your ideas for such a district. We are scheduled to meet with Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney in September, so send me a paragraph or two of your ideas ASAP.
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

As-Salaam-Alaikum
Marvin X (El Muhajir)
BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT DISTRICT