Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Music and Exhibits at Poetry Fest/Book Fair
Bay Area Black Authors
Exhibits and Music at Poetry Fest and Book Fair
Original Black Panther
Party Members
L to R Augusta Collins, Poet/scholar Ptah Allah El, Marvin X and drummer Kwic Time
Attendees of the Bay Area Black Authors Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair will be entertained by the music of Kwic time and Blues living legend Augusta Collins. Among the exhibits will be the archives of the Black Panther Party, a project of It's About Time. Archives from the Black Arts Movement will be exhibited by Eastside Arts. Marvin X will also exhibit his personal archives of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical literary and artistic movement in American history.
The event takes place Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street at Franklin, downtown Oakland.
Sponsors:
Post Newspaper Group
Black Bird Press
Oakland Local
It's About Time
Eastside Arts
Ethnic Studies Department, San Francisco State University
The Black Hour, Laney College
Journal of Pan African Studies
Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre
San Francisco Recovery Theatre
Lower Bottom Playaz
Attorney Robert A. Ward
Aubrey LaBrie
Alona Clifton
Greg Bridges, KPFA
Kakakiki, Inc., Slave System
Information: jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Black History is World History
Black History is World History
BEFORE THE EARTH WAS
I WAS
BEFORE TIME WAS
I WAS
YOU FOUND ME NOT LONG AGO
AND CALLED ME LUCY
I WAS FOUR MILLION YEARS OLD
I HAD MY TOOLS BESIDE ME
I AM THE FIRST MAN
CALL ME ADAM
I WALKED THE NILE FROM CONGO TO DELTA
A 4,000 MILE JOG
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I LIVED IN THE LAND OF CANAAN
BEFORE ABRAHAM,BEFORE HEBREW WAS BORN
I AM CANAAN, SON OF HAM
I LAUGH AT ARABS AND JEWS
FIGHTING OVER MY LAND
I LIVED IN SABA, SOUTHERN ARABIA
I PLAYED IN THE RED SEA
DWELLED ON THE PERSIAN GULF
I LEFT MY MARK FROM BABYLON TO TIMBUKTU
WHEN BABYLON ACTED A FOOL, THAT WAS ME
I WAS THE FOOL
WHEN BABYLON FELL, THAT WAS ME
I FELL
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I WAS THE FIRST EUROPEAN
CALL ME NEGRITO OR GRIMALDI
I WALKED ALONG THE MEDITERRANEAN
FROM SPAIN TO GREECE
OH GREECE!
WHY DID YOU KILL SOCRATES?
WHY DID YOU GIVE HIM THE POISON HEMLOCK?
WHO WERE THE ALIEN GODS HE INTRODUCED
CORRUPTING THE YOUTH OF ATHENS?
THEY WERE MY GODS, BLACK GODS FROM AFRICA
OH, SOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLE
WHOSE PHILOSOPHY DID YOU TEACH
THAT WAS GREEK TO THE GREEKS?
PYTHAGORAS,WHERE DID YOU LEARN GEOMETRY?
DEMOCRITUS, WHERE DID YOU STUDY ASTRONOMY?
SOLON AND LYCURGUS, WHERE DID YOU STUDY LAW?
IN EGYPT, AND EGYPT IS AFRICA
AND AFRICA IS ME
I AM THE BURNT FACE, THE BLAMELESS ETHIOPIAN
HOMER TOLD YOU ABOUT IN THE ILIAD
HOMER TOLD YOU ABOUT ULYSSES, TOO,
A STORY HE GOT FROM ME.
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I AM THE FIRST CHINESE
CHINA HAS MY EYES
I AM THE ABORIGINAL ASIAN
LOOK FOR ME IN VIETNAM,CAMBODIA AND THAILAND
I AN THERE, EVEN TODAY, BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I USED TO TRAVEL TO AMERICA
LONG BEFORE COLUMBUS
CAME TO ME ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS
AMERIGO VESPUCCI
ON HIS VOYAGE TO AMERICA
SAW ME IN THE ATLANTIC
RETURNING TO AFRICA
AMERICA WAS MY HOME
BEFORE AZTEC, MAYA, TOLTEC, INCA AND OLMEC
I WAS HERE
I CAME TO PERU 20,OOO YEARS AGO
I FOUNDED MEXICO CITY
SEE MY PYRAMIDS, SEE MY CABEZA COLOSAL
IN VERA CRUZ AND YUCATAN
THAT'S ME
I AM THE MEXICAN
FOR I AM MIXED WITH ALL MEN
AND ALL MEN ARE MIXED WITH ME
I AM THE MOST JUST OF MEN
I AM THE MOST PEACEFUL
WHO LOVES PEACE DAY AND NIGHT
SOMETIMES I LET TYRANTS DEVOUR ME
SOMETIMES PEOPLE FALSELY ACCUSE ME
SOMETIMES PEOPLE CRUCIFY ME
BUT I AM EVER RETURNING
I AM ETERNAL, I AM UNIVERSAL
AFRICA IS MY HOME
ASIA IS MY HOME
AMERICAS IS MY HOME
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY.
BEFORE THE EARTH WAS
I WAS
BEFORE TIME WAS
I WAS
YOU FOUND ME NOT LONG AGO
AND CALLED ME LUCY
I WAS FOUR MILLION YEARS OLD
I HAD MY TOOLS BESIDE ME
I AM THE FIRST MAN
CALL ME ADAM
I WALKED THE NILE FROM CONGO TO DELTA
A 4,000 MILE JOG
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I LIVED IN THE LAND OF CANAAN
BEFORE ABRAHAM,BEFORE HEBREW WAS BORN
I AM CANAAN, SON OF HAM
I LAUGH AT ARABS AND JEWS
FIGHTING OVER MY LAND
I LIVED IN SABA, SOUTHERN ARABIA
I PLAYED IN THE RED SEA
DWELLED ON THE PERSIAN GULF
I LEFT MY MARK FROM BABYLON TO TIMBUKTU
WHEN BABYLON ACTED A FOOL, THAT WAS ME
I WAS THE FOOL
WHEN BABYLON FELL, THAT WAS ME
I FELL
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I WAS THE FIRST EUROPEAN
CALL ME NEGRITO OR GRIMALDI
I WALKED ALONG THE MEDITERRANEAN
FROM SPAIN TO GREECE
OH GREECE!
WHY DID YOU KILL SOCRATES?
WHY DID YOU GIVE HIM THE POISON HEMLOCK?
WHO WERE THE ALIEN GODS HE INTRODUCED
CORRUPTING THE YOUTH OF ATHENS?
THEY WERE MY GODS, BLACK GODS FROM AFRICA
OH, SOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLE
WHOSE PHILOSOPHY DID YOU TEACH
THAT WAS GREEK TO THE GREEKS?
PYTHAGORAS,WHERE DID YOU LEARN GEOMETRY?
DEMOCRITUS, WHERE DID YOU STUDY ASTRONOMY?
SOLON AND LYCURGUS, WHERE DID YOU STUDY LAW?
IN EGYPT, AND EGYPT IS AFRICA
AND AFRICA IS ME
I AM THE BURNT FACE, THE BLAMELESS ETHIOPIAN
HOMER TOLD YOU ABOUT IN THE ILIAD
HOMER TOLD YOU ABOUT ULYSSES, TOO,
A STORY HE GOT FROM ME.
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I AM THE FIRST CHINESE
CHINA HAS MY EYES
I AM THE ABORIGINAL ASIAN
LOOK FOR ME IN VIETNAM,CAMBODIA AND THAILAND
I AN THERE, EVEN TODAY, BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I USED TO TRAVEL TO AMERICA
LONG BEFORE COLUMBUS
CAME TO ME ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS
AMERIGO VESPUCCI
ON HIS VOYAGE TO AMERICA
SAW ME IN THE ATLANTIC
RETURNING TO AFRICA
AMERICA WAS MY HOME
BEFORE AZTEC, MAYA, TOLTEC, INCA AND OLMEC
I WAS HERE
I CAME TO PERU 20,OOO YEARS AGO
I FOUNDED MEXICO CITY
SEE MY PYRAMIDS, SEE MY CABEZA COLOSAL
IN VERA CRUZ AND YUCATAN
THAT'S ME
I AM THE MEXICAN
FOR I AM MIXED WITH ALL MEN
AND ALL MEN ARE MIXED WITH ME
I AM THE MOST JUST OF MEN
I AM THE MOST PEACEFUL
WHO LOVES PEACE DAY AND NIGHT
SOMETIMES I LET TYRANTS DEVOUR ME
SOMETIMES PEOPLE FALSELY ACCUSE ME
SOMETIMES PEOPLE CRUCIFY ME
BUT I AM EVER RETURNING
I AM ETERNAL, I AM UNIVERSAL
AFRICA IS MY HOME
ASIA IS MY HOME
AMERICAS IS MY HOME
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Americans Must Smash Neo-Slave System
Americans Must Smash Neo-Slave System
I feel so sorry for those Egyptians.
--American black girl
When will Americans dance in the streets for true freedom, justice and equality? When will they decide wage slavery is enough, that the slave system must be overthrown? Yes, the corporate, global finance, military, university complex must be thrown into the dustbin of history.
When will Americans agree to seize the wealth created from their sweat, blood and tears, the work of their hands. Why should the top 1% own wealth equal to the bottom 90% percent? When will they dispose their capitalist bosses, seize them by the necks and cast them into the streets for their greed, mega bonuses and life of conspicuous consumption, while the wage slaves are refused a living wage that will advance them above the working poor level of existence?
Like Tunisians and Egyptians, all sectors of society must come together to end the regime of the slave system, whether in white or black face. We are not fooled by a black skin for we know a duck when we hear it. The duck in the White House is a white swan in black face. He supplicates to those in the den of iniquity, the Wall Street robber barons, the former generals who run the military/corporate machine.
Workers, students, religious people, teachers, artists, trysexuals, all must unite. Even the police and army must unite with the people. Even the gangs must stop killing and unite with the people.
Sadly, this phony democracy must be replaced. Yes, the best democracy money can buy is unacceptable and unsustainable. The rotten Supreme Court has agreed your vote is up for sale and can be bought by the highest bidder.
It cost Obama 700 million dollars to be selected President. His reelection will cost one billion dollars. It will be paid for by Wall Street and the corporations of the complex who are the puppet masters. Obama is merely a puppeteer. When American cities were dying and decaying, black mayors were given pseudo power. When the American empire and Republic is dying and in her death throws, a black president is acceptable. It is an act of desperation by a dying monster, too full of hubris to remove itself peacefully, who yet claims exceptionalism that is based on white supremacy mythology. Empires come and go, but the Emperor wants to hold power forever.
American needs a systematic and structural change, for it doesn't matter whether the Democrats or Republicans are in power, they are one and the same, no matter than they sit on opposite sides of the aisle. They are both part and parcel of the US military, corporate, global
finance, university, prison complex of institutions in the neo-slave system.
All politicians are the hostage of lobbyists for whatever cause. Let us send them one million lobbyists to advocate for our cause. If the one million are not enough, we shall call the General Strike until they board a plane for some other world.
When will Americans understand former generals run the corporations. The universities are part of the war machine. Weapons of mass destruction are invented on university labs. And now your President is calling for the return of military recruiters on campus so the permanent war machine can have its cannon fodder soldiers.
Capitalism is against abortion because it wants your sons and daughters to grow up to be soldiers to maintain the global slave system. Let the boys and girls grow up to be 18 so they can go kill and die to maintain the empire, no matter that they come home in body bags, wounded, mentally deranged, suicidal and homicidal. They are valuable in the slave system.
While our sons are captured by the slave catchers (police) and imprisoned by the slave system to become a valuable commodity of the corporate complex( fifty to sixty thousand dollars per inmate per year, two hundred thousand dollars per inmate per year for juveniles), simultaneously our daughters enroll in the universities, wherein they are brainwashed with white supremacy mythology, hence they too are prisoners in the slave system.
They find themselves with advance degrees yet without an eligible mate since the pool of men is desecrated by the very nature of the slave system. Their potential men suffer the ravages of perennial unemployment, incarceration, drug abuse, mental illness and violence, whether internal or external. In short, by the very nature of the slave system, it must be overthrown, totally and absolutely, no quick fixing, no band aid, only radical systematic and structural change will suffice.
We have no guns, no weapons except ourselves, our bodies marching in unity. So let us dance in the streets of America, coast to coast, sea to shining sea. Let the mighty beast fall.
The government rules by the consent of the governed, they taught us in politics 1A. We must deny our consent. We must stand tall without fear, for we have been full of fear since birth. We have lived in fear, eaten fear for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No more fear. The only thing we fear is fear itself!
The stunted man and woman must stand together for today, tomorrow and all the yesterdays. As poet Amiri Baraka says, "For every hurtful thing...."
Surely you can see the Wall Street bandits have robbed you with pyramids schemes of pure speculation, selling toxic assets, bilking investors of trillions, extorting millions of common people of their basic wealth, their homes, depleting retirement funds of the working poor who retire after thirty years with a phony gold watch and must line up for food handouts to get through the month.
The Federal Reserve is the chief instrument of the Global bandits, the masters of the slave system. It is the den of thieves of international capitalist greed and economic domination.
Your money in the bank is now worthless, it is backed by nothing, only the paper it is printed on.
Soon, you shall go to the restaurant with a wheelbarrow full of dollars to buy a hamburger. Before you finish eating, the price shall rise. They have just released 600 billion dollars of worthless paper. We must prepare our home survival kits of emergency food and other items for survival. We can see that the universe herself is moving to rectify matters that have come to the attention of Mother Nature. If we are not in harmony with Mother, we shall we wiped from the face of the earth, and most especially those in league with the slave system.
Many of you shall never know work, for you are expendable in the slave system. The unemployed, underemployed, homeless, mentally ill, broken hearted, let us march to the White House Gates. Let us announce the New man and woman have arrived. And we shall not be moved.
--Marvin X
1/31/11
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Bay Area Black Authors Poetry Fest and Book Fair
Bay Area Black Authors and Post Newspaper Group
present
The Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival
Chauncey Bailey Book Fair
Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm
present
The Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival
Chauncey Bailey Book Fair
Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm
Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th Street @ Franklin
downtown Oakland
downtown Oakland
free admission
Sponsors: Journal of Pan African Studies, Black Bird Press, Ethnic Studies Department of San Francisco State University, It's About Time, Eastside Arts, Kakakiki Slave System, Oakland Local, Black Hour, Greg Bridges of KPFA, KPOO Radio, San Francisco Recovery Theatre, Lower Bottom Playaz, Hug a Thug Book Club, Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre, Black Dialogue Brothers.
For more information, call 510-837-5107. Email jmarvinx@yahoo.com.
www.blackbirdpress.blogspot.com. Please make a generous donation to this project. Your donation can be tax deductible. The Post Newspaper Group will purchase books from 15 selected authors for donation to juvenile hall, jails and prisons.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Authors to Attend Poetry Fest and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair
Authors to Attend Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Fest and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair
Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm
Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm
Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th Street @ Franklin,
downtown Oakland
406 14th Street @ Franklin,
downtown Oakland
Authors we may be blessed to meet at the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Fest and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair include:
Jerri Lange, author, Jerri, A Black Woman's Life in the Media
Phavia Kujichaugulia, Recognizing and Resolving Racism
Dr. Neal Hall, M.D., Nigger for Life
Marvin X, Pull Yo Pants Up fada Prez and Yosef, essays on Obama Drama
Ptah Allah El, Tainted Soul
For more information, please go to:
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
scroll down to Academy of da Corner presents
authors/vendors/sponsors contact
Marvin X at jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Long Live the Egyptian Masses, Down with American Imperialism
Long Live the Egyptian Masses, Down with American Imperialism and all Reactionaries
As predicted, after Friday Prayers the Egyptian masses exploded into the streets signaling the end of Pharaoh Mubarak's thirty year regime and its collaboration with American imperialism. The US government has sustained the dictatorial Mubarak government with a two billion dollar annual bailout that mainly went to the military to oppress the masses.
It was payment for the Egyptian peace deal with the Zionists in Israel, to prevent the liberation of Palestine. The US has done the same with Arab regimes throughout the region. It has forced Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Persian Gulf states to collaborate with Zionism, including the Palestinian Authority as revealed in the Palestine Papers released by Al Jazeera News.
Hamas was democratically elected but isolated by the US, her Uncle Abdullah Arabs and the Europeans. In Labanon Hezbollah has taken de facto power through the democratic process, yet America keeps it on the terrorist list.
America is thus on the wrong side of history and shall pay for her political blindness and backwardness fueled by capitalist greed and white supremacy notions of domination. The ultimate price shall be when the American masses stand up to the US military/corporate/university complex that has kept the American people in poverty, ignorance and disease while the top 1% own wealth equal to that of the bottom 90% of the population.
Obama, the neo-colonial Negro is nothing but an imperialist in black face and he must be discarded along with his white cohorts on the day American masses take to the streets to demand true freedom, justice and equality--liberty or death!
This is the mantra in the streets of the Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere at this hour. The American people must wise up and rise up to their manhood and womanhood, not remain political cowards and economic slaves. We see when the people stand up, the reactionaries stand down, no matter their guns, tear gas, intelligence agencies, phony homeland security spies, snitches and agent provocateurs, no matter their jails, prisons and hidden dungeons throughout America and the world.
Fear is the great monster of the slave system. Once fear is discarded, the stunted man and woman can rise to great heights, reaching the mountain top MLK, Jr. told us about in his last speech. Long live the Arab masses. Long live the American masses!
We see the spirit of the people is greater than all the technology. The cry for freedom needs no cell phone, facebook, twitter! Not even guns can stop the people united! The only thing to fear is fear itself!!!!!
--Marvin X
1/28/11
After Friday Prayers
After Friday Prayers
After salat
salaam-alaikum
al humdulilah
we shall meet in the streets
to shout no more pharaoh
no more presidents for life
no more American aide for guns and tear gas
no more uncle abdullah
no more
no more reactionary theology
no honor killings
suppression of women's dignity
no more
after Friday prayers
in Tunisia
Cairo
Yemen
Sudan
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Persian Gulf
no more
after Fatihah/Ikhlas
we shall meet the guns of Pharaoh Mubarak
we shall meet the tear gas
even death even
we shall meet
and go to paradise
for freedom
we have no fear of Pharaoh's guns/tear gas
no fear no more
we are mostly young and invincible
we have the model
we shall meet in the streets
to live again
to breathe
to love
to take control of our lives
to feed our families
to fly in the sun of freedom and liberty.
--Marvin X
1/27/11
Marvin X is called the USA's Rumi. He is guest editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue. Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice is his next collection of poems,2011. On Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm, you are invited to attend the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair, Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street @ Franklin, downtown Oakland.
.
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Thursday, January 27, 2011
After Friday Prayers
After Friday Prayers
After Friday Prayers
After salat
salaam-alaikum
al humdulilah
we shall meet in the streets
to shout no more pharaoh
no more presidents for life
no more American aide for guns and tear gas
no more uncle abdullah
no more
no more reactionary theology
no honor killings
suppression of women's dignity
no more
after Friday prayers
in Tunisia
Cairo
Yemen
Sudan
Jordan
Saudi Arabia
Persian Gulf
no more
after Fatihah/Ikhlas
we shall meet the guns of Pharaoh Mubarak
we shall meet the tear gas
even death even
we shall meet
and go to paradise
for freedom
we have no fear of Pharaoh's guns/tear gas
no fear no more
we are mostly young and invincible
we have the model
we shall meet in the streets
to live again
to breathe
to love
to take control of our lives
to feed our families
to fly in the sun of freedom and liberty.
--Marvin X
1/27/11
Marvin X is called the USA's Rumi. He is guest editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue. Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice is his next collection of poems,2011. On Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm, you are invited to attend the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair, Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street @ Franklin, downtown Oakland.
.
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Danny Glover and the Black House, San Francisco
DANNY GLOVER: ... But interesting enough, the first time that I saw Huey P. Newton and had any idea who the Black Panther Party was in 1966, when he came to the Black House and was reading poetry at the Black
House. Huey P. Newton—that’s some footage we should have had—reading poetry at the Black House. And at the Black House, Ed Bullins lived. Eldridge Cleaver lived at the Black House. They were two people who lived at the Black House. So, there was—you could see this, and now we’re looking—certainly looking back in retrospect, but you could see this emerging movement happening around, really, what I believe was extraordinary moments of, as I said before, redefining and reimagining democracy, organizing, using those skills. Stokely was an organizer. Those members of SNCC were organizing. So, the Black Power movement was about extending that whole sense of organizing and community organizing.
Playwright Ed Bullins
The Black House
by
Marvin X
The Black House was organized by Marvin X and Eldridge Cleaver. Around the same time Cleaver was released from Soledad Prison, late 1966, Marvin X and his partner, Hurriyah (Ethna X) were escaping chaos at Black Arts West Theatre, co-founded by Marvin, Ed Bullins, Hurriyah, Duncan Barber, Hillery Broadous and Carl Bossiere. Art Sheridan had suggested Marvin hook up with playwright Ed Bullins. Marvin's first play had been produced by the Drama Department at San Francisco State College, now University. Ed had some plays going in North Beach, so they hooked up and started Black Arts West near Turk and Fillmore, around the corner from the Sun Reporter Newspaper office, owned by Dr. Carlton Goodlett.
Black Arts West Theatre produced the plays of Bullins and Marvin X. Two of the actors were Danny Glover and Vonetta McGee (RIP). Danny performed the role of Papa in a play by Dorothy Ahmed, Papa's Daughter. Vonetta performed in How Do You Do, a play by Ed Bullins.
When Marvin left Black Arts West Theatre, he soon hooked up with Eldridge Cleaver--the first person Cleaver got with after his release. With Cleaver's advance from his best seller Soul on Ice, he and Marvin rented a Victorian on Broderick Street and established Black House, a political/cultural center. They were soon joined by playwright Ed Bullins and singer Willie Dale, who'd done time with Cleaver at San Quentin.
Black House became a kind of half-way house for persons who got black consciousness from the arts and went into the political movement, especially the Black Panther Party. Emory Douglas came through and became BPP Minister of Culture. Samuel Napier came, got juiced on culture and became the BPP Minister of Distribution of the newspaper. George Murray got his consciousness performing in Baraka's black arts communication project at SF State and black house. George became BPP Minister of Education.
Bobby Seale had gotten consciousness at Merritt College in Oakland, along with fellow students Marvin and Huey P. Newton. Bobby performed in Marvin's second play Come Next Summer before founding the BPP.
Marvin tried to get Huey in his theatre but Huey declined. Yet Huey claimed he learned from Marvin. Maybe his reading poetry at Black House can be attributed to Marvin's influence.
For sure, the politicos learned from the artists. For this reason, Marvin X says the arts was the mother rather than the sister of the political movement. Larry Neal calls the Black Arts Movement the sister of the political liberation movement.
Henry Louis Gates says the Black Arts Movement was short-lived, but time and influence are different matters. The Black Arts Movement fundamentally altered art and literature in America, far beyond the influence and impact of the earlier Harlem Renaissance.
Black House fell from differences between the artists and politicos. Even before the Black Panthers called anyone who wouldn't pick up the gun reactionary, there were ideological differences. For example, Amiri Baraka and Eldridge Cleaver were at Black House but never talked, partly due to Cleaver's Marxism and Baraka's so-called Cultural Nationalism. Ironically, Baraka became a Marxist and Cleaver a spiritualist.
The fall of the Black House was insured after Marvin rejected an order delivered by Lil Bobby Hutton from Huey Newton that the youth clubhouse in the basement must be closed due to out of control youth.
Marvin told Lil Bobby, "Fuck the Supreme Commander!" Shortly after this, the artists were evicted and Black House became the San Francisco headquarters of the BPP.
Before the artists were evicted, those who performed included Sarah Webster Fabio, Avoctja, Chicago Arts Ensemble, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Ed Bullins, Reginald Lockett, Marvin X, Willie Dale and students from Baraka's Communications Project at SFSU, including Jimmy Garrett, Benny Stewart, George Murry, Ellendar Barnes, Jo Ann Mitchell, et al.
For more on Black House, see:
Marvin X, Somethin' Proper, autobiography of Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 1998.
Marvin X, Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the Devil, Black Bird Press, 2009.
Eldridge Cleaver, Post-Prison Writings.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Obama Drama, State of the Nation
Obama Drama, State of the Nation
We must admit this Harvard Negro is well skilled in the art of rhetoric, logic and lying that are so needed for all politicians since time immemorial, especially since the time of Machiavelli and his discourse on The Prince.
Tonight we heard more of the same flowery imagery and metaphors this character is known for internationally.
His ability to stay on the plane of abstraction is remarkable, but while the corporations are flowing with profits and bonuses, and the banks and financial institutions reap new trillions from their bailout after an era of global banditry and pyramid scheme speculation, we yet hear nothing substantial for the poor, the unemployed, the homeless who were tricked by the sub prime loan scam and global outsourcing.
Can we be clear, there is no job program to address the immediate needs of the millions of unemployed. And how shall the millions who are now homeless from foreclosures find remedy? What good is a health plan when one is unemployed and without means of payment?
While his rhetoric seeks to flow from Center to Right, his predilection of placating the Right Wing
Conservatives who reject him at every turn, especially from now to the 2012 elections, he leaves his progressive base in the woods, lost and turned out on the way to grandmother's house!
Iraq is a sham and the world knows it. When the last fifty thousand troops depart, there shall remain 200,000 mercenaries or private contractor killers and torturers, along with the grandest American embassy in the world to oversee the oil contracts and satisfy the reactionary regional regimes, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Gulf States and of course the Zionist regime called Israel.
Obama and his cohorts in the Congress shall be quite unnerved if Egypt suddenly crumbles in unity with the Tunisian revolution. He failed to mention Egypt tonight, while only briefly alluding to Tunisia. And hardly nothing was said about Afghanistan that is lost. We understand all but one province is under Taliban control. Nor was there any mention of so-called terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, except in the Bush/Colin Powell tradition of promising to cut them off.
What if all these nations not only throw out their reactionary regimes but any semblance of American hegemony as well. Will Americans suddenly get a similar idea to send the White House and Congress packing
We heard of long term plans for correcting the corrupt white supremacy educational system with its 50% drop out/push out rate. His call for teachers shall ring hollow, for why should a teacher work for the same wages as a janitor? There are very few Blacks going into teaching these days.
We attended a State Education conference in California with four thousand teachers, yet we doubt if 400 were Black. There are so few Black teachers in Alabama, we understand the state is importing teachers from the Philippines.
And of course nothing was said about the high incarceration rate of young black men, and the many thousands on probation and parole that are destabilizing our community coast to coast.
He ranted about the deficit to capitulate as is his habit. Don't worry, there shall be no shrinking of the military budget as he suggested--it is a scam in the permanent war philosophy of this military/corporate complex. But he called for the return of military recruiters on college and university campuses. Does this sound like a president who is anti-war? He sounds more like Bush with every passing moment.
We must excuse the 18-35 youth who reportedly gave him a thumbs up, for they are simply naive and will gain political maturity with time. With every speech he moves closer to those neo-colonial leaders in Africa, Asia and the Americas. We know they are a most wretched lot and Obama is slowly falling in league with them. The torture chamber of Gitmo continues, including the torture of Bradly Manning for giving information to Wikileaks, blowing the whistle on American global subterfuge.
His address is designed to set the stage for the 2012 election, but 2012 may prove a conundrum of major proportion, especially with all the mythology in the Mayan calendar.
Yes, we initially hailed Obama and supported him enthusiastically, but we seem him as a spineless personality urgently in need of backbone, a man who kisses right wing asses at every turn, and we should expect more of the same going into 2012 since he will need the support of the Wall Street robber barons to finance his billion dollar election campaign.
--Marvin X
1/25/11
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