Freedom Theatre in Jenin, Occupied Palestine, Director Assassinated

The recent murder of Juliano Mer-Khamisby demostrates the price artists must pay to advance the cultural revolution among the Palestinian people. What is true for you is true for me, thus artists everywhere must pay whatever price is necessary to advance the cultural revolution that will propel the liberation struggle. The artist must be on the frontline of struggle with his heart, mind, talent, body and soul. Paul Robeson told us the artist must decide to be the artistic freedom fighter or a collaborator with oppression, to be a monkey, donkey and tool of imperialism. Juliano's death is not lighter than a feather but higher than Mount Tai!

--Marvin X (aka, El Muhajir)

Murdered: Juliano Mer-Khamisby:

Director of Jenin's Freedom Theatre

date: 2011-04-07


On Tuesday 4th April 2011, our friend, teacher and leader, Juliano Mer Khamis was murdered by an unknown enemy of freedom and culture. All of us at The Freedom Theatre would like to express our deep condolences to the family of Juliano in this devastating time. Juliano was a loving father and husband, an inspirational teacher and leader, and a friend to many.

Just as The Freedom Theatre was built on the inspiration and legacy of Arna, his mother, so will its future work be built on the legacy of Juliano. It will carry on his message to promote freedom – not only for a nation but for each human being. We are mourning, but we will continue our resistance through art, continue our struggle, continue to do our better than best. As Juliano would say: The Revolution must go on!

Please support us in our continuing struggle for freedom and justice!

--The Freedom Theatre staff and students

Juliano Mer Khamis
4 Apr 04 2011

by Anthony Alessandrini

[Juliano Mer Khamis. Image by Alex Rozkovsky/AP]

Jadaliyya is tremendously saddened to report the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis earlier today. Juliano, 52, who was the Artistic Director of The Jenin Freedom Theater and the co-director of the award-winning documentary Arna’s Children, was shot by unknown assailants in Jenin as he was leaving the theater. We offer our deepest condolences to his family, his friends, and all who worked with him and loved him.

Juliano was born in Nazareth in 1958. He was the son of Saliba Khamis, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was at one time the secretary of the Israeli Communist Party, and Arna Mer Khamis, a Jewish Israeli who spent her youth in the Palmach but became an anti-Zionist activist and a fearless fighter for peace, justice, and human rights.

In interviews, Juliano would tell a story that marked the “racial lunacy” into which he was born: his mother went into labor while taking part in a protest against the imposition of martial law on Palestinian villages in Israel. She was rushed to the hospital, "but the doctors refused to stitch her and she nearly bled to death," he said. "They knew she was married to an Arab."

Growing up, Juliano for a time adopted his Jewish maternal name and joined an elite fighting unit of the IDF. "For a whole year my father wouldn't talk to me. He simply kept silent," he told an interviewer. But in 1978, while stationed in Jenin, he refused an order to forcibly remove an elderly Palestinian man from a car and ended up in a fight with his commanding officer. He was imprisoned for a few weeks and then left the army.

Ultimately, he came to identify himself, as he put it in 2009, by stating: "I am 100 percent Palestinian and 100 percent Jewish."

He worked extensively as an actor in film, television, and stage, beginning in the 1980s; during this time, he also began to work with his mother on the original Freedom Theater project in Jenin. Funded in part by the prize money that Arna Mer Khamis was awarded when she won the Alternative Nobel Prize, the theater was part of a larger project, “Care and Learning,” set up by Arna and a number of volunteers in the Jenin Refugee Camp. She was the vision behind the project until her death in 1994.

In 2003, Juliano collaborated with Daniel Daniel to produce and direct the documentary Arna’s Children. The film lovingly documented the work of The Freedom Theater, and the lives of the children from Jenin who participated in the plays and theater workshops. The film is also a document of the horrific destruction visited upon the Jenin Refugee Camp when it was invaded by Israeli forces in April 2002, and an account of the Battle of Jenin fought against this invasion. Following the lives and deaths of the young people who participated in The Freedom Theater, as well as the destruction of the theater itself in the Israeli invasion, the film was regarded by many as a masterpiece, and was awarded the Best Documentary Feature prize at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival.

In the words of one reviewer, the film is “a work of art, because it was made with a trembling hand, with the stammer of someone who does not know whom to mourn most: his mother, the boys from the Jenin camp or the trampled hopes of people yearning to be free."

It is also a film made with tremendous courage and honesty, two virtures that were the trademark of Juliano’s art. Elias Khoury wrote of Arna’s Children: “It was not an ordinary film. I do not know from where Juliano drew the courage and bravery to create this masterpiece, which appeared before my eyes as a testimony stronger than both life and death together.”

The reaction to Arna’s Children helped lead to the possibility of rebuilding and expanding The Freedom Theater in Jenin. In 2006, the theater opened its doors, and since then, it has offered a wide variety of workshops and other opportunities to young people in the camp, along with training in filmmaking, and the first Acting School in Palestine was opened at The Freedom Theater in 2008.

The theater has also produced a number of plays, including Men in the Sun and Animal Farm. The theater’s most recent production, Alice in Wonderland, co-directed by Juliano, opened in January to standing-room-only crowds and rave reviews.

All this constitutes a rare legacy, achieved through a tremendous collective effort, and Juliano was the visionary behind it all.

Juliano Mer Khamis was a fearless artist, and a fearless human being. Arna’s Children and The Freedom Theater are only the two most visible parts of his legacy, a legacy that bespeaks the role artistic creation can play even amidst the most horrible depths of injustice and suffering.

“The Freedom Theatre will provide the children of the camp a tranquil environment to express themselves and create,” he wrote, describing the vision of the theater in 2006. To imagine the possibility of opening up a space of tranquility, of expression, and thus of possibility, in Jenin Refugee Camp, whose name has become synonymous with the most vicious and destructive brutality of the occupation, might be seen as madness. Its very existence is a testament to the power of the artistic tradition that Juliano embodied with such beauty and power.

In Arna’s Children, Juliano documented, tenderly and fearlessly, the many ways that martyrdom comes to the young artists of Jenin camp. He showed us that every life lost in Jenin needed to be seen and understood as an unspeakable tragedy worthy of our remembrance. As Khoury wrote, so movingly, on the establishment of The Freedom Theater in Jenin: “It stands on ground laid down by the child martyrs, who found that the meaning they learned in Arna’s theatre led them in their early youth to create the epic of Jenin Refugee Camp, through its heroic resistance in 2002.

These are the children who we watched in the film Arna’s Children, dying and their blood covering their dream of becoming actors and artists. They are the true owners of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp.” Juliano has joined them. The loss of his voice is an irreplaceable one.

Arna’s Children can be purchased on DVD here, with all proceeds donated to The Freedom Theater in Jenin. For other ways to support The Freedom Theater, see here.
Juliano's family has issued a very moving statement that is a testament to his life and work: it can be found here.

Obama, Osama and the War Mongers Club

OBAMA, SARKOZY, CAMERON

SHOULD STEP DOWN

IF QADDAFI STEPS DOWN

by

PROFESSOR SAM HAMOD, PH.D

LET ME BE BLUNT:

1. IF QADDAFI IS REQUIRED TO STEP DOWN, THEN THE 4 WARMONGERS WHO STARTED THIS TERRIBLE WAR, OBAMA, SARKOZY, CAMERON AND HAGUE SHOULD STEP DOWN AND ALSO GO INTO EXILE.

2. REPARATIONS MUST BE PAID BY THE USA, FRANCE AND THE UK TO THE LIBYAN ARAB REPUBLIC FOR THE DAMAGE AND THE LIVES THEY TOOK IN THEIR KILING AND ILLGAL WARFARE.

3. ALL OF THESE WARMONGERS SHOULD BE TRIED BY THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE FOR WAR CRIMES AGAINST LIBYA AND OTHER COUNTRIES, BUT ESPECIALLY AGAINST LIBYA.IF THIS IS NOT DONE, THEN THERE IS NO JUSTICE IN THE WORLD, AND THE USA, UK, FRANCE, AND ITALY SHOULD ALL BE CENSURED BY THE UN AND TAKEN OFF THE "SECURITY COUNCIL" BECAUSE THE ARE WARMONGERING NATIONS, AND ALL THESE "LEADERS" ARE CRIMINALS OF THE WORST SORT; THEY ARE NOT WORTHY OF LEADERSHIP, AND THEY ARE A DETRIMENT TO THEIR OWN NATION AND THEIR OWN PEOPLE.THE WEST, LED BY THE USA, UK, FRANCE AND OTHERS SHOULD NO LONGER TALK ABOUT "JUSTICE" "PEACE" AND "DEMOCRACY," BECAUSE THEY DO NOT PRACTICE THE ABOVE IN THE WORLD OR IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

PROFESSOR SAM HAMOD, PH.D

5.3.11

Paul Cobb and Marvin X

Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb and author Marvin X at 14th and Broadway, across the street from Academy of da Corner, in front of Rite Aid.

Paul and Marvin grew up together in West Oakland. Paul knows more about Marvin's dad, Owendell Jackmon, a florist, than Marvin. Another brother, Henry Winston, says Mr. Jackmon was his mentor and he holds Marvin's dad in the highest esteem. Mr. Jackmon made his transition at 89 in 1989. He was born in 1900 and particpated in WWI. He was a Race man who was conscious of Marcus Garvey. In Oakland, he was a member of various organizations, including The Men of Tomorrow, Elks, American Legion, et al. Mr. Jackmon was a member of Downs Memorial Methodist Church. Marvin's classic play Flowers for the Trashman deals with the father/son relationship. When the Drama Department at San Franscisco State University produced the play while Marvin was an undergrad, his father attended a performance but wasn't too happy with his son's depiction.

Before moving to Oakland, the Jackmons lived in Fresno. Marvin and his mother, Marian Murrill Jackmon were born in Fowler, nine miles south of Fresno. His parents published the Fresno Voice, possibly the first black newspaper in the Central Valley. They also had a real estate business and sold many blacks their first home after WWII.

See Marvin's autobiography, Somethin' Proper, Black Bird Press, 1998.

photo Walter Riley, Esq.

Somethin' Proper: The Life and Times of a North American African Poet

book review

African American Review, Spring, 2001

by Julius E. Thompson

It tells the story of the most important Muslim poet to appear in the United States during the civil rights era....Marvin X (Marvin E. Jackmon) [El Muhajir]. Somethin' Proper: The Life and Times of a North American African Poet. Castro Valley, CA: Black Bird P, 1998. 278 pp. $29.95.

Marvin X's autobiography Somethin' Proper is one of the most significant works to come out of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It tells the story of perhaps the most important African American Muslim poet to appear in the United States during the Civil Rights era. The book opens with an introduction by scholar Nathan Hare, a key figure in the Black Studies Movement of the period. Marvin X then takes center stage with an exploration of his life's story, juxtaposed with the rapidly changing events and movements of contemporary history: the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement, the Black Power Movement, the growth of Islam in America, and especially the influence of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, and the series of challenges facing black people in recent decades.

Marvin X was born Marvin E. Jackmon in Fowler, California, on May 29, 1944, and grew up in West Fresno and West Oakland, California. His early education was completed in these cities, and he later attended Oakland City College (Merritt) and San Francisco State University, where he was awarded a B.A. and an M.A. in English.

He emerged as an important new poetic voice among California black poets in the late 1960s, and wrote for several of the key Black Arts Movement journals of the period, including the Journal of Black Poetry, Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Black Theatre magazine, Black Scholar, Black World, and Muhammad Speaks.

He was also a key playwright of the era, working with Ed Bullins in organizing the Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco, 1966, and in founding the Black House, also in San Francisco, with Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver, and Ethna Wyatt, 1967.

He also worked with Bullins at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, 1968. During the last forty years, Marvin X has taught Black Studies, literature, drama, and English at Fresno State University, the University of California, Berkeley and San Diego, the University of Nevada, Reno, San Francisco State University, Mills College, and Merritt and Laney Colleges in Oakland, California.

His very active career is also reflected in a rapid-moving life style. This fact is documented by the author in twenty chapters in Somethin' Proper, followed by an appendix, which captures the life and death of Huey Newton. Marvin X was a busy man during the 1960s and 1970s. He was a Black Muslim, an associate of the key leaders of the Black Panther Party (Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver), an anti-Vietnam War protester (he went into exile in Canada, Mexico City and later in Central America, rather than be drafted into the United States Army), and an outspoken critic of American economic, social, and cultural discrimination of African Americans at home, and of Third World peoples abroad.

This theme is reflected in one of his most famous poems of the period, "Burn, Baby Burn" on the 1965 Watts Riot:

Tired, sick and tired.

Tired of being sick and tired.

Lost,

lost inthe wilderness of white America.

Are the masses asses?

Cool, said the master

To the slave, "No problem,

Don't rob and steal, I'll Be your driving wheel."

Cool.

And he wheeled us into350 years of BlackMadness--

to hog guts, Conked hair, quo vadis

Bleaching cream, Uncle Thomas,

to WattsTo the streets, to theKillllllllll ........

Boommmmm ............

2 honkeys gone.

Motherfuck the police

And Parker's sister too

Burn, baby, burn*******

Cook outta sight*******

Fineburgs,

wineburgs,

Safeway,

noway,

burn .....Baby, burn

Somethin' Proper also reveals Marvin X's family life, marriages, children, and friends, and notes the conflicts which he has experienced across the years with individuals, organizations, and governments. He writes in a style which captures the essence of black language, folklore, and culture in the United States, with an upscale urban beat!

Marvin X notes the high and low points in his own life and that of his associates. Most potent is his analysis of the drug situation in this country, and its relationship to and impact upon the black struggle. He calls for change and reform in this area, stressing the need for continued black struggle to overcome the age-old problems of discrimination, racism, and oppression in America.

Marvin X remains an active writer today. His body of work includes Fly to Allah (1969); Black Man Listen (1969), a key work in Dudley Randall's catalogue at Broadside Press; Woman, Man's Best Friend (1973); and a play, One Day in the Life, most recently produced in 1997 in Brooklyn and Newark, New Jersey.

His most recent books of poetry are Love and War (1995), Land of My Daughters, poems, 2005.He remains a very interesting voice from the Black Arts Movement, continuing to write and to challenge contemporary readers to think and to act, and to assess the past, the present, and the future.

COPYRIGHT 2001 African American Review

COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group

Marvin appears in the recent literary anthology Black California, Heyday Books, Berkeley, 2011. He was Guest Editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, 2011. Marvin is editing an anthology of writings dedicated to the memory of assassinated Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey.

On May 14, Marvin X will receive the Inspired Artist Award at the Paramount Theatre.

Osama from the Street

Obama from the Street or the Mack God

The Meaning of Osama bin Laden from a Street Perspective

In the language of the street, Osama bin Laden checked the white man. He put traps in the White man's path, allowing us to breathe another day while the white man focused on catching Obama, just as the Black Panther Party took pressure off the Negro people by having the police focus on the Black Panthers as the main threat to the national security of the United States. Can you imagine, some little Negroes with pistols and shotguns are able to challenge the might of the trillion dollar military industrial complex called America!

This is a joke of the highest order and should receive an award at the coming Comedy Concert at Oakland's Paramount Theatre on May 14.

What we must learn from Osama is the interconnectedness of all things, especially in the Global Village. On the highest level of socalled civilization, there are only those who rule and those who are ruled. Such ideological and religious personas do not matter in the least, for they all go to the same banks to bankroll their iniquities. It doesn't matter if they are Muslim, Christian, Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Communist, Gay, Lesbian. Only their interests matter, their narrow minded ideological concerns, all else can be sacrificed, sometimes to the highest bidder.

In the street, there is little distinction from the cops and robbers, they actually work together to keep crime alive. What would the police do with a society free of crime? What would the jailers and social workers, probation, parole officers do?

Osama has, beyond his wildest imagination, helped usher in another Age of Man, ultimately helping the downtrodden of humanity get the courage to stand up in the face of oppression.

His main contribution was helping overcoming the fear of death. The suicide bombers gave us ample evidence death is no matter, that a greater life awaits us, if we only rid ourselves of the fear of death, if only we will invoke the dictum my life and my death are all for Allah.

In the Mack God philosophy, death is no matter, except as the price of justice. For whatever twisted ideological perspective he originated, whether Sunni or some weird combination thereof, Osama gave the West its greatest challenge yet.

But in the end the West shall face its greatest challenge as Baraka told us, "In the end the Negro will be the terrorist." Thus forget about Osama bin Ladan and consentrate on the most oppressed sector of American society. They shall and must be liberated by any means necessary, although we suggest by the most scientific means possible.

The American wage slaves can join them or stand on the sidelines, it doesn't matter. The time has come for the liberation of the North American Africans, and America may be destroyed in the process. Who gives a damn?

--Marvin X

4/1/11

Imperialist Running Dog Obama Catches Osama

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream - Watch Now - Al Jazeera English


On the Death of Osama bin Laden

Well, well, well, as election season begins, Obama has a feather in his cap, the body of Osama, the most wanted man in American history. Thus the Obama Drama continues for the hoodwinking of those addicted to the world of make believe. As we imagined, Osama was living not in some mountain cave, but in a mansion inside Islamabad, Pakistan, of course whereabouts long known by the Pakistani Intelligence and the CIA.

For better or worse, he was a character created by America, first to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan, then to be the bogeyman of the Global fascists in the American military, finance, corporate, univeristy complex of white supremacy institutions that shall now proceed to reinstitute chattel slavery in America in the form of wage slavery, with little or no benefits for the workers who have yet do not have the boldness to seize the means of production and institute a People's Republic Ruled by the Consent of the Governed. I refer them to the poem If We Must Die by Black Renaissance poet Claude Mckay. Hopefully this will get their nuts out of the sand and/or vaginas. A coward's death is lighter than a feather, the warrior's death is higher than Mount Tai.

No more jobs for life, no job amenities, no free health insurance, no social security. Your life is a commodity in the free market economy. It shall make money off you at every turn, no free lunches, no free rides, not even to the cemetary, better a cremation in the nomadic European tradition so accustomed by the North American Africans addicted to white supremacy world of make believe perpetuated by the Monkey Mind Media.

Osama Bin Laden was an American creation, with full support of Saudi Arabia, how else could nine of the sixteen highjackers learn to fly but not how to land and while training in America? How else could the Bin Laden fly out of America on 9/11 when no other planes could fly? Study the House of Saud and the House of Bush!

And what is Barack Obama but an extention of the Bush White Supremacy Mythology, except in black face. When he imposes a No-fly Zone over the Gaza Consentration Camp, I will support him, until then, I will ride his ass like Roy Rogers on Trigger.

Black ain't black

white ain't white

beware the day

beware the night.

--Marvin X

The Meeting, A Play about Malcolm and Martin

Hello friends, thank you for taking the time to read my invite. For the past twenty years I have been performing in Jeff Stetson’s award-winning play ‘The Meeting’—a story about an unlikely yet necessary meeting between two of America’s most important figures-- Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thrust into extraordinary circumstances, these men of great conviction, debate strategies as they caution America to keep the promise she made to her citizens. The Meeting is delightful, informative and hard-hitting. Please join me in a command performance as we remember the lion and the lamb, the Prince and the King, Malcolm and Martin.
UPCOMING ONE ACT STAGE PRODUCTION:
The MEETING
A King and a Prince: Malcolm X meets Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Directed by Michael Lange


In celebration of Malcolm X’s 86th birthday San Francisco’s Jazz Heritage Center- Educational & Media Theatre at 1330 Fillmore Street will host a live stage performance of Jeff Stetson’s award winning play THE MEETING on Thursday May 19th, May 20th, and May 21st at 7:30PM, respectively, and on May 22, 2011 at 3PM.

THE MEETING depicts a fictitious meeting between two of the most important leaders of the 20th Century – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The one act play takes place a few days before the assassination of Malcolm X at New York’s Audubon Ballroom, high up in an intimate and modestly furnished hotel suite in the heart of Harlem. In THE MEETING both men’s philosophies resonate and clash as they eloquently set forth their arguments on issues of freedom, dignity and respect not only for African Americans but for all people who have suffered at the hands of injustice. It imagines what could have happened had they actually met, joined hands and pushed in the same direction.

The meeting features veteran actors Michael Lange as Malcolm X, Abbie Rhone as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and actors Dejuan Conner or Dorian Brockington as Rashad, Malcolm’s bodyguard. The play, first performed in 1984, received eight NAACP image awards including best play and best playwright. It has been reviewed as “a remarkable, intensely intimate meeting full of undisguised competitiveness, deep passion and potent reasoning. The Meeting is enthralling.”

Tickets are $20 and are on sale at Brown Paper Tickets.com 800-838-3006 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-838-3006 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Group rates - student and special prices are available. Group coordinator receives one free ticket. For more information contact Director Michael Lange 510-485-6338 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 510-485-6338 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Bob Marley Africa Unite

Black People Are Beautiful

Marvin X (Plato Negro)l, Professor of Graphics Jackson, and Aristotle Negro (Lumukanda) at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway. Aristotle Negro now conducts classes on the North West Corner of 14th and Broadway, adjacent to City Hall.

No matter the Negrocities, Black people are the most beautiful people on the planet earth. I bear witness from being at my street ministry Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. No matter that they threatened to kill me three times last year, and said they might throw Molotov cocktails at me this year, 2011, I proclaim that black people are beautiful.

They come by in the most wretched condition imaginable and donate money to the cause. Some are homeless pushing shopping carts, yet they donate money, if only a dollar. And then those in better condition come by and extend their hand with two twenties rolled up, then go their way.

Black people are beautiful. We have now opened a second class of Academy of da Corner at the Northwest corner of 14th and Broadway, under the professorship of Aristotle Negro, aka, Lumakonda, an esteemed bibliophile and lay professor well qualified to address the myriad ills of the street people.

Response to Marvin X's Inspired Artist Award

Anthony Mays Responds to Marvin X's Inspired Artist Award

Amiri Baraka, Mentor and Advisor to Marvin X on the Cultural Revolution. Catch Marvin X in New York at the Vision Festival with Amiri Baraka, et al.

From: Anthony Mays

To: jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Sent: Fri, April 29, 2011 7:13:11 PM

Subject: RE: Black Bird Press News & Review; Inspired Artist Award

Dear Brother Marvin, I wish to congratulate you for your award at the prelude to the 25th Anniversary of the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition and Festival's Final Competition Round, and I believe that it is well-deserved. I must say, however, with all of the humility that I might muster, that I do not feel that your art should be associated with comedy. I tend to feel that your art is relevent, functional, diverse, timely, beautiful, but not comical (though comedy is often a technique used in your writing). Perhaps there will be more people at a comedy show than would attend an academic or cultural event. Perhaps I'm tooooooo serious, but just sharing an opinion witha brother whose work I respect.

Love, peace, Anthony

Marvin X Replies to Anthony:

Brother Mays, I understand your concerns, but do you think black intellectuals would award a self confessed Nigguh for life with any of their many awards, reserved for those who search eternally in failure for bones in Egypt rather than dry bones in the ghettoes of America?

They avoid dry bones like the curse of King Tut is upon them, but it is only their lethargy and passivity, the product of their white supremacy edumakation and certification.

I appreciate the Comedy Negroes for honoring me, rather than an award from the tragi-comic intelllectual Negroes in perpetual crisis as delineated by Harold Cruz fifty years ago.

I am a product of the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad who only late in his mission won over the edumakated Negroes. How ironic that we must hear white people pontificate on his teachings and mythological musings on such programs as Coast to Coast Am, nightly, with their scientists confirming all his teachings,confirming how far in advance he was from the Pan African chronological wonderings and spurious speculations on our history in the universe or mutliverse. It is deeply disheartening to hear the white man smash the pontifications of these neo-colonial elite Negro intellectuals.

So, brother, my reward is with Allah. Yet I thank the Comedy Negores for recognizing me, after all, many have told me I am very very funny. Long ago when I taught at the University of Nevada, Reno, the Reno Gazzette interviewed me and said, "Marvin X has humor and he uses it well when he uses it."

I must tell you that the Los Angeles Black Book Expo did give me a lifetime achievement award, under the direction of my dear colleague Itibari M. Zulu, who, as you know, invited me to be guest editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue. We appreciate him and have made my edition of the JPAS the Sacred Text of the First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists.

Finally, my mentor, Amiri Baraka, told me don't accept the award but the "reward," which is money.
Peace and love,
Marvin X

Black Bird Press Books

Inspired Artist Award for Marvin X

Family, Friends and Colleagues, I am excited and honored to be recognized by Full Vision Arts Foundation and lajones&associates during the Inspired Artist Awards Reception and Ceremony on Saturday, May 14th, from 5pm - 7pm at the Paramount Theatre.

This special event is a prelude to the 25th Anniversary of the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition and Festival's Final Competition Round which starts at 8pm. I hope you would consider joining me for the evening to celebrate my special honor. Advance tickets are $55 per person and $100 for couples -- these tickets not only admit you to the VIP and Awards Reception, but also include admission to the Final Competition Round.

To purchase your advance tickets to the special ticketed event ... please visit http://www.blackcomedyvipawards.eventbrite.com/. if you should have questions, please contact me or LaNiece Jones at laniece@lajonesmedia.com.

Inspired Artist Awards VIP Reception
& Awards Ceremony 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
5:30pm - 7pm Paramount Theatre Mezzanine Level
(use Broadway entrance & pick up tickets at special VIP event will call table)
VIP table from 5pm - 6:45pm

Award Ceremony Emcee:
Nikki Thomas, Nikki Thomas Network

2011 Honorees

Amanda Elliott, Executive Director, Richmond Main Street
Don “DC” Curry, Comedian / Actor
Joyce Gordon, Proprietor, Joyce Gordon Gallery
Dorothy King-Jernegan, Proprietor, Everett & Jones BBQ
Charleston Pierce, Model Coach Philanthropist Charleston Pierce Presents
Shelly Tatum, Businessman Community Advocate
Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

Music by: Dr. Terence Elliott
Free Champagne & Appetizers No Host Bar Awards Presentation

Marvin X's Muses: The beautiful, creative, intelligent women who inspire the poet:

Fahizah, Ayo, Phavia, Tarika, Suzzette







\


Black Bird Press Books
2 for 1 Special.
Buy one get one free,
limited copies available. Don't delay
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Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way,
Berkeley CA 94702
Send $19.95, plus $5.00 for p and h.



Wish I Could tell you the truth, essays, 2005, $19.95





In the Crazy House Called America,
essays, 2002, $19.95








Review of In the Crazy House Called America

Rarely is a brother secure and honest enough with himself to reveal his innermost thoughts, emotions or his most hellacious life experiences. For most men it would be a monumental feat just to share/bare his soul with his closest friends but to do so to perfect strangers would be unthinkable, unless he had gone through the fires of life and emerged free of the dross that tarnishes his soul. Marvin X, poet, playwright, author and essayist does just that in a self-published book entitled In The Crazy House Called America .

This latest piece from Marvin X offers a peek into his soul and his psyche. He lets the reader know he is hip to the rabid oppression the West heaps upon people of color especially North American Africans while at the same time revealing the knowledge gleaned from his days as a student radical, black nationalist revolutionary forger of the Black Arts Movement, husband, father lover, a dogger of women did not spare him the degradation and agony of descending into the abyss of crack addiction, abusive and toxic relationships and family tragedy.

Perhaps because of the knowledge gained as a member of the Nation of Islam, and his experiences as one of the prime movers of the cultural revolution of the '60, the insights he shares In The Crazy House Called America are all the keener. Marvin writes candidly of his pain, bewilderment and depression of losing his son to suicide. He shares in a very powerful way, his own out of body helplessness as he wallowed in the dregs of an addiction that threatened to destroy his soul and the mess his addictions made of his life and relationships with those he loved.

But he is not preachy and this is not an autobiography. He has already been there and done that. In sharing his story and the wisdom he has gleaned from his life experiences and looking at the world through the eyes of an artist/healer.—Junious Ricardo Stanton

Other Comments

Marvin X has always been in the forefront of pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing. In the Crazy House is solid writing!
--Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones), Newark, New Jersey

In terms of being modernist and innovative, he's centuries ahead of anybody I know.
--Dennis Leroy Moore, filmmaker, Brecht Forum, New York

Courageous and outrageous! He walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out clean as white fish and black as coal.
--from the foreword by James W. Sweeney, Oakland, CA

In the Crazy House Called America is for brothers especially. It is a book all black men should grab hold of and digest, if for no other reason than to experience just how redemptively healing and liberating being honest can be.
--Junious Ricardo Stanton, New York

Marvin X is doing the kind of thing we should be doing, bringing "psychodrama" into didactic nonfiction. Beyond that, it's good literature.
--Dr. Nathan Hare, Black Think Tank, San Francisco

The stories are heartfelt, theoretical, insightful, passionate and private, with psychosocial, political recommendations and commentary on what black folks need to do to get reparations, our "40 Acres and a Mule."
--from the Introduction by Suzette Celeste, MPA, MSW, Richmond California

"The Maid, The Ho', The Cook" was one of the most beautiful pieces about real love I've ever read. The image of "crack-heads" as scandalous and without human dignity is destroyed by Marvin's recollection of this sister with whom he fell in love.
--Lil Joe, Los Angeles, CA

One of the things that makes this book a great joy is the range of subjects vital to all types of Black folks from richest to poorest.
--John Woodford, Editor, Michigan Today, University of Michigan

When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express black male urban experiences in a lyrical way.
--James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer

Marvin X: Eight Books in 2010

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Volume I

If you want to learn about inspiration and motivation, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.--Ishmael Reed

Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life, (Wisdom of Plato Negro, Volume II)

Mythology of Love:

Toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, 416 pages.

This book is the most wanted title in the Marvin X collection.

Youth in the hood fight over it and steal it from each other.

Girls say it empowers them, and the boys say it helps them step up their game.

Mothers and fathers are demanding their sons and daughters read this. Paradise Jah Love says they fight over it as if it's black gold!

I Am Oscar Grant, essays on Oakland, $19.95.

Critical essays on the travesty of American justice in the cold blooded murder of Oscar Grant by a beast in blue uniform.

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself

essays on Obama Drama, $19.95.

Marvin X is on the mark again with his accurate observation of the Obama era. The black community was so excited with Obama being the first Black Prez that they forgot he was a politician-not a messiah. Marvin X brings the community back to the reality of what Obama stands for-at the moment! He has not given up on Da Prez, he simply wants people to see what he stands for and what he still has an opportunity to do for our communities. Make sure you put Pull Yo Pants Up Fada Black Prez & Yo Self on your to-buy list It will be the best book you will read in 2010!--Carolyn Mixon

Marvin X, Guest Editor, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, 480 pages In honor of the Journal of Black Poetry, Marvin X collects poetry from throughout the Pan African world. This massive issue is a classic of radical Pan African literature in the 21st century. Amiri Baraka says, "He has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the innovators and founders of the new revolutionary school of African writing."

Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box

In this collection he calls upon the people to become proactive rather than reactionary, to initiate the movement out the box of oppression by any means necessary, although Marvin X believes in the power of spiritual consciousness to create infinite possibilities toward liberation.

Soulful Musings on Unity of North American Africans,

150 pages

Marvin X explores the possibilities for unity among North American Africans. Available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Marvin X in new anthology Black California




paperback, 6x9, 384 pages
ISBN: 978-1-59714-146-8
$24.95


Black California: A Literary Anthology
Edited by Aparajita Nanda

150 years of the California African American experience

Black California is the first comprehensive anthology celebrating black
writing through almost two centuries of Californian history. In a patchwork quilt pieced from poetry, fiction, essays, drama, and memoirs, this anthology traces the trajectory of African American writers. Each piece gives a voice to the resonating rhythms that created the African American literary tradition in California. These voices speak of dreams and disasters, of heroic achievements and tragic failures, of freedom and betrayal, of racial discrimination and subsequent restoration--all setting the pulse of the black California experience.

Early works include a letter written by Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of California; an excerpt from mountain man, freed slave, and honorary Crow Indian James Beckwourth; and a poem written by James Madison Bell and recited to a public gathering of black people commemorating the death of President Lincoln. More recent contributions include pieces from beat poet Bob Kaufman, Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, comedian Brian Copeland, and feminists Lucille Clifton and June Jordan. Also included are the writings of Langston Hughes, Marvin X, Reginald Lockett, Ishmael Reed, Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, Arna Bontemps, David Henderson, Alice Walker, Al Young, devorah major, Ernest Gaines and Clarence Major, et al.

Advance Praise

"The Black California anthology is a wonderful contribution to the literature. The anthology conveniently places a hundred and fifty years' worth of writings in one volume. Additionally, this publication presents the work of obscure but nonetheless worthy authors alongside those who are more familiar to us."

—Rick Moss, chief curator at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland

"Black California pierces previous perceptions about California's political and social liberalism by presenting its racial history with honesty and human tragedy that is often ignored in the dominant narrative."

—Melba Joyce Boyd, Distinguished University Professor and chairperson of the Africana studies department at Wayne State University

"The essays, fiction, poetry, journalism, and drama Nanda has selected are as varied in tone and timbre as their authors. A fascinating and exciting anthology!"

—Shelley Fisher Fishkin, professor of English and director of American studies, Stanford University

About the Editor

Aparajita Nanda is a visiting associate professor to the departments of English and African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and she also teaches at Santa Clara University. A widely published scholar, she is a Fulbright faculty awardee, a Beatrice Bain scholar at UC Berkeley, and was showcased as part of the “Experience Berkeley” outreach team to students across the United States. Her primary fields of interest are African American literature and postcolonial studies.

Black California Anthology--Marvin X's Entry

Welcome to Mexi-Cali


By Marvin X



Vamanos, vamanos

the Mexicans are coming

to reclaim the land

avenge Blackfoot Cherokee Lakota

Comanche Seminole

Aztecs Mayas Incas

the Mexicans are coming



to make the yankees disappear like

civilizations of old

the guns disease greed for gold silver and blood

the Mexicans are coming

tired of poverty mud huts

washing bathing drinking dirty water in streams rivers

the Mexicans are coming

filling American cities with rivers of human beings

seeking new life love hope

after centuries of slavery oppression corruption

Vamanos

the Mexicans are coming

working three jobs by day stealing by night

to come up and stay up in Gringo land

Let the New Negroes arrive and take control

who will do God's will as Elijah promised

Old Negroes never got the concept

too full of pride selfishness greed

no unity no love for self no sharing

The Mexicans are coming to Cali New York Dirty South

working living loving sharing building

enjoying heaven on earth

better than hell on earth below the border

For whatever reason

the negro refused to transform the ghetto

who cares for reasons

Negro thou dost protest too much

Mexicans are coming

turning ghetto shacks into palaces

even the roaches disappear

ghetto is better'n than dirt floor shacks

no electricity no bath no clean water

Remember the Aztec vision of the Eagle on the catcus

Ahora, the catus now lands on the eagle

llike the catcus they are juice to the lazy gringos

starving for cheap labor

even the negroes are tired down to their dna

Oh, gringo, will you have mercy on the Mexican

Will the Mexican have mercy on you?

Vamanos!


I grew up with Mexicans in Fresno, California, the central valley, the richest agricultural valley in the world. I used to pick cotton and cut grapes with my grandfather who would take my brother and I to Chinatown at 3 or 4 in the morning to board the bus to the fields. I couldn't wait to hear the Mexicans shout "Vamanos" (let's go) at the end of a hard working day in the fields. On the weekends my grandmother would send my mother and my Uncle Stan to retrieve my grandfather who was stuck in some Chinatown bar and gambling joint such as the "El Gato Negro" (the black cat).

During intermission at the show on Sundays, when we took a break from eating popcorn and finger @#%$ the girls, we made our way to the restroom to beat up Mexicans because they were the closest things we knew to white boys, although once in a while white boys made the mistake to visit White's Theatre and found themselves the object of our wrath.

And when Little Richard, Chuck Berry, The Drifters, James Brown, Sam Cooke and others came to town, our main objective was to go fight during and after the concert, and again, Mexicans were the object, unless of course, white boys wanted to rock and roll. The last thing we came to do at the dance was dance. We came to throw down with our hands and sometimes knives but not guns. When we caused a fight during the concert, the Mexicans would be waiting for us outside after it was over. We would meet on the grass and clash like mad fools with nothing better to do. Sometimes people got stabbed, kicked in the head, beat unmercifully.

At school, the Mexicans were the dumbest, according to my white English teacher, although two or three of them were in the honor society with me. For a moment, I had my eyes on a Mexican girl, but my black sisters weren't going for that. My favorite lunch was tacos from the cafe at Walnut and California streets. I can taste those tacos now, and those tamales. Mama used to make us tacos as well.

As a draft resister during the Vietnam war, I found refuge in Mexico City. My contact was revolutionary artist Elizabeth Catlett Mora and she aided me during my stay. She was the witness at my civil wedding to one of my students from Fresno State University whose education I disrupted to come on my revolutionary sojourn.

I traveled throughout Mexico, from Tijuana to Chetumal on the East coast and Oxaca on the West coast. I had no problems in Mexico, especially after I obeyed Betty Mora's warning to stay out of politics, something I didn't do when I ventured down to Honduras, but that's another story.

Mexican poverty was overwhelming, something I'd never seen before. I didn't know people lived on dirt floors watching television with Catholic saints adorning their walls. I didn't know I could have a maid for one dollar a day, that she would do all the cleaning, cooking, clothe washing and shopping for one dollar a day. And yes, even Betty Mora, my revolutionary comrade, had a maid.

I loved Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, near the Paseo de la Reforma, cerca de Metro, which was where I lived. Sundays in the park was for lovers only and families who loved. The Mexicans taught me how to love in ways different from what I was accustomed: their passion was not suppressed as in the US.

And they worked so hard. Recall what I just said about the maid. But all the people work hard or hustle hard. I never saw any lazy Mexicans. Or fat Mexicans either. Where did these ideas come from?

The first thing Betty Mora gave me after dinner was a book on the Mexican revolution. Soon I understood the determination of the people and their will to be free, and the constant sabotage by PRI, the eternal dominant political party until recently. I understood why Betty and her husband Poncho Mora could not let me stay at their house except for a few nights, since they were being watched because they were Communists and radical and non radical people were known to disappear into the night. Just before I got there, students had been massacred at the University and when their parents came to check on their children, the parents disappeared. As I said, Betty told me not to get involved in politics, although I did visit with political refugees who'd fled to Mexico City from throughout Latin America, including Black brothers from the Dominican Republic, Columbia and Venezuela, although the only thing I could say to them was "poder negro" (black power).

In spite of the repression, the poverty, I admired Mexico because at least they had their own country: they made their own soap, own clothes, shoes, own flag, own oil and hated Yankees or gringos, although I was often considered a gringo when they didn't misidentify me as a Brazilian and call me Pele. When they found out I was an American, they could not and would not believe I was without money and poor. After all, their sole objective was getting to America. They lined up around the American Embassy each day for visas. Of course many made the trip north without visas, after all, why do they need visas to visit their own land, now called California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico?

After the rise and fall of the Black Power revolt ignited resistance in other minorities, including white women, gays, grays, Native Americans, Asians and most importantly Latin Americans, the cry "Viva La Raza" was heard throughout the land, surfacing on the East coast as Puerto Rican power and on the West coast as Chicano power. Of course none of these minorities suffered like African Americans, after being named the greatest threat to national security. None had assassinated leaders the stature of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. None gained international recognition like the Black Panthers. But all of these minorities siphoned the Black energy to enjoy social/economic and political benefits after the Black Liberation movement was decimated from within and without, mainly as a result of Cointelpro, the US governments counter intelligence program to destroy the black movement and prevent the rise of a "Black Messiah."

Caesar Chavez did emerge as the leader of the poor, down trodden, exploited Mexican farm workers. And the Brown Panthers attempted to organize the Latin community. But Afro-Latin unity was short lived once Chicanos saw being too closely allied with the Blacks was a liability and furthermore, many Chicanos preferred identifying with white European culture rather than their African/Native Indian roots, although the concept La Raza suggests Native Indian mythology, including the oft-pictured Emiliano Zapata, hero of the Mexican revolution, himself of African/Indian roots, not to mention another revolutionary hero, Vincente Guerrero, the African/Indian George Washington/Abraham Lincoln of Mexico.

But as Blacks no longer worked the cotton, grape fields and orchards of the Central Valley towns, Chicanos and Mexicanos replaced them. On college campuses, Chicano and/or La Raza programs were often empowered at the expense of Black Studies. In other words, Chicanos collaborated with college and university administrations to gain power while black studies was decimated, underfunded or eliminated. There is now a Ph.D. program in Chicano Studies, a Chicano Studies Department on various campuses, but most Black Studies are absorbed in Ethnic Studies or traditional Euro Studies. Many Ethnic Studies programs and/or departments are headed by Chicanos who have no shame in looking out for La Raza, which means too hell with the Blacks.

A similar phenomenon occurs in the prison system. It is a known fact that the white administrators cause division between black and Latin prisoners, especially the prison gangs that are kept divided so they can be contained, preventing Afro-Latin unity. And again, many of the Latin prison gangs have betrayed Afro-Latin unity to align themselves with the white gangs.

A strange thing happened during a performance of my play ONE DAY IN THE LIFE before an audience of exconvicts when several of them marched out in unity because the black former inmates objected to my use of the N word and the white and Chicano excons objected to my Black hero worship. The drug program counselor had to baby-sit these inmates all night, telling them not to be so sensitive, it was only a play.

Moving into the millennium, another strange thing is happening, or perhaps it is not so strange but a demographic reality: Latinos are now the number one minority in America, eclipsing Blacks. A few years ago I was walking with poet Amiri Baraka in New York. He said let's get something to eat. I said what about some Mexican food. He said I was crazy, there wasn't any Mexican restaurants in New York City. If I wanted Puerto Rican food, that was a possibility, but not Mexican. Today, Chicanos are the largest Latin minority in New York.

In California, the ghetto is rapidly becoming AfroLatin, from Watts to East Oakland, Chicanos are moving in, buying property, renting, setting up businesses, especially Chicano grocery stores and supermarkets, also auto shops (since they are known to have ten cars per family—nice racist joke). They can be seen throughout the ghetto hustling on every corner, selling every conceivable item, including Crack and other drugs, but legitimate items Blacks would be arrested for selling or would be told to close down because they lacked various permits, especially health department permits, while Chicanos can sell tacos and burritos without any problem.

The new demographics are indeed creating cultural tensions, but I suggest Blacks learn from their new Latin neighbors who are in many instances simply utilizing the positive aspects of Latino culture, i.e., practicing economic unity, entrepreneurship, political and most of all, family unity. Blacks need to observe the Latinos hustling items other than drugs and do the same. Observe their collective unity Blacks merely talk about during KWANZA. And finally, present Chicanos with a political agenda for Afro-Latin unity that cannot be sabotaged except on the pain of death. Whether we like it or not, Chicanos are the new guys on the block, yes, the hog with the big nuts, so rather than fear them, we should unite with them for mutual political/economic progress. If we sit around playa hatin, we shall slip farther behind in the multicultural ladder and ultimately be forgotten as history marches forward with new people determined to make progress.

I must inform Blacks that employing Latinos to work in Black businesses, because they are cheap labor is no lasting solution to our economic woes. Even though they may be cheap and more reliable, their employment in soul food restaurants such as Sylvia's in Harlem or Lois The Pie Queen's in Oakland, is a disgrace with Black unemployment sky high. Young blacks can and must be found who will work for low wages to gain job training.

Welcome to Mexicali.

Marvin X is one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and the father of Muslim American literature. The author of thirty books, eight in 2010, he recently founded the First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists. www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com

Black California, A Literary Anthology, edited by Aparajita Nanda, Heyday Press, Berkeley CA, 2011, $24.95, 333 pages.
















Black Bird Press has a limited number of Marvin X's In the Crazy House Called America, essays, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, essays, 2005. Buy one, get one free. $19.95 each. Include $5.00 for postage and handling. Send money order to Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702

Bibliography of Marvin X

Books

Sudan Rajuli Samia (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1967)
Black Dialectics (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1967)
Fly To Allah: Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Son of Man: Proverbs (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Black Man Listen: Poems and Proverbs (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1969)
Woman-Man's Best Friend (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1973)
Selected Poems (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1979)
Confession of A Wife Beater and Other Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1981)
Liberation Poems for North American Africans (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1982)
Love and War: Poems ( Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1995)
Somethin Proper: Autobiography (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1998)
In The Crazy House Called America: Essays (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 2002)
Wish I Could Tell You The Truth: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)
Land of My Daughters: Poems (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)

Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, BBP, 2007
How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a Pan African 12 Step Model, BBP, Berkeley, 2008

Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, a memoir, BBP, 2009.

Mythology of Love, toward healthy psychosexuality, BBP, 2009

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parable/fables, BBP, 2010

Hustler's Guide to the Game Called Life, (Vol. II, The Wisdom of Plato Negro), BBP, 2010

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yo Self, essays on Obama Drama, BBP, 2010

Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box, essays, BBP, 2010

I AM OSCAR GRANT, essays on Oakland, BBP, 2010

Soulful Musings on the Unity of North American Africans, BBP, 2010

Guest Editor, Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, BBP, 2010

Works In Progress

Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, poems, BBP, 2012

In Sha Allah, A History of Black Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1954-2004 (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2012).

Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality by Nisa Islam as told to Marvin X, 2012.

Play Scripts and/or Productions

Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: San Francisco State University Drama Department, 1965.

Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: Black Arts West/Theatre, 1966.

Take Care of Business, musical version of Flowers with music by Sun Ra, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes: Your Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco, 1972.

Come Next Summer, San Francisco: Black Arts/West, 1966.

The Trial, New York, Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech, 1970.

Resurrection of the Dead, San Francisco, choreography by Raymond Sawyer, music by Juju and Sun Ra, Your Black Educational Theatre, 1972.

Woman-Man's Best Friend, musical, Oakland, Mills College, 1973.

How I Met Isa, Masters thesis, San Francisco State University, 1975.

In The Name of Love, Oakland, Laney College Theatre, 1981.

One Day In The Life, Oakland, Alice Arts Theatre, 1996.
One Day In The Life, Brooklyn, NY, Sistah's Place, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Manhattan, Brecht Forum, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Newark, NJ, Kimako's Blues, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Oakland, Uhuru House, 1998.
One Day In The Life, San Francisco, Bannam Place Theatre, North Beach, 1998.
One Day In The Lifee, San Francisco, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 1999.
One Day In the Life, Marin City, Marin City Rec Center, 1999
One Day In the Life, Richmond, Unity Church, 2000.
One Day In the Life, San Jose, San Jose State University, 2000.
One Day In the Life, Berkeley, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2000.
One Day In the Life, Sacramento, New Colonial Theatre, 2000.

Sergeant Santa, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre script, 2002.

Other

Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, Merritt College Student Magazine contest winner, 1963.

Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, SoulBook Magazine, 1964.

Flowers for the Trashman: A One Act Drama, San Francisco, Black Dialogue Magazine, 1965.

Flowers for the Trashman, Black Fire, An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, edited by Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, (New York: Morrow, 1968).

Take Care of Business: A One Act Drama, aka Flowers, (New York: The Drama Review, NYU,1968)

The Black Bird (Al Tair Aswad): A One-Act Play, New Plays from the Black Theatre, edited by Ed Bullins with introduction (interview of Ed Bullins) by Marivn X, (New York: Bantam, 1969)

"Islam and Black Art: An Interview with Amiri Baraka" and foreword by Askia Muhammad Toure, afterword by Marivn X, in Black Arts: An Anthology of Black Creations, edited by Ahmed Alhamisi and Haroun Kofi Wangara (Harold G. Lawrence) (Detroit: Black Arts Publications, 1969).

"Everything's Cool: An Interview with Amiri Barka, aka, LeRoi Jones", Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, NY, 1968.

Resurrection of the Dead, a ritual/myth dance drama, Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, 1969.

Manifesto of the Black Educational Theatre of San Francisco, Black Theatre, 1972.

The Black Bird, A Parable by Marvin X, illustrated by Karen Johnson ( San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan and Julian Richardson and Associates Publishers, 1972).

"Black Justice Must Be Done," Vietnam and Black America: An Anthology of Protest and Resistance, edited by Clyde Taylor (Garden City: Double-day/Anchor, 1973)

"Palestine," a poem, Black Scholar magazine, 1978.

Journal of Black Poetry, guest editor, 1968.

"The Meaning of African Liberation Day," by Dr. Walter Rodney, a speech in San Francisco, transcribed and edited by Marvin X, Journal of Black Poetry, 1972.

Muhammad Speaks, foreign editor, 1970. (Note: a few months later, Marvin X was selected to be editor of Muhammad Speaks until it was decided he was too militant. Askia Muhammad (Charles 37X) was selected instead.)

A Conversation with Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Black Scholar, 1973.

VIDEOGRAPHY

Proceedings of the Melvin Black Human Rights Conference, Oakland, 1979, produced by Marvin X, featuring Angela Davis, Minister Farakhan, Eldridge Cleaver, Paul Cobb, Dezzie Woods-Jones, Jo Nina-Abran, Mansha Nitoto, Khalid Abdullah Tarik Al Mansur, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T-Shaka, and Marvin X.

Proceedings of the First Black Men's Conference, Oakland, 1980, John Douimbia, founder, Marvin X, chief planner, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T'Shaka,Norman Brown, Kermit Scott, Minister Ronald Muhammad, Louis Freeman, Michael Lange, Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones, et al.

Forum on Drugs, Art and Revolution, Sista's Place, Brooklyn, New York, 1997, featuring Amiri and Amina Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath and Marvin X.

Eldridge Cleaver Memorial Service, produced by Marvin X, Oakland, 1998, participants included Kathleen and Joju Cleaver, Emory Douglas, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Dr. Nathan Hare, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Reginald Major, Majidah Rahman and Marvin X.

One Day in the Life, a docudrama of addiction and recovery, filmed by Ptah Allah-El, produced, written, directed and staring Marvin X, edited by Marvin X, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 1999.

Marvin X Interviews Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, former actor in Marvin X's Black Theatre: Berkeley, La Pena Cultural Center, 1999.

"Abstract for An Elders Council," lecture/discussion, Tupac Amaru Shakur One Nation Conference, Oakland: McClymonds High School, 1999.

Marvin X at Dead Prez Concert, San Francisco, 2000.

Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, produced by Marvin X at San Francisco State University, 2001, featuring Dr. Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Destiny, Phavia, Tarika Lewis, Askia Toure, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Rudi Wongozi, Ishmael Reed, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Marvin X, et al.

Live In Philly At Warm Daddies, a reading accompanied by Elliot Bey, Marshall Allen, Danny Thompson, Ancestor Goldsky, Rufus Harley, Alexander El, 2002.

Marvin X Live in Detroit, a documentary by Abu Ibn, 2002.

In the Crazy House Called America, concert with Marvin X and Destiny, San Francisco: Buriel Clay Theatre, 2003.

Marvin X in Concert (accompanied by harpist Destiny, violinist Tarika Lewis and percussionists Tacuma and Kele Nitoto, dancer Raynetta Rayzetta), Amiri and Amina Baraka, filmed by Kwame and Joe, Berkeley: Black Repertory Group Theatre, 2003.

Marvin X Speaks at the Third Eye Conference, Dallas, Texas, 2003.

Marvin X and the Last Poets, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 2004.

Proceedings of the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair, produced by Marvin X, filmed by Mindseed Productions, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre, 2004, participants include: Sonia Sanchez, Davey D, Amiri Baraka, Sam Hamod, Fillmore Slim, Askia Toure, Akhbar Muhammad, Sam Anderson, Al Young, Devorah Major, Opal Palmer Adisa, Tarika Lewis, Amina Baraka, Julia and Nathan Hare, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Reginald Lockett, Everett Hoagland, Sam Greenlee, Ayodelle Nzinga, Suzzette Celeste, Tarika Lewis, Raynetta Rayzetta, Deborah Day, James Robinson, Ptah Allah-El, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Marvin X, et al. (Note: let me please acknowledge some of the historic personages in the audience: Gansta Alonzao Batin (mentor of the Bay Area BAM, made his transition shortly after the conference), Willie Williams of Broadside Press, Detroit, Gansta Brown, Gansta Mikey Moore (now Rev.), Arthur Sheridan, founder of Black Dialogue magazine, also co-founders Aubrey and Gerald LaBrie, Reginald Major, author of Panther Is A Black Cat. Thank you all for making this event historic, ed. MX)

Get Yo Mind Right, Marvin X Barbershop Talk, #4, a documentary film by Pam Pam and Marvin X, Oakland: 2005.

Marvin X Live in the Fillmore at Rass'elas Jazz Club, A Nisa Islam production, filmed by Ken Johnson, San Francisco, 2005.

Marvin X in the Malcolm X Room, McClymonds High School, accompanied by Tacuma (dijembe and percussion, dancer/choreographer Raynetta Rayzetta, actor Salat Townsend, filmed by Eddie Abrams, Oakland, 2005.

AUDIOGRAPHY

In Sha Allah, interview with Nisa Islam, Cherokee, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Nadar Ali, Fresno, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Manuel Rashid, Fresno, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with John Douimbia, Grand Ayatollah of the Bay, San Francisco, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Minister Rabb Muhammad, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Antar Bey, CEO, Your Black Muslim Bakery, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Norman Brown, Oakland, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Kareem Muhammad (Brother Edward), Oakland, 2004.
Love and War, poems, Oakland, 1995.
One Day In The Life, docudrama, Oakland, 1999.
Jesus and Liquor Stores, Marvin X and Askari X, Oakland, 2002
Wake Up, Detroit, Marvin X interviewed by Lawrence X, Detroit, 2002..
Wish I, interview with Pam Pam, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005.
Wish I, interview with Terry Collins, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005.
Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement, interview with Professor James Smethurst of UMASS, Oakland, 2003.

The archives of Marvin X are at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Academy of da Corner, Marvin X's Street Ministry

Academy of da Corner, Marvin X's Street Ministry, 14th and Broadway


Oakland CA











Plato Negro, Jackson, Aristotle Negro


photo Walter Riley, esq.


4/26/11

Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.

--Ishmael Reed

Comments from da corner





Fuck you, Marvin X, a Negro





I might come by here and throw a molotov cocktail at you!


--a journalist





No writer writes about the street like you.


--Walter Riley





Some people don't like you. I tell them to look at the good you are doing.


--a brother





Fuck the peckerwood, fuck the peckerwood, fuck the peckerwood!


--a brother whispered in MX's ear and kept going





Can you talk to my daughter. She needs help. She's cute, got two babies, but goes out with men and come home with no money for Pampers. What's wrong with that girl?


--a Mother

Bob Marley War live

So Much Trouble in the World - BOB MARLEY

Ebony Goddess: Queen of Ilê Aiyê - Documentary Trailer