BBP Negotiating to Publish Kumasi's History of Prison Movement

Comrade George Jackson,
Messiah of the Prison Movement




Eldridge Cleaver and his lieutenant in the prison movement and later in the Black Panther Party, Alprentis Bunchy Carter













Black Bird Press Negotiating to Publish
Brother Kumasi's History of the Prison Movement

Black Bird Press is honored to announce we are hoping to reach an agreement with Brother Kumasi, griot of the Prison Movement. His minute by minute oral history of the prison movement is impeccable and precise, an astonishing recall by a brother who spent time in prison with George Jackson, messiah of the prison movement (Soledad Brother). Kumasi was also associated with Eldridge Cleaver and Alprentis Bunchy Carter. Cleaver is credited with establishing the Black Culture Club at Soledad Prison, Bunchy was his lieutenant. The Black Culture Club is considered the beginning of the black prison movement in America.

As a member of Black Dialogue magazine, we visited the Soledad Prison Black Culture Club in 1966, observing Cleaver and Bunchy in action. They had the inmates organized in military fashion. In a recent conversation with this writer, Kumasi noted that most revolutionaries go to prison, then upon release start their revolution. In our case, we made revolution within the prison system.

This writer has long felt because Cleaver was a seasoned revolutionary upon his release, thus when we introduced him to Black Panthers Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, he far outmatched them in political chicanery. See my memoir Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the Devil, Black Bird Press, 2009.

We look forward to publishing any and all parts of Kumasi's narrative.

--Marvin X,
Publisher, Black Bird Press



Black Dialogue brothers who visited the Soledad Prison Black Culture Club in 1966. L to R: Aubrey LaBrie, Marvin X, Abdul Sabry, Al Young, Arthur Sheridan, Duke Williams. At the time, most of us were in the BSU at San Francisco State College, now University.





Exhibit Marvin X ends this Saturday, February 25, 7pm, with readings by Marvin X, Aries Jordan and Toya Carter. Exhibit Marvin X is located at 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Call 510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited, no one turned away for lack of funds. Donation requested: $20.00.

We Will Always Love You, Whitney

We Will Always Love You, Whitney

How can a blackbird not sing
ushering the dawn of a new day
calling heaven to hear her song
no words for this pain
the blues we sing
a voice so true so real
yet we overstand the tragic note
in the song we all sing
living in this wilderness
of North America
down here on the ground with
the devil
how can he pay for his sins
not only Whitney
but the millions gone in a whisper
what price for this
worthless dollars at the Federal Reserve
empty the vaults at Fort Knox
will not suffice
stealing the souls of men and women
the many Whitney's gone into the night of no return
Dr. Nathan Hare told us, "...No amount of religiosity,
coke, Crack, alcohol or sex
sufficient to sedate the social angst
shattered cultural striving...."
Oh, Whitney, we are from Allah
to Him we return. We will always

Love you!
--Marvin X
2/13/12

Report: Dr. J. Vern Cromartie at Exhibit Marvin X

Journalist Lee Hubbard,
Marvin X, Professor Cromartie
photo Gene Hazzard


On Saturday, February 11, poet/sociologist Dr. J. Vern Cromartie presented a lecture/reading at Exhibit Marvin X. He gave a summary of the paper he presented on Marvin X's brief tenure as a lecturer in black studies at University of California, Berkeley, noting the poet taught there with only an A.A. degree from Merritt College. Along with the black studies faculty, Marvin was purged by the administration and more pliant Negroes were hired. Dr. Cromartie recalled Cecil Brown's book What Happened to My Black Studies Department? to suggest an even more sinister move wherein blacks are brought in from the Pan African Diaspora and given tenure because they are even more accommodating to white supremacy academia, the local radical academics being regarded as dangerous to the status quo.

Cromarties noted that even while teaching at UCB, Marvin X had his own Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore where his UCB students performed his myth-ritual drama
Resurrection of the Dead, which included a naming ceremony. Many students kept their names for life, including Nisa Ra (Greta Pope) and Malika Jamilah (Charlene Hunter). Singer/actor Victor Willis had the lead role in this production. He went on to sing with the Village People and wrote such hits as Macho Man, YMCA and I'm In the Navy.

The sociologist put on his poet hat to read two poems dedicated to his teacher whose works he read as a 14 year old in Waycross, Georgia, in particular Black Man Listen, Broadside Press, 1969. The first poem described the poet during his Crack addiction, the second told of Marvin X's love affair with his high school girlfriend, poet-critic-professor Sherley A. Williams. Marvin X was deeply moved at hearing this poem that revealed Professor Cromartie's profound poetic insight. The professor noted that Sherley may have been his soul mate, but apparently the poet has had several powerful soul mates that Cromartie has had the privilege of knowing since he enrolled in the poet's theatre class at Laney College, 1981: Nisa Ra, Hurriyah Asar, Masha Satterfield and Suzzette Celeste Johnson. Cromartie, of Gullah Geeche ancestry, said all these women were beautiful, highly intelligent and spiritual. Yes, Marvin X said, these women were angelic, I was the devil.

Hurriyah Asar, poet's longtime friend

The program climaxed with a reading of the poet's works by Aries Jordan, one of several poets Marvin X is mentoring. Aries read from Marvin X's Land of My Daughters, Black Bird Press, 2005, a collection that made Bob Holman call Marvin X the USA's Rumi.






Aries read What is Love, How to Love a Thinking Woman and Never Love a Poet. Aries said she loves How to Love a Thinking Woman simply because she is a thinking woman, and Never Love a Poet touched her because it deals with the creative personality. Clearly, Aries has absorbed the spirit of her teacher. Her voice is loud and clear, her dramatic technique precise. She read his poems better than he. Now 24 years old,we suspect she will become an expert at reading the poetry of Marvin X before and after he joins the ancestors. Aries concluded with two poems from her collection Journey to Womanhood, Letter to the Elders and That Girl.







Exhibit Marvin X, Sat., Feb. 18, 7pm
presents Dr. Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown on John Douimbia, mentor to the Bay Area Civil Rights and Black Power movements


Exhibit Marvin X continues on Saturday, Feb. 18, 7pm, with a lecture/discussion of Marvin X's mentor, the Honorable John Douimbia (RIP). Dr. Oba T'Shaka, professor emeritus at San Francisco State University and community organizer Norman Brown will make presentations, both were also mentored by John D, as he was affectionately known. Exhibit Marvin X is located at 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. For reservations, please call 510-575-2225.

Exhibit Marvin X thanks the following for their support: Dr. Robert McNight, Berkeley High School Black Studies, Ramal Lamar (Berkeley High, B-Tech), Suzzette Celeste, Phil Johnson, Paul Cobb, Oakland Post Newspaper, Adam Turner, videographer, Amira and Nefertiti Jackmon, Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Contra Costa College.

Exhibit Marvin X presents Dr. Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown

On Saturday, February 18, 7pm, Exhibit Marvin X presents a discussion of the Honorable John Douimbia (RIP), founder of the Black Men's Conference and mentor to many Bay Area civil rights workers and black liberation activists, including Marvin X, Oba T'Shaka, Norman Brown, et al. John was mentored by Will Ussery, a leader in CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and director of the San Francisco poverty program.

Upon his transition (Marvin X officiated his memorial service), Marvin X obtained his papers that reveal John's work in the black power movement from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The papers give us a vivid history of Bay Area black consciousness activity.

He was also an official in the SF NAACP and worked as an organizer for the poverty program in the Fillmore. In New York's Harlem, he had hustled with his friend, Big Red or Malcolm Little, aka Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.

Dr. Oba T'Shaka, professor emeritus, Black Studies, San Francisco State University

Norman Brown, Community Organizer

On February 18, Dr. Oba T'Shaka and community organizer Norman Brown will discuss the John Douimbia papers (part of Exhibit Marvin X). John Douimbia was a mentor to Marvin X, Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown. He was a voice in the Bay Area civil rights and black power movement. In 1980, Marvin X planned and organized the Black Men's Conference at the direction of John Douimbia, who had long seen the need for a secular organization of black men, had even presented the idea to his Harlem hustling buddy, Malcolm X after he joined the Nation of Islam. As we know, Malcolm followed John's concept after breaking from the NOI. He formed the Organization of Afro-American unity. If possible, this discussion may be joined by Will Ussery and Charlie Walker, two additional associates of John Douimbia. Will Ussery was the leader of CORE and a director of the poverty program. Charlie Walker is a businessman and social activist.
Charlie Walker, businessman,
social activist, "mayor of hunters point," and close friend of former
SF Mayor Willie Brown.

Chauncey Bailey: A Shakespearean Tragedy

In light of Thomas Peele's just released book, Killing the Messenger, on the Black Muslim Bakery and the assassination of journalist Chauncey Bailey, we present this essay from Marvin X's forthcoming book Who Killed Chauncey Bailey, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2012.

Chauncey Bailey: A Shakespearean Tragedy

On one level, the Chauncey Bailey assassination can be best understood by recalling the drama of classic Shakespeare, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear. Many of his plays dealt with succession rights/rites, often involving themes of jealousy, envy, greed and power. Of course these are general themes of humanity, but the man known as Shakespeare wrote about these matters better than others before and after him. In Othello we find a man duped by his friend and advisor, Iago, so confused by the tricknology of Iago that the great Moorish warrior killed his beloved wife Desdemona, then took his own life.

We can see the parallel in the Chauncey murder. The king dies and there is the fight over which of his twenty sons (there are twenty daughters as well, but this is a patriarchy) shall succeed him. One of the several mothers is determined she and her children should control the empire, but another mother feels the same and moves to secure the throne for her son (s). The first son dies mysteriously in a car-jacking. Her next in line takes over the throne.

Meanwhile, the man who was a dear friend of the king receives information about the succession battle, a piece of dirt that was, for the most part, already public information. But the messenger was sent by his mother-in-law, knowing the message would incite anger in the successor to the throne who was not of her bloodline.

When the message is delivered it is overheard by a former co-wife who immediately relays it to her friend, the wife or widow, whose son has seized control. Apparently she tells her son, the new king, who goes into a rage at his father's friend, not realizing he has been set up by the co-wife who sent the message by her son-in-law.

Also, the new king's advisor, call him Iago, has deep resentment for the old king's friend, for the friend knows Iago is a devil and has been seeking information to expose him. Iago figures he can dispose of his nemesis by encouraging the boy-king to murder his father's dear friend.

Knowing the boy-king is a hot head, Iago (OPD), suggests the plan and it is carried out. He convinces the boy-king he will go free after his dastardly deed, for Iago claims special powers under the color of law. The boy-king is convinced he can commit innumerable crimes because he is under the protection of Iago. He truly believes Iago can get him out of any situation. Yet Iago has his own motivation for inspiring murder, to stop the old king's friend from a possible exposure of his dark deeds that, now involve the boy-king: money laundering, fencing, drug dealing, homicide, prostitution, etc. The boy-king is in too deep, even after considering that his father had a deep relationship with the man he must now dispose.

The co-wife, now widow, had no idea things would get out of hand but she felt entitled to the empire and was not about to settle for her sister-wife inheriting everything.

After the assassination of the old king's friend, Iago takes control of the crime scene, gathers selected evidence and a confession. He refuses to question eye-witnesses at the crime scene for they are irrelevant, he has accomplished his mission, or shall we say his patsy has.

The boy-king soon realizes he has been set up from two sides, the co-wife and Iago, for different reasons. He realizes his deed has caused the death of his father's friend and the possible death of himself by hanging.

Iago is in the corner laughing, yet worried his mentee may one day disclose all the dirty deeds he was asked to perform for Iago, hence Iago is not home free yet. Now he must configure a way to silence the boy-king. Stay tuned.

Don't miss Exhibit Marvin X this Saturday, Feb. 11, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. The poet will most surely discuss the just released book on the Black Muslim Bakery by Thomas Peele. Call 510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited.

On Thomas Peele's book: Killing the Messenger

Let us cry crocodile tears for Longmire

http://www.ktvu.com/video/28505827/index.html

Lead detective Longmire


It is interesting to note Longmire blames his department for bumbling the Chauncey Bailey murder investigation, but he was the officer in charge of the crime scene who drove off when Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb presented an eye witness at the crime scene. And why would he not have access to tracking devices and phone records on the murder mastermind. What is clear is that Longmire has no intention to be the fall guy for the OPD's pitiful job in the Bailey conspiracy. The OPD had the intelligence to know the murder was going to go down and was scheduled to raid the murder suspect's compound a day before the murder but delayed until the day after, then the Chief lied about it. No matter what, Longmire's hands are as bloody as the Bakery brothers, and his OPD comrades are as well. A murder could have been prevented if only the OPD, including Longmire, had done the right thing, but we know devils are constitutionally unable to do so.
--Marvin X

Marvin X will soon release a book delineating his version of the Chauncey Bailey murder. He does not absolve the Bakery brothers, but suggests the prime role of the OPD. It is crystal clear the OPD could have prevented this assassination of a "community journalist," as Peele and Oakland Tribune Editor Martin Reynolds refer to Chauncey. see www.theblackchaunceybaileyproject.blogspot.com

Black Muslim Bakery Book: Thomas Peele's Killing the Messenger

Bay Area Black Writers Salute slain journalist, Oakland Post Editor
Chauncey Bailey

Chauncey Bailey Project lead writer, Thomas Peele, releases book on Islam and Your Black Muslim Bakery, including the assassination of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey. The book mainly blames the Bakery brothers rather than focus on the leading

role of the Oakland Police Department in the murder of Chauncey who was also investigating police corruption in and City Hall. The Monkey Mind Media, i.e. the white Chauncey Bailey Project attempts to diminish the talents of Chauncey, claiming he was no Bob Woodward but only a "community journalist, thus how could he investigate police corruption and city hall chicanery. Has anyone seen his notes?

We can only understand the assassination of Chauncey Bailey within the context of global white supremacy. Hundreds of journalists are murdered yearly by oppressive political regimes and corrupt agents of the police. No matter the killers were Black Muslims, as Baldwin said of Malcolm's killers, "The hand the pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullet!" The hands that pulled the trigger of the shotgun and his associates were mentored by an officer of the OPD, Longmire, who was also in charge of the crime scene and led the raid on the bakery compound, solving the murder in less than 24 hours, alas, he recovered the murder weapon and got a confession. Case closed. The fastest solving of a murder case in world history.

While Thomas Peele and his Monkey Mind Media associates at the Chauncey Bailey Project, focused on the Bakery boys, the man who was publisher of the Oakland Post, Paul Cobb, was never called to testify about his editors projects that included the OPD and City Hall. When Paul Cobb suggested police involvement, the DA departed from his office. When he called for the Chauncey Bailey Project, and directed them to pursue the police involvement, he was silenced, especially by Oakland Tribune crime reported Harry Harris, who has been embedded at the OPD so long he sleeps in the police locker room. The police chief got on the elevator with Post Publisher Paul Cobb then pushed all the buttons so the elevator would have a slow ride down, then warned Paul Cobb, "If you pursue the OPD angle, you better get a bullet proof vest." The chief soon took an early retirement, slipping out the door of the den of iniquity. The chief had been caught lying about why the raid on the bakery didn't happen as scheduled, rather than after Chauncey was killed, especially since the OPD had the bakery members under surveillance
for months, phones were tapped and GPA devices on their automobiles.

The story below by Tammerlin Drummond is the Monkey Mind Media's version of the Chauncey Bailey killing, their view of the Black Muslim Bakery and Islam in general, as if Christianity doesn't originate in mysticism, mythology, violence and sexual depravity.


--Marvin X, the Black Chauncey Bailey Project
www.theblackchaunceybaileyproject.blogspot.com

Tammerlin Drummond: New book examines journalist's murder

By Tammerlin Drummond
Oakland Tribune Columnist

Posted: 02/05/2012 12:00:00 AM PST

Updated: 02/05/2012 08:18:27 AM PST

Cover image "Killing the Messenger" by Bay Area News Group/The Chauncey Bailey Project reporter...

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In many countries, journalists who investigate political corruption or major crime figures get thrown into prison, gunned down or kidnapped -- never to be heard from again.

In the United States, however, few people have been crazy enough or bold enough to assassinate a journalist to stop a story.

It has happened twice. In 1976, when Arizona Republic Reporter Don Bolles was mortally wounded in a car bombing in Phoenix.

Then, on Aug. 2, 2007, when a brainwashed 19-year-old man with a sawed-off shotgun ambushed journalist Chauncey Bailey as he walked from a McDonald's in downtown Oakland to his newspaper office.

Six months ago, Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, was sentenced to life in prison for ordering two of his underlings to kill the 57-year-old editor of the Oakland Post and former Oakland Tribune reporter.

Bey IV wanted to stop Bailey from publishing a story about his illegal takeover of the bakery and its impending bankruptcy.

Thomas Peele was the lead reporter for the Chauncey Bailey Project, a coalition of journalists from various media outlets that formed to investigate Bailey's killing and bring those responsible to justice.

Peele, a reporter for the Tribune, has just written a riveting account of the events that led up to Bailey's murder.

"Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith, Racism's Backlash and the Assassination of a Journalist," goes on

---

---

sale Feb. 7.

It is an exhaustively researched narrative that details the rise and fall of Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Peele uses Bailey's killing as a launching point for exploring the blood-soaked history of the Black Muslim movement in the United States. He examines how virulent racism made blacks ripe for exploitation by charlatans like Nation of Islam founder Wallace D. Fard, his disciple Elijah Muhammad and later the Beys in Oakland.

Peele takes us to Chicago and Detroit to the heart of the Nation of Islam and to Los Angeles where a police shooting at a mosque convinced Santa Barbara hairdresser Joseph Stephens to join the Black Muslim movement.

Stephens who would later rename himself Yusuf Bey, opened Your Black Muslim Bakery in 1971.

He lured followers -- many of them straight out of prison -- with his message of black self-empowerment. He was a respected community leader. Politicians paid homage to him despite his racist pronouncements.

But as "Killing the Messenger" lays out in sometimes stomach-churning detail, behind Bey's carefully cultivated public facade lurked a monster.

A bakery employee once stumbled upon Bey sexually assaulting a young boy in a bathroom.

After he told others about it, he was found shot to death.

Horrors would go on at the bakery for decades while police, politicians and just about everyone else in Oakland turned a blind eye.

"For years the police backed off, and the Beys owned North Oakland," Peele says. "The police didn't want to mess with them."

When Bey died in 2003 he was facing charges that he had raped four girls under the age of 14. Alameda County prosecutors alleged that DNA tests proved Bey had fathered a child with one of them -- among the more than 40 he is believed to have sired with various women.

After his father's death, Yusuf Bey IV seized control by killing off his rivals, including one of his brothers.

He proceeded to run the family business into the ground and sow terror.

His oversized ego made him think he could get away with killing Bailey. I suspect he might have succeeded were it not for the reporters on the Chauncey Bailey project who unearthed important leads that law enforcement had not pursued.

Peele presents an unvarnished picture of Bailey. He was not the great journalist some claimed after his death.

He had in fact been fired from the Tribune for ethical lapses. He was a human being with flaws.

"It's not like they killed Bob Woodward, but that doesn't matter," Peele says. "What matters is they killed a reporter who was trying in his own way to speak truth to power."

Thomas Peele will discuss "Killing the Messenger" at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 at Diesel Books, 5433 College Ave., in Oakland.

Exhibit Marvin X continues this Saturday, February 11, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. For reservations, please call 510-575-2225. Dr. J. Vern Cromatie, chair of the sociology program at Contra Costa College will discuss Marvin X's brief tenure at UC Berkeley.

Aries Jordan Reports on Exhibit Marvin X at Berkeley High

Today I accompanied my mentor Marvin X to promote the exhibit showcasing his Archives of the Black arts movement of the 1960’s until now. We went to Berkeley Continuation School to show students themselves in the Berkeley Post article. We then went to Berkeley high to visit the Black studies department. There we met Dr. McKnight of the Black studies department. Berkeley high was the first high school in the United States to have a black studies program. Dr. McKnight asked Marvin and I to speak to the class and share poetry.

Marvin spoke about the importance of Archives. For many archives is a foreign concept. Archives are documents and records kept over time. Marvin mentioned that when most of our family members die, we go straight for the gold and trinkets and throw away the papers. For example, when the secretary of the Oakland NAACP transitioned, the State NACCP correspondence from the 1920’s til the present was found in the trash. Family records, journals, diaries and letters are invaluable and are important in documenting our collective history. He encouraged students to keep their letters, emails and diaries because the world wants to know how you survived during this time, what we were thinking and what was happening in our world.But far too many of us we view our lives as invaluable and inherently don't see their life as part of history. Marvin emphasized the urgent need for students to recognize that they are history makers.

He then proceeded to read his Yes poem which discussed our auto response of No to any question, but yes being the language of infinite possibilities, of divinity. I read my poem entitled Know Your Status which promotes HIV testing and awareness. The students enjoyed our poetry and want us to come back. The Marvin X exhibit opens this Saturday and will be open through the end of February on Friday 7-10, suggested donation $20 no one turned away for lack of funds. Hope to see you there!

On Saturday, Feb 11, Dr. J Vern Cromartie will discuss his relationship with Marvin X. He first read the writings of Marvin X when he was 14, growing up in Waycross, Georgie. Cromartie is head of the Sociology program at Contra Costa College. He will discuss a research paper he wrote on Marvin X's brief tenure at UC Berkeley. The permanent archives of Marvin X were acquired by the Bancroft library at UCB.

Journey to Womanhood

by Aries Jordan

Black Bird Press Publishing, Berkeley

Adam Turner, Layout and Design Editor

Journey to Womanhood by Aries Jordan

Review by Marvin X

Aries Jordan is a shaman lady in training, thus she is beyond poetry, though she uses the form to express her wondrous spiritual explorations, delving into the metaphysical world beneath the surface of our everyday reality. We know the self is the actual macrocosm, reality the microcosm, so while Aries addresses the mundane, it is only to take us deep down into the self, that self most of us fear to examine, making our lives, yes, worthless.

She weaves her stories in a kind of prose/poetry that some may call a confusion of form, but it is simply an attempt to grapple with the language that is often incapable of giving expression to the North American African soul, so long caged and confounded that we call it a psycholinguistic crisis, the struggle of a colonized being seeking liberation.

Thus form is not relevant, the process is not more important than the product. Her poem/stories affirm that shaman lady we mentioned at the top. The poems/stories question the life she has encountered in the 23 years, although do not be fooled by ageism, alas, she is much older than 23 in the spiritual clock. This is the wisdom of a child, but similar to that child who taught in the temple when he was twelve. She has already traveled the world on the Scholar Ship, made her journey from coast to coast in the USA, and is being mentored closely on her Journey to Womanhood by myself.

She recalls when I met her at Oakland’s Art and Soul Festival, I immediately made her audition for mentorship by having her read one of my poems. She passed my test in flying colors but it was some months before she accepted my mentorship. When she did decide to come around my Academy of da Corner, her first task was to publish this collection which she did in less than a week. This task was achieved only because of her determination to move ahead. The result is that she has advanced on her Journey to Womanhood by commenting on world events, personal confessions and observations, speaking to the elders and demanding a reply; talking about life in Cali as she walked in her stiletto shoes; questioning those who say they are only doing their job. Those charged with crimes against humanity during the Nazi horror said the same when they faced trial!

But we must say Aries cannot be understood solely by this literary creation, for it only reveals a small section of her awesome spiritual personality. Another dimension is revealed when she reads her words, and another when she promotes and sells her book, for she is a hustler supreme, very much like myself, who understands no part of no, persisting until the customer breaks down to buy her book. But her product is no scam, it is the real deal holyfield of truth from a child moving fast into full womanhood.
Enjoy!

--Marvin X, Publisher, Black Bird Press
11/14/11

Exhibit Marvin X presents Dr. J. Vern Cromartie

Poet June Jordan, UCB (RIP)

Dr. Barbara Christian, UCB (RIP)












Dr. VeVe Clark, UCB (RIP)

























Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Chair of the Sociology program at Richmond's Contra Costa College, first read Marvin X at the age of 14, while growing up in Waycross, Georgia. The poet's writings have inspired him ever since.

When Marvin X taught drama at Oakland's Laney College, 1981, Dr. Cromartie took his class that produced In the Name of Love, a musical drama by the poet. His 2011 drama Mythology of Love is an updated version of the Laney production.

As part of his research, Dr. Cromartie presented a paper on Marvin X's brief tenure as a lecturer in the Black Studies Department at University of California, Berkeley, 1972. The department was purged of radicals like Marvin X and delivered to "tenured negroes" or "careerists" who teach a white supremacy version of black studies, a traditional academic approach that eliminates the community connection.

And yet when several black professors made their transitions due to the hostile work environment, their friends bemoaned the fact that these professors, June Jordan, VeVe Clark and Barbara Christian, were disconnected from community as well as working in a hostile, white supremacy environment. Dr. Nathan Hare, founder of Ethnic Studies, would say they suffered from the Addiction to White Spremacy Type II. See Marvin X's How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Mitchell El, Black Bird Press, Berkeley.


Dr. Cromartie documents Marvin's trials and tribulations as a lecturer in the UCB hostile environment. Marvin lectured with only an A.A. degree but was supposedly banned from teaching at Fresno State University in 1969 because he wasn't qualified, though no degree is required to teach in the college and/or university system. The real reason Gov. Ronald Reagan told the State College Board of Trustees to get Marvin off campus was because he had refused to fight in the Vietnam war. After two exiles, Marvin X was deported from Belize, Central America and returned to America. He spent five months at Terminal Island Federal Prison.

A poet himself, Dr. Vern will also read his poems dedicated to the Master Poet, called the USA's Rumi (Bob Holman) and Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland (Ishmael Reed). Rudolph Lewis says, "He's one of America's great storytellers, maybe second to Mark Twain. Of course, I'd place Marvin X ahead of him even."

Dr. Cromartie's lecture/discussion/reading is Saturday, February 11, 7pm, Black Bird Press Publishing House, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Seating is limited, call 510-575-2225 for reservations.
Dr. Oba T'Shaka, professor emeritus, Black Studies, San Francisco State University

Norman Brown, Community Organizer

On February 18, Dr. Oba T'Shaka and community organizer Norman Brown will discuss the John Douimbia papers (part of Exhibit Marvin X). John Douimbia was a mentor to Marvin X, Oba T'Shaka and Norman Brown. He was a voice in the Bay Area civil rights and black power movement. In 1980, Marvin X planned and organized the Black Men's Conference at the direction of John Douimbia, who had long seen the need for a secular organization of black men, had even presented the idea to his Harlem hustling buddy, Malcolm X after he joined the Nation of Islam. As we know, Malcolm followed John's concept after breaking from the NOI. He formed the Organization of Afro-American unity. If possible, this discussion may be joined by Will Ussery and Charlie Walker, two additional associates of John Douimbia. Will Ussery was the leader of CORE and a director of the poverty program. Charlie Walker is a businessman and social activist.
Charlie Walker, businessman,
social activist, "mayor of hunters point," and close friend of former
SF Mayor Willie Brown.

From the Archives: Black History is World History

a

From the Archives: Black History Is World History

By

Marvin X



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 and 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 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 & Thailand
I am 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
Americo Vespucci
on his voyage to America
saw me in the Atlantic
returning to Africa
America was my home
Before Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Inca & Olmec
I was hereI came to Peru 20,000 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

This poem was written circa 1980.

Suggested reading list

The complete works of J.A. Rogers
The World and Africa, W.E.B. DuBois
Stolen Legacy, George M. James
The African Origin of the Major Religions, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Message to the Black Man, Elijah Muhammad
They Came before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima
"African Explorers in the New World, " Harold La.wrence,
Crisis, June-July, 1962. Heritage Program Reprint, p. 10
The Destruction of African Civilization, Chancellor Williams.
The Cultural Unity of Africa, Cheikh Anta Diop.
Man, God and Civilization, John G. Jackson

Exhibit Marvin X opens Saturday, February 4, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, off San Pablo Ave. For reservations, please call 510-575-2225.

Muhammad Al Kareem on Exhibit Marvin X

Marvin X, circa 1972.
Hurriyah Asar (Ethna X) designed
and made his shirt of black
velvet with gold trimming.


Dr. Khalid Muhammad (RIP) loved to remind Marvin X he studied the poet's writings while in college. When he heard Huey Newton and Marvin X were on Crack, Khalid came to Oakland to search for them and save them. Marvin was so drugged out when brothers told him Dr. Khalid was looking for him, he didn't know who they were talking about.









Muhammad Al-Kareem on Exhibit Marvin X

Living Black History--

I first met Marvin X in Chicago in front of the old Temple #2, while working for Muhammad Speaks Newspaper (John Woodford was the Editor)--I think in 1969. The FBI was still looking for Brother Marvin X at time of our brief meeting.... I, being so naive with Temple politics, heard that the Poet, Writer and Revolutionary Marvin X was a bad influence on believers at Temple #26.

You had to have known about this type of censorship in order to determine the real from the unreal. Those days manifested my Revolutionary influence. The revolutionary brothers were labeled hypocrites. Like the Brothers Ishmalah who made Fezes at his shop on Fillmore and Bush Streets in SF, and Yusuf Bey at the Black Muslim Bakery, and Minister RT X (Aaron Ali) who had run with Messenger in the early days. More NOI politics!


The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
and wife Clara. She held the Nation
together while he ran from black devils
for seven years and spent five years in
prison for draft evasion and sedition.
He was apart from his family a total of
12 years.


Exhibit Marvin X opens Saturday, February 4, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley. Call 510-575-2225 for reservations, space limited. No one turned away, donation $20.00 adults; seniors/students $10.00.

Exhibit Marvin X Opens with Lecture by Ayodele Nzinga, MA, MFA

Saturday, February 4th, 7-10pm


Ayodele Nzinga, MA, MFA, will discuss her thirty year artistic relationship with Marvin X. Ayodele directed Marvin X's 1981 production In the Name of Love at Laney College. She also directed his One Day in the Life, 1996-2001, the longest running Black drama in Northern California. Ayo is founder, producer and director of West Oakland's Lower Bottom Playaz.


As a student and associate of Marvin X, Ayo has suffered his "ordeal by fire" but will confess he has made her a better artist and woman. Although she has said he is the most misogynistic man in the world, she must confess he is known to surround himself with some of the most powerful women artist/activists in the Bay Area.
Phavia Kujichagulia


Last March he produced Women's History Month at the Joyce Gordon Gallery (Joyce Gordon is a powerful woman herself). The event titled Mythology of Love, A Womanhood Rite of Passage, included Ayo, Hunia Bradley, Phavia Kujichagulia, Tureada Mikell, Jerri Lange, Michelle LaChaux, Taliba, Aries Jordon, et al.


Jerri Lange

Dr. Julia Hare


Hunia









Alona Clifton




Revolutionary artist, Elizabeth Cattlett Mora

Ayo is well able to discuss the poet's personal and artistic life. Aside from the work of Marvin X, Ayo has produced the plays of Shakespeare, Opal Palmer Adisa, August Wilson and her own.

Exhibit Marvin X officially opens Saturday, Feb 4, 7pm, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, off San Pablo Ave. Call 510-575-2225. Donation Adults: $20.00, Seniors/students $10.00, no one turned away but reservations only, space limited.
Marvin's Muse, Fahizah Alim



With his favorite musician,
Tarika Lewis

















Exhibit Marvin X Lecture Series continues

Saturday, February 11th

Dr. J. Vern Cromartie

will deliver a paper on Marvin X's brief tenure at University of California, Berkeley. He was a student of Marvin X's at Laney College, 1981. Dr. Cromartie, a poet, is Chair of the Sociology Department at Contra Costa College, Richmond CA.

Saturday, February 18th

Dr. Oba T'Shaka

San Francisco State University Professor emeritus, Dr. Oba T'Shaka, and community organizer, Norman Brown, will discuss Marvin X's mentor, the Honorable John Douimbia. The John Douimbia papers are part of Exhibit Marvin X.

Norman K. Brown










Saturday, February, 25th



Marvin X will read from his selected writings, along with Aries Jordan and Toya Carter. Mechelle LaChaux will perform Marvin X's Woman on the Cell Phone.




Poets Toya Carter, Marvin X and Aries Jordan perform at memorial
for Geronimo Ji Jaga at Defermery Park.