Houston's Secret Word Cafe was the scene of a conversation between host Nefartari and peripatetic poet/philosopher Marvin X, aka Plato Negro. Librarian emeritus at Texas Southern University, Nefartari had marked up her copy of The Wisdom of Plato Negro, but one of her friends stole her book. This happens on a regular basis with the writings of Marvin X, in fact, he warns purchaser's to be aware, your friends will steal your book.
Before the dialogue began, Marvin gave Nefertari another copy so she could get her notes together for their conversation. She began the conversation by admitting she had only read a couple of parables and one parable made her mad enough to feel like going into the streets to make revolution. Another had a more calming effect.
Marvin admitted some of his writings provoke people into social action and that is his objective, to inspire and motivate people. He noted though that some people get so fired up they cannot take too much of his writings in one setting. Nefertari noted that she usually reads books the size of The Wisdom of Plato Negro in one evening, 195 pages. But not his book. She didn't get pass the preface, introduction, and two parables.
The poet replied an ex-Special Forces Marine who loves his writings said he can only read Marvin X twenty minutes at a time, then he must put his books down because he becomes angry and wants to kill. This Special Forces veteran said that he had done things in countries around the world in the name of America that would inspire people to commit violent acts against the United States similar to 9/11 on a regular basis. He told Marvin of dropping into countries and getting orders from Men in Black to kill everything in a village, inject the animals with poisons then repeat the action in other countries and villages.
As Nefertari noted, some of his writings have a calming effect. Marvin agreed and told how his book Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality calmed a reader who said whenever he was angry he would read Beyond Religion. Marvin said it wasn't the content that calmed the reader but the tone in the deep level of the book, i.e., he wrote the book while living in the mountains during five years of solitude, so he was in a calm state of mind while writing it, a book many consider his best. Mumia Abu Jamal called it an encyclopedia of knowledge. "Marvin X is a griot is there ever was one."
She asked about his post-modern message in The Wisdom of Plato Negro. Well, he said, all of my writings are part of one book, my life and times, so Wisdom of Plato Negro is similar to Beyond Religion in that people will be in a state of consciousness to either accept it or reject it. The reaction to Beyond Religion was twofold: when people saw the title they either already agreed with the concept or they refused the book outright because they did not want to be taken out of their comfort zone of religiosity. They were not ready for the new era or age of high spiritual consciousness that is upon us.
Nefertari said Wisdom of Plato Negro should be required reading for all students, though she agreed with Marvin that one cannot read or perhaps understand the book if they are ignorant of world events.
She asked if we are in the era of spiritual consciousness, how can we prepare for the new times?
First we must detox and recover from white supremacy mythology, the mythology of domination, greed and lust, the mythology of religiosity or theological dogmatism. We must deconstruction and discord notions that we are chattle property in our relationships, for we are divine beings in human form, thus we cannot be slaves or the personal property of anyone. Throw out such notions of I got papers on you so your pussy or your dick belongs to your mate. Your pussy or dick belongs to you, not your mate!
The prisons and jails are full of men and women who thought they owned their mates sexual organs and thus they committed murder because they felt violated, or they committed crimes to pay their pussy and/or dick bills.
We cannot and shall not enter the era of divine consciousness with such reactionary notions based on religious mythology or patriarchal socialization.
Nefertari tried to say Christians were guilty of this but Marvin would have none of it. He said Christians are not the only ones guilty of reactionary theological notions: all the religions are guilty, whether Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, African traditional, Rasta, Communist. They all desire to keep women in the box and men as well. It is a form of social control and male privilege that must be discarded in the new era.
--continued--
P.S. After the conversation ended, outside the Secret Word Cafe the street was suddenly filled with Houston police cars. The police were trying to deal with a domestic dispute.
Marvin X and Nefertari with some of those who attended his conversation with Nefertari:
back row: James Rhodes, MX's grandson, Nefertiti, his daughter, Amalia, Monique and
Brother Muhammad.
photo Michael Demaris
