Black Arts Movement Poets in Stand Our Ground Anthology

Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Marvin X, Haki Madhubuti and Everett Hoagland, some of the leading voices of the Black Arts Movement of the Sixties, will be featured in Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander. The ultimate purpose of the book is to raise funds the justice campaigns of both cases and to raise awareness about the persistence of racial injustice.

“We are honored and excited to have these legendary world-renowned poets involved in this important project, says Ewuare X. Osayande, creator and editor of the book. “These poets have spent their entire careers as writers doing exactly what we are attempting to do with this book – speak truth to power and to empower the people. Their involvement is an affirmation of the mission and aim of Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander.”

Marvin X, Master poet/teacher and Black Arts Movement co-founder, appears in Stand Our Ground. Marvin X founded Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco, 1966, the Black House (with Eldridge Cleaver) 1967,and worked at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, New York, 1968, served as associate editor of Black Theatre Magazine, also associate editor of  the Journal of Black Poetry, Black Dialogue, Soulbook; contributed to Negro Digest/Black World and Muhammad Speaks. He is the author of 30 books published by his Black Bird Press. 

Acclaimed Poet and Publisher Dr. Haki Madhubuti Joins Stand Our Ground

FreedomSeed Press is proud to announce the inclusion of Dr. Haki R. Madhubuti - one of the most prominent and relevant contemporary African American poets - in the forthcoming global anthology Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander.

Black Arts Movement pioneer, Madhubuti is founder of Third World Press, a publishing company that holds the distinction of being the oldest and largest Black publisher in the United States. He is the author of more than thirty books of poetry and essays that cover a span of forty-five years. In 1967, Madhubuti's first book of poems, Think Black, was published by the legendary Broadside Press. Since then, he has published a canon of work that encompasses the broad range of issues and concerns germane to the cultural and political advancement of the Black community in the United States. Among them are the classic works Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous? and Groundwork: New and Selected Poems, 1966-1996. His latest books include YellowBlack: The First Twenty-One Years of a Poet's Life and Run Toward Fear.

"To have Dr. Madhubuti's poetry in this anthology is an affirmation of the book and its mission. Brother Madhubuti has lived his life on the front-line of our community's struggle for justice and liberation as an educator, institution-builder and activist," says Ewuare Osayande, editor of Stand Our Ground. "It is an honor to include him and his work."

Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander is a global collection of poetry that brings together the voices of poets from all over the world including the United States, South Africa, the Maldives, England, Palestine, Kenya, Finland, Canada and Nigeria.

Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander is more than just an anthology of poetry. It is a call for justice! Once published, all the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the justice campaigns for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander. For more information on the book and campaign visit the book's website at:StandOurGroundBook.com.

‘Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin & Marissa Alexander’ is Now Available for Pre-Order!

28 March, 2013 editor Comments off

Title: Stand Our Ground:Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander

Publisher: FreedomSeed Press (Philadelphia, PA)

Paperback, 272 pages

Publication Date: April 22, 2013 (Pre-Order Now)

$25.00

All proceeds will be shared with the families of Martin and Alexander to aid in their respective pursuits of justice.

Stand with us! This will be a limited publication run. Purchase your copy today!

Stand Our Ground is available online exclusively at StandOurGroundBook.com.

Contact: Ewuare X. Osayande

StandOurGroundBook@gmail.com

In Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander 65 poets from all over the world join together in one voice for justice, freedom and peace. Stand Our Ground is the definitive testament of a revolutionary generation. In this historic collection Black Arts Movement legends Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Haki R. Madhubuti and Askia M. Toure’ are joined by poets of all ages from across the United States and around the world representing countries in Africa, Asia, Europe as well as North and South America and the islands of the Caribbean.

The cases of Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander expose the duplicity of an American justice system that remains rooted in racism and sexism. Stand Our Ground is an effort to raise funds for both families to aid in their pursuit of justice even as it raises the consciousness of a generation toward the pursuit of a movement of justice for all!

The book’s editor, Ewuare X. Osayande, is a poet, educator and activist. The author of several books including Blood Luxury with an introduction by Amiri Baraka (Africa World Press) and Whose America?: New and Selected Poems with an introduction by Haki R. Madhubuti (Black Proletariat Press). He is an adjunct professor of African American Studies at Rutgers University.

In the introduction for Stand Our Ground Osayande writes, “This book has been a labor of love. My love for my people. My love for humanity. I acted because I knew it was not enough for me to just march, or write an editorial or to just allow myself to sit and simmer in the face of wrong. I acted because I knew that there were others like me. I knew that if I acted, others would join with me, and, together, we could create a work that would simultaneously raise collective support for these two families and raise the collective consciousness of our generation. So in the Summer of 2012 the call went out and this is the result. A collection of poems. But not just any collection of poems. Herein are contained –

Death-defying poems

Injustice-decrying poems

Poems that speak truth to power

Poems that break chains in freedom’s name

Poems that confront abuse

and provide sanctuary for the bruised

Poems that escape from cells

Poems that provide a pathway back from hell

Poems that refuse to be silent

Poems more just than the judge’s gavel

Poems that have tasted cop’s mace

stared down the barrel of a gun in defiance

Shackled poems trying to break free

Poems picking the locks on our minds

Poems that transcend place and time

that tell the histories and herstories

that have been banned from the textbooks

Poems that refuse to look the other way

Poems that say what needs to be said

Poems that resurrect the dead

Poems that refuse to sell their souls

Poems that revolt and rebel

that holler, scream and yell

Poems that leave us speechless

that tell us truths we don’t want to hear

Poems that leave the status quo

quivering in fear

Poems that know that justice is like rain

to the seeds of peace

Poems that move us to act

like you know

Marching poems

Chanting poems

Ranting poems

Poems sick and tired of being sick and tired poems

Poems that inoculate us against ignorance

Poems that make us think

Poems on the brink

Poems that challenge us to see

the world as it could be

as it should be

Poems in love with freedom

Poems that resist

that resist

that resist

that resist racism and sexism

that refuse to be conned

Poems for a mother named Marissa

and a young brother named Trayvon.”

Marvin X on Same Sex Marriage

Marvin X on Same Sex Marriage

We were taught the purpose of marriage was for the procreation of the species. If this is still the purpose of marriage, then we must be against same sex marriage, but if marriage is for love then it does not matter if the marriage is same sex or not. For sure, same sex couples cannot procreate the species, but they can fall in love and remain in love as long as straight couples. We think same sex couples, absent the procreation motive, have every right to marry, especially when we consider that 50% of straight marriages end in failure. Can the same sex couple do better, time shall tell. We know they don't do much better in the area of partner violence, verbal and emotional abuse. Shall we say they are simply normal human beings in this regard?

As per our President coming out in favor of same sex marriage, we expect a politician to be political, to evolve at the expeditious moment for political gain. Yet we must be truthful and recognize this is but another diversion from the very serious economic matters facing this nation. What do the homeless and jobless care about who's marrying whom? They have more important matters that approach life and death, thus they would have misplaced priorities to concern themselves with same sex marriage. The President should be inclined to concern himself with more pressing matters, especially since he only made a personal not policy statement.

Enter the reply from his worthy opponent Mich Romney, "I support marriage between a man and woman." Now we could believe this statement if it weren't from a Mormon, a religious group that still practices polygamy or plural marriage, if only on the down under. But if you are familiar with Mormons, we know many of them are hardly down under, they are open and unashamedly practicing their religion that did indeed ban polygamy officially many years ago.

Monkey Mind Media and "The First Gay President" 

So the Monkey Mind Media that perpetuates the world of make believe is off and running with "The First Gay President," taking our minds completely off pressing economic issues. But we are too old to be concerned with what other people do in public or private, whether straight or gay/lesbian.

We must admit we like the natural order of things, though as an artist we are known to transcend the natural, so perhaps we should shut up since no one wants to hear what an old man thinks, especially one who has transcended so much of what normal people consider natural. Alas, my son cried, "Dad, why can't you drink like normal people!"

Today, though, much of what used to be natural is no longer such. Because of growth hormones in meat and other genetically altered foods, it is not surprising to find the emasculation of man and the masculation of females, i.e., black is white and white is black or the upside down world of today.

What we are alluding to is not solely sexual but political and economic. It is a political policy when women are entering colleges in great numbers and earning advance degrees while men, especially in the black community, are entering prison. Imagine the result of this social-sexual economic reality on the black family in particular. Not only are the prisons a breeding ground of homosexuality with the concomitant diseases, including HIV/AIDS, but such behavior is forcibly altering the sexual identity of men and women, for if the men are wards of the state, what choice do women have but to love each other, whether they want to or not? With men as prisoners of war, the women must bond with each other, often times for sexual and economic reasons. Yes, women are pimping these days, after all, brother pimp is doing twenty-five to life! Need we mention the economic independence of women in general. Even though black mothers have had to play the male role for, yes, centuries, it is even more pervasive today, to the extent the young women are saying, "He the baby mama, I'm the baby daddy. He stays at home babysitting while I work." Indeed, someone remarked recently how many young men can be seen on the streets pushing baby carriages during working hours.

Same Sex Chickens, Cows

Long ago we heard about animals, chickens, cows, turning homosexual. We know a diet of Big Macs and KFC is consequently altering the sexuality of our boys and girls. We know hormones are recycled in the water, and even chemical residue from plastic water bottles is polluting the water and  causing sex changes in those who drink it.

And finally, we must consider that we are at the end of an Age of Time, entering a new cycle that is bringing forth a new consciousness. The old patriarchy is giving way to a balance between the patriarchy and matriarchy or Ma'at. In this process of transformation, we must be aware of the crisis in sexual identity as men and women seek to put themselves in harmony with the universe. Although so much of the ancient teachings may be considered reactionary, we think manhood and womanhood rituals are urgently needed so our boys and girls have some understanding of gender roles. For sure, men must no longer think of women as their chattel property. And this must be true for same gender loving persons.
--Marvin X
5/14/12