Marvin X Coming Soon to a venue near you!

photo Don J. Usner

Marvin X speaks on Black Theatre 

University of California, Merced 

May 30, 2013

Marvin X will discuss his plays Flowers for the Trashman and One Day in the Life. Flowers for the Trashman was produced by the Drama Department at San Francisco State University, 1965, while he was an undergrad.

One Day in the Life is a docudrama of his addiction and recovery from Crack, 1996. It includes his last meeting with Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton in a West Oakland Crack house. Ishmael Reed says, "One Day in the Life is the most powerful drama I've seen!"

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Marvin X's top student who directed and performed his play In the Name of Love, Laney College Theatre, Oakland, 1981. Years later she directed and performed his play One Day in the Life, 1996-2002, the longest running African American drama in Northern California. Dr. Nzinga now has her own theatre The Lower Bottom Playaz in West Oakland. She recently produced and directed his classic Flowers for the Trashman, a one act first produced at San Francisco State University, 1965, while Marvin was an undergraduate.

Marvin X speaks at the University of Houston, Africana Studies Department

Dr. James Conyers, Chair, Africana Studies Dept, University of Houston and Marvin X

Black Power Babies, Brooklyn NY

Black Power Babies and parents, Left to Right: Michael Simmons, Aishah Shahidah Simmons,

Amiri Middy Baraka, Jr., Bunmi Samuels, Muhammida El Muhajir, Marvin X, Oba Adefunmi II,

Mrs. Amina Baraka, Nisa Ra, Aaliyah Madyun, Malika Iman, Barbara Rivera and daughter.

Black Power Babies, produced by Muhammida El 

Dr. Molefe Asante, Mrs. Amina Baraka, Marvin X, Amiri Baraka, Jr., Kenny Gamble

Black Power Babies in Philly w/ Marvin X, Amina Baraka, Amiri Middy Baraka, Molefi Kete Asante, Michael Coard, Lois Fernandez + Bumi Fernandez. A Sun in Leo x 900AM WURD collaboration

WURD Speaks: Black Power Babies

Please take a peek into the discussion that took place on Sunday, February 10, 2013 at our first WURD Speaks event of the year titled Black Power Babies. It ...

Silencia Por Favor

It is only when we reach this age

we come to see we know nothing

knowing is beginning

yet it is The End

and so we begin and end with ignorance

it is the only thing we can claim for sure

ignorance and illusion

we are sure about this

after all the women, wine, dope, money

illusion

momentary passions in the night

early morn

things unsatisfied

things eternally oppositional

The moment can transcend the moment into the eternal

and if we don't get there so what

let's have ease after difficulty

no oppositional personality

silencia por favor.

no words can cover all the years tears fears

silencia por favor.

--El Muhajir (Marvin X)

3-28-13

The Best of Marvin X 

on KPOO Radio, San Francisco

Marvin X reads and interviewed by Sister Pam Pam, KPOO Radio, San Francisco.

 Files (10 MB) | Download All

• Marvin X - The Gangster.mp3
• Marvin X..... on Books.mp3
• Marvin X....Old Man Young Girl.mp3
• Marvin X....on The worst enemy.mp3

Marvin X  

now available 

readings/lecturers: 

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

510-200-4164

Marvin X interviewed at the Black Power Babies Conversation, Philadelphia, PA.

He also participated in the Black Love Lives Conference (produced by Nisa Ra), University of Penn, reading with Philly's living legend, pianist Alfie Pollitt, at the Cleft Jazz Club. 

Marvin X  

now available 

readings/lecturers: 

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

510-200-4164

Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, 

a memoir by Marvin X 

Black Bird Press, Berkeley CA 2009

Marvin X wrote his memoir of Eldridge Cleaver in three weeks, posting a chapter per day on the internet.

See www.nathanielturner.com. 

The Wisdom of Plato Negro 

parables/fables

"Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."--Ishmael Reed

His most recent book is The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2012. President Davis and Reginald James, students at Marvin X's Academy of da Corner, Oakland
President is now at Howard University, Reginald at UC Berkeley. Pictured at Sankofa Books, Washington DC.

Two Founders of The Black Arts Movement: East Coast/West Coast

Writings in Anthologies

The writings of Marvin X appear in the anthologies Black Fire, New Plays from the Black Theatre,  Let Loose on the World, Bum Rush the Pages, Mumia,  Black California; the forthcoming Stand Our Ground and the forthcoming D'jango. He edited a Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry issue. He is project director of the Community Archives Project and teaches at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

Marvin X's most famous play Flowers for the Trashman appears in Black Fire, 

along with his most famous poem on the 1965 Los Angeles riot/rebellion 

Burn, Baby, Burn!

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1574780395 | ISBN-13: 978-1574780390

The defining work of the Black Arts Movement, Black Fire is at once a rich anthology and an extraordinary source document. Nearly 200 selections, including poetry, essays, short stories, and plays, from over 75 cultural critics, writers, and political leaders, capture the social and cultural turmoil of the 1960s. In his new introduction, Amiri Baraka reflects nearly four decades later on both the movement and the book.

New Plays from the Black Theatre, 

edited with an introduction (interview by Marvin X) 

by Ed Bullins

Bantam, New York, 1968

From top left: Herbert Stokes, Ben Caldwell, Salimu, Charles Fuller, Sonia Sanchez, LeRoi Jones, Ed Bullins, Marvin X, N. R. Davidson, Jr.

Bum Rush the Page 

is a groundbreaking collection, capturing the best new work from the poets who have brought fresh energy, life, and relevance to American poetry.

“Here is a democratic orchestration of voices and visions, poets of all ages, ethnicities, and geographic locations coming together to create a dialogue and to jam–not slam. This is our mouth on paper, our hearts on our sleeves, our refusal to shut up and swallow our silence. These poems are tough, honest, astute, perceptive, lyrical, blunt, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and true. They shout, they curse, they whisper, and sing. But most of all, they tell it like it is.” 
–Tony Medina, from the Introduction

Marvin X, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare and Attorney Amira Jackmon, Senior Agent of the Community Archives Project. The project is agent for the Dr. Julia Hare and Dr. Nathan Hare archives. Stanford University has requested to view the Hare papers for possible acquisition.

L to R: Marvin X, daughter Muhammida El Muhajir, Dr. Julia Hare, Nisa Ra, mother of Muhammida, and Dr. Nathan Hare. Nisa Ra interviewed the Hares for her film project Black Love Lives.
photo Gregory Fields

Marvin X  

now available 

readings/lecturers: 

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

510-200-4164

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

Black California

---

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2011

150 years of the California African American experienceBlack 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 Pao 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 poets Ted Joans and Bob Kaufman, Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, Black Arts Movement poet Marvin X, comedian Brian Copeland, and feminists Lucille Clifton and June Jordan.

Marvin X, aka Plato Negro,  at Academy of da Corner, seated beside him is Prof of Legal Affairs, Gregory Fields.

Academy student Jermaine Marsh, Civil Rights attorney Walter Riley, Blues living legend Sugarpie de Santo and Marvin X at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

Oakland Post Newspaper publisher Paul Cobb and Marvin X. Paul and Marvin are childhood friends from West Oakland. Pictured at  Academy of da Corner. "Paul knows more stories about my father than I do."
photo Attorney Walter Riley

Marvin X  

now available 

readings/lecturers: 

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

510-200-4164

 Black Panther Co-founder Bobby Seale and Marvin X celebrating Black History Month at the Joyce Gordon Gallery
Bobbly Seale, Huey Newton and Marvin X attended Merritt College
where they engaged in self study to gain revolutionary Black consciousness, 1962

 Juan Quinoez, Amina Baraka, Amiri Baraka, Marvin X
New York City, 2013

Amira, Nefertiti, Muhammida and father Marvin X

 Marvin and Fred Hampton, Jr

 Marvin X and violinist Tarika Lewis

Marvin X and fan at Howard University, Black Power to Hip Hop Conference, 2012

She insisted on posing with the poet holding a copy of his most controversial pamphlet:

The Mythology of Pussy and Dick--a manual for a male/female rites of passage

Silencia Por Favor

It is only when we reach this age
we come to see we know nothing
knowing is beginning
yet it is The End
and so we begin and end with ignorance
it is the only thing we can claim for sure
ignorance and illusion
we are sure about this
after all the women, wine, dope, money
illusion
momentary passions in the night
early morn
things unsatisfied
things eternally oppositional
The moment can transcend the moment into the eternal
and if we don't get there so what
let's have ease after difficulty
no oppositional personality
silencia por favor.
no words can cover all the years tears fears
silencia por favor.
--El Muhajir (Marvin X)
3-28-13

Stanford University, first to consider the Hare Papers

Marvin X, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare and Attorney Amira Jackmon, Senior Agent of the Community Archives Project Amira Jackmon, Esq., (Yale, Stanford Law), Senior Agent of the Community Archives Project, informs us Stanford University will inspect the Hare Archives next week, making it quite possible the Nathan Hare and Dr. Julia Hare papers will be acquired by Dr. Hare's "deadline" of April 9, his 80th birthday. "Don't make me rich after I die!" he urged Marvin X, project director. Asking price for the Hare archives: two million dollars ($2,000,000.00). Dr. Hare on the Black Scholar Marvin, One other thing, on the issue of whether the journal was black if all of its support or money wasn’t -- and I said that would be determined by its content (by which I was including its ideology) – I should exlain that it is true that Bob was black (or half-black, in that his father was white – doesn’t matter that both of his wives were white, as Julia complained to the New York Times, to Charlayne Hunter, whose husband, unknown to Julia, was also white!—so he was half black but he was not black black. Indeed, the white guy, Allen Ross, and I got along well and even saw eye to eye on most things. It was Bob Chrisman that both of us had problems with, indeed as I said this morning, Al quit before I did and frequently asked me to work with him with The Black Scholar Book Club, before the died. It was Julia’s idea to call Al’s widow, who came to our apartment with her and Al’s daughter and the three of them urged me to leave The Black Scholar, over my protests that I didn’t have time, that I had to finish  my dissertation for the psychology Ph.D. in order to graduate in August. They said if I got out now that would give me more time in time to finish my thesis . That wasn’t true, but I didn’t finish it on time. I’d already planned to leave The Black Scholar once I’d graduated, before Allen Ross left. But by the time I left, the three persons on the board were Marxists and we’d argue over whether some articles should be in the journal. That included black nationalist like Haki Madhubuti, though his article was published. And after I left there was even a forum to rebut it, but perhaps causing the uninitiated to think blackness was being highlighted if anything, and giving Haki some props to boot -- so it’s easy to be misled. Bob even balked at publishing maverick Marxists like Eldridge Cleaver when he was in Algiers and out of sorts with the Panthers and the movement and a black professor in Canada, who had a divergent view – momentarily forget his name, he wasn’t famous or anything, and we did publish him, but increasingly I was losing out, once Gloria started siding with the other two, I guess partly because I had pulled away to a considerable degree in the course of the psychology degree. So the Marxist thing was just one of the reasons I left. Plus they were Marxists but acting independent of other Marxists, so far as I know, with the other two basically conceding to Bob and his caucusing with them. So actually Bob took it over. He chose Robert Allen, with my consent, as I wasn’t expecting or even cut out for no screed. Neither Al nor I wanted to hurt The Black Scholar. It was suggested to me that I sue. I could have sued but with the shaky finances of the journal it could have crumbled. What I would have done if I’m doing it now was go with Al Ross with the Black Scholar Book Club as he had left with and implored me continuously to join him, and I also could have taken the lecture bureau, which was Bob idea trying to get part of my plenteous lecture fees at the time, but I was the one who knew how it worked and set it up. Indeed one thing I came up with, Classified Ads, Bob at first opposed. I told you how we turned the corner by refusing Signet’s first printing of 105,000 copies of “The Best of the Black Scholar” over the size of the author’s cut per book, and wound up getting a bigger cut per book on two books, with 4,000 and 3,000 copies printed of each before they went out of print. There we turned the corner at the door of the big-time into the upper echelons of mediocrity. People who would build a dune in the sand disdain skylifts. Come to think of it I don’t know that Bob ever built anything else. If you don’t count the poem or two after he was at The Black Scholar and once took a leave of a month or so to work on some writing. He wasn’t missed but came back without the writing done, whatever it was. I mean the brother wrote an article in Scanlon’s, one of the few ever published anywhere, including in The Black Scholar, I remember one in the shortlved Scanlon’s called “Ecology is a Racist Shuck.” You don’t say. I almost simultaneously did an article for The Black Scholar called “Black Ecology,” which was translated into several languages around the world. Did he build that article. Indeed, I used to write little publisher’s statements and initial them. One day Al  told me Bob opposed me doing them, so I  stopped doing them, as I had other things to do. If you look at them you may see they set the tone. I interviewed people like Muhammad Ali (stayed a weekend in his home and did roadwork with him one morning when he was living outside Philadelphia to do the interview., and because I didn’t sign them when Robert Hauser wrote the biography of Ali he attributed it to  The Black Scholar and didn’t mention me. Queen Mother Moore was interviewed in my apartment (Bob didn’t know her) and I also paid my way to Detroit while I was on a speaking engagement somewhere and interviewed  Robert Williams shortly after he got back from China. Nathan Marvin, P.S. The three of us agreed to chip in $300 apiece and start The Black Scholar, but Bob could only come up with $150. Nathan From: Nathan Hare [mailto:nhare@pacbell.net]  Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 10:48 PM To: 'Marvin X Jackmon' Subject: RE: Hare papers Marvin, I still forgot to give you your glasses, I was trying to explain so much as usual, as I find it’s easy for people to be misguided for lack of facts they don’t have. E.g. Brother Editor didn’t come to The Black Scholar as a poet; I don’t think he’d ever published a poem so much as in a student newspaper at that point. But even if he had been Baraka,  he didn’t use poetry to build The Black Scholar. He might have helped to build a poet or two in time, through The Black Scholar, but their poetry did not build The Black Scholar. The Black Scholar hit the ground running with the first issue, with essentially all of the articles obtained by me. They didn’t  know him and there was not yet The Black Scholar to know. As I said this morning, Julia got it in Newsweek through friends she had met in her job as Director of Education for the soon-to-be-opened Oakland Museum.  He didn’t build The Black Scholar, The Black Scholar made him, if we can say he ever was fully made, i.e., a made man, he is certainly not a self-made man, but a man who came to The Black Scholar on the make, with nothing beyond  the tools of an unknown English teacher. I’ll hang on to the glasses. By the way, I didn’t mean for you guys to gut my brown supply chest next to the white file cabinet. I guess its contents were so scarce and rumpled you thought it was something rare. Nathan