Black Left Unity Network on Syria

Some of Us Still Oppose U.S. Militarism: Statement from The Black Left Unity Network on Syria

It is both an irony of history and a reflection of the right-wing trajectory of U.S. politics and culture that on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington where African Americans and progressives took a stand for social justice, that U.S. warships are positioning themselves for yet another attack on a nation in the global South. This latest imperialist adventure being ordered by the country’s  first “black” President.

The pending attack on Syria by the U.S. along with the second rate colonial powers of Britain and France are demonstrating once again that international law, morality and even commonsense are meaningless in the blind and desperate desire to maintain Euro-American global dominance.

We in the Black Left Unity Network, vigorously opposed the decision to wage war on the people of Syria. We remind the supporters of this action of the consequences of U.S. and NATO attacks on the sovereign state of Libya supposedly to save lives, with the result being the death of over 50,000 people!

It is only in the imagination of individuals whose consciousness has been infected with the disease of white supremacy and U.S. exceptionalism, that the idea that the United States, still the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet, as Dr. King so accurately stated, would have the moral authority to inflict a punitive strike on Syria for supposedly killing its own people.

We are clear that the war on Syria has nothing to do with any supposed concern for the lives of the people of Syria. If there were real “humanitarian” concerns for people facing oppression in the so-called middle-east then the U.S. would intervene in Palestine to “save” the Palestinians from Israel, liberate the people from the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia, stand with the people fighting for democracy in Bahrain, cut off aid to the generals in Egypt and cease funding Al-Qaeda linked Jihadist groups in Syria.

The ten year U.S. imperialist led war in Iraq made clear, that the U.S. is not above lying in charging governments that it wants to invade with using or having weapons of mass destruction. Not only were there no weapons of mass destruction, According to the Cost of War Project, “the U.S. war against Iraq killed at least 190,000 people, including men and women in uniform, contractors, and civilians and will cost the United States $2.2 trillion.”

And in the U.S., August 29th marks the eight anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States forever altering the lives of thousands of black working class and poor people forever, because the federal and state governments failed to allocate funds to repair substandard levees.  Yet under Bush and Obama they found hundreds of billions to bail out the corporations. In New Orleans more than a hundred thousand majority black people who were transported and forced to flee out of the city in a blatant program of ethic cleansing never made it back to the city eight years after. In California thousands of largely black and Latino prisoners are refusing food to protest the inhumane conditions that many have suffered for decades and across the country a black person is gunned down by an agent of the U.S. police force every 28 hours as part of the continuous domestic War on black America.  These are just a few of the “humanitarian concerns” that could be addressed right in the borders of the U.S. if there was a real concern for ending human rights abuses and protecting people.

But we are not naive, we know that the war being waged against black and brown people’s globally by the white West has one objective – to maintain the global structure of Western imperialism by controlling and dominating  the populations of the world by force. That is why it is not ironic  that across the U.S. funds are being cut for critical public services and social programs, claiming a lack of resources, while millions of dollars can be found to support whatever military mission is identified that advances the interests of the Euro-American oligarchy.

That is why opposing the corporate/State war machine of U.S. imperialism is not only a moral necessity but a strategic imperative that unites all who can still see though the ideological fog of a false humanitarian that conceals the true enemies of humanity – The U.S., its white supremacist Western allies and the oppressive governments they support.

Historically the U.S. black left has always taken a stand against U.S. imperialism from Haiti and Cuba through to the Philippines, Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela and all of the countries in between. Today we continue that principled stand with clarity and an unshakable commitment to our belief in the possibility of a new global order liberated from the savageries of U.S. and Western imperialism.

As we fight against the U.S. War on Black America and build the Black liberation movement to strengthen this fight, we must mobilize opposition to all U.S. imperialist wars!

www.Blackleftunity.org     
www.blackleftunity.blogspot.com
www.blackactivistzine.org
www.jblun.org                   

Contact: Saladin Muhammad -252-314-2363-

Marvin X Replies to Poet Mohja Kafh on the Syrian Revolution

Without a doubt, those of us who consider ourselves politically correct in our ideological dogmatism, with our focus on the various factions can totally neglect the masses of true believers who only seek simple freedom, justice and equality, who are not steeped in religiosity or any other ideological framework. Yet in our diatribes we fail to mention the simple masses striving for a better day, not to be part of this faction or that, this sect or that, but simply a better day under the sun.

How is it possible that we focus on the geo-political game players of the East and West, who have long range plans beyond simple justice and a better day in the sun.


This is some kind of intellectual myopia that blinds us from seeing beyond the ideologues of the right and/or left. It is not to glorify the secularists or any other liberal faction confronting the Islamists or dogmatic sectarians, but we do indeed need to think about the simple masses that we never hear about in the news, who are somehow forgotten in the mad geo-political gamesmanship between East and West.

Let us them give at least a moments thought to the children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts who have lost so much in this struggle that has transcended simple democracy but is caught up in the mythology of the political elite with their agendas far beyond justice, freedom, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Let us give thought to the struggling masses, the six million internal and external refugees, the 100,000 dead, those grieving their dead and struggling to stay alive, those not of any ideological persuasion other than common justice and freedom that transcends narrow minded ideological and mythological notions grounded in political and religious dogmatism and sectarianism.
--Marvin X
9/4/13

Poet Mohja Kahf speaks to Marvin X and others on the Syrian Revolution

Mohja Kahf

Syria: It's Still a Revolution, My Friends

No matter what your position on the potential US strikes on Syria (I’m against), all I ask is, DON’T be a hater who denies the existence of the grassroots youth who began the Syrian revolution out of hope for real freedom and out of their rising expectation for real change, hope that had nearly died in the fifty-year police state that has ruled Syria. Try to remember to have some compassion for a Syrian who might be in the vicinity, before you mouth off in the abstract on the issue; we face news every day of our friends and our relatives being killed and imprisoned. Take time to get to know about a few of them, the Syrian rev youth activists who started it all, in hundreds of towns across Syria, before you speak about Syria based on what happened in Iraq or Lebanon or Country X.

In SYRIA, this is a REVOLUTION (and yes I understand it meets the technical definition of a civil war, yes it does, AND, yet, still: This is a Revolution). In SYRIA, a Revolution has been happening, and the will to freedom that began it will not simply be erased; it is a bell that cannot be unrung in the hearts of young Syrians. It is a consciousness change. That is why Syria is not now and will not become, despite all the fuckedupness that has ensued inside the revolution, “like Iraq” (and by the way, I marched in the US against the Iraq War, and over the years have written and published pages of poems based on the unimaginable sufferings narrated to me by Iraqis).

In SYRIA, a broad spectrum of twentysomethings across every province were inspired by Bouazizi’s self-immolation, by 26-year-old Asma Mahfouz’ call to Tahrir, by the movement for Khaled Said, a young activist murdered by Egyptian police in 2010, NOT by some US president’s call for regime change as in Iraq. By the will to “live like human beings,” as one after another has told me when I have met them and asked for their stories. ASK for their stories, please. They will TELL you what motivated them to risk their lives as they did. Syria’s revolution youth hit the streets out of grievances they have EXPERIENCED, in their own bodies, in their own lives; this revolution was not begun by some Syrian version of Iraq’s Chelebi, nor by established oppositionists, but by geographically widespread rural and smalltown women and men of ALL sects, young people whom the CIA never even heard of, coming together in a new spirit. They are nobody’s proxies, no matter how much outside agendas want to make them somebody’s proxies.

And please, do not create a callous denial narrative that erases the masses of mainstream Syrians in this revolution, as if they don’t count, in favor of the Salafist extremists who are trying to take it over from its fringes as, thousands of miles away, you run screaming “Taliban! AlQaeda!” wringing your hands but not knowing in the slightest the measure of their (nasty) influence. Do not abandon those revolution youth—whether they are still in the civil resistance or have joined the secular, mainline armed resistance--who are now themselves beset by the Salafists even while still fending off the brutal regime. For example, I just fb chatted with a friend inside, one of the original protesters, who refuses to flee Syria, and incidentally he is Alawite, who has received death threats by name from the regime, and from the Nusra front on the other hand.

Above all, do not become so ethically ugly as to deny the massacres the regime has committed against civilians, or become a dictator-defender. Bashar is a Butcher; let’s establish that as a common fact between us, no matter your other views. I have spoken out against atrocities committed by the rebel sides; they ARE heinous, AND they in no way come close to the horrors committed by the regime, which vastly outguns all the rebel sides. So the “symmetry” thing, where you say “oh, they’re all about as bad as each other” is ethically reprehensible. If you don’t have time to educate yourself, at least refrain from that moral repulsiveness, please. Do not commit the inhumanity at this time of getting on a devastated Syrian’s last nerve, by denying our bloodied dead, or our desperate need for justice.

Here are some links for further some reading:

The Syrian Revolution, Then and Now: http://www.fnvw.org/vertical/Sites/%7B8182BD6D-7C3B-4C35-B7F8-F4FD486C7CBD%7D/uploads/Syria_Special_Report-web.pdf

International Crisis Group's analysis of the potential US strikes: http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/publication-type/media-releases/2013/mena/syria-statement.aspx?utm_source=syria-email&utm_medium=statement&utm_campaign=mremail

And please follow the Arabic or English pages of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement: https://www.facebook.com/SyrainNonviolence

And of Kamishlo House: https://www.facebook.com/QamishloHausee
(secular, nonsectarian, democracy activism)

Please write for the release of nonviolent Syrian prisoners of conscience HELD OVER A YEAR, many over two years, by cutting and pasting the text under each picture in this album, on a Revolution page that ALSO reports prisoners held by extremist groups on the rebel side:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.380614048692905.94198.109718805782432&type=3

From the Archives: Marvin X interviewed by Lee Hubbard

Marvin X Unplugged
An Interview by Lee Hubbard

While drugs and their impact have been talked about, no one has really dealt with the addiction to drugs and how it impacts a community and one's soul. No one has, until Marvin X, a poet, long time writer and activist, decided to touch this subject in his play, "A Day in the Life".  The play details Marvin's life ordeal with drugs, as well as the impact drugs had on former Black Panthers Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton and the Black community.

While the play helped many people exorcise their demons, it also helped to revive the work and career of Marvin X, who, along with Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez, was one of the founding members of the Black Arts Movement. BAM helped to lay an intellectual and artistic base for the Black Power movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

As word spread about Marvin's Recovery Theatre, many younger people began to discover Marvin's controversial work, which during the 60s prompted Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, to ban Marvin X from teaching at state universities.

I was able to sit down and talk to Marvin X about his involvement in the 1960s Black Arts Movement and on his latest book of essays, In the Crazy House Called America.

Lee: Tell our readers about your Recovery Theatre.

Marvin: It is a continuation of my work in the Black Arts Theatre. Recovery Theater is a present day Black Arts Theatre. Black Arts was about healing from oppression. Recovery Theater is about healing from drugs and/or oppression. Drug usage is caused by oppression. It is a symptom of a greater problem. I don't care if you are poor or rich, you can still be oppressed.

Lee: Tell me about your book In the Crazy House Called America.

Marvin: I thought I would offer a prescription to get out of the crazy house or, if not to get out of it, to transform the crazy house and turn it into a mansion. The prescription is like Frantz Fanon said, ’You have to fight your way out of the crazy house to sanity.’ That is the only way that the oppressed man and woman can regain their mental health, through revolutionary struggle and challenging the diagnosis that he isn't sick. Oppression is a sickness. That you allow yourself to be a slave is a sickness. It is a form of mental illness. We become passive.

Lee: So your book has the cure?

Marvin: Well this is what people who have read my book say. It is prescription for action to get up and do something. It is part of the African American literature tradition of how I got over and how I survived, how I made it from Hell and back. It is a lesson that everyone can learn from. If I did it, why can't you? I had gone from the poorest street in America to the richest street in the world, Wall Street. My national tour was a manifestation that there are many mansions in my father’s house, because everywhere I have stayed, I was in a mansion.

Lee: In your book, you talk about your life on drugs. Explain to our readers how a very literate and educated revolutionary man could get hooked on crack.

Marvin: That is very simple. I am going to say it in the words that my father used. He said, ’You are so smart that you outsmarted yourself.’ I outsmarted myself, and I played with fire. And I got burned. There was no excuse. I can give you some, but the critical Negroes in New York said that no excuse is acceptable for what happened to me, Eldridge and Huey and other so-called revolutionaries. They say we betrayed the revolution for drugs, when we knew the source of drugs, and we knew the danger of drugs and the destructive power of drugs. I am just lucky to come out alive in contrast to Huey and Eldridge, my buddies, who I smoked dope with who did not make it out. I wrote about this in my play, One Day in the Life.

       Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X

Lee: Why did you write your book, and what can younger readers get out of it?

Marvin: I wrote it to help save humanity from insanity, because White people are just as crazy if not crazier than Black people. For example, the brothers and sisters in Houston asked me to set up a Recovery Theatre South in Houston. Immediately what came to my mind, more important than recovery from drugs, the South has to recover from racism. I wrote it about everyone, for Muslims as well as Christians. Muslims are sick with religiosity just as Christians are sick with religiosity, and ritualism and mythology. These are some of the causes of our current situation. If we recognize it, we can get a healing.

Lee: Looking back at your career, what do you think of the Black Arts Movement and your contribution to it?

Marvin: The Black Arts Movement was part of the liberation movement of Black people in America. The Black Arts Movement was the artistic arm. The time period we are talking about was from 1964 until the early 1970s. The Black Arts Movement was like a halfway house for brothers and sisters to get Black Consciousness and go from there into the political revolution.

For example, brothers came into the Black Arts Theatre that Ed Bullins and I had in San Francisco, and they got a revolutionary consciousness through Black art, drama, poetry, music, paintings, artwork and magazines. The same thing took place on the East Coast in Harlem at Amiri Baraka’s Black Arts Theatre. In Detroit, they had the Black Arts Movement with Rod Milner and producer Woody King. In Chicago, you had a crew with Haki Madhubuti, Gwendolyn Brooks, Hoyt Fuller. You had the same thing in the South with the Free Southern Theatre in New Orleans that traveled throughout the South and was connected with SNCC. There was a marriage between Black arts and the revolution.

Lee: What happened to this movement?

Marvin: Well, what happens to a dream deferred? It had to be destroyed. Black people were on the road to freedom. We had upped the ante with the Black Power/Black Arts movement, so we had to be stopped.

Lee: What happened with you and the Black Arts Movement?

                Marvin X and Sun Ra

Marvin: As far as I am concerned it is ongoing. I am still working in it. I just had a great performance in Philadelphia with Sonia Sanchez and Sun Ra’s musicians. I am a manifestation that it is still going, that the Black Arts Movement is still here. Baraka is still here. He has gotten more media play than any poet in America, because of a poem that is coming directly out of a Black Arts tradition of telling it like it is.

Lee: Tell me about your relationship with Amiri Baraka?

Marvin: Well, it is an artistic relationship, and it is a personal relationship. On the artistic level, he set a standard for artists and poets. He set the standard high for revolutionary Black artists. But even Baraka was in the tradition of other writers and activists, such as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Paul Robeson and others. On a personal level, he is like a friend and an uncle, since he is 10 years older than me.

Lee: What did you think of his poem controversy with the governor of New Jersey?

Marvin: I thought it was in the tradition of the Black Arts Movement. I think it was one of his greatest poems. He asked the question, Who. If you ask the question, you might get some answers.

Lee: So where is the revolution?

Marvin: The revolution is inside of the revolutionary. We thought it was outside in the 1960s. We thought we could free the people, but we did not free our families or ourselves. We abused our families. We neglected our families, yet still we were fighting revolution.

But there is no revolution without the family. There is no revolution if we beat our women half to death and neglect our children for an abstraction called freedom. That is why the rappers have gone crazy. They saw our contradiction in the Black Arts Movement. And so they rejected the aesthetics of the Black Arts Movement, and they have gone on to openly express perversions.
 

Related Links

Marvin X on AALBC.com
http://authors.aalbc.com/marvinx.htm

Movie Reviews by Marvin X on AALBC.com include:
Ali 
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/ali.htm
Baby Boy
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/baby_boy.htm
Ray
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/ray.htm
Traffic
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/traffic.htm

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Save the Date: March, 2014, the University of California, Merced, presents The Black Arts Movement, invited participants include Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Ishmael Reed, Dr. Nathan Hare and Marvin X. Marvin X will speak on the Black Arts Movement in the Bay Area. The conference is a Kim McMillan production; Marvin X is senior consultant.

Sonia Sanchez will discuss the new Black Arts Movement Reader: SOS--Calling All Black People, UMASS Press, 2014, edited by James Smethurst, John Bracey and Sonia Sanchez. 

Pearl Cleage: Conversation with a Master @ National Black Arts Festival

An Exclusive Invitation for NBAF Supporters CONVERSATIONS WITH MASTERS PEARL CLEAGE Ever wish you could have a conversation with a master in their field?  Now you can.  In celebration of the National Black Arts Festival¹s 25th year as the nation¹s premier convener of art, culture, and artists of African descent, NBAF is presenting the Conversations with Masters series as an exclusive opportunity for NBAF supporters to have special access to major artists from various genres without having to leave your home, school or office. Join the National Black Arts Festival and acclaimed author and professor PEARL CLEAGE for NBAF's Conversations with Masters series conference call on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH, at 4:00 PM.  This special event is FREE.  PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED BY 5 PM ON SEPTEMBER 9TH. For more details about the call-in information and to submit questions for Ms. Cleage prior to the call, please click the REGISTER NOW button below or RSVP to Tracy Murrell at tmurrell@nbaf.org by 5 PM, September 9th.  REGISTER NOW CONVERSATIONS WITH MASTERS CONFERENCE CALL WITH PEARL CLEAGE TUESDAY  SEPTEMBER 10, 4:00 PM  REGISTRATION REQUIRED BY  MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH AT 5 PM ABOUT PEARL CLEAGE Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta based writer currently Playwright in Residence at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta where her new play, "What I Learned in Paris," opened the 2012-2013 Season in September. Her works include award-winning plays, bestselling novels and numerous columns, articles and essays for a wide variety of publications including Essence, Ebony, Rap Pages, Vibe, The Atlanta Tribune, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day, was an Oprah Book Club pick and spent nine weeks on the New York Timesbestseller list. She is the author of thirteen plays, including Flyin' West, the most produced new American play in the country in 1994. Her Blues for An Alabama Sky was included in the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival in Atlanta. Her other plays include Chain; Late Bus to Mecca; Bourbon at the Border; A Song for Coretta and The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Year. She is the author of eight novels, including Baby Brother's Blues, which was awarded an NAACP Image Award for Literature. She is also the co-author with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., of We Speak Your Names, a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey for her 2005 Legends Weekend. Cleage and Burnett are frequent collaborators, including their award-winning ten year performance series, "Live at Club Zebra!" featuring their work as writers and performance artists. Her new book of non-fiction entitled Things I Never Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons and Love Affairs, will be published by ATRIA Books in 2014. Cleage was chosen Cosby Chair in the Fine Arts by her alma mater, Spelman College, in 2005 and spent two years as a member of the Spelman faculty. Awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by the college in 2010, Cleage remains active with the Women's Resource and Research Center and the Department of Theatre and Dance. She was the founding editor of CATALYST Magazine, an Atlanta-based literary magazine for ten years and served as Artistic Director of Just Us Theatre Company for five years. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company. Click here to check out the recent article about the  National Black Arts Festival in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

We mourn, grieve but celebrate with Nisa Ra the transition of her beloved husband Muneer--Surely we are from Allah and to Him we return

We mourn, grieve and celebrate with Nisa Ra the transition of her beloved husband Muneer to the ancestors--Surely we are from Allah and to Him we return. Nisa Ra is the mother of our daughter Muhammida El Muhajir and Nisa and I are the best of friends with the welfare and success of our daughter utmost in our minds and our relationship. Love you and pray for you at this hour, Nisa Ra!--Marvin X

Life is but a moment in the sun

enjoy the good times

bad times

roll with the punches

hang

like Snoopy

Snoopy hang on

don't go to the arms of another

the same person you just left

except with a different name

Lord have mercy.

Life is but a moment in the sun

Laugh with your beloved

dance

mad love transcending all borders

bounds treaties constitutions

Life is but a moment in the sun

sing together whirl kiss late into the night

til morning comes

we are entwined embracing the wonder of it all

the WOW!

ride my magic carpet queen lady

this is how i travel

way pass the light

beyond light and darkness

I am

travel with me the space ways

Sun Ra taught us

fears will not save  you here

only the Goddess of Love

submit

ride the magic carpet into the sun

the rays call you home

sunshine lady and man.

nothing lasts forever

love da one ya wit

a moment in the sun

may be gone tomorrow

may last a long time

flow wit da flow

in the no stress zone

but hang like Snoopy

keep faith til ya win da race.

Black love lives!

--Marvin X

9/2/13

Bibliography of Marvin X

Marvin X, 1972, Black Educational Theatre, SF With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing about him-I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and graduate school-why is attention not given to his work in the same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his incredibly rich body of work. He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is still kickin, still true to the word!--Dr. Mohja Kahf 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, essays on consciousness, BBP, 2007 How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, BBP, 2007 Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the Devil, a memoir, BBP, 2009.  Works In Progress It Don't Matter: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press) Sweet Tea, Dirty Rice, poems, (Berkeley: Black Bird Press) In Sha Allah, A History of Black Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1954-2004 (Cherokee: Black Bird Press). Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality by Nisa Islam as told to Marvin X. 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 OF EVENTS/PRODUCTIONS 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 Dialoguemagazine, 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. *   *   *   *   * This work is scheduled for publication sometime next year. For more information write to Marvin X @ University of Poetry/Black Bird Press, 11132 Nelson Bar Road, Cherokee CA 95965.  mrvnx@yahoo.com / 510-472-9589. Writers are welcome to submit a critical essay on the writings of Marvin X for consideration. Why don't you who are able, send a generous donation to make this work possible. If you believe in what I am doing and have been doing for the past forty years, put your money where you mouth is and send a generous donation to Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA  94606. May Allah bless you. As-Salaam-Alaikum, Marvin X. 5/19/05 Happy birthday Malcolm!   Preface  of father o f Muslim American Literature     Introduction    Dedication Contents The Contributors   Bibliography of Marvin X posted May 22, 2005, chicken bones.com/www.nathanielturner.com *   *   *   *   * For more on Marvin X at Fresno State University, check out the archives of Gov. Ronald Reagan and FSU President Frederick Ness. Google has ample entries for Marvin X. Visit his blog:www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com . Email him at: jmarvinx@yahoo. com. His books are available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702, $19.95 each. For speaking engagements, call 510-200-4164. *   *   *   *   * Books by Marvin X Love and War: Poems  / In the Crazy House Called America  Woman: Man's Best Friend /  Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality Marvin X on YouTube