Marvin X Love Letter to Dr. Julia Hare

Dear Julia,

As you and Nathan know, I adopted you both some years ago as my aunt and uncle, since all of my elders have transitioned to ancestor hood, leaving me as the one of the two oldest among my many cousins, my brother Ollie is one year older than I am. It is with the the deepest love that I sing this song to you, wishing you well for a job well done. Looking at you yesterday as you reposed in your sick bed, hugging you and kissing your sweet lips was one of the most joyful moments in my life. I was so happy  you recognized me. As I told you, I had mentioned your name the night before on KPOO radio during my interview with our revolutionary comrade Terry Collins. One of my students read my Parable of the Bitter Bitch which opens with a reference to your book The Sexual and Political Anorexia of the Black Woman. Thank you, Julia, for all the work you and Nathan did for the North American African Nation. Thank you for teaching us how to love as you have demonstrated with your 57 years of marriage. Thank you for that wonderful performance you did on Tavis Smiley's Forum on the State of Black America. Thank you for those piano concerts you gave me at your house and thanks for being the loving wife of Dr. Nathan Hare. As a London newspaper said, you are the female Malcolm X. Just know that I love you madly and will see you next week as promised.

Love Eternally,

Marvin X

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Julia Hare is widely regarded as one of the most dynamic motivational speakers on the major podiums today.

At the Congressional Black Caucus's 27th Annual Legislative Conference chaired by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Dr. Hare was one of three speakers invited to address the Caucus's kickoff National Town Hall Meeting on Leadership Dimensions for the New Millennium. Her collaborators included distinguished historian, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Chair of President Clinton's Advisory Board on Race, and Dr. Cornel West, Harvard professor and author of the critically acclaimed Race Matters.

Dr. Hare has appeared on "Geraldo", "Sally Jesse Raphael", "Inside Edition", CNN and Company, "Talk Back Live", "News Talk", Black Entertainment Television (BET), "The Tavis Smiley Show", ABC's "Politically Incorrect", CSPAN, and major radio and television affiliated throughout Australia and America. Her commentaries, lectures and topics include: politics, education, religion, war, foreign and domestic affairs, sexual politics and contemporary events.

A prime innovator on issues affecting the black family and society as a whole, Dr. Hare is mentioned or quoted in national newspapers, including "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "Sun Reporter", "San Francisco Chronicle", "Miami Herald", "Louisville Courier Journal" and "The Oklahoma Eagle" among others. She has appeared in "Ebony", "Jet", "Dollars and Sense", "Heart and Soul", "USA Today", "Today's Black Woman", "Essence" and other periodicals. She is co-author with her husband, Dr. Nathan Hare, of "The Endangered Black Family"; "Bringing the Black Boy to Manhood"; "The Passage"; "The Miseducation of the Black Child" and "Crisis in Black Sexual Politics". Her most recent best-selling book is "How to Find and Keep a BMW (Black Man Working)".

Her work has brought her many accolades and honors, including Educator of the Year for Washington, D.C. by the Junior Chamber of Commerce and the World Book Encyclopedia in coordination with American University; the Abe Lincoln Award for Outstanding Broadcasting, the Carter G. Woodson Education Award; the Marcus and Amy Garvey Award; the Association of Black Social Workers Harambee Award, Third World Publishers' Twentieth Anniversary Builders Award; Professional of the Year from "Dollars and Sense" magazine; Scholar of the Year from the Association of African Historians; Lifetime Achievement Award from the international Black Writers and Artists Union; as well as a presidential citation from the national Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education. Dr. Hare has also been inducted into the Booker T. Washington Hall of Fame.

Muhammida El Muhajir recaps Africa tour of her film Hip Hop: The New World Order

Global Hip Hop Documentary premieres in Africa: Lagos & Accra. Private Brooklyn, NY Screening on 11/20 Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. The Africa Tour Recap. Lagos + Accra We recently returned from the Hip Hop: The New World Order Africa Screening Tour with premiere screenings in Lagos and Accra. Although we filmed the documentary in 8 international cities (Tokyo, Havana, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, & Johannesbug), we didn’t film in West Africa so it was important to engage with the artists, pioneers and cultural influencers who are the foundation of the vibrant hip hop scene in Anglophone West Africa.  Screenings were presented at Goethe Institut, the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global reach. In Lagos, we partnered with entertainment powerhouses Storm 360 and Now Muzik En.Core to  produce a lively presentation of the film and post-screening Q&A featuring media personality, Andre Blaze (Nigeria's Got Talent), one of Nigeria’s most talented MC’s, Vector Tha Viper, entertainment journalist, Osagie Alonge (Nigerian Entertaiment Today), and director, Muhammida El Muhajir.  The panelists were all quite versed on the history and evolution of hip hop in Nigeria and passionate about its future. After making the necessary talent and brand connections for the event, the NowMuzik Team of Chief ExecutiveEfe Omoregbe, and Helen Abutu, Head, En.core had to travel but left us in good hands with Daniel & Phenom who were truly a pleasure to work with and coordinated all details of production along with the accommodating Goethe Institute staff, Director, Marc-André Schmachtel and Programming Coordinator, Derin Ajao. The following day we visited the offices of Storm 360 to meet with chairman, Obi Asika, a creative visionary who is at the forefront of driving urban entertainment across Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world.  Storm 360 offices/studio was like a who’s who of Nigerian hip hop all-stars and we came across artists such as DJ Neptune, Ghost of Show Dem Camp, and executives Nkiru Asika and Tola Odunsi. CLICK HERE FOR LAGOS PREMIERE PHOTOS   Later that afternoon after a short 1 hour flight, we landed in Accra to do it all again.  Our first screening was held under the stars in the courtyard of Goethe Institut Accra and was attended by Ghanaian hip hop royalty who also participated in the post-screening discussion: Reggie Rockstone, the “grandpapa” of the Hip Life music/movement and heavyweights D-Black, hip hop artist, producer, entrepreneur, and United Nations (U.N) Celebrity Ambassador in Ghana and E.L., a chart topping, award winning MC and producer who also holds an economics degree! Our Accra event partners included Aretha/Global Fusion Productions and Unknown Collection, whose principal, Christa Sanders also coordinated our social calendar including post-screening reception at Reggie Rockstone’s uber classy lounge, Rockstone’s Office/Django Bar. The following day we held a screening with the alternative creative producers/collective, Accra{dot}Alt at their monthly Talk Party Series at Passions Café in Osu (Many Thanks to Sionne Neely + Team + NYU Accrastudent volunteers). Director Muhammida El Muhajir joined cultural influencers Ato Annan, a Ghanaian artist active both on the local and international markets and Kobby Graham, a professor, DJ and writer for a post-screening discussion about the film and how art and music can make movements. The after-party was held at Republic  where things popped off when DJ Kobby got the party started with none other than a Notorious BIG tune!  Christa had a full agenda for the evening activities which also included stops at La Villa Boutique Hotel, Movenpick Hotel, Golden Tulip, and The Shisha Lounge where we connected with movers & shakers including Kweku Ansah (Canoe Magazine), Benjamin Lebrave (Akwaaba Music), photographer Obodai Nii, designer/event producer Makeba Boateng, Khash Sunday (Primus Security Limited), and Nana Kwame Bediako among others. CLICK HERE FOR ACCRA PREMIERE PHOTOS The Africa trip was a thrilling adventure into the sights and sounds of “New Africa”.  The development is happening at lightening fast speed. Our trip revealed young Africans as media savvy, art/design focused, global thinking, Afro-futurists, Afropolitans who are urgently intent on positioning Africa in its rightful place as a leader on the global landscape. Hip Hop is playing a major role in establishing a foundation, platform and voice for  young artists, entrepreneurs and cultural influencers who are creating a new vision and aesthetic for the new Africa. We are reminded that in fact, Hip Hop IS The New World Order. Join us at a special private viewing in Brooklyn on Wednesday, November 20th @ 7pm (Location provided upon RSVP info@hiphopisglobal.com). RENT/OWN Hip Hop: The New World Order at http://hiphopisglobal.com    Accra Premiere attended by All-Stars Reggie Rockstone, D-Black & EL w/director Muhammida El Muhajir WATCH Hip Hop: The New World Order Now!

Black Bird Press News & Review: Support Black Bird Press--High Consciousness literature

Black Bird Press News & Review: Support Black Bird Press--High Consciousness literature


Either do for self, independent economics, or die. Nobody will support you or buy from you when you do not support and buy from yourselves. Do Africans buy from you, Mexicans, Arabs, Jews, Chinese? No, only rarely do any other ethnic groups buy from you yet you buy fro them every day/24/7, even while they disrespect you. What kind of man and woman are you that will shop where you are treated like a dog? Where is your manhood/womanhood? Are you an all-day sucker? Renaldo Ricketts says you are toilet paper! For sure, you suffer Addiction to white supremacy type II, as Dr. Nathan Hare says. Time to detox and recover, then discover your life's mission to free yourself and your people. You cannot escape this mission, you shall either fulfill it or betray it but you won't escape it.--Marvin X

Book Review: Black Revolutionary William Patterson

“Black Revolutionary” explores life of William Patterson and global freedom fight

by: Tony Pecinovsky

November 8 2013

 

 

William L. Patterson has long been known as a hero in the fight against racism and for socialism. Probably best known for his leadership to save the Scottsboro defendants, nine African American youth falsely accused of raping a white women, and as the director of the Civil Rights Congress, which was widely viewed as the legal defense arm of the broad African American freedom struggle, Patterson also served as a national leader of the Communist Party USA.

In Gerald Horne's new book, "Black Revolutionary: William Patterson and the Globalization of the African American Freedom Struggle," we are privy to Patterson's transformation as a well-to-do New York lawyer - in Horne's words, he was "living large, accumulating a sizable bank account" - into a revolutionary and international leader who struggled his whole life against Jim Crow, South African apartheid, colonialism, red-baiting and war with the Soviet Union.
It is in his formative days as a young lawyer that Patterson met the legendary athlete, actor and artist Paul Robeson; they remained lifelong friends. It was the Communist Party's defense of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian born anarchists falsely convicted of murder that lead Patterson to give up his high paying gig as a law partner, and eventually join the Communist Party in 1926.
"I followed the Sacco-Vanzetti case with all my soul," Horne quotes Patterson as saying. "It was at this moment that a weighty realization dawned: 'I came to the conclusion then that through the channels of the law and of more legal action [alone] the Negro would never win equality' for 'if a white worker like Tom Mooney and white foreigners like Sacco and Vanzetti could be so victimized, what chance was there for Negroes at the very bottom.'"

Sacco and Vanzetti were eventually executed in spite of national and international protest.
After officially joining the party, Patterson immersed himself into the International Labor Defense, the legal defense arm of the Scottsboro Boys, and the American Negro Labor Congress, which challenged the racism of then lily-white American Federation of Labor.
As an emerging and prominent African American leader of the CPUSA, Patterson was sent to Moscow, where he met dozens of future leaders of the African liberation movement and forged the international contacts that proved to be so important in the coming dismantling of Jim Crow back home.

"While abroad, he recounted, 'I had met leaders [and] liberation fighters of almost every country in the world' an invaluable experience that gave him a depth of understanding beyond the ken of most of his peers...," and another example of how the former Soviet Union helped to forge the worldwide contacts and connections that served to isolate Jim Crow racism and eventually hasten its defeat.
While Black Revolutionary is a biography of Patterson, it is also an examination of how Cold War politics affected the African American freedom struggle. For example, Horne devotes considerable text to the NAACP's mismanagement of certain aspects of the Scottsboro case, as well as, their refusal to help the ILD organize mobilization protests. In many cases, the NAACP's membership participated in spite of its leadership's insistence on legal defense only. The NAACP also disavowed left-progressive leaders, like founding member W.E.B. Du Bois, in the hopes of saving itself from the emerging Cold War witch hunt.

Horne also devotes considerable text to the Civil Rights Congress petition to the United Nations, titled "We Charge Genocide," which was "a devastating indictment of the U.S. authorities' complicity and dereliction in lynching, murder, deprivation of voting rights and all manner of crimes" against African Americans. Patterson delivered the petition - to much press coverage - in Paris, while Robeson simultaneously delivered it to the UN headquarters in New York.
After the delivery of the petition, Patterson exclaimed, "...mission accomplished...[by which] I meant that the struggle for American Negroes for their rightful place in their own nation was merging with the liberation struggles of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America." Joyfully, Patterson - in acknowledging the role of the Soviet Union, the Eastern European states and African liberation struggles - said, "I had learned much about the essence of the term international working class solidarity."

However, just as the noxious poison of Jim Crow was being dismantled and as the mid-50s and early 60s civil rights movements were emerging, another simultaneous trend was developing - the McCarthy era. Just as Jim Crow was gasping for its last breath, Patterson and other leaders of the CRC and Communist Party found themselves in jail; those that remained free had their passports revoked, were harassed by the FBI, were attacked, like Robeson in Peekskill, N.Y., and/or went underground.

Horne's Black Revolutionary isn't just valuable as a history of 30s, 40s and 50s era class struggle, it also highlights the role prominent communists, like Patterson, played in the legal defense of the 60s and 70s era black liberation movements, most notably the defense of the Black Panther Party - of which, Patterson acted as mentor and legal counsel to many of the leaders, including Angela Davis.
There is so much food for thought in Black Revolutionary that it is almost impossible to summarize into a short review. Without reservation, Gerald Horne's biography of William L. Patterson should be required reading for anyone interested in the global context of the African American freedom struggle.

Book review
"Black Revolutionary: William Patterson and the Globalization of the African American Freedom Struggle"
Gerald Horne
University of Illinois Press, 320 pp., October 2013

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Return To My Mother's land

To my mother's land
I return
a pilgrim at her grave
holy woman
who counseled the grieving
taught the ignut
raised her children
business woman supreme
leader of her tribe
I pray at her grave and talk
whisper softly into the earth

summer heat is gone now
winter in the Valley
train whistle in the night
whistle from childhood
grandmother's house in the projects on Dunn St.
everybody used to live in the projects
teachers preachers janitors nurses
Jim Crow was in the land

tent city across Thorne and Whitesbridge
not far from the Hole in the Wall
where men gather to gamble drink wine fight

Some came up from tent city to mama and dad's office to buy a house
right after WWII
dad was a Race Man from WWI
talked of seeing Marcus Garvey in Los Angeles
Mom and Dad published Fresno Voice, black newspaper
used to sell Fresno Voice on F and Fresno St
maybe when I was five or six
used to sit on Dad's desk watching him set type
had to spell words backward in the old days
Mom and dad used to talk about NAACP
N double ACP he used to say
I probably dreamed of NAACP
heard it so much
wondered what the hell it was
in my childhood mind

Why they keep talkin bout it so much
Dad used to take us to the drive in movie
Stormy Weather I remember
News reel of Palestinians running across a bridge
ain't stopped running since 1948
couldn't figure out why they running

Dad had a gambling problem
especially with other people's money
violated his fiduciary relationship
lost his real estate license
some nigguhs probably wanted to kill him
gambling their money
so we fled to Oakland
he became a florist on 7th street
when 7th Street was booming
Harlem of the West
Pullman Porters
Slim Jenkins Club
Ester's Orbit Room
Lincoln Theatre
Wolf's Records
Dangott's Loan
Scott's Key shop
Jackmon's Florist
Perry's shoeshine stand
Dad took me and Ollie to Perry's
to shine our shoes before church
Dad went to all churches to promote his business
Holy Ghost Methodist Baptist
took us to funeral homes to lay flowers on the dearly departed
terrified me looking at them dead Negroes
gray lookin still stiff cold
maybe he wanted us to get over the fear of death
Mama worked at Naval Supply Center as typist
Grandma came to visit
used to sit in window looking out on 7th Street
see the nigguhs acting a fool she said
country woman checking the city life
used to sit in the window all weekend nights
Negroes clubbing sailors fightin soldiers
fightin over women MPs come
the joint was jumping
Hammond B 3 on the juke box everywhere
blues jazz blues
Mama was Club Scout den mother
had us selling Jet Ebony Pittsburg Courier
Chicago Defender Detroit Black Dispatch
Fresno Nigguhs called me The Weekly Negro
when I came to Fresno for the summer
wearing Jet T shirt
The Weekly Negro Magazine
Jet Negro Bible
If it in Jet it's The Truth.
Prescott Elementary
St. Patrick's
get me outta St. Patrick's
them Nuns ain't gonna beat my hands no more
Take me outta dat old Catholic school mama and daddy, please
Mama said I came home chanting that Latin stuff
Holy Mary Mother of God
God has a mother? Who is God's father?
Did God's father make the sun moon stars earth?

Mama and Daddy broke up and made up
back and forth to Fresno we went
finally Mama left Dad for good
set up her real estate business
single mother with five kids
told them welfare people to go to hell
I didn't like that welfare powered milk no way
but real estate was her business on the surface
it was really a front for her spiritual work
she would counsel her clients,  listen to their problems
guide them on the right path
according to Mary Baker Eddy
no medicine cabinet in our house
know the truth
that's all you need
disease is negative attraction
don't listen to the whisperings of the devil
leads to sickness in the head and body
Mama said
I in my Mama's bizness
wit her new man
wouldn't let her have a life beyond my Dad
had to put me out in my junior year
rented me a room to get me out her bizness
when she was pregnant with her last child
my girl was pregnant with our first son

My mother's people were cotton pickers and grape cutters
from Oklahoma and Arkansas
great grand father was a slave til Lincoln freed him
a leader among men
foreman on a ranch in Madera
died just a year or two before my birth
praised highly in the Fresno Bee
talked about throughout the valley
I am told
was he a friend of Col. Allensworth?
my grandfather was Johnny Murrill
farmer, cotton picker, grape cutter
gambler drunkard
Mama and uncle Stan used to go get grandpa
stuck on stupid in Chinatown
gambling at El Gato Negro
Uncle would go get grandpa
bring him home broke from working hard all week in the field
Grandpa use to take me and my brother to pick cotton, cut grapes
me and my brother had a fight cause he wouldn't wash his hands
before cooking pork chops
grandpa broke us up
I spoke at his funeral
a friend played the flute
Cousin Carol told me to give her a funeral like that
Crack had me when she died
my favorite cousin
I denied her last wish
my the ancestors forgive me
have mercy on me

Fresno is a big city now
freeways traffic jams
full of Mexicans
dope
brothers killing brothers
families with holy names
terrorizing the town
little is left of the black town
they live all over town now
don't come to the old West side
but the Mexicans come
it is their side now
the old Mall is Mexican shops
Mexican food
Mexican Mercados
I like the Mexican shirts with four pockets
not much field work these days
but Mexicans get money from somewhere
we don't wanna say
but they show it on TV.

This valley feeds the world
fruits vegetables of every kind
raisin capital of the world
cotton used to be king
more cotton than Mississippi

I return
peace from the deadly city
relax in the winter sun
await the deathly fog
write into the night.
--Marvin X
11/10/13

from Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice Poems, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2014.

African American Artists in Havana, Cuba

We invite artists, educators and people who work for cultural institutions to a historical exhibition to be held at the   National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba. Curators: Nanette Carter, Mel Edwards and Ben Jones     Travel Dates: July 28th to August 6th, 2014      Contact information: Marazul  Victoria Lebron at vlebron@marazul.com  Phone: (201) 319-1054 ext. 20

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Marvel Comics introducting Muslim Girl Shero

Mighty, Muslim and Leaping Off the Page

Marvel Comics Introducing a Muslim Girl Superhero

By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES

  

With most superheroes, when you take away the colorful costume, mask and cape, what you find underneath is a white man. But not always. In February, as part of a continuing effort to diversify its offerings, Marvel Comics will begin a series whose lead character, Kamala Khan, is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City.

 

Marvel

Kamala Khan is a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City.

No exploding planet, death of a relative or irradiated spider led to Kamala’s creation. Her genesis began more mundanely, in a conversation between Sana Amanat and Steve Wacker, two editors at Marvel. “I was telling him some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim-American,” Ms. Amanat said. “He found it hilarious.” Ms. Amanat and Mr. Wacker noted the dearth of female superhero series and, even more so, of comics with cultural specificity.

When they told G. Willow Wilson, an author, comic book writer and convert to Islam, about their idea, she was eager to come on board as the series’ writer. “Any time you do something like this, it is a bit of a risk,” Ms. Wilson said. “You’re trying to bring the audience on board and they are used to seeing something else in the pages of a comic book.”

      

Kamala, whose family is from Pakistan, has devotedly followed the career of the blond, blue-eyed Carol Danvers, who now goes by Captain Marvel, a name she inherited from a male hero. When Kamala discovers her powers, including the ability to change shape, she takes on the code name Ms. Marvel — what Carol called herself when she began her superhero career.

“Captain Marvel represents an ideal that Kamala pines for,” Ms. Wilson said. “She’s strong, beautiful and doesn’t have any of the baggage of being Pakistani and ‘different.’ ”

Ms. Amanat said, “It’s also sort of like when I was a little girl and wanted to be Tiffani-Amber Thiessen,” from “Saved by the Bell.”

      

Kamala will face struggles outside her own head, including conflicts close to home. “Her brother is extremely conservative,” Ms. Amanat said. “Her mom is paranoid that she’s going to touch a boy and get pregnant. Her father wants her to concentrate on her studies and become a doctor.” Next to those challenges, fighting supervillains may be a respite.

       

The creative team is braced for all possible reactions. “I do expect some negativity,” Ms. Amanat said, “not only from people who are anti-Muslim, but people who are Muslim and might want the character portrayed in a particular light.”

      

But “this is not evangelism,” Ms. Wilson said. “It was really important for me to portray Kamala as someone who is struggling with her faith.” The series, Ms. Wilson said, would deal with how familial and religious edicts mesh with super-heroics, which can require rules to be broken.

Marvel’s slate of titles with female or minority leads includes an X-Men series spotlighting its women and “Mighty Avengers,” whose roster includes many nonwhite heroes. Next year two more female characters will get series: She-Hulk and Elektra.

      

But the quest for cultural diversity in comics is not always successful. The market can be unwelcoming to new characters and attempts at inclusion can seem like tokenism when not handled well. Then there are the firestorms: In September at DC Comics, the writers of Batwoman, announced that they were leaving the series because of editorial interference, including an edict that would prohibit the lesbian title character from marrying. Dan DiDio, the co-publisher of DC Comics, said the decision was about keeping true to the mission of the Batman characters, who have sacrificed their self-interests for the greater good. They “shouldn’t have happy personal lives,” Mr. DiDio told fans at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

      

In 2011, when Marvel announced that Miles Morales, a black Hispanic teenager, would take on the alter ego of Spider-Man as part of an alternative take on the character, there was an uproar by those who thought that Peter Parker, white and angst-ridden, had been replaced. (He wasn’t. Miles is part of a separate series that offers fresh takes on Marvel characters.)

      

The most important fan assessment, though, comes later and is easier to quantify. “Fans respond with their dollars,” said Axel Alonso, the editor in chief of Marvel Entertainment, who thinks Miles has helped bring new readers to comics. “When you see Spider-Man strip down his mask and he looks like you, you are more inspired to pick up that book.” The September issue of Miles’s series sold around 32,000 copies. The more traditional version sold around 80,000 copies, though Peter Parker is seemingly dead and Doctor Octopus is acting as Spider-Man.

       

As for Kamala, Ms. Wilson said the series was “about the universal experience of all American teenagers, feeling kind of isolated and finding what they are.” Though here, she adds, that happens “through the lens of being a Muslim-American” with superpowers.

Don't Get sick, the first thing they told me in prison. We got a graveyard full of nigguhs who got sick up in here.

Kamau Kambon breaks down White Supremacy in less than 10 Minutes

http://www.youtube.com/v/S9y5_y72ds4?version=3&autohide=1&autohide=1&showinfo=1&feature=share&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=GFfcMmSug5bcNVJxzH2gMw