Marvin X: A call to hunger strike for Syria and the hoods of America

Marvin X, a founding figure of the 1960s flowering of the Black Arts Movement in the U.S., believes the struggle for justice worldwide is one. He joins his powerful voice to the International Solidarity Hunger Strike for Syria--and links it to his strong ongoing activism against genocide and fratricide in the 'hoods of America. Marvin's son of blessed memory was once held and interrogated by the Syrian dictatorship's state security agents, as he has written about eloquently on his blog, Black Bird Press News, named after one of Marvin's early plays that was produced in community theaters across the U.S. during the 1970s. Not one to be fooled by the police state's claims of "anti-imperialism" nor to give it a pass for oppression based on such claims, Marvin has been with us from the start. #GRATITUDE

Thanks to the organizers of Day of Solidarity with Syria - global demonstrations on Saturday, January 11. London, Dublin and Malmo, Sweden will also have groups doing a Solidarity Hunger Strike on that day. Check out their info and attend the demonstration in your area. There are demonstrations in Syria; Vienna, Austria; Milano, Como Genova, Bologna, Ancona, Roma, Napoli, Palermo, and Lecce in It...aly; Munich Stuttgart, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Aachen, Cologne, Hamburg, Dortmund in Germany; Helsinki, Finland; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Barcelona, Granada and Seville in Spain; Paris and Montpelier in France; Montreal in Canada; Mexico City in Mexico; Nairobi in Kenya; Warsaw in Poland; Cairo in Egypt; Antwerp in Belgium; Lausanne in Switzerland; Buenos Aires in Argentina; Los Angeles and Washington in the U.S. https://www.facebook.com/solidaysyriaSee More

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

Two Poems for the People of Syria by Marvin X and Mohja Kahf

Oh, Mohja

how much water can run from rivers to sea

how much blood can soak the earth

the guns of tyrants know no end

a people awakened are bigger than bullets

there is no sleep in their eyes

no more stunted backs and fear of broken limbs

even men, women and children are humble with sacrifice

the old the young play their roles

with smiles they endure torture chambers

with laughs they submit to rape and mutilations

there is no victory for oppressors

whose days are numbered

as the clock ticks as the sun rises

let the people continue til victory

surely they smell it on their hands

taste it on lips

believe it in their hearts

know it in their minds

no more backwardness no fear

let there be resistance til victory.

--Marvin X/El Muhajir

Syrian poet/professor Dr. Mohja Kahf

Oh Marvin, how much blood can soak the earth?

The angels asked, “will you create a species who will shed blood

and overrun the earth with evil?” 

And it turns out “rivers of blood” is no metaphor: 

see the stones of narrow alleys in Duma

shiny with blood hissing from humans? Dark

and dazzling, it keeps pouring and pumping

from the inexhaustible soft flesh of Syrians,

and neither regime cluster bombs from the air,

nor rebel car bombs on the ground,

ask them their names before they die. 

They are mowed down like wheat harvested by machine,

and every stalk has seven ears, and every ear a hundred grains.

They bleed like irrigation canals into the earth.

Even one little girl in Idlib with a carotid artery cut

becomes a river of blood. Who knew she could be a river 

running all the way over the ocean, to you,

draining me of my heart? And God said to the angels, 

“I know what you know not.” But right now,

the angels seem right. Cut the coyness, God;

learn the names of all the Syrians.

See what your species has done.

--Mohja Kahf                     

Marvin X Poem fa da Hood


Memorial Day, 2007
I am a veteran
Not of foreign battlefields
Like my father in world war one
My uncles in world war two
And Korea
Or my friends from Vietnam
And even the Congo “police action”
But veteran none the less
Exiled and jailed because I refused
To visit Vietnam as a running dog for imperialism
So I visited Canada, Mexico and Belize
Then Federal prison for a minute
But veteran I am of the war in the hood
The war of domestic colonialism and neo-colonialism
White supremacy in black face war
Fighting for black power that turned white
Or was always white as in the other white people
So war it was and is
Every day without end no RR no respite just war
For colors like kindergarten children war
For turf warriors don’t own and run when popo comes
War for drugs and guns and women
War for hatred jealousy
Dante got a scholarship but couldn’t get on the plane
The boyz in the hood met him on the block and jacked him
Relieved him of his gear shot him in the head because he could read
Play basketball had all the pretty girls a square
The boyz wanted him dead like themselves
Wanted him to have a shrine with liquor bottles and teddy bears
And candles
Wanted his mama and daddy to weep and mourn at the funeral
Like all the other moms and dads and uncle aunts cousins
Why should he make it out the war zone
The blood and broken bones of war in the hood
No veterans day no benefits no mental health sessions
No conversation who cares who wants to know about the dead
In the hood
the warriors gone down in the ghetto night
We heard the Uzi at 3am and saw the body on the steps until 3 pm
When the coroner finally arrived as children passed from school
I am the veteran of ghetto wars of liberation that were aborted
And morphed into wars of self destruction
With drugs supplied from police vans
Guns diverted from the army base and sold 24/7 behind the Arab store.
Junior is 14 but the main arms merchant in the hood
He sells guns from his backpack
His daddy wants to know how he get all them guns
But Junior don’t tell cause he warrior
He’s lost more friends than I the elder
What can I tell him about death and blood and bones
He says he will get rich or die trying
But life is for love not money
And if he lives he will learn.
If he makes it out the war zone to another world
Where they murder in suits and suites
And golf courses and yachts
if he makes it even beyond this world
He will learn that love is better than money
For he was once on the auction block and sold as a thing
For money, yes, for the love of money but not for love
And so his memory is short and absent of truth
The war in the hood has tricked him into the slave past
Like a programmed monkey he acts out the slave auction
The sale of himself on the corner with his homeys
Trying to pose cool in the war zone
I will tell him the truth and maybe one day it will hit him like a bullet
In the head
It will hit him multiple times in the brain until he awakens to the real battle
In the turf of his mind.
And he will stand tall and deliver himself to the altar of truth to be a witness
Along with his homeys
They will take charge of their posts
They will indeed claim their turf and it will be theirs forever
Not for a moment in the night
But in the day and in the tomorrows
And the war will be over
No more sorrow no more blood and bones
No more shrines on the corner with liquor bottles teddy bears and candles.

--Marvin X
25 May 2007
Brooklyn NY


Memorial Day appears in the anthology Stand Our Ground, for Trayvon Martin and Melissa Alexander.


Marvin X tour dates 2014

Marvin X  reads at New York University on February 4, 2014, at a tribute for poet Jayne Cortez.

February 22 he will read at the Hinton Center, Fresno CA.

February 24 he will read at Fresno City College

February 28, March 1-2, he will co-produce (with Kim McMillan) the Black Arts Movement Conference, University of California, Merced.

For more information or to invite Marvin X to your campus and/or conference, call 510-200-4164.
Send letter of invitation to jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

Marvin X interview on KPFA and KPOO radio stations about his friend Amiri Baraka

Black Bird Press News & Review: Marvin X interview on KPFA and KPOO radio stations about his friend Amiri Baraka

Marvin X will be interviewed about his friend Amiri Baraka by KPFA's (www.kpfa.org) Greg Bridges, Monday, 8pm. On Tuesday he will be interviewed by Terry Collins  of KPOO (www.kpoo.org radioa bout his 50 year friendship with AB. 

Baraka had invited Marvin X to read at a tribute for poet Jayne Cortez at New York University, Feb 4, 2014. The tribute will go on, we assume with a tribute to Baraka as well. 

Marvin X invited Baraka to The Black Arts Movement Conference at University of California, Merced, Feb. 28, March 1-2, 2014, a Kim McMillan/Marvin X production, sponsored by UC Merced and California Endowment. It will be a BAM tribute to Amiri Baraka as well, chief architect of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical and revolutionary artistic and literary movement in American history.

Larry Neal said BAM is the sister of the Black Power Movement, Marvin X says BAM was the mother! 

Funeral services will be held Saturday, Newark Symphony Hall, 1020 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey. 10am.

Marvin X interview on KPFA and KPOO radio stations about his friend Amiri Baraka

Black Bird Press News & Review: Marvin X interview on KPFA and KPOO radio stations about his friend Amiri Baraka

Marvin X will be interviewed about his friend Amiri Baraka by KPFA's (www.kpfa.org) Greg Bridges, Monday, 8pm. On Tuesday he will be interviewed by Terry Collins  of KPOO (www.kpoo.org radioa bout his 50 year friendship with AB. 

Baraka had invited Marvin X to read at a tribute for poet Jayne Cortez at New York University, Feb 4, 2014. The tribute will go on, we assume with a tribute to Baraka as well. 

Marvin X invited Baraka to The Black Arts Movement Conference at University of California, Merced, Feb. 28, March 1-2, 2014, a Kim McMillan/Marvin X production, sponsored by UC Merced and California Endowment. It will be a BAM tribute to Amiri Baraka as well, chief architect of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical and revolutionary artistic and literary movement in American history.

Larry Neal said BAM is the sister of the Black Power Movement, Marvin X says BAM was the mother! 

Funeral services will be held Saturday, Newark Symphony Hall, 1020 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey. 10am.

Salaam Soldier, AB

 Amiri Baraka at his west coast 75th birthday celebration at the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center. A Marvin X production. Photo Kamau Amen Ra

Amiri Baraka at Oakland's Eastside Arts Center. Photo Kamau Amen Ra

Amiri Baraka (October 7, 1934-January 9, 2014)

Abdul Alkalimat From: abdul GENERAL http://www.amiribaraka.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiri_Baraka OBITUARY http://www.npr.org/2014/01/09/261101520/amiri-baraka-poet-and-co-founder-of-black-arts-movement-dies-

To H-AFRO-AM@H-NET.MSU.EDU

Today at 7:11 AM

From: abdul

GENERAL

http://www.amiribaraka.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiri_Baraka

OBITUARY

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/09/261101520/amiri-baraka-poet-and-co-founder-of-black-arts-movement-dies-at-79

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/amiri-baraka-poet-and-firebrand-dies-at-79/2014/01/09/930897d2-796e-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/showbiz/poet-amiri-baraka-dies/

MOVEMENT

http://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1a/index.htm#cap

http://libguides.rutgers.edu/content.php?pid=158675&sid=1755073

BOOKS

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=amiri+baraka&oq=amiri

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-author=Amiri%20Baraka&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AAmiri%20Baraka

VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDhHr-TTc9AJ1kNe9Fv9FvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgoUbn9nMlQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojq_WDqIkI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1-2S7baPUU

POETRY

http://www.mo.be/en/opinion/amiri-baraka-poetry-99

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/amiri-baraka

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/baraka/baraka.htm

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/445

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/poetry/baraka_jones.html

THEATER

nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/protest/text12/barakatheatre.pd

http://www.wnyc.org/story/188902-amiri-baraka/


IMAGES

https://www.google.com/search?q=amiri+baraka&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=kBbPUqmJA4e9qAHxh4CYDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CJkBEIke&biw=1440&bih=725

ARCHIVE

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CEQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lexisnexis.com%2Fdocuments%2Facademic%2Fupa_cis%2F10721_blackpowermovempt1.pdf&ei=vhnPUuKkK8LJrQHHzwE&usg=AFQjCNGmk8MPvWN-r_jO_oCCKDWLwI2uEQ&sig2=GfAKM7X1husn3AjtBPeX9Q&bvm=bv.59026428,d.aWM

http://www.loc.gov/folklife/civilrights/survey/view_collection.php?coll_id=837

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/aafa/print/aafa_aarl01-001.html

In Memoriam--Amiri Baraka

erbboyd47@gmail.com
In Memoriam—Amiri Baraka

By Herb Boyd

      Amiri Baraka, like his name, was a blessed prince, and he loomed
like a colossus over the Black arts movement, excelling in practically
every literary expression—as a poet, playwright, novelist, historian,
journalist, and essayist.  One of the most versatile writers in America,
Baraka died Thursday afternoon in Newark, New Jersey, where he was born
and lived most of his life.  He was 79.
      No cause was given for his death, though he had been hospitalized
for several weeks and was reportedly a diabetic.
      From his early days in Greenwich Village where he began to make
his mark among a coterie of beatnik and avant-garde notables such as
Allen Ginsberg, Ted Joans, Bob Kaufman, Bob Thompson, Hettie Cohen and
Diane di Prima (and he had children by both women) as a poet and
publisher of small journals to his halcyon days in the fulcrum of the
Black liberation struggle, Baraka was an irrepressible spirit and his
star would shine even brighter after settling in Harlem and helping to
spur the emergence of Black nationalism and Pan African thought.
      But he had already established himself as a leading playwright by
1964 with “Dutchman,” which earned him an Obie award.  The play featured
two characters, Clay, a black man, and Lula, a white woman.  And their
intense exchanges often mirrored the nation’s troubled race relations.
        A year before his acclaim on Off-Broadway, Baraka, then LeRoi
Jones, had written Blues People that was a sizzling summary of African
American music which is still considered among the best compendium’s of
the blues; and he would later complete Black Music and do for jazz what
he had done for the blues.
        By 1965, following the assassination of Malcolm X, Baraka was in
Harlem and an active member of the Haryou Act where he dispensed lessons
in theater while sharpening his political analysis and assuming a larger
role in the activist community.
        This is not to say he wasn’t politically conscious since the
sprigs of that sprouted as early as his days at Howard University and in
the Air Force, which he called the “Air Farce,” and certainly by the
time he was a delegate who traveled to Cuba at the invitation of Fidel
Castro.
        During the late sixties Baraka was a prominent figure in the
Black Power movement and as a founder and leader of the Congress of
African People (CAP) he promoted the philosophy of Kawaida {Swahili for
tradition) formulated by Maulana Karenga.  In 1972, he was in Gary,
Indiana as a guiding force in the National Black Assembly.  But two
years later as a delegate to the Sixth Pan African Conference in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania he announced in a paper delivered at the conference
that he had adopted a Marxist-Leninist outlook, an ideology he would
retain for the rest of his life.
        Born Everett Leroy Jones on Oct. 7, 1934, he was the son of
middle class parents and was on the same path as a student at Howard
University.  But soon his iconoclastic personality surfaced and to
demonstrate his break with the bourgeois tendencies so prevalent at the
school he derided the administration by sitting in the middle of campus
eating a watermelon.
      That same defiant attitude would color his stay in the Air Force
and he was dismissed with a dishonorable discharge, accused of reading
subversive literature.
        The Village with its abundance of free spirits was a natural
environment for his non-conformity, his radical penchant and one who was
always eager to think and act outside of the box.
        While Baraka possessed a Midas touch when it came to the
written word, his preference was poetry, and it’s hard to choose one
poem that encapsulates his prowess, though “We are unfair, and unfair/We
are black magicians, black arts we make in black labs of the heart. The
fair are fair, and deathly white. The day will not save them/and we own
the night” provides a glimpse of his sentiments about racism and white
supremacy during at least one stage of his ever evolving life.
        In a poetic homage to Baraka, esteemed poet and publisher Haki
Madhubuti wrote a number of poems for his friend and this excerpt is an
expression of his respect and high regard—“…approaching him I wondered
why this genius of serious music of transcendent literature wasn’t
surrounded by readers, fans, collectors of fine words on pages seeking
instructions and autographs.”
      His devotees may not have been as obvious and visible as
warranted but they were many and you didn’t have to walk to far in
Newark to bump into someone ready to spout about Baraka’s black magic,
his relentless fight against forces of oppression.
      Even into his seventies, his younger associates in Newark
declared, Baraka was still on the ramparts, despite all the controversy
surrounding his poem about the bombing of the World Trade Center,
despite being stripped of his laureate honor, and despite the crippling
challenges that came with age.  “Even though he was in his late
seventies,” wrote anti-violence activist Bashir Akinyele, “he was with
us on the streets at many of our most critical turns, like when we shut
down Broad and Market the first time in 2009!”
      And none of the late challenges in his life were as hurtful as to
lose his sister and his daughter Shani and to see the daily assaults
targeting his sons as they fought to make their hometown a safe haven.
      Two years ago, the ever feisty Baraka expressed his derision over
the publication of Manning Marable’s biography of Malcolm X.  It was his
opinion that Marable had assassinated Malcolm again and he publicly
denounced the book at several forums and in print, which he did with his
typical sense of outrage and denunciation.
      Still, there was Baraka the praise master as he did at the
funeral services for James Baldwin and at the more recent memorial for
Jayne Cortez.  And a more extensive collection of his words can be found
in a reader under his name, which resonates with much more conviction
than even his autobiography.  Baraka at one time referred to himself as
Imamu and Mwalimu and to a great extent he was both priest and teacher,
as the Swahili words designate, and there are thousands of his students
to attest to his profound wizardry in the classroom.
      However, in the end, the final words ring with beauty and
authority in his poetry.  In this one Baraka’s ironic wordplay is never
more succinct and to the point.
                      Monday in B-Flat

I can pray
    all day
    & God
    wont come.

But if I call
            911
        The Devil
            Be here
        in a minute!
      Baraka, who moved effortlessly from art to politics, leaves behind
an extraordinary corpus of creativity to be protected and managed by his
talented wife, Amina, and his children Amiri Baraka, Jr.. Ras Baraka,
Obalaji Baraka, Ahi Baraka, Dominique DiPrima, Maria Jones, Lisa Jones,
and Kellie Jones.
   

Whatchasay when ya can't say nothin'

How ya feel when ya brother go to the door of no return
when yo uncle go who gave ya manhood trainin' wit da Dutchman
the mythology of A Black Mass
who climbed up da hill with Myth of Sisyphus
up and down
who wrote the story of our tribe of Shabazz
who lived the terror
wife and children hid in the closet
National Guard in da house
wife terrified
you bastards
beat my husband bloody
I shall not be moved!
Sonia said resist resist resist!
And we shall
take my husband from me
we shall not be moved
killed my lesbian daughter and her lover
Shani said Marvin X the only man I like
Never seen a man cook breakfast
Told AB and Amina I want to marry Shani
Amiri said Marvin, you get drunk and say the damnest things
Next morning when I talked with Amina
Amina said Take Her!
we shall not be moved
shot my son in the head 357 Magnum
we shall not be moved
And we partied
808 S. Tenth Street
off Clinton
Marvin, go to the store
get me some Jack Daniels and Newports!
Sonia, I don't need to hold hands
forget that
Marvin, go to the store
get me some Jack Daniels and Newports!
Yeah, get Daemon something too
get yo friend something
he's up in his room writing
go on up there
Get him some Miller Lite
Daemon is up there
writing while the house is on fire
Dat's him
you know him as well as I do
what was that girl he was messing wit
at the Black House 1967
what was her name
Marvin, you was there, what was her name?
That damn Daemon
go to the store
Get my boyfriend Jack
I need Jack right now!

My brother is gone
My uncle is gone
My daddy is gone
departed the Miller Lite world of make believe
total illusion
the worst kind
dreams and dreams
MLK, Jr knocked on our door
what do you do when MLK, Jr. knocks
let him in or what?
Can you imagine?
What drama
what tragi-comedy
Oh what love
what lessons of love
sweetness of love
bitterness of love
no matter what
I'm a Mafia woman, Marvin
we don't leave our men
My daddy was in the Mafia Marvin
we don't leave our men
no matter what
I'm a Howard Street woman
we know Nathan Heard
Ain't no shame in my game
I was always black
didn't need of Black Arts
when dat nigguh came home to Newark
I was black
doing a black thang
my and my brother
when I met Amiri
I was black
better ax somebody
Didn't need no Black Arts to make me Black!
Howard Street made me Black!
His mama didn't like me cause I was black
my kids was black
yeah, my little picka ninny kids
black
Help me, Marvin
hold my hand
come make me laugh
like we used to do
laugh all night Marvin
you made us laugh all night Marvin
no matter the pain
you made us laugh all night
Jack Daniels laugh
Miller Lite laugh
Hennessy/Bailey's laugh
He said you let the elephant out laugh
Make us laugh Marvin
and he who laughs last
laughs the longest
C'mon Marvin
hold my hand
squeeze my hand
I want to laugh.

 

Amiri Baraka joins ancestors, may they be pleased with him

Amiri Baraka, former N.J. poet laureate and prolific author, dead at 79

Amiri Baraka, the state's former poet laureate and a revered author, poet and activist, has died. He was 79. Baraka is shown in this 2009 file photo. (Star-Ledger file photo)

Print

By David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on January 09, 2014 at 3:14 PM, updated January 09, 2014 at 3:48 PM

NEWARK — Amiri Baraka, the longtime activist and former poet laureate of New Jersey died today, officials confirmed. He was 79 years old.

Baraka was placed in intensive care at Beth Israel Medical Center last month for an unknown reason, but a spokesman for his son's mayoral campaign said his condition was improving late in December.

Newark Mayor Luis Quintana said Baraka will be sorely missed.

"I went to visit him at the hospital about two weeks ago," Quintana said by phone. "He was more than poet he was a leader in his own right. He's going to be missed and our condolences go out to his family today."

Quintana recalled Baraka's role in the 1970 Black and Puerto Rican convention, a landmark political meeting that resulted in the election of Ken Gibson, Newark's first black mayor.

"We're going to remember him always for his contributions to Newark, New Jersey and America," Quintana said. "In this time of pain, the citizens of Newark and I are with him."

Baraka had long struggled with diabetes, but it was not immediately clear what the cause of death was.

A Newark native and resident formerly known as Leroi Jones, Amiri Baraka has published dozens of poems, essays and works of non-fiction. In 1963 Amiri Baraka wrote "Blues People," an in-depth history of music from the time of slavery throughout the various incarnations of blues and jazz, with integrated social commentary. The book's 50th anniversary was recently celebrated during an event at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

 

Poet Amiri Baraka reads a poem about Sarah VaughanAuthor Amiri Baraka, who turns 75 next week, reads his poetry at Skippers Pub in Newark. The poem entitled, "The Lullabye of Avon Avenue" is about American jazz singer and Newarker, Sarah Vaughan. Starting tomorrow, several commemorative events are planned in the city to examine his career as an artist and activist. (Video by Noah K. Murray / The Star-Ledger)

Baraka was also the state's poet laureate for a short time in 2002 and 2003.

Newark City Council President Mildred Crump, a longtime friend of the Baraka family, said the world lost one of its pre-eminent literary figures today.

“Not only has New Jersey, but the United States of America, has lost a great human being. He was a legend in his own lifetime," Crump said. "It is such a loss, such a great loss."

Crump said Baraka's condition had been improving, and he was breathing on his own when she last visited him on Sunday. The Baraka family has been lining Beth Israel Medical Center for weeks, according to Crump.

“He fought a good fight. I was there the first night he went into the hospital," Crump said. "I was there when he was breathing on his own, I was there Sunday."

Crump said her first association with Baraka came in the 1970s, when he led the charge to build Kawaida Towers, a planned 100-acre housing project that was meant to embody the Black Power movement that Amiri had long been a champion of.

"That's when he became my hero," Crump said.

Star-Ledger Staff Writer James Queally contributed to this report.

RELATED COVERAGE:

• Amiri Baraka, former N.J. poet laureate, hospitalized in critical condition

Reply, Reply All or Forward | More

Marvin X interview on KPFA and KPOO radio stations about his friend Amiri Baraka

Marvin X will be interviewed about his friend Amiri Baraka by KPFA's (www.kpfa.org) Greg Bridges, Monday, 8pm. On Tuesday he will be interviewed by Terry Collins  of KPOO (www.kpoo.org radioa bout his 50 year friendship with AB. 

Baraka had invited Marvin X to read at a tribute for poet Jayne Cortez at New York University, Feb 4, 2014. The tribute will go on, we assume with a tribute to Baraka as well. 

Marvin X invited Baraka to The Black Arts Movement Conference at University of California, Merced, Feb. 28, March 1-2, 2014, a Kim McMillan/Marvin X production, sponsored by UC Merced and California Endowment. It will be a BAM tribute to Amiri Baraka as well, chief architect of the Black Arts Movement, the most radical and revolutionary artistic and literary movement in American history.

Larry Neal said BAM is the sister of the Black Power Movement, Marvin X says BAM was the mother! 

Funeral services will be held Saturday, Newark Symphony Hall, 1020 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey. 10am.

Gloria Lynne - "I Wish You Love"