Dis Ma Hair: Do Black Blonds have more fun?

Joani Ward, author of You Don't Have To Be Broke: So Wake Up, Shake It Up, and Make A Change, shifts from writing about numbers and entrepreneurship to writing about real life experiences in Black Girls Gone Blonde: Stories From A Newly Discovered Sisterhood, to be launched on October 15, 2014

The question: Is it true that blondes have more fun? African American women are coming out of the woodwork with blonde hair. They are beautiful, bold, blonde, and would probably answer yes to this question. Black Girls Gone Blonde captures real life experiences of 8 women who live in the DC metropolitan area. The stories captured include challenges and obstacles that have been overcome. Stories such as the challenges of living in Potomac Gardens (the projects) and hating it, a career that almost ended due to a terrible accident, parental abuse, drug addiction, and molestation.

Every story has a positive outcome. Black Girls Gone Blonde: Stories From A Newly Discovered Sisterhood shows that anything is possible, there is light at the end of the tunnel, it’s never too late to pursue your dreams, and that dreams do come true. Readers might see themselves in the women interviewed for the book, but they will also see how exactly each of them were able to overcome the challenges in their lives.

For more details about the book, visit www.blackgirlsgoneblonde.com or www.joaniwardbooks.com

Joani Ward is also the author of three other books, Business Quotations Every Entrepreneur Should Know: 52 Weeks of Motivation and Inspiration, Create Your WordPress Website in 27 Minutes: Believe Me It's Possible, and How To Write and Self Publish Your Own Book: 7 Steps To A Finished Product in 30 Days.

Mythology of Pussy and Dick: Women rape men--from Chicago to Seattle!

TWO CHICAGO WOMEN RAPE MAN AT GUNPOINT ROB HIM BEFORE MAKING HIM RUN AWAY NAKED

 

Shocking news has dropped of an incident involving a 33 year old Chicago man who was RAPED at gunpoint – by two Chicago women!!!

The victim was walking down a Chicago street when when 25 year old Cierra Ross pulled up next to him and offered him a ride home.

Things went all the way left a short time later when Cierra allegedly pulled a gun on him. She then ordered him to climb into the backseat and take off his clothes.

Police claim that Cierra then forced the 33-year-old at gunpoint to have sex with her friend.

In addition to intercourse, the man was allegedly instructed to fondle the woman’s breats and buttocks. The two female suspects also allegedly robbed their victim, getting away with $200 in cash, credit cards and an iPhone.

The unnamed man reportedly begged the women to stop, but was eventually able to escape withhis life. By busting out of the car and, running down the street naked from the waist down.

The 33-year-old victim managed to flag down a taxi nearby and asked for the driver’s help. The taxi driver also managed to snap a photo of Cierra’s license plate. Police eventually tracked her down and arrested her.

WTF is going on in Chicago?! The stories we hear continue to get worse and worse, and President Obama is worried about what’s going on in Syria?

Woman Charged With Breaking Into Home 

Raping Man In Seattle

A Seattle prosecutor has charged 26-year-old Chantae Gilman with second-degree rape after a man reportedly awoke from a deep sleep and found her on top of him in his bed.

The alleged sexual attack occurred more than a year ago, but a recently completed DNA test led prosecutors to file charges against Gilman, according to Q13 Fox.

The unidentified, 31-year-old man said he awoke at 2 a.m. on June 17, 2013 to Gilman straddling him and having sexual intercourse with him. Police say he told the 240-pound suspect to get off, but she allegedly refused and told him to be quiet. He was able to break free from underneath her and said he pushed her out of the apartment.

The victim said he'd gone to sleep following a night of partying and a "long day." He didn't know Gilman but recognized her as a "drug user in the area," a detective told The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Local hospital staff performed a sexual assault examination later in the day. The DNA collected during the case matched Gilman's this year.

Gilman told police that she didn't remember the incident or being in his home. She described herself as mentally ill.

Seattle police acknowledged to KOMO-TV that an arrest of a female rapist is unusual.

"From a statistical standpoint, yes, it is atypical to have a female aggressor," SPD Det. Drew Fowler told the station. "But we work to hold all people responsible for their actions. The law is specifically written to be gender-equitable and we will charge anybody with a crime that they've committed."

KOMO has more:

Gilman is a mother of four who is eight months pregnant with her fifth child, said Elwin Hartfield, a friend who answered the door at her last known address in Seattle. Hartfield said Gilman was in treatment in Eastern Washington, and that she'd been treated for mental health issues and drug abuse in the past.

Gilman is set to be arraigned on Sept. 22. She's being held on $100,000 bail.


For a better understanding of sexual abuse and slavery in the patriarchal society, wherein women and men are chattel or personal property, search Marvin X's Mythology of Pussy and Dick. Of his 30 written books, this 18 page pamphlet is the most controversial piece of his writings. It is life saving for the young and old; they read it and are changed forever. Perhaps the NFL brothers
( and their partners) should read it ASAP. Google it!

Who will donate to the Marvin X Books Project on Indiegogo? Send the brother $5, 10, 20, 100, 1000. Sho yo love!

Young lady from the ATL visiting Marvin X's Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. 

The Black Arts Movement Celebrating Amiri Baraka

SOS--Calling All Black People, A Black Arts Movement Reader edited by John H. Bracey Jr., Sonia Sanchez and James Smethurst

This volume brings together a broad range of key writings from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, among the most significant cultural movements in American history. The aesthetic counterpart of the Black Power movement, it burst onto the scene in the form of artists’ circles, writers’ workshops, drama groups, dance troupes, new publishing ventures, bookstores, and cultural centers and had a presence in practically every community and college campus with an appreciable African American population. Black Arts activists extended its reach even further through magazines such as Ebony and Jet, on television shows such as Soul! and Like It Is, and on radio programs.

Many of the movement’s leading artists, including Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni, Woodie King, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Touré, Marvin X and Val Gray Ward remain artistically productive today. Its influence can also be seen in the work of later artists, from the writers Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, and August Wilson to actors Avery Brooks, Danny Glover, and Samuel L. Jackson, to hip hop artists Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Chuck D.

SOS—Calling All Black People includes works of fiction, poetry, and drama in addition to critical writings on issues of politics, aesthetics, and gender. It covers topics ranging from the legacy of Malcolm X and the impact of John Coltrane’s jazz to the tenets of the Black Panther Party and the music of Motown. The editors have provided a substantial introduction outlining the nature, history, and legacy of the Black Arts Movement as well as the principles by which the anthology was assembled.

Baba Herman Ferguson has joined the Ancestors--Long Live his revolutionary black nationalist spirit!

Baba Herman Ferguson joins the Ancestors. Baba Herman was a progressive and Black Nationalist educator in the New York City schools system. An associate of Malcolm X, he was a member of the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).

Baba Herman was the organizer and director of the OAAU Liberation School. He formed the Black Brotherhood Inc. in Queen, NY, which joined the Revolutionary Action Movement in 1967. In response to white supremacist groups arming themselves, Baba Herman formed a rifle club for Blacks in Queens, NY.

He also motivated his students like Mutulu Shakur and Abdul Majid to become active in the the Black Power movement. Baba Herman also joined the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika in 1968.

He was targeted by the FBI Cointelpro program and forced into exile in Guyana. He returned to the U.S. and served time as a political prisoner and after his release fought for the release of other incarcerated freedom fighters.

He and his wife and partner in love and struggle, Mama Iyaluua Ferguson initiated the Nationtime newspaper, the New Afrikan Liberation Front, and the Jericho Movement for Amnesty for U.S. political prisoners.

I am blessed and more enriched to learn and work with Baba Herman. His spirit will continue to guide and fight for us as an Ancestor!!!

Free the Land!!! Ase!!!

by Brother Akinyele Umoja -9/26/14
https://www.facebook.com/akumoja?fref=ts

We give all honor and respect to Ancestor Herman Ferguson. We remember him while in New York during 1968 as we worked underground in Harlem. We recall he was a teacher fighting for decentralisation of NYC schools.

Before coming to NYC we had endured exile in Toronto, Canada.  After returing to the West Coast, we endured a second exile in Mexico City and Belize, from which we were deported back to the USA. Ironically, after serving time in prison for refusing to serve in Vietnam, we were awarded a writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts that allowed us to visit the Caribbean and Guyana, South America. It was there that we encountered Baba Herman Ferguson again. He was now in exile, along with several other brothers who were serving in the Black Power government of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. He'd given refuge and citizenship to any North American Africans fleeing oppression in the USA. Herman was there along with artist Tom Feelings, author Julian Mayfield, journalist/scholar Kenny Freeman, aka, Baba Lumumba; Bay Area activist Nasser Shabazz, et al. With advice from Herman and the other brothers, we interviewed Prime Minister Burnham for Black Scholar Magazine and Muhammad Speaks, although the PM turned out to be working with the CIA to prevent another Cuban style Marxist regime in South America. America didn't mind a Black Power government. PM Burnham degenerated politically (including the assassination of the great Guyanese scholar Dr. Walter Rodney) and most of the brothers departed Guyana and returned to the USA, including Herman. We often saw him on visits to New York, especially at Sista's Place in Brooklyn. We remember him and his wife at the celebration of BAM Master poet Yusef Iman at NYU.

Baba Herman, we love your revolutionary life and work. May the ancestors be pleased with you.

--Revolutionary Black Nationalist Love,

Marvin X
9/26/14

 Ba Ba Herman Ferguson Has Joined The Ancestors!

   FREE THE LAND

The following biographical article was written in 2005 by Karen Juanita Carillo who is a writer and photographer in Brooklyn, NY, that contributes to Amsterdam News...Herman Ferguson, who is 84 years old and a former political fugitive, could be living easy in Guyana today. He could be spending his retirement years in the South American nation that granted him asylum back on July 2,1970, when he left the United States rather than face seven years in Sing Sing prison on government charges that he'd plotted to kill the leaders of the National Urban League and NAACP.

Ferguson could have retired on a comfortable Guyanese pension, after having served as a lieutenant colonel in the Guyana Defense Force. He'd spent 19 years in Guyana living and working under the pseudonym "Paul Adams." When his wife joined him there in the 1970s, the two moved to the nation's capitol. Georgetown, and after a meeting with Guyana's Minister of the Interior, they were hired by the national service to help revamp the country's educational system. By the time "Paul Adams" retired, Guyana was grateful. He was awarded an honorable discharge for his service to the nation.

But Ferguson didn't want to stay retired in Guyana. A longtime Black Power activist who had cut his teeth on New York City housing and community school control battles during the 1960s, Ferguson longed to end his days back home.

In 1988, he had his lawyer and other contacts in New York advise the U.S. government that he was ready to return. His friends set up the "Defense Committee for Herman Ferguson," but the government wasn't ready to make any concessions: if he returned, they said, the old charges still applied. He would still have to serve seven years for attempted assassination and one year on federal charges for having fled the country to avoid arrest. Against his wife's wishes, Ferguson accepted the deal.

Hundreds of Black Power Movement activists were jailed, murdered or driven into political exile in the U.S. during the 1960s and '70s. In May 2005, the Justice Department announced an unprecedented $1 million bounty for the capture of Assata Shakur, the former Black Liberation Army member now living in exile in Cuba.

Considering the circumstances, Ferguson counts himself lucky to have made it back.

"I just didn't want to spend my years in retirement in Guyana, away from my family, my childhood friends and the movement," Ferguson explains. "That was the reason I decided to come back."

In 1989, he booked a ticket for a non-stop flight from Georgetown to New York. A local CBS television news crew heard about his planned return and flew to Guyana to record the homecoming.

When the plane landed at Kennedy Airport, federal officers came on board to arrest him. The local news programs that night featured video of the 69-year-old former fugitive Herman Ferguson being led away in handcuffs.

No Reason to Stay 
For those who'd known of him in the 1960s, this unexpected sighting of Ferguson brought back memories. Ferguson had been a prominent member of Malcolm X's Muslim Mosque Inc. and later his Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Malcolm X--or El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (as he was more properly known after his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia)--had created both organizations in 1964, after leaving the Nation of Islam. Ferguson met Malcolm after he and other Blacks in Queens set up the Rochdale Movement, which sought to stop the construction of a new housing development in Queens.

In 1959, New York City was set to erect Rochdale Village on the site of the Old Jamaica racetrack in Queens, but word soon got out that Blacks would not be hired to build the site and would be excluded from living in any of the developments' soon-to-be available 5,280 apartments. The Rochdale Movement couldn't halt the construction of the development, but it went on to become a major voice on issues of economic and community development for Blacks in Queens.

The Rochdale Movement caught the attention of Nation of Islam members working in Queens. So when Ferguson attended one of Malcolm X's services at his Mosque No. 7 in Harlem and then asked if Malcolm would be interested in coming to speak at a rally in St. Albans, Queens, the minister welcomed the invitation.

Malcolm X spoke in Queens on Thanks-giving Day, 1963. Prior to his speech, few of Queens's Black residents knew much of him beyond the inflammatory image widely broadcast in the media.

But having Malcolm in Queens, in person, was an unexpected boost: "He was able to convert a lot of people into his way of thinking, although they weren't all ready to join the NOI and become Muslim," Ferguson recalls.

After his return from Africa, Malcolm X conceived of the OAAU as a non-sectarian organization that would fight for the human rights of Black people throughout the diaspora. Just as the OAAU was ready to petition the United Nations about the plight of 22 million African descendants in the United States, Malcolm X was murdered in Harlem's Audubon ballroom in 1965.

"It was a vicious execution," Ferguson says. "It just sent a signal to his family and to his followers. The signal was that if you stand up as a revolutionary, a vicious elimination could happen to you."

With the fear of violence and assassination that permeated the times, Ferguson had created the Jamaica Rifle and Pistol Club.

"People were concerned about self-defense. We knew we had a right to self-defense, but I think that in the back of our minds, many felt there was now a need for self-defense," adds his wife, Iyaluua Nehanda, a former teacher and activist. With urban riots, the FBI's COINTELPRO and the CIA's Operation CHAOS infiltrations, and shootouts between police forces and Black Nationalists, the summer of 1967 went down in history as one of this nation's most violent.

By June 1967, Herman Ferguson and 17 fellow members of the Jamaica Rifle and Pistol Club were arrested by the New York City Police Department and accused of plotting to kill Whitney Young and Roy Wilkens, the heads of the National Urban League and NAACP, respectively. Ultimately, only two people, Arthur Harris and Ferguson, were charged with the plot; their motive to kill was supposedly based on their hatred of "Uncle Toms."

According to official FBI documents later obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Ferguson had been under surveillance since 1965 based on his involvement with the OAAU. The New York Police Department and FBI had enlisted a rookie police recruit named Edward Lee Howlette to work as an undercover agent. Howlette became one of the most active members of the Jamaica Rifle and Pistol Club and had urged club members to think of ways to get rid of "Uncle Toms" who were selling out the Black community. When Harris and Ferguson came to trial, Howlette was the prosecution's number one witness against them.

Both were convicted by an all-white, all-male jury and sentenced to three and one-half to seven years in prison. They fought their convictions up to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the case was turned down there. Harris and Ferguson decided they no longer had any reasons to stay in the United States.

Old Stomping Grounds 

Today, at age 84, Ferguson is once again a prominent New York City activist. He is involved with organizing for political prisoners and reparations, serving on the board of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. Ferguson lives in the same Rochdale Village apartment complex that he once fought the city to keep from building. He also sits on its board of directors.

After 19 years abroad, he and Iyaluua (who spent 16 years there) say they're more satisfied living in the States again, because they're able to stay involved in the political movements that shaped them.

"I don't think people really understand the nature of exile," Iyaluua says. "People think that you set up a new life, and everything's fine. But exile is death. No matter what you set up, your life is just different. Spiritually it does something to you."

The U.S. government did not take it easy on Herman Ferguson when he returned. He served three years behind bars, two years on work release and two years on parole.

While he was on work release at the Queensboro Correctional Facility, the New York State Division of Parole continually denied Ferguson a parole. But in 1996, the late New York State Judge Bruce Wright ordered Herman Ferguson's release. "There is a sad and melancholy ghetto joke ... that says, 'Any Black man in America who is not paranoid is sick,'" Wright wrote in his decision against the Parole Board. "All Black nationalist activists were targets, not only of local police, but of the FBI as well. J. Edgar Hoover bragged in the press that his investigative troops were arresting and re-arresting those regarded as Black radicals until their bail money ran out and they could then be held in preventive detention."

Today, Ferguson says that when he talks to people about his experiences in Guyana, he emphasizes the importance of having seen the practical application of many of the ideals he fought for.

"Living in Guyana was a chance to experience living in a nation where the politics are Black," Ferguson says. "If you have a government that is opposed to you, it's very difficult to get them to do anything for you. I talk about my culture shock at seeing Black people making so many decisions that affected the lives of Black people. There was not a white wall to climb over to get things done."

He returned to the States because he believes that Blacks have fought, lived and died in this nation and now deserve a part of it. He could easily live in comfort elsewhere, but the movement to liberate African Americans is here, in the United States.

New York University presents Poets Honoring the Lives of Poets Jayne Cortez & Amiri B...

Marvin X with bassist Henry Grimes

MARVIN X at Yoshi's San Francisco, video produced by Ahi Baraka

The Endgame of ISIS, Crusaders, Uncle Abdullahs and the Righteous

ISIS, made in the USA. Osama Bin Laden, made in the USA. 9/11, made in the USA, terror, made in the USA, Indians, made in America, Negroes, made in America, concentration camps/reservations, made in America. 

It will indeed take a rocket scientist to unravel the conundrum of the Middle East battle of Armageddon. We suspect the Crusaders are embarking on another 100 Years War to cleanse the so called filth of ISIS and related groups. But we wonder how the Crusaders can distinguish the evil and filthy ones from the good guys. Surely the Uncle Abdullahs (Arab Uncle Toms), those leading the reactionary regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, cannot classify themselves as the good guys, even if they have allied themselves with Crusaders in the white hats, off to recapture the holy lands for....themselves, of course, to reinstitute their colonial ideology of domination and exploitation that is the first cause of the present situation. The second cause is those Uncle Abdullahs and their reactionary regimes that give rise to so called fanaticism, i.e., when no other outlet is available to escape poverty, ignorance and disease, sectarianism and dogmatism or shall we say simple freedom, justice and equality.

I hesitate to attempt an unravelling of the Middle East onion, for the layers are so often indistinguishable and inseparable, connected in such a symbiotic relationship that it is simply impossible to deconstruct this phenomena unless one is, again, a rocket scientist. For example, shall we say America is with the Shia, Iranian allied, Iraqi regime, or is America with the Sunni citizens allied with Saudi Arabia. Well, we are told 90% of the Saudi Arabians support ISIS and would, if able, overthrow the Saudi regime of decadent Saudi princes so backward women are not allowed to drive cars.

Much of the matter is simple tribalism, originating from the time of Prophet Muhammad. Alas, Sunni Muslims consider Shia heretics who can indeed suffer beheading for their Shia mythology. The new prime minister in Iraq is every bit a part of the Shia brotherhood of the previous prime minster Malaki, and we understand his ministers are dominated by Shia, despite the call for inclusion of Sunni in his restructured government.

ISIS marches on. The Crusaders come from heaven with their planes and drones, missiles and bombs. The Crusaders vow none of their troops shall touch the ground. But how many private contractors are on the ground, how many never departed when the US troops left Iraq? How many soldiers comprise the 16,000 workers at the US embassy in Iraq, the largest US embassy in the world?

Let us travel the road to Damascus. How can we avoid the onions on the road, and the rat packs scurrying on the road where Saul was transformed into Paul. Alas, today Paul has reverted to Saul, the Zionist.

Oh, where are the righteous in this quagmire, oh where are the holy ones who seek only justice, freedom from religious extremism and sectarianism. They have fled into the night with only the clothing on their backs, on the road away from Damascus, roads through the woods, forests, mountains, with children in hand and nothing more.

And what of the Syrian monster king, a butcher like his father who killed 30,000 in one town, Hama. The butcher Assad is amazed the Crusaders are now bombing in his land. Will he call his Russian and Iranian allies for assistance or will the Crusaders assist him by degrading ISIS and their cohorts so he can step in for that final dagger touch. We understand his doom was sealed when he refused to give up the Golan Heights, much like Saddam Hussein and poor Qaddafi in Libya, now in a dance with death as Qaddafi predicted if he was removed. His arms have found their way from Nigeria to Sinai, to Iraq and Syria.

Do you think Israel is sitting around with his dick in his hand and heart racing? Oh, no, he is most assuredly in bed with all the rats, Crusaders for sure, Uncle Abdullahs, for sure,  mixed with the other spies and agents who  play all sides in this classic Middle Eastern drama of political chicanery. Israel is happy the global village has shifted from observing his bloody behavior in Gaza now that the Crusaders have mobilized from the sky to save the...who, the people, or the oil fields, to prevent Shia expansion from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Mediterranean.

We support the righteous people, the suffering masses who only want a better day, the righteous caught in the middle of the geo-political, ideological and sectarian madness that will not last 100 years, we predict. Before long, the specter of nuclear weapons will enter the battlefield. The Atom bomb was dropped when I was only months old. We seem edging closer to the ultimate weapon as I grow old, I grow old.

The endgame: after the sweat, blood and tears, how 'bout sweet democracy with authoritarianism, i.e., state democracy/capitalism, Islamic democracy with a theological (Sharia law) touch. Isn't this what we wanted?

"That is not what I meant

that is not what I meant at all

In the room the women come and go

talking of Michelangelo.... "

Black Bird Press News & Review: Two Poems for the People of Syria by Marvin X and Mohja Kahf

Black Bird Press News & Review: 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....

Syrian poet/novelist/professor Dr. Mohja Kahf invited poet/activist Marvin X to speak and read at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 

The Washington DC Jazz Network supports Marvin X--will you please donate to the Marvin X Books Project/Indiegogo

Advocate for Preserving America's Classical Music, "JAZZ",

it's African American Legacy, Roots and Heritage!

Support the Washington DC Jazz Network

MARVIN X

A Member of the Washington DC Jazz Network

Marvin X Booking Agency

BAM Master Poet Marvin X and the BAM Poets Choir & Arkestra are now available for booking.

The group performed at the University of California, Merced, Feb./Mar. 2014

Oakland's Malcolm X Jazz/Art Fest, May 17, 2014.

For booking: 510-200-4164

Poet/Bandleader Marvin X, sax man David Murray and trumpet man Earl Davis

 

Marvin X was born May 29, 1944, Fowler CA, nine miles south of Fresno in the central valley of California. In Fresno his parents published the Fresno Voice, a black newspaper.

Marvin attended Oakland’s Merritt College where he encountered fellow students who became Black Panther Party co-founders Bobby Seale

and Huey Newton. They taught him black nationalism.  Marvin’s first play Flowers for the Trashman was produced by the Drama department at San Francisco State University, 1965.  

Marvin X dropped out to established his own Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore, 1966, along with playwright Ed Bullins.

Months later Marvin would co-found Black House with Eldridge Cleaver, 1967.

Marvin introduced  Eldridge Cleaver to Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.  Eldridge immediately joined the Black Panther Party.  Huey Newton said, “Marvin X was my teacher, many of our comrades came from his Black Arts Theatre: Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver,  Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier.”

One of the movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement

Marvin X & Sun Rah

 (BAM) Marvin X has published 30 books, including essays, poetry, and his autobiography

Click to purchase books by Marvin X

Somethin’ Proper.

Important books include Fly to Allah, poems, Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, essays on consciousness, and

How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a manual based on the 12 step Recovery model.

Marvin received his MA in English/Creative writing from San Francisco State University, 1975. He has taught at San Francisco State University, Fresno State University, UC Berkeley and San Diego, Mills College, Merritt and Laney Colleges in Oakland, University of Nevada, Reno.  He lectures coast to coast at such colleges and universities as University of Arkansas, University of Houston, Morehouse and Spelman, Atlanta, University of Virginia, Howard University, Univ. of Penn, Temple Univ., Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, UMASS, Boston.

His latest book is the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. He currently teaches at his Academy of da Corner, 14^th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Ishmael Reed says, “Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."

For speaking, readings and performance, contact Marvin X @ jmarvinx@yahoo.com,
510-200-4164. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com