Aries Jordan and Prosperity, Academy of da Corner students, both have their own books of poetry; they perform with Marvin X and do their original works.
Berkeley High B-Tech Students at the home of Marvin X, checking out his archives that were acquired by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Marvin X on Writing
Perhaps,
one day I can present testimonies in the first person, especially since
I am pushing the suffering oppressed to write their narratives of How I Survived, the essential theme in North American African literature, beginning
with the so called Slave Narratives. We say Narratives of North
American Africans caught in the American Slave System of pseudo democracy and unfair free trade capitalism based on wage slavery and exploitation of the national resources of underdeveloped nations in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Indigenous America, i.e., USA, Latin America and the Caribbean (American Slave System is Ed Howard term).
All those who come to me claiming they have a book in their heads, I
tell them to write one page a day. They say, how can I do this? I say
turn off the cell phone, get the lover off your shoulder, put them out the
room for an hour or two; do not show them what you are writing, then write,
write, write. Got blockage? Get some Henny, weed or Blizo! No writer's
block up in here ! If you are serious about writing a book, don't call me until you have done one page per day, then call me. I don't have time for bullshit. I'm writing my own books, thank you very much! --Marvin X
The Wild Crazy Ride of the Marvin X Experience Tour 2015
I am so thankful to have Sun Ra as my mentor and comrade in the Black Arts Movement. What a wonderful teacher!
May 21
University of Chicago Sun Ra Conference
Screening: Film Space in the Place
May 22
Presentations, Symposium, Concert
Marivn X speaks on Sun Ra and Black Resistance at University of Chicago.
Marvin X performs with Sun Ra musicians Marshall Allen and Danny Thompson, also, David Boykin and invited Chicago musicians.
May 23
African Liberation Day Chicago. Marvin X and David Boykin will perform together.
June 5-7, 2015
The Wild Crazy Ride of the Marvin X Experience at Sacramento Black Book Fair,
June 5,6,7, 2015
Sacramento Black Book Fair
Marvin X will perform with his Academy of da Corner students, Aries Jordan and Prosperity, both have their own books as students of Marvin X. Student Aries Jordan coined the term "Wild Crazy Ride of the Marvin X Experience!" Aries and her sister Prosperity have endured Marvin X's well-known Ordeal by Fire! But when the dross is removed, only gold remains!
Juneteenth San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Fresno
Marvin X will autograph books and/or speak. Look for his booth.
Scott
McIntosh details the Sun's seasonal weather patterns and demonstrates
how understanding the formation, interaction and instability of the
Sun's activity bands will considerably improve forecast capability in
space weather and solar activity over a range of timescales.
Magnetic variability over the last three decades.
According to Scott McIntosh's recent article published in "Nature Communications," and in the "Daily Camera Boulder News,"
solar magnetism displays a host of variational timescales of which the
enigmatic 11-year sunspot cycle is most prominent. This research
demonstrates that Earth isn't the only planet that has a kind-of
seasonal variability in its weather patterns. Bands of strong magnetic
fields in the Sun's northern and southern hemispheres appear to drive
variations in the Sun's solar cycle. Dr. McIntosh explains, "A good
analogy for this phenomena is the Gulf Stream, these (magnetic fields)
are like big, magnetized Gulf Streams that attract or repel one
another." He believes that a more holistic approach to space weather can
be gained by changing the focus from a singular sunspot cycle to the
individual magnetic bands that comprise the cycle.
Daily Camera Boulder News: New study from Boulder's NCAR details Sun's seasonal weather patterns
Nature Communications Article: The solar magnetic activity band interaction and instabilities that shape quasi-periodic variability
What Is Solar Activity?
The Sun is always active. It has weather. It has storms. And its storms can affect Earth's weather.
Sunspots are magnetic storms on the surface of the Sun.
Solar flares are intense blooms of radiation that
come from the release of the magnetic energy associated with sunspots.
The NOAA ranks solar flares using five categories from weakest to
stongest: A, B, C, M, and X. Each category is 10 times stronger than the
one before it. Within each category, a flare is ranked from 1 to 9,
according to strength, although X-class flares can go higher than 9.
According to NASA, the most powerful solar flare recorded was an X28 (in
2003).
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are bursts of solar
material (clouds of plasma and magnetic fields) that shoot off the sun's
surface. Other solar events include solar wind streams that come from the coronal holes on the Sun and solar energetic particles that are primarily released by CMEs.
Solar Flare. Credit: jpl.nasa.gov
What is a Solar Cycle?
The number of sunspots increase and decrease over time in a regular,
approximately 11-year cycle, called the solar or sunspot cycle. The
exact length of the cycle can vary. More sunspots mean increased solar
activity—flares and CMEs. The highest number of sun spots in any given
cycle is designated "solar maximum," while the lowest number is
designated "solar minimum." Eleven years in the life of the Sun, spanning most of solar cycle
23, as it progressed from solar minimum (upper left) to maximum
conditions and back to minimum (upper right) again, seen as a collage of
ten full-disk images of the lower corona. Credit: NASA
How Does Solar Activity Affect Weather and Earth?
Solar activity affects the Earth in many ways, some which we are still coming to understand.
Damage to 21st-century satellites and other high-tech systems in space can be caused by an active Sun which generates geomagnetic storms.
Even in inactive solar cycles, the Sun emits large solar flares—which
could cause billions of dollars in damage to the world's high-tech
infrastructure—from GPS navigation to power grids to air travel to
financial services.
Radiation hazards for astronauts and satellites can be caused by a quiet Sun. Weak solar winds allow more galactic cosmic rays into the inner solar system.
Weather on Earth can also be affected. According to Bob Berman, astronomer for The Old Farmer's Almanac:
Recently, NOAA scientists concluded that four factors determined global
temperatures: carbon dioxide levels, volcanic eruptions, Pacific El
Niño pattern, and the Sun's activity.
Global climate change including long-term periods of
global cold, rainfall, drought, and other weather shifts may also be
influenced by solar cycle activity, based on historical evidence:
Times of depressed solar activity seem to
correspond with times of global cold. For example, during the 70-year
period from 1645 to 1715, few, if any, sunspots were seen, even during
expected sunspot maximums. Western Europe entered a climate period known
as the "Maunder Minimum" or "Little Ice Age." Temperatures dropped by
1.8 to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
Conversely, times of increased solar activity have
corresponded with global warning. During the 12th and 13th centuries,
the Sun was active, and the European climate was quite mild.
Yearly-averaged sunspot numbers from 1610 to 2008. Researchers
believe upcoming Solar Cycle 24 will be similar to the cycle that peaked
in 1928, marked by a red arrow. Credit: NASA/MSFC
Solar Cycle 24
As of January 15, 2015, we are over six years into Cycle 24.
The solar minimum occured in 2008 and 2009; during
those two years, there were almost NO sunspots, a very unusual
situation that had not happened for almost a century. Due to the weak
solar activity, galactic cosmic rays were at record levels.
Solar Maximum: The Sun's record-breaking sleep
ended in 2010. In 2011, sunspot counts jumped up. In February of 2012,
the sunpot numbers reached a peak of 66.9.
In late 2013, NASA reported, "The sun's global magnetic field is about to reverse polarity." The sunspot number climbed into the 70s. This is still very low. By February of 2014, sunspots averaged 102.8 spots a day, which is the first time the cycle broke 100.
In April, 2014, the sunspot number peaked a second time, reaching
81.9. This is likely the solar maximum. Many cycles are double peaked,
however, this is the first time the second peak was larger than the
first peak (in February, 2012).
Cycle 24 has been a weak solar cycle—the smallest since Cycle 14 (which had a maximum of 64.2 in February of 1906). What will happen next? Stay tuned!
What does all this mean?
Quiet-to-average cycles mean a cooling pattern over the next few decades. Temperatures
have been colder than it would have been otherwise. Sunspots are
similar to a bathtub of lukewarm water; if you trickle in cold or hot
water, it may take a while to notice the difference. If this cooling
phase on Earth, however, is offset by any warming caused by increasing
greenhouse gases, they also raise the question of whether an eventual
warming cycle could lead to more rapid warming on Earth than expected.
The
ghost towns of China, Ireland and Spain - full of large empty house
estates - may be a phenomenon that is on its way to Africa.
Built for people who never move in, they leave those who did with a worthless property they cannot sell.
Perched
in an isolated spot some 30km (18 miles) outside Angola's capital,
Luanda, Nova Cidade de Kilamba is a brand-new mixed residential
development of 750 eight-storey apartment buildings, a dozen schools and
more than 100 retail units.
Designed to house up to half a
million people when complete, Kilamba has been built by the state-owned
China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) in under
three years at a reported cost of $3.5bn (£2.2bn).
Spanning 5,000
hectares (12,355 acres), the development is the largest of several new
"satellite cities" being constructed by Chinese firms around Angola, and
it is believed to be one of the largest new-build projects on the
continent.
The jewel in Angola's post-war reconstruction crown,
Kilamba is the star of glossy government promotional videos which show
smiling families enjoying a new style of living away from the dust and
confusion of central Luanda where millions live in sprawling slums.
But
the people in these films are only actors, and despite all the hype,
nearly a year since the first batch of 2,800 apartments went on sale,
only 220 have been sold.
Eerily quiet
When you visit Kilamba, you cannot help but wonder if even a third of those buyers have moved in yet.
The place is eerily quiet, voices bouncing off all the fresh concrete and wide-open tarred roads.
There
are hardly any cars and even fewer people, just dozens of repetitive
rows of multi-coloured apartment buildings, their shutters sealed and
their balconies empty.
Only a handful of the commercial units are
occupied, mostly by utility companies, but there are no actual shops on
site, and so - with the exception of a new hypermarket located at one
entrance - there is nowhere to buy food.
After driving around for
nearly 15 minutes and seeing no-one apart from Chinese labourers, many
of whom appear to live in containers next to the site, I came across a
tiny pocket of life at a school.
The people looking after the lawns cannot afford to stay here
It opened six months ago, bussing in its pupils in from outlying areas because there are no children living on site to attend.
One
student, a 17-year-old called Sebastiao Antonio - who spends nearly
three hours a day in traffic getting to and from classes from his home
15km away - told me how much he liked the city.
"I really like this place - it's got car parking, places for us to have games like football, basketball and handball," he said.
"It's very quiet, much calmer than the other city, there's no criminality."
But when I asked if he and his family would move there, he just laughed.
"No way, we can't afford this. It's impossible. And there is no work for my parents here," he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Jack Franciso, 32, who started work at Kilamba as a street sweeper four months ago.
"Yes, it's a nice place for sure," he said.
But then he sighed: "To live here, you need a lot of money. People like us don't have money like that to be able to live here."
No mortgages
And therein lies the problem.
Apartments
at Kilamba are being advertised online costing between $120,000 and
$200,000 - well out of reach of the estimated two-thirds of Angolans who
live on less than $2 a day.
However, Paulo Cascao, general
Manager at Delta Imobiliaria, the real estate agency handling the sales,
told the BBC that the problem was not the price, but difficulty in
accessing bank credit.
"The prices are correct for the quality of the apartments and for all the conditions that the city can offer," he said.
"The sales are going slowly due to the difficulty in obtaining mortgages."
A
new legal frame work has recently been introduced to allow local banks
to give mortgages, but for the majority of Angolans, even the few with
well-paid office jobs, just finding enough cash for a deposit would be a
struggle.
"The government needs to start giving priority to
building low-cost housing because great majority of the population live
in shacks with no water, electricity or sanitation," Elias Isaac,
country director at the Angolan Office of the Open Society Initiative of
Southern Africa (OSISA), told the BBC.
"There is no middle class in Angola, just the very poor and the very rich, and so there is no-one to buy these sorts of houses."
According
to Mr Cascao, the government has recently announced a portion of the
apartments at Kilamba will be designated social housing, which people on
low incomes can rent long-term at low prices.
No-one is quite
sure how that scheme will work or who will be eligible, and cynics have
dismissed it as a vote-winning stunt ahead of parliamentary elections
scheduled to take place on 31 August.
There is also the issue of what will happen to all the full-cost apartments if they do not sell.
Kilamba was financed by a Chinese credit line - which Angola is repaying with oil - so it has technically been paid for.
But
if the houses go unsold, then the Angolan government will be left with
stock on their hands and a potentially wasted investment.
Election pledge
Manuel
Clemente Junior, Angola's deputy construction minister, staunchly
defended the scheme and said it would definitely be a success - although
he seemed convinced it was possible to purchase a flat for $80,000,
much cheaper than is advertised.
"It is with absolute certainty, an excellent project," he told the BBC.
Responding
to the complaints about Kilamba's isolated location, he said: "There
are always people who criticise but thanks to the new highways which are
being built, as a location it is only going to be about 15 to 20
minutes from the city centre."
The city of Kilamba is a government
flagship project that goes some way to helping President Jose Eduardo
dos Santos fulfil his famous 2008 election pledge to build one million
homes in four years.
Allan Cain, head of Angolan non-government
organisation Development Workshop that specialises in urban poverty
alleviation, has welcomed the investment, but has some reservations.
"What
we have been advocating for is a programme of upgrading in situ where
people are living now, something which is considered to be international
best practice," he said.
"I don't think many places in the world can afford actually to displace and re-house whole populations of cities."
Study accuses psychologists group of complicity in CIA torture program
April 30, 2015
The American Psychologists Association, the largest
professional scientific organization of its kind, was secretly complicit
in the adoption of torturous interrogation tactics used by the United
States against detainees, a new report suggests.
A study released this week by noteable
anti-torture critics reveals that an analysis of emails from the
inbox of a deceased US government contractor demonstrates
compliance on behalf of the APA with regards to the drafting of
so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, or EITs, developed
under President George W. Bush.
APA officials was in cahoots with members of the Bush
administration, including Central Intelligence Agency employees
and contractors, when the government struggled to codify policies
for its torture program following the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 200, according to the report – an effort led by
psychoanalyst and anti-war activist Stephen Soldz as well as
Nathaniel Raymond and Steven Reisner – two members of the group
Physicians for Human Rights.
“The APA secretly coordinated with officials from the CIA,
White House and the Department of Defense to create an APA ethics
policy on national security interrogations which comported with
then-classified legal guidance authorizing the CIA torture
program,” the authors say.
He
taught me the need for discipline in the artistic life, not freedom. He
told me to stop teaching my actors freedom when discipline was needed.
He demonstrated discipline by keeping his band together for over twenty
years. When I got him to take a young actor of mine on European tour, he
sent the very talented singer/musician home because he lacked
discipline. He taught me not to be so moral, especially when I took a
scene out of my musical with a sex scene. He was horrified that I had
done so. He said, "Marvin you so right you wrong. That scene was the
best one in the play. That's what people want, a little dirt. They don't
want to truth, they want the low down dirty truth."
Most
importantly, he taught the importance of mythology and ritual theatre,
breaking down that fourth wall and merging with the audience, becoming
one and indivisible, thus reaching the level of African communal theatre
wherein there is no audience, only the community. His Arkestra,
including poets, singers, dancers, and mixed media, expanded the
potential of black theatre. It was a great experience performing with an
Arkestra as opposed to simply reading solo or even with a small band.
This is no doubt why I can only conceive of theatre as extravaganza in
terms of performance, space and time.
Imagine being able to work
with some of the greatest musicians in the world, aside from Sun Ra
himself, there was John Gilmore, Danny Thompson, June Tyson, and
Marshall Allen. See my DVD Live in Philly at Warmdaddy's, which I call
39 minutes of Jazz history. The set included Marshall Allen and Danny
Thompson, along with bagpipe legend Rufus Harley and myself reading
poetry. Also Elliott Bey, Ancestor Goldsky and Alexander El.
We
can say that Sun Ra had a profound influence on the Black Arts Movement
coast to coast. He was a founding member of Amiri Baraka's Black Arts
Theatre in Harlem as well as a worker at my Black Educational Theatre in
the Fillmore. --Marvin X
Those
who have a problem understanding the complexity of Marvin X need only
understand he was a student and colleague of Sun Ra, the bandleader of
the Arkestra that Marvin X performed with on the east coast and west
coast. Sun Ra worked with Marvin X at his Black Educational Thearte in
the Fillmore, 1972. Sun Ra did the musical version of his play Flowers
for the Trashaman, retitled Take Care of Business.
Sun Ra and
Marvin X did a five hour production of Take Care of Business at the
Harding Theatre on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, 1972. Sun Ra also
told Marvin X he would be hired to lecture in the Black Studies
Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Marvin X doubted
Sun Ra since Gov. Ronald Reagan had banned him from teaching at Fresno
State College in 1969, the same year he banned Angela Davis from
teaching at UCLA. Marvin X did indeed teach at UCB and his off campus
class was at his Black Educational Theatre in the Fillmore. Sun Rn
worked with him and the Harding Theatre concert was a five hour show
without intermission, that consisted of a fifty member cast, including
the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Ellendar Barnes dancers, along with the Raymond
Saywer dancers and the Marvin X actors.
What we perceive as reality is
most often a reflection of imagination, of mythology and ritual, or
simply the mind of man is the macrocosm, reality the microcosm. Systems
thus reflect the mind of man--did not someone say creations only reflect
the mind of the creator. Broken systems, therefore, originate in broken
minds. Yet we wonder why systems are broken, e.g., school system,
political system, economic system, religious and moral systems.
But
systems are not the problem, rather it is the minds of men that are
broken irreparably, suffering a mental atrophy, an anorexia, a paralysis
of imagination. The causation is simple greed, selfishness and lust for
power. It is augmented by the quest for the acquisition of things, the
wanton addiction to materialism or the world of make believe, the
illusion that the microcosm can satisfy the macrocosm, when the real
deal holyfield is the inner rather than the outer. Yet men fear to go
there, deep down into the metaphysical realm where the darkest mysteries
lie seeking edification and recognition. Thus, we find ourselves at the
precipice, about to be consumed by the wonder of life.
Elijah
told us, "The wisdom of this world is exhausted." And so it is--spent,
obsolete, retarded, and yet we wonder why we are immobile,
transfixed--stuck on stupid! Why no systems work. How is it possible
for the great Toyota to need recalling, a consummate machine suddenly
dysfunctional. What caused this sudden breakdown-- some internal defect
in the machine or in the mind of man?
Look at the educational
system, confounded by the ideological foundation of white supremacy
capitalism that continues to prepare students for a world of work when
there is none, especially with living wages in an economic system that
demands cheap labor and resources, a socalled free market system that
will transcend the national needs for the wants and desires of global
finance gangs, connected with, supported and defended by the military,
i.e., the Christian Crusaders, soon to be supplanted by Communists from
China, India and Russia.
The teachers were long ago taught to
teach a new way--back in Egypt they were told to teach with compassion
and love. Yet what we see today is the pedagogy of hate. It is a system
that rewards ignorance and punishes wisdom and creativity, especially of
the thinking variety. Any original thought is suppressed or deemed
antisocial thought and behavior, often resulting in the student
diagnosed to require psycho drugs that turn him into the zombie required
by the society of the walking dead.
The religious system is the
same. It is in full blown denial about the meaning of the cross and the
lynching tree, about the mission of the prince of peace. For the most
part, the religious community is Silent Night about the trillion dollar
military budget that allows mass murder to take place across the planet.
Along with Silent Night, it sings Onward Christian Soldiers as its sons
and daughters crisscross the planet to secure labor and natural
resources for the pleasure of the walking dead, and most especially the
miserable few who enjoy the high life.
It is all about the
glorification of Pharaoh and his magicians. God, in the minds of men, is
a business, big business. There is no desire for spirituality, only
prosperity, minus compassion for the poor, homeless, jobless and broken
hearted, crushed to earth like the pot in the hands of Jeremiah at the
gates of his city.
In the minds of politicians, there is no
compromise, only preparation for the next election, or the assumption or
resumption of power at any and all costs, no lie is exempt, "Vote for
me, I'll set you free!" All bribes are acceptable--politicians are thus
loyal to lobbyists, not the people who are expendable.
The lips
of politicians do not say let us reason together for the sake of the
people, for the love of the people, for the consent of the governed.
These men and women of the political realm only know the language of no,
no, no. As the people starve, become homeless, jobless, we yet hear the
mantra of no, no, no, late into the night. No compromise, no
reconciliation, only recalcitrance and niggardliness. They are fast to
reward the robber barons, the blood suckers of the poor. Eventually, a
few crumbs, kibble and bits reach the poor, if ever, unless there is
revolt. And then Pharaoh sees the light, suddenly, but he will send his
magicians to placate the poor with more crumbs, kibbles and bits.
Between
good and evil, evil is the choice, with greed the foundation stone in
the minds of men. Amazingly, the people see clearly. They feel change in
the wind, not the change in the educational system or the political or
religious, but in the wind. They smell the rotten hearts of men who lead
into nothingness and dread, with their pitiful strut of the peacock,
the one legged dance of the flamingo.
Pharaoh magicians gather in
dens of iniquity to share blood money. Teachers, preachers,
politicians, all there to party on the backs of the poor. The military
stand post at the door of the den, ready to club the wretched into
submission, even death, if they dare enter the den of thieves, robbers,
murderers, and those who perpetuate the world of make believe.
Inside
the den we hear a symphony of sick sounds, giggles, wails, grunts
emanating from putrid minds exhausted from wickedness. The result is
systematic gridlock--it is 5pm and the freeway is jammed with drivers
full of road rage, ready to kill in an instant. It is thus a destruction
of self by self, internal combustion.
Unlike the car, there is
no forward motion or backward, or perhaps it goes both ways
simultaneously, if such is possible in the world of physics, but after
all, the minds of men defy all laws, except the law of the jungle and
the devil.
But there shall be no forward motion with the present
mind-set. Jack must jump out the box of his own making. He must take
wings and fly away into a world beyond his imagination. This is the
only way out the morass of his mind. All the technology is to no avail,
for he talks, but more often says nothing, he listens but hears nothing,
deaf, dumb and blind. --Marvin X 2/17/10
Poet/playwright/educator/philosopher/planner Marvin X travels to Chicago on May 22 to participate in the Sun Ra Conference at the University of Chicago. He will perform with Sun Ra musicians Marshall Allen and Danny Thompson, also with David Boykin, conference planner.
Marvin X and son of Chicago's BPP Chairman, Fred Hampton, murdered in a police shootout.
Black Panther Cub will host a reception for Black Liberation/Black Arts
Movement Elder Marvin X in Chicago while he attends the University of
Chicago celebration of Black Arts Movement Master Sun Ra. Marvin X had a
long artistic association with Sun Ra and his Myth-Science Arkestra and
will perform with surviving Arkestra members Marshall Allen and Danny
Thompson, along with David Boykin and other Chicago musicians and poets.
Young brothers at Marvin X's Academy of da Corner, reading the Oakland Post Newspaper
photo by Gene Hazzard
Marvin X and son of Chicago's BPP Chairman, Fred Hampton, murdered in a police shootout.
Black Panther Cub will host a reception for Black Liberation/Black Arts Movement Elder Marvin X in Chicago while he attends the University of Chicago celebration of Black Arts Movement Master Sun Ra. Marvin X had a long artistic association with Sun Ra and his Myth-Science Arkestra and will perform with surviving Arkestra members Marshall Allen and Danny Thompson, along with David Boykin and other Chicago musicians and poets.
Black Arts Movement's poets/mythologists/philosophers Marvin X and Sun Ra
Rev. Blandon Reemes, Academy of da Corner students/authors Aries Jordan, Latoya Carter and Master Teacher Marvin X, on a visit to Alameda County Juvenile Hall to give out books from North American African authors, donated by the Post Newsgroup, published by Paul Cobb.
Linda Johnson, dancer, choreographer, dancer Raynetta Rayzetta, Val Serrant, Tumani, drummers
at the 75th birthday celebration of Amiri Baraka at the Lush Live Gallery, San Francisco, produced by Marvin X.
Aries Jordan, one of the students at Academy of Da Corner that Marvin X has mentored.
She survived the Wild Crazy Ride of the Marvin X Experience to publish two books and have a male child, Legend Muhammad.
Marvin X and Academy of da Corner students Toya Prosperity and Aries Jordan, reading poetry at the Memorial for Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, Los Angeles Black Panther Party Leader, at Oakland's Bobby Hutton Park, aka Defermery Park.
Bay Area Black Authors, Artists, Activists celebrate the life of slain journalist Chauncey Bailey at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 14th and Franklin, Oakland.
photo Gene Hazzard and Adam Turner
Comrade George Jackson, Messiah of the American Prison Movement
Marvin X as bandleader with the Black Arts Movement Poet's Choir and Arkestra
performing at the Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland, May, 2014
Cornel West's first cousin Kwame Satterfield is Marvin X's stepson. Ase!
I am so horrified at the tales people tell me at Academy of da Corner, whether at Oakland's 14th and Broadway, the upscale Lakeshore Academy or in Berkeley at the ASHBY BART STATION. We are at all locations when we feel like it (prerogative of the Senior Citizen).
The unresolved grief and traumatic stress narratives presented to me in the various locations of Academy of da Corner, are overwhelming to say the least. Yes, some of the tales and stores are beyond tragedy, yet Cheikh Anta Diop taught us there is no African tragedy, only tragi-comedy, for the Southern Cradle believes in tragi-comedy. Tragedy is a concept from the Northern Cradle, Europe, thus it has no place in African mythology.
Perhaps, one day I can present testimonies in the first person, especially since I am pushing the suffering oppressed to write their narratives of how I survived, the essential theme in North Amrican literature, beginning with the socalled Slave Narratives, we say the Narratives of North American Africans caught in the American Slave System (Ed Howard term). I tell them to write one page a day. They said, how can I do this? I say turn off the phone, get the lover off your shoulder, put them out the room for an hour or two, do not show them what you are writing, write, write, write. Got blockage? Get some Henny, weed or Blizo! No writer's block up in here!