Black Hollywood unChained

Out of a nation shaken by terrorism, racial tension and violence, where traces of past sins collide with a quicksilver pop culture, rides Quentin Tarantino's new film about frontier justice, strange alliances and how a black bounty hunter with a dead-eye shot survives on guile, menace and clever sleight of hand against enemies and unrepentant Confederates.

"The Hateful Eight," which opens Christmas Day, is a western spun through a racial prism, a swift-talking tale of seven suspicious men and one mean woman trapped in a snowstorm in the cruel mountains of Wyoming. The bad die in wicked ways and mercy is a lie, but the film, set in post-Civil War America, speaks to today's troubled landscape of police shootings and seething politics.

SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter >>

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >>

Tarantino turns narratives inside out and scratches at the national psyche with restrained frenzy. Like his other films, notably "Pulp Fiction" and "Django Unchained," "The Hateful Eight" hypnotizes with dialogue while edging toward brutal recrimination that is at once wincing and cartoonish. The movie, brimming with N-words and ghosts of the Old South, distills the disquieting polarization of a country that has given us Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter.

Filmmakers are often reluctant to draw analogies between their work and divisive current events. But Tarantino relishes hitting nerves and insinuating himself into the broader conversation.

"The events in the world are disturbing to say the least, but as an artist you can only hope to do some piece of material that actually connects to the zeitgeist," Tarantino said. "While we were doing the movie that sort of blue state-red state divide that had been going on — and it wasn't lost on me when I wrote the script — just got wider and wider and the people on both sides of the line seemed to be even more vocal in demonizing one another."

Talking to Tarantino is like buying a car from a man at the end of an alley. He's coy, quick, effervescent. He has a prankster's laugh, and his long frame, tailored in gray and black, unfolds like a loosed hinge. He sat in a Beverly Hills hotel as dusk fell over Hollywood Hills and President Obama addressed the nation after the San Bernardino shootings. The director had been talking to the press about his film for three days, and it seemed he could go for three more.

Samuel L. Jackson took a seat beside him. The two have collaborated for decades, and in "The Hateful Eight" Jackson is Major Marquis Warren, an ex-Union soldier and bounty hunter who relies on his wits, pistol and a suspect letter from Abraham Lincoln. Theirs is a relationship rooted in a reverence for film and Jackson's loyalty to the director even as many blacks have criticized his portrayals of African Americans.

A look at the films that propelled celebrated directors to prominence. (By Christy Khoshaba)

Both men escaped to movie houses when they were young, and, with Tarantino shaking his head, Jackson, 66, his voice like swallowed thunder, remembered his boyhood in Tennessee.

"I came home and I pretended to be the thing I saw up there because it made me feel good and it was exciting," he said, gesturing toward Tarantino. "Those are the kind of movies he makes. He writes things that are complex, interesting and exciting. I don't get a lot of those things. I get a lot of stuff. Very few scripts are those things."

Anticipation for the movie, shot on high-resolution 70mm film with an overture by Ennio Morricone, has been strong. It received several Golden Globe nominations, including for screenplay, and is part of an aggressive Academy Awards campaign by the Weinstein Co.Despite his contentiousness, Tarantino, who threatened to shelve the movie after the script was leaked online in 2014, is a favorite among academy voters — he's won two Oscars for his scripts for "Django Unchained" and "Pulp Fiction," which he shared with Roger Avary.

"The Hateful Eight" glides on greed and betrayal played out in Minnie's Haberdashery, an outpost in a blizzard where eyes squint hard and little is as it seems. The film also stars Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen andBruce Dern, playing a bitter, white-haired Confederate general. They are a pernicious lot guided by the harsh codes of an untamed land where a hangman roams for hire and the sheriff has the oily manner of a corrupt preacher.

Racism and barbed vernacular — sentences flit like venomous sparrows — salt this mendacious stew. Major Warren is the only black among whites, some of whom tolerate him while putting him in his place with the N-word, and others who would just as soon lynch him. The major is wily enough to know that safety is a black man's delusion, which is why he keeps his weapon close and an ever-assessing gleam in his eyes. He uses the color of his skin and all it evokes to scare, revile, placate, humor and draw respect.

"If I have one serious subject that has carried over with me," said Tarantino, 52, "it is dealing with race in America and in particularly between white folks and black folks.... It is who I am and what I'm interested in."

Black writers and intellectuals have upbraided Tarantino for warping black history and offending with caricature and epithet. One of his most vocal detractors has been Spike Lee, a director whose vision and cinematic alchemy are as captivating as Tarantino's. Both filmmakers explore race; Lee's new movie "Chi-Raq", which also stars Jackson, bristles with street violence and the N-word in Chicago. But Lee vilified "Django Unchained," about a black slave turned gunslinger, in a tweet: "American slavery was not a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. It was a Holocaust."

Sam Jackson on Quentin Taratino.

 (Los Angeles Times)

"What's most offensive is that [Tarantino's films] are being treated as a guide to black history," said Ishmael Reed, a writer and activist who recently edited "Black Hollywood Unchained," a collection of essays on how African Americans are portrayed in films. "Tarantino gets more coverage and a bigger audience. There aren't enough black directors with enough power to accurately tell the story of black history."

Such criticism doesn't "deserve much respect from me," said Tarantino, suggesting that his opponents want to appropriate racial and cultural touchstones to keep them out-of-bounds for white artists. "I'm a writer. Writers are supposed to write about themselves and other people. Male writers are supposed to write about white people and black people and children, women and old people."

Tarantino has a sharp awareness of the times and a savant's detailed passion for movies. He is a "provocative artist and filmmaker," said Yoruba Richen, a black documentary director. "What I appreciate about him is that he's engaging with issues of race. I don't always like what he does, but I'm interested."

Dressed in a burgundy cap and a matching sweater, Jackson took the argument back to his Chattanooga childhood when his grandfather, who cleaned offices, was referred to as "boy" and worse by white men. He said in the South everyone professed to hate the N-word. "But every rap song has it in it. It's all over 'Chi-Raq.' It's all over 'Straight Outta Compton.' So what are we talking about?"

He pointed to Tarantino. "He's not that person," he said in answer to those who accuse the director of racism. "He's not any of those people."

In October, Tarantino outraged police unions across the country when he marched in New York to protest police brutality against blacks. "I'm a human being with a conscience," Tarantino said at the rally. "And when I see murder I cannot stand by. And I have to call the murdered the murdered and I have to call the murderers the murderers."

Police threatened to boycott "The Hateful Eight." Days later, Tarantino told The Times: "All cops are not murderers. I never said that. I never even implied that."

But the San Bernardino shootings — carried out by husband and wife Islamic radicals — have tugged the nation, at least for a time, in a different direction. Tarantino and Jackson spoke of the paranoia that blooms from fear and how racial and cultural pecking orders get rearranged. Mentioning that even today he is deferential to police because of what he learned as a boy, Jackson wondered what Muslims in America might encounter in the coming months.

"They're not your neighbors anymore. They're suspects," he said, suggesting what may be in the minds of many. "They've essentially become young black men in a community where before they didn't have to walk the line. People fear them in a way they didn't before."

Tarantino nodded. He sipped water. Jackson leaned back. They were friends, muses, guys used to being holed up for months together. As kinetic as they are, both men, on-screen and in person, have the patience to let a moment gather force. Jackson remembered his youth, sitting on the porch with his grandfather, listening to Andy Griffith on the radio, trying to figure out how a story works, how it crawls into you and makes a home. Tarantino said he wanted to make another western so his work could stand on a shelf with Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah.

He turned to Jackson.

"He does dialogue like nobody else," he said of the actor. "I let him do more collaborating with the structure of the scene and even some of the dialogue and even some of the emotional beats than I allow other actors to do. He's plugged into the way I write."

Tarantino stood and stretched. Night covered the hills. Obama's speech was over and pundits were spinning what it all meant. From the 15th floor of the hotel, the world below unfurled in the bittersweet quiet of a dying Sunday; makeup artists packed their bags and publicists scratched the last names off their lists. Jackson pulled tight his cap and walked to the door.

Television sets flickered with the latest violence from militants in Iraq and Syria, and a day later protesters in Chicago condemned the police shooting of a black teen.

A History of God

Karen Armstrong - Religion and the History of Violence

Karen Armstrong is one of my favorite scholars of theology and
spirituality. I love her because she has that eclectic vision so
necessary to unravel the conundrums of the present intellectual morass.
We are happy to hear her explain her understanding of religion and
violence. Too often we want to attribute world issues to one cause or
another, sometimes politics, religion, economics, ecology, but Karen is
careful to sift through all such isms, schisms, ideologies and
mythologies to arrive at some modicum of truth that we can savor. She is
not always optimistic at the human condition. After one lecture on her
current book, she said she felt dreadful. We share her dread, for the
world has become very dreadful. She notes that men are essentially
predators or killers. She told how men kill and plunder often because
they are bored. This hit us in the gut because we recall when some young
men in the ghetto told us, "OG, you know what we do when we get bored? We
get our bulletproof vests, UZIS and ride through the hood killing
nigguhs." This made me consider that we have become lower than the KKK,
at least they killed because they hated us, certainly not because they
were bored. But I tried to think deeper on this predatory condition of
men. As I grew up in the country where men to hunt, I
wondered was it because in our move to urbanity we were unable to
exercise the hunter myth/ritual. In the absence of deer, duck,
pheasants, quail rabbits and other animals to hunt, in our urbanity we must now resort to
hunting each other, humans killing humans in lieu of animals. How
can we back up from this precipice and return to some level of humanity and/or civility?

Is there any possibility of us reclaiming our divinity which I am want
to maintain is our essential nature. Karen never imagines we are capable of such high spirituality.

This notion of our predatory nature being essential appears to be pervasive in our 
slippery slop into nothingness, dread and absurdity.
-- Marvin X
12/18/15

Karen Armstrong - Religion and the History of Violence

Karen Armstrong is one of my favorite scholars of theology and spirituality. I love her because she has that eclectic vision so necessary to unravel the conundrums of the present intellectual morass. We are happy to hear her explain her understanding of religion and violence. Too often we want to attribute world issues to one cause or another, sometimes politics, religion, economics, ecology, but Karen is careful to sift through all such isms, schisms, ideologies and mythologies to arrive at some modicum of truth that we can savor. She is not always optimistic at the human condition. After one lecture on her current book, she said she felt dreadful. We share her dread, for the world has become very dreadful. She notes that men are essentially predators or killers. She told how men kill and plunder often because they are bored. This hit us in the gut because we recall when some young men in the ghetto told us, "OG, you what we do when we get bored? We get our bulletproof vests, UZIS and ride through the hood killing nigguhs." This made me consider that we have become lower than the KKK, at least they killed because they hated us, certainly not because they were bored. But I tried to think deeper on this predatory condition of men. As I grew up in the country where men used to go hunting, I wondered was it because in our move to urbanity we were unable to exercise the hunter myth/ritual. In the absence of deer, duck, pheasants, quail and other animals to hunt, we must now resort to hunting each other, brothers hunting brothers in lieu of animals. How can we back up from this precipice and return to some level of civility? Is there any possibility of us reclaiming our divinity which I am want to maintain is our essential nature although this notion of the predatory nature being our essence appears to be on a slippery slop of nothingness and absurdity.-- Marvin X

Marvin X's East Coast style biblotherapueutic revolution rocks Oaktown

Master Teacher Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.
Marvin X has given out thousands of books freely to the people. Lately, Dr. Nathan and Dr. Julia Hare gave him permission to give a five book collection of their writings at whatever price God puts in the people's heart. Many do not understand when God tells them to give whatever God puts in their hearts. Some give $100.00, some give $50.00, some give $40, some give $20.00. But it doesn't matter.

Dr. Nathan and Julia Hare authorized Marvin X to tell the people to give what God puts in their hearts. Now what part of English do you understand??????

Most people give $100.00 to $50.00, those who are able to give less give $40-to $20.00. It's okay.
Give what God tells you to give and what you are able to give. Thank you. May God bless you. ASA, Marvin X, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Julia Hare

 Marvin X and his associate and Master Teacher Sun Ra, outside Marvin's Black Educational Theatre,
San Francisco, 1972, on Ofarrel between Fillmore and Webster at the Greek Orthodox Church, renamed the Black Educational Theatre. Sun Ra arranged the music for the musical version of Marvin's play Flowers for the Trashman, renamed Take Care of Business of TCB. Sun Ra and Marvin X produced a five hour performance (without intermission) with a cast of fifty, including the Sun Ra Arkestra and dancers, the Raymond Sawyer dancers and the Ellender Barnes dancers, and the cast of TCP by Marvin X.

 Marvin X in Seattle WA rally in support of Palestine

 Syrian poet/scholar/novelist Dr. Mohja Kahf. She invited Marvin X to read at the University of Arkenssas. She proclaims the Black Arts Movement artists are the foundation of Muslim American literature and art.

 On February 7, 2015, the City of Oakland issued a proclamation in honor of the Black Arts Movement. Mayor Libby Schaaf issued the proclamation in the presence of Marvin X, his daughter Nefertit and grandchildren Naeema and Jahmael, along with the President of Laney College, Dr. Elnora Tina Webb. The Mayor honored Dr. Nathan Hare as the Father of Black Studies in America.
The Marvin X biblotherapueutic (healing through reading books) has finally come to the attention of the West Coast. At his Academy of da Corner, Lakeshore station, the Buppy/Yuppy section of Oakland, he was acknowledged for doing an East Coast thang, i.e., from Harlem to Wash. DC, conscious literature is vended on the streets, especially in Harlem, Brooklyn, Newark, and Philly. Marvin X is often seen vending his books up and down the East Coast. A little brother from Oakland saw him in Philly outside the Gallaria, the downtown mall frequented by Philly's North American Africans. The brother couldn't believe Marvin X was in Philly doing what he does in downtown Oakland, usually at 14th and Broadway, although Marvin also works Lakeshore Ave. and the cross roads of the Black/African Bay Area, the Berkeley Flea Market at the ASHBY BART Station.

Today the Blacks on Lakeshore let him know they know how conscious literature is vended on the streets of Harlem, Brooklyn elsewhere up and down the East Coast. These bi-coastal North American Africans were elated to see Marvin X has that East Coast style of spreading conscious knowledge.

Marvin X didn't hesitate to let them know he does his thang coast to coast, including the Midwest and Dirty South. After working the Fulton Street Mall in Brooklyn, Marvin X stopped at a conscious book stand that sold conscious tapes as well. Since the brothers weren't familiar with him, he shared some of his works freely, books and DVDs. As he departed Fulton Street Mall, a young brother ran up to him saying, "OG, my padnas selling books and tapes said you just left their stand and you got a different point of view. That's what I'm looking for, a different point of view." The young brother spent $30.00 buying Marvin X's different point of view. Ironically, before arriving in Brooklyn, Marvin X had visited the Yoruba African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina. While there a another young man saw him and said, "Marvin X, I know who you are! My friend is your friend on Facebook, and even though I am not your friend, he sends me your writings, and I must admit, you have a different point of view. We appreciate you, Marvin X."

At Marvin X's Academy of da Corner, Lakeshore, he deals with a variety of people, including Christians, Muslims, Native Americans, Whites, Gypsies, Gay/Lesbian, and those who claim to be nothing or none of the above. He tries to treat them all with unconditional love, as he is a follower of His Holliness Guru Bawa, along with Elijah Muhammad, Prophet Muhammad, Rumi, Saadi and Hafiz, and don't leave out Sufi Master of Senegal, Bamba, who has the Holy City Touba, more sacred than Mecca to West African Muslims.

While Marvin X is placed into the Muslim literary tradition, Ishmael Reed says Marvin X must be considered in the Yoruba tradition since he is in that tradition of the artist as teacher, better known as didactic literature, or literature with a purpose, usually moral, probably why Ishmael Reed called him, "Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland." Reed said of Marvin X, "If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."

We suggest you catch Marvin X at work, whether at 14th and Broadway (currently being renamed the Black Arts Movement Cultural and Economic District) or on Lakeshore or at the Berkeley Flea Market, catch him and see if you can escape his aura. Although Marvin X has been literally giving away his books for free, alas, he said God told him to give away a thousand copies of his collection of essays Wish I Could Tell You The Truth. He felt vindicated when two young brothers passed him on Lakeshore but turned around to introduce themselves to him saying, "Brother Marvin X, we just want to shake your hand because we found half of your book Wish I Could Tell You The Truth and it changed our lives. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

More recently, a young brother said to him at the Berkeley Flea Market, "Marvin X, thank you for taking so much pressure off me. After reading your Mythology of Pussy and Dick, I can now get my life together. I don't have to worry about owning my woman's vagina. I can own myself. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And even old men have told Marvin, "Marvin X, I hate to admit this, but I learned something from your Mythology of Pussy and Dick." And the young girls says, "Marvin X, you taught me I had pussy power. I didn't know this before reading your essay. Thank you."
 

Marvin X and Aries Jordan on The Black Arts Movement District, downtown Oakland CA, photo essay by Adam Turner

The BAM/City of Oakland planning committee voted to make The Black Arts Movement Disrtrict the official name of the proposed BAM District, a cultural and economic area along the 14th Street corridor, downtown Oakland. The BAM District will give honor and respect to Oakland's radical tradition of artists as artistic freedom fighters (Paul Robeson). According to Ishmael Reed, "If not for the Black Arts Movement, Black culture would be extinct!" BAM co-founder Marvin X says, "We give all praise to the Harlem Renaissance artists who expressed Black consciousness, inspired by the teachings of Marcus Garvey. We who are part of the Black Arts Movement give praises to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Think of writers Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Sonia Sanchez, Last Poets, Askia Toure, Sun Ra and Marvin X, all influenced by Islam. Muslim American literature originated with the BAM poets, writers, musicians, painters, dancers, actors. BAM artists were "sisters of the Black Power Movement" (Larry Neal). Marvin X says BAM was the Mother of the Black Power Movement because many students and young people came through BAM, then joined the Nation of Islam, the Black Panther Party, Black Students Union. Even the American Prison Movement was influenced by BAM after the staff of Black Dialogue Magazine visited the Soledad Prison's Black Culture Club, chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and Alprintice Bunchy Carter.

BPP co-founder Dr. Huey P. Newton said, "Marvin X was my teacher. Many of our comrades came through his Black Arts Theatre: Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier."

The Black Arts Movement District gives honor and respect to the artistic and political freedom fighters who fought to liberate Oakland and America from the addiction to white supremacy. We think of dancer/choreographer Ruth Beckford, Ellendar Barnes, Raymond Sawyer, Ed Mock, Judith Holton, Suzzette Celeste, Deborah Vaughn, Halifu Osumare, Malika Jamillah, Nisa Ra, et al. We think of Avotcja, Adam David Miller, Sarah Webster Fabio, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Julia Hare, Bob Chrisman, Robert Allen, Abdul Sabrey, Aubrey LaBrie, Duke Williams, Saadat Ahmad, et. al. We especially recognize actor Danny Glover who was with us at San Francisco State University and was a member of Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco. Danny is in the Paul Robeson tradition of the Artistic Freedom Fighter.

As was noted in the BAM/City of Oakland planning meeting: BAM was/is an international Black Arts Movement, that expressed itself nationally and internationally, from Europe to Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Mexico, Africa and elsewhere.

Oakland's Black Arts Movement District serves as the model of a national and international/Pan African artistic movement. Those who think BAM is something from the past are simply lost and turned out on the way to grandmother's house (Whispers). They need to get a healing and come into the present era. After all, we are yet free and thus the mission of BAM continues until freedom is won. Oh, Ancestor Harriet Tubman, speak to us tonight, "...I could have freed more slaves if they had known they were slaves...."

--Marvin X, BAM Planner, December 7, 2015

Next meeting: Oakland City Hall

January 4, 2016, 2PM-5PM

Be there or be square!

Information: 510-200-4164

Graphics design by Adam Turner

 

Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney addresses planning session on establishing an Arts Commission and the Black Arts Movement District

Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb making a point. "Lynette, why didn't you include or sync the BAM agenda with your agenda?"  

Anyka Barber, Director of Betti Ono Gallery, Elder Paul Cobb and Aries Jordan, all BAM District planners

 Menhuaim Ayele, holds a Masters in Architecture, is author of  a book on creating an Afrikatown. His dream is coming true! He is a member of the BAM District planning team. To left of Menhuaim is Duane Deterville, Editor of Black Artists in Oakland. He is a member of the BAM District planning team.







The next meeting of the Black Arts Movement District is January 4, 2016

BAM Notes by Aries Jordan

On Monday 12/7/15 the 2^nd planning  meeting for the Black Arts Movement District began with a review of norms and the ambitious agenda to finalize recommendations for BAM District and Arts Commission. Participants acknowledged the past efforts of  many culture keepers who  also  envisioned a Black cultural district in Oakland . Participants were also  challenged to move past grievances and grief towards a collective vision for  the next  100 years.  The large group was broken into  two working groups to explore the scope of  BAM district and   reestablishment  of the Oakland Arts commission. Both groups passionately shared the need for  protection for Black artist and businesses leaders in Oakland and beyond. 

A consensus was reached on the name “Black Arts Movement”  District  for the 14^th street corridor.  The Black Arts Movement is  a part of Oakland’s history of resistance to oppression and was a catalyst for the spread of Black consciousness in the 1960’s.  The BAM district would serve as a place for cultivation of Black art and economic prosperity. The BAM  group  identified the creation of a BAM Land trust as a top priority; also, an assessment of City of Oakland Properties that BAM district can acquire for performance space, artist space, housing, business space. 

The BAM members envisioned a green space that incorporated Science Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.  The BAM committee also proclaimed that they will support and not compete with our brothers and sisters in east Oakland working on creating a Black Arts Movement district

The Oakland Arts Commission group made recommendations on the process going forward which included partnering with the Oakland's Department of  Race and Equity to ensure protection of existing Black cultural institutions. Moreover, it was also clear that once the Oakland Arts commission is re-established the arts fund needs to be restricted for sustainability, including a citizen review board.

Lastly, the group recommended the establishment of Oakland Entertainment Commission to address the challenges of obtaining permits and licensing. The meeting concluded with closing remarks from City Council President Lynette McElhaney on next steps for the  proposed legislation before the City Council.  Participants departed the meeting  with a sense of hope, fierce determination and commitment to move thoughtfully and swiftly to turn the BAM District into a reality.  

--Aries Jordan

MARVIN X GETS PEN OAKLAND LITERARY AWARD FOR A LIFETIME WRITING THIRTY BOOKS

If you only knew how beautiful you are

I wish black people knew how beautiful they are
no matter negrocities
beautiful people
strange fruit cross lynching tree
century after century
in the sun in the rain pain
a miracle
silence of centuries
strange tongue
songs without memory
songs broken smashed
drama of resurrection
Kemit drama of resurection
ISIS OSIRIS
Yoruba tales a  thousand years
drama of a thousand years
ancestor tales so rich vivid
look at them before the king
they crawl before the king
and he embraces them
the tale of a thousand years
we hear music
 “Blues” from Mali
Why do you let me hear the music
that rocks my soul
why do this to me?
rock my world
take me back a thousand years
look at me sitting on the river bank
my queen and me
look at me dancers before me
telling the story of our tribe
a thousand other tribes
warrior dances
women dances
the dance of priests and priestess
let the come before the Oba
let them crawl before the holy one
let the holy one accept them
Please, do not let me hear the Kora
Do not let me hear the kora
do not shake my world like that
kora is memory vivid and true
I walk around Timbuktu
I teach at the University
Fluent in many languages
we translate for the world in darkness
while we walk in the sun and students
will not leave us alone

I wish black people knew how beautiful they are
something even slavery could not destroy
though it tried in every way every day
to no avail
even the whip could not prevail
destroy the beauty of blackness
a soul force energy beyond time and matter
atomic particles quantum physics
high mathematics
equal justice righteousness peace
Ma’at yes
MIzan (Arabic) balance

so let us travel the space ways
honor Sun Ra Arkestra
travel the space ways
beyond this world
if you find earth boring
the same old same place
take a trip to outter space
next stop is Jupiter Jupiter
You want to get off at Saturn
Let’m off, Saturn!

Black people so beautiful
that’s why they hate us
we beautiful
in spite of our negrocities (Baraka term)
beauty
we can be ugly
slipping into darkness fear
do not let fear consume us
the only thing to fear is fear itself
beyond fear is freedom discipline
beyond fear all things are possible
beyond fear nothing is impossible
if we say yes to life yes to joy yes to love
yes to success yes yes yes.
say yes and be blessed
say yes be blessed
and yet as I write
some are saying no no no
say yes my friends
stop showing God your fist
open your fist so blessing can flow into your hand heart
Did you know God is in the blessing business
but even when He/She comes to bless you are depressed
won’t open your hand to receive
how can God bless you with closed hand
how can God bless you when you are full of the pain of yesterday
let it go let it go let it go
be beautiful
beautiful
black and beautiful.
—Marvin X
11/30/15

I wish black people knew how beautiful they are
no matter negrocities AB term
don't steal my term Marvin X

we are beautiful strange fruit
no matter 
cross lynching tree
century after century
beautiful in the sun rai
we speak is pain
that we can speak at all is a miracle
after the silence of centuries
strange tongue given to us
and yet we sing songs without memory
songs from the past broken smashed
imagine the drama of resurrection
Yoruba tales from a thousand years
the “Blues” from Mali
Do not let me hear the kora
do not shake my world like that
kora is my memory vivid and true
I walk around Timbuktu
I teach at the University
Fluent in many languages
we translate for the world in darkness
while we walk in the sun and students
will not leave us alone

I wish black people knew how beautiful they are
something even slavery could not destroy
though it tried in every way every day
to no avail
even the whip could not prevail
destroy the beauty of blackness
a soul force energy beyond time and matter
atomic particles quantum physics
high mathematics
equal justice righteousness peace
Ma’at yes
MIzan (Arabic) balance

so let us travel the space ways
honor Sun Ra and his Arkestra
travel the space ways
beyond this world
if you find earth boring
the same old same place
take a trip to outter space
next stop is Jupiter Jupiter
You want to get off at Saturn
Let’m off, Saturn!

Black people so beautiful
that’s why they hate us
cause we beautiful
in spite of our negrocities (Baraka term)
in our beauty we ugly
slipping darkness fear
do not let fear consume us
oh my children move beyound fear
fear is in your heart mind
fear controls you unless you jump out of the box like jack
jump jump
you can do it jump

the only thing to fear is fear itself
beyond fear is freedom discipline
beyond fear all things are possible
beyond fear nothing is impossible
if we say yes to life yes to joy yes to love
yes to success yes yes yes.
say yes and be blessed
say yes be blessed
and yet as I write
some are saying no no no
say yes my friends
stop showing God your fist
open your fist so blessing can flow into your hand heart
Did you know God is in the blessing business
but even when He/She comes to bless you are depressed
won’t open your hand to receive
how can God bless you with closed hand
how can God bless you when you are full of the pain of yesterday
let it go let it go let it go
be beautiful
beautiful
black and beautiful.
—Marvin X
11/30/15

Publisher wants to release Marvin X's next book of poetry

At the Pen Oakland Literary Awards Ceremony at the Oakland Main Library today, the publisher of Poetic Matrix Press tentatively agreed to publish Marvin X's next collection of poetry. Marvin's last collection was Land of My Daughters, 2009, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, CA.

Stay turned for the forthcoming poetic collection by Marvin X, known variously as "Plato teaching oh the streets of Oakland" (Ishmael Reed); "The USA's Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz...." (Bob Holman); "The father of Muslim American Literature"(Dr. Mohja Khaf).

At the PEN Oakland Literary Awards, Jack Foley mistakenly said there were no Muslims being awarded today. When Marvin X came up to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award, along with BAM poet/musician Avotchja, Marvin noted that he is a Muslim poet, in fact, considered the "Father of Muslim American literature" (Dr. Mohja Khaf), along with other Black Arts Movement Poets, including Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Muhammad Toure', et al. According to Dr. Khaf, "The Black Arts Movement poets are the foundation of Muslim American literature."

After receiving his award, Marvin X read his classic poem What If, a poem any Muslim would recognize, although Marvin transcends Islam in the poem by including an essential dose of pantheism or African religion. Ishmael Reed puts Marvin X in the Yoruba tradition, while others place him in the Islamic literary tradition. In truth, Marvin X defies all traditions by embracing all traditions.

When I write, I write to write, I do not write in sectarian traditions or any religious tradition. "I am the pen, Allah is the ink."

Sometimes I have had a writing plan for a book until the Holy Spirit took over and I saw I was only the pen and Allah was the ink. It was then that I forgot my plan and let the Holy Spirit guide my hand. I wish somebody could understand. I wish somebody could hep me tonight.
--Marvin X
12/5/15

James Sweeney has noted, "Marvin X is the freest Black man in non-free America." Indeed, being Black listed from Academia has allowed Marvin X to speak freely on any subject that comes to his mind, and for sure his mind is global. Former California Poet Laureate Al Young introduced Marvin X. Al said, "I've known Marvin at least half a century, and we have watched him evolve and expand his consciousness. In his memoir on Eldridge Cleaver: My Friend the Devil, Marvin X revealed not only things we didn't know about Eldridge, but Marvin was more than honest about himself, his own foibles and flaws. What else can we ask of a writer?"

Black Arts Movement Distrtict tentative Agenda for City of Oakland Plannning Meeting, December 7, 2015

1. The need for the BAM land trust is top priority. Just as the Eastside Arts Cultural Center is under a land trust, we want a parity of buildings in the BAM District under the land trust. We call upon Black developers to work with us, e.g., Amy Groves and/or Thomas Dolan. Foundations can help us secure buildings in the BAM District, investment bankers, Silicon Valley corporations can assist us, e.g., Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, et al.

Municipal bonds can be sold to acquire properties. Bonds attorney Amira Jackmon suggests creating jobs for BAM people as bonds salespeople.

We need an assessment of City of Oakland properties that BAM District can acquire for performance space, artist space and housing, businesses, including proposed buildings at 14th and Alice that we understand are part of the Oakland Downtown Plan.

2. Banners up before Xmas along the BAM corridor. Let us start with the Red, Black and Green that Marcus Garvey created during the Harlem Renaissance. We have added the heart because all we do we do in the name of love.

3. Immediately establish the African Women’s Market for vendor’s along the corridor. We suggest a pilot project between Clay and Franklin. We suggest women from the African Diaspora Bazaar organize and operate the African Women’s Market, under the leadership of Aishah Boone.

4. Develop the BAM Business Plan and incorporation papers. Establish Board of Directors and project directors for the various BAM entities. Separate profit from non profit projects.

5. Organize the BAM Union of Artists, modeled after the National Writers Union, AFL/CIO. The Union of Artists will be a membership organization to promote the works of artists in all genres, painters, poets, writers, playwrights, dancers, musicians, graphic artists, directors, technicians. The union will help artists in legal matters such as contracts, royalties, commissions, grants, loans, housing, publishing, printing, exhibits, housing, emergency funds, health insurance, life insurance, mental health and physical health matters.

6. Immediate BAM planning grant so we can work on making the BAM District a reality at the earliest.

7. Tour guides hired for BAM District tours ASAP.

8. Create employment opportunities for artists, craftpersons, entrepreneurs, youth and children.

9. Partner with business community for expertise, especially the African American Chamber of Commerce and the Oakland Chamber of Commerce.

10. Students from the College of Alameda have asked to partner with BAM to establish the BAM Love Zone, a sacred space for lovers only. We would hope the entire BAM District would be a Love Zone.

11. Establish a BAM General Assembly of all BAM members.
12. Establish Elders Council to advise
13. Women’s Council
14. Young Adult Council
15. Children’s Council

These are some of my thoughts. Please let me know your thoughts or agenda items that you feel should be a priority for the December 7 meeting.
—Marvin X, BAM Planner

Meaning of the Red, Black and Green Flag

The Red Black and Green flag is an act of love. Prior to the flag, there was a song called Everybody got a flag except a Coon. Marcus Garvey then presented the Red Black and Green to show the world Africans have a flag, Red for the blood shed, Black for the people, Green for the land we must have as a nation of people. We add the heart for the precious love in our lives. God is Love, so we are in God, God is within us.

The Red Black And Green is sacred to us. We honor the tri colors and want the world to know we are a nation of people under the Red Black And Green. We see the Red Black Green flying coast to coast as we strive toward freedom in the present era. We ask the children to accept the heart in the Red Black and Green as per the Black Arts Movement District. Why the heart?

The heart has been an essential part of the Black Arts Movement/Black Liberation Movement, i.e., Black Power Movement. Revolution is for love, love of family, love of community, love of self, but love always and forever, love. No hate up in here, only love survives and transcends hate, jealously, envy. Let us then move beyond hatred, beyond jealousy, envy toward the pure sprit of love.

Let the BAM banner fly up and down the BAM District. Let the people know they are loved. Let the people know they have a sacred space. Let them know there is a space where their bodies are sacred and holy and will not be violated. Let the people know there is a space where their creativity is respected; where their economic genius is respected, especially in the BAM African Market Women’s Bazaar along the BAM corridor, which they shall organize and operate, in the African/Afrikan tradition
Let the artists form the Union of BAM Artists. Let the business people from their association. Perhaps there must be a General Assembly of Black Arts Movement associates. Let us do this now and for the the generations to come. Ache.

Poem: Ain't Nothing Changed by Rudolph Lewis

Ain’t Nothing Changed

                                  --- For Ben Carson

                          

Ain’t nothing changed but you, Brother—

searchlights, night helicopters, hunting runaways:

shock & awe sameness. Satan still enlightens, still

passes along the apple of knowing in evening

news, a veil of innocence applauding how we change

faces, how Wall Street masks its account on islands.

Heads crowned with fresh hoarfrost yet rambling

in high-spun circles as the defenseless are dragged

from their moment, from their sunny yesterdays.

We grow apart as armies conquer & occupy.

Ain’t nothing changed but you, Brother—you no

longer call me with urgency, with hot words

like NationTime! / The Revolution Is On!

Tongues sniff the air for Italian patent leather

shoes grinding like jackboots—you whipped

into dark suits & red ties, broad denture grins

for PR cameras, mirrors of error dancing in eyes

of black athletes, trapped balling for billionaires

clawing through to the bone, crawling on floors.

But you, Brother, you’re playing golf at the club

with MJ & Tiger. For you, no gunship clouds skies

raining fire on head-holding dreams, no blackness.

Scavenging birds crowd into laboring landscapes

while success prophets celebrate suburban havens.

Ain’t nothing changed but you Brother—a retiring ceo,

daylight comes, daylight goes, leveraging pyramids,

staging annual bus trips to graves of Martin & Malcolm.

Nothing but blue vertigo, barbs of steel wire enclosures

& tanks—colloquiums, councils justifying war,

flying machines crushing Gaza & Baghdad . Nothing’s

changed, Brother—we won’t give up & we won’t let go.

--Rudolph Lewis

Poem by Fritz Pointer: Heightened Awareness

Heightened Awareness

By Fritz Pointer

Where do bomber pilots worship?

Do they genuflect before boarding their bomber planes?

Do they sing “Onward Christian Soldiers Marching On To War?”

            In a Choir like I did?

Do they attend mass

            In a Cardinal Francis Spellman-like cathedral

            To hear a priest say:

            “This is a war for civilization…This is Christ’s war against…”

                        Name your enemy.

This Catholic Cardinal, this “Man of the cloth”  - as they say

            Blessed the bombs, the missiles, the guns

            That sent 2 million Vietnamese and 4 million Cambodian souls

             “To a better place”

            Sprinkled them with Holy “Shit”

            In the name of the Father, the Son and the Ghost

And, bomber pilots are not Terrorists

            Because they go to church not mosque

            Because bombing from planes is more Christ-like?

                        And such priests  represent the “Prince of Peace”

                        “With the cross of Jesus”…blah, blah, blah.

Obama sends drones to kill Muslim clerics who speak ill of America.

            Where does he go to pray before this?

            What hymn does he sing?

II

Je Suis Paris

I am France

Je Suis Damascus

I am Syria

Je Suis Kabul

I am Afghanistan

Je Suis Moscow

I am Russia

Je Suis Manhattan

I am New York

Je Suis Khartoum

I am Sudan

Je Suis Narobi

I am Kenya

Je Suis Beirut

I am Lebanon

Je Suis Columbine and Aurora

I am Colorado

Je Suis Tripoli

I am Libya

Je Suis Nablus

I am Palestine

Je Suis Kiev

I am Ukraine

Je Suis Charleston

I am North Carolina

Je Suis Sana’a

I am Yemen

Je Suis Newtown

I am Connecticut

Je Suis Yola and Kano

I am Nigeria

Je Suis Ciudad Juarez

I am Mexico

Je Suis Baghdad

I am Iraq

Je Suis Bamako

I am Mali

Je Suis Boston

I am Massachusetts

Je Suis N’djamena

I am Chad

Je Suis Kerawa

I am Cameroon

III

Je Suis Charlie Hebdo

Je Suis Amadou Diallo and Orlando Barlo, Sean Bell and Sandra Bland Oscar Grant and Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Dante Price,  Trevon Martin and Ranisha McBride, Walter Scott and Darus Simmons  Mike Brown and Freddie Gray, Andy Lopez and Ramarley Graham,  Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell …

I am Prince Jones and Samuel Dubose, Aaron Campbell and  Jonathan Ferrell, Justin Sipp and Alan Blueford  …

Hanging from an oil-stained Cross, Crescent and Star

Je Suis !  Je Suis!!  Je Suis Humanity!!!

I am!  I am!! I am Humanity!!!

11/21/15