A Black Dialogue on the Black Arts Movement and Hip Hop

Marvin X and his student Dr. J. Vern Cromartie

photo Gene Hazzar

Sun, May 6, 2018 at 9:33 AM, J Vern Cromartie

Hello Marvin,

Attached, you will find the special issue of Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies
which includes my article titled "Black Social Movements Past and Present:
A Comparative Analysis of the Black Arts Movement and the Hip Hop Movement."  
I presented the paper at the 2014 Black Arts Conference at UC Merced.
I look forward to your response.

Yours in solidarity,

Vern

JPAS - Journal of Pan African Studies

JPAS - Journal of Pan African Studies By Chita Obasi | Pretty Logical Solutions Journal of Pan African Studies - JPAS. Journal based on African world community studies and research.

Reply by Marvin X

Subject: Re: My Paper on the Black Arts Movement and the Hip Hop Movement

I read your section on BAM and see you still have a problem with BAM language although
you only mentioned BPP language as per Cleaver. BPP language, BLk Studies language and
BAM language are not the same. BAM didn't deal with the church as did the BPP. And we
definitely didn't submit to academic censorship, which is partly why I dropped out of SFSU
after the Drama Department did Flowers but wanted to tone it down! That was the motivation
to start Black Arts West Theatre.

You mention name changes but what did name changes represent as per consciousness and
ideology?

You mentioned Kwanzaa originating in LA, but your research should tell you it came out of
Oakland's Afro American Association. See Ed Howard. Karenga was LA rep of AAA.
Will check out your section on Hip Hop and get back to you. You put a lot of research in
your paper so I applaud you.

You, Kim and others want to limit my work to the West coast as though I did not work in
Harlem, 1968-69, along with the East  Coast BAM family or did not spend time in Chicago
with BAM Chicago, 1968. One of my duties as Associate editor of the New Lafayette
Theatre's Black Theatre Magazine was distribution to all the black colleges Also, as per
the West coast, you did not mention my Black Educational Theatre, 1972, Fillmore, and
my work with Sun Ra at BET, especially the Harding Theatre five hour, no intermission,
production of Take Care of Business.

On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 4:31 AM, Kim McMillon wrote:

Dear Marvin,

Please know I have no wish to limit anyone's work, scholarship or brilliance.  
As many times as you have spoken to my classes, uncensored, please know I have
no desire to limit your work to any region or area of study with regards to the
Black Arts Movement. I consider you an international scholar of the Black Arts Movement.
Vern put a great deal of work into a wonderful essay on the Movement.  We are all telling
our stories, giving our research on a Movement that will one day be written about in history
books because of people insisting that our stories, our history and the beauty of our Blackness
be told. The Black Arts Movement similar to our very Blackness is without limits.
Peace,

Kim

From: Marvin X Jackmon
To: Kim McMillon
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2018 7:29 AM

Kim, what is the title of the section with my name on it in the journal? What were the negative comments about my use of language at UC Merced BAM Conference? What were the concerns as per language at the BAM South Conf which is one reason I didn't attend. Negroes are conservative simply because we are not free. Age enforces conservatism even with so-called radical blacks, including ancestor AB (I will save my comments about his psycholinguistic crisis for my paper on him). But BAM taught Hip Hop how to say motherfucka then condemned them for saying it which is hypocritical to say the least and is best expressed in the moral hypocrisy of Bill Cosby and other culture police.

Congratulations on your PhD, hapi b day and Mother's Day. Thanks for catching the BAM baton and
moving forward. Love you and appreciate you.

Marvin

On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 7:43 AM, Kim McMillon  wrote:

Dear Marvin,

I love and appreciate you also.  African Americans continually look back at our ancestors seeking
ways to heal ourselves and our history.  We compete in academia with people of all races that seek
to judge us and our history. Often teaching our history in ways that are painful.   So much of what
we do is censor ourselves because of our fears. For many, one wrong move or indiscretion,
particularly before you receive tenure, and you are fired.  I have only worked as an adjunct, but
I see the ill-treatment of academics of color. Each person has to decide what is right and best for them. I cannot judge. Often, as a race we censor ourselves.  Perhaps your voice is so important because you have chosen not to censor your words.

Your voice has made a difference in my scholarship.   Thank you. Peace, and Love, Kim

On Sunday, May 13, 2018, 10:01:14 AM PDT, Eric Arnold  wrote:

i can't speak to the omissions Marvin is pointing out, but the section of hip-hop misses the point
by quite a few miles.

first, it completely ignores the seminal influence of BAM on the early development of what would
become known as hip-hop culture.

It makes the mistake of positing that hip-hop culture developed in a vacuum in the Bronx, with no
outside influences. That is entirely incorrect.

In actuality, the ideological, iconographical, and stylistic elements of hip-hop, which began in the
mid-60s and continued throughout the 70s and 80s, were highly informed by BAM and associated
concurrent movements.

The modern graffiti movement emerged in 1967, the same year that the community mural movement
was established in Chicago, a center for BAM, and was directly influenced by BAM ideology.

The political and social consciousness of the Zulu Nation was directly informed by the Black
Panthers, Sun Ra, and Sly Stone.

Yet the influence of the Bay Area of what became hip-hop culture is completely overlooked.

Instead, the writer continues to spread the Bronx Creation Myth as an accepted narrative, without
ever mentioning the Black Panthers opened up an Information Center in Bronx River in 1968 which
was visited by a young Bambaataa, before he even took that name. Bambaataa's given name in the
article is also incorrectly listed.

There is no mention whatsoever of the influence BAM had on the Afrocentric spoken word movement
which was foundational to the development of the hip-hop emcee. The Last Poets were directly
influenced by BAM. Yet this is not mentioned.

The references to hip-hop are piecemeal and far from comprehensive or thorough. They reflect an
academic perspective from the outside looking in, which has little understanding or knowledge of
how hip-hop actually developed.

This is because the author does no original research, and limits his findings to repeating or
paraphrasing what others have written.

Unfortunately, this approach results in many factual errors, and is also somewhat self-serving,
in that it exists for the purpose of propping up academia, rather than understanding that hip-hop
was in part created because of the inherent limitations of universities and the inability to these
institutions to relate to street-level social and cultural movements. Hip-hop in the late 80s and early
90s, for example, existed as an alternative source of information to the university system and the
failure of public education to overcome cultural bias--as referenced by KRS-One in "Yoiu Must Learn." Public Enemy in "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos," and Poor Righteous Teachers on "Self-Styled Wisdom." And then later by dead prez on "They Schools."

The article posits that hip-hop has never been a threat to Wall Street, and that record companies
never promoted consciousness, which is categorically untrue. In fact, in 1988-92, conscious rap far
outsold gangsta rap. Recently, Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize, becoming the first pop music
artist to do so. Yet this continuum is completely unexamined.

It is also unclear why there is not a single reference to Tupac Shakur who was a prime example of
the generational legacy of both BAM and the Black Panther Party. This is simply unconscionable.
Tupac began his artistic career as a theater student and poet before becoming a rapper, and his family
were members of the New York BPP chapter.

In my own research, some of which was integral to the Oakland Museum of California's current
hip-hop exhibit which I was a co-curator of, I didn't just look at what academics unconnected to the
culture had to say about it. I didn't begin the historical timeline I created in 1973, but in 1965. One
big reason for that was that year was the year BAM was founded.

So, while on a superficial level, this paper appears to connect many dots, in actuality there are many
more unconnected points.

I agree with Marvin that hip-hop culture is part of the legacy of BAM. But it will take more than
window-gazing to clearly and definitively unpack this.

Regretfully, articles like this may be well-intentioned, but ultimately do the cultures they are
attempting to define a disservice by getting so many things wrong and presenting while presenting
themselves as authoritative. This problem has been evident since the 90s, when the first academic
papers and books on hip-hop were published. While there are some scholars who write credibly
about the culture and come from hip-hop backgrounds, Cromartie is clearly not one of them.

In the future, if you are going to attempt to present Black history anywhere, please make sure you
get it right. Disinformation = miseducation.

Peace,

Eric Arnold

Kim McMillon 

To:Eric Arnold

May 13 at 12:00 PM

Dr. Itibari Zulu offered us the platform on which to explore the Black Arts Movement.  Much like life, there are hundreds of ways to view the same material.  One of the wonderful things about research and scholarship is its fluidity.  I invite anyone that has an opinion about this special edition to write an article discussing your research and submit it to Dr. Zulu.  We create new scholarship by researching and being in conversation with each other.  However, whether you agree or disagree, kindness is so important.  As African Americans, we are continually barraged by a world  that does not always understand our beauty and Blackness.  Let us be kind to each other.  We can disagree over new research, but each of us has important work to add to this conversation.  Vern, thank you for your important work.

Peace,
Kim McMillon

On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 11:30 AM, J Vern Cromartie wrote:

Hello Eric,

Thank you for expressing your opinion.  With all due respect, I hope that you took the time to
read the footnotes as well as the main text.  Many of the statements you made are simply not true.
My basic position is that Hip Hop is not a culture.  It is a social movement. Perhaps, you simply
do not know what is a social movement. If you think that Hip Hop is a culture, perhaps you do not
know what is a culture. My Gullah culture is a culture.  Mona Lisa Saloy's Creole culture is a culture.
Each culture can be broken down into ideas (e.g., values), norms, and material culture. Gullah culture
and Creole culture can meet that challenge, but not Hip Hop. Further, Kendrick Lamar's getting a
Pulitzer Prize is like Halle Berry getting an Oscar for the film Monster's Ball.  By the way, the Black
Arts Movement actually started before 1965. As I said on pages 89-90, "The Black Arts Movement
emerged in 1964 with beachfronts in two locations: the New York area and the San Francisco-Oakland
Bay Area."  The first issue of Soulbook was issued in 1964 rather 1965.  That is a fact, not an opinion
my brother.  Of course, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

Yours in solidarity,

Vern

On May 13, 2018, at 12:38 PM, Eric Arnold wrote:

Vern,

with all due respect, i call BS.

we can go point for point here.

< Many of the statements you made are simply not true.  >

You make this laughable assertion without even attempting to qualify it with examples. Therefore,
it lacks any credibility of proof.

<  My basic position is that Hip Hop is not a culture. >

This is factually-untrue, Actually poth premosterous and presumptuous. Hip hop as a culture has
been extremely well-documented, from the artistic elements (mentioned in the essay), tot he stylistic
elements, to its aesthetics. If this assertion were true,it would have been impossible for me to create a
historical timeline of the culture fopr a museum exhibit, or document the culture as i have done
professionally as a published journalist since 1992, because the culture would be non-existent. So, on
this basic point, you fail mightily. Furthermore, hip-hop is not only a black and brown-originated
American culture on a par with blues, jazz, and rock n roll, but it is a global culture which has taken
root in every continent of the world, with the exception of Antartica. this, too, is well-documented,
to the point that it is ridiculous to even attempt to debate otherwise.

< It is a social movement. >

There is no reason why hip-hop can't be a culture as well as a social movement as the two concepts
are not oppositional. In fact, they often go hand in hand and can be indistinguishable. Would anyone
in their right mind refer to the Harlem Renaissance or the Ragtime era as social movements without
also referencing their cultural aspects? Would anyone claim that the lifestyle and aesthetics centered
around jazz were strictly social phenomena and unconnected to culture? The weight of the ignorance
you project here onto hip-hop is simply hard to fathom.

Remember that we are talking about five decades of cultural evolution and development, which has
intersected with, been informed by, and influenced numerous social and political movements during
that span. Hip-hop is inherently sociocultural if not inherently sociopolitical, and has been that way
since before the culture even had a name. this is an aspect of a concept derived from BAM, that
cultural expression reflect the social sentiments of the time. If we go back to the earliest foundations
of hip-hop--black dance forms, funk music, graffiti--they are all cultural and social phenomena.
It is essentially impossible to argue that hip-hop DJing is not cultural, since it literally created its own
cultural practices, i.e., breakbeats, park jams, turntablism. Those are just a few examples, but there
are more. The cultural practice of emceeing or rapping is derived from the African American oral
tradition, which in no way was a purely social phenomenon. The intentional adoption of Afrocentric
imagery in the late 80s was a cultural practice. I could go on and on here. You are simply wrong from
a factual standpoint, regardless of your opinion.

< Perhaps, you simply do not know what is a social movement.   If you think that Hip Hop is a
culture, perhaps you do not know what is a culture.>

This is just pure arrogance. I have been researching and documenting hip-hop culture since I wrote
my thesis on it in college, in 1991. I am well-regarded as a pioneer of hip-hop journalism, as well as
a cultural historian. I have published numerous articles over the years examining both culture and
social movements, and interviewed many primary sources. I'm not going to run down my entire CV
here but you have no idea who i am or how deeply-ingrained i am in hip-hop culture, or what my
understanding is of social movements. Perhaps you shouldnt write about things you know nothing
about.

< Each culture can be broken down into ideas (e.g., values), norms, and material culture.  >

The same holds true for hip-hop. It has aesthetics and unique practices, many of which have become
traditional at this point. It has regional, national, and even international aspects., and has influenced
mainstream popular culture in every place it has spread to. Perhaps you felt the need to lecture me,
as if i was an ignorant child. Unfortunately for you, that is not the case.

< Gullah culture and Creole culture can meet that challenge, but not Hip Hop.>

Once again, you fail to qualify your assertion, rendering it non-credible. This is simply an empty and
ego-driven statement with no basis in reality. It's really quite delusional. I've lived through every era
of hip-hop, so i can personally attest to its values, norms, and material aspects. I personally know
practitioners of every single element of hip-hop who uphold this criteria you define, which evidently
you are completely unaware of.  I think perhaps the broad appeal of hip-hop and its impact on
mainstream popular culture are beyond your comprehension as well. Which is why you reject
evidence and proof to the contrary of your point which is well-documented.

< Further, Kendrick Lamar's getting a Pulitzer Prize is like Halle Berry getting an Oscar for the
film Monster's Ball.  >

This is just dismissive and belittling of what in actuality is an unprecedented accomplishment. Is
shows a scorn and disdain for the artform of which K.Dot is an unquestioned master of, and speaks
to an implicit cultural bias which, by all rights, should disqualify you from even attempting to write
about hip-hop as a movement, culture, economic development strategy, ideological platform, or
form of popular entertainment. Your unmitigated gall here is largely reminiscent of the dismissing
of hip hop by white politicians in the late 80s and early 90s and shows a profound lack of
understanding of what hip-hop actually is. Ironically, I was just asked, as a hip-hop cultural expert,
to speak on the significance of Lamar's achievement by a major newspaper.

By the way, the Black Arts Movement actually started before 1965.>

Actually, you are also incorrect here. I attended the 50th anniversary celebration of BAM
which was produced by Marvin, a BAM co-founder, in 2015. Feel free to do the math yourself.
You are correct in naming the Soul Students Advisory Committee in 1964, but they didn't call
themselves part of the BAM, because that movement had not yet been named. We can also point to
things Ishmael Reed and others were doing as early as 1962 as things which led up to BAM but are
generally not considered an official part of its history, just as we can look at how Oakland boogaloo
evolved into hip-hop dance beginning in 1965-66, although hip-hop itself wasnt named until 1977
and didnt appear in print until 1981. We can note that the dance form known as b-boying evolved
out of NYC street gangs, and that the uprock preceded Kool Herc's first DJ party by at least a year.
Or we can look at the Revolutionary Action Movement, which had an Oakland chapter, preceded the
formation of the Black Panther Party, and had a similar ideology. we can also point to the Deacons of
Self Defense in Louisiana as a forebear to the Panthers. We can note that Seale and Newton both
organized out of the Anti Poverty Office in North Oakland in 1965. But we can't say the Panthers
started, as the Panthers, before October, 1966.

My point, to be clear, is that movements don't just spring out of thin air, and always have things
leading up to them. Hip hop culture is no different in this regard. In fact, the culture existed for as
much as fifteen years before it was even named as such.

Please make a more concerted effort in the future to get past your own confirmation bias and dont
hesitate to do original research.

Peace,

Eric Arnold

On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 6:31 PM, Ayodele Nzinga wrote:

Eric

All behold the cultural slipstream a fluid continuum eating and regurgitating itself to feed its young.

Reply by Eric

dig it.

however, the notion that hip-hop is not a cultural movement is simply a dog which wont hunt. it is
refuted by any number of sources over a five-decade span.

even asking that question tends to define the asker rather than the culture itself.

i have been advised to worship at the hip-hop shrine.

i would just note that any shine i worship at will honor the ancestors and make space for future
generations.

peace to all -- even Vern

Eric

Marvin X at Oakland Museum of California's Respect Hip Hop Exhibit. BAM archives are in display

on left.

photo Adam Turner

From Norman Richmond, Toronto, Canada

To: Marvin X

Brother Marvin,

Let me add my two Canadian cents into this discussion. I was in Mount Morris Park aka Marcus Garvey Park  that day when Eldridge Cleaver spoke in 1968. I, like you,  was “Slippin’  into Darkness” (Underground, wanted by the FBI). Both of us shared time together in Toronto....

It was Mae Mallory NOT Fannie Lou Hamer that Papa Rage was talking about. He pointed out the role that she played in defense of Monroe, North Carolina’s Robert F. Williams. Here is Sister Mae’s story she is part of our international Black Radical Tradition and should never be forgotten.

https://www.aaihs.org/mae-mallory-forgotten-black-power-intellectual/

On Sun, May 13, 2018 at 9:36 AM, J Vern Cromartie wrote:

Hello Marvin,

Thank you for your email.  With all due respect, my article did not focus solely on you.  I covered 

some of your activities, but not all.  I did the same thing with Amiri Baraka and others, including 

Dingane. My aim was to look at the Black Arts Movement as a social movement in comparison to 

the Hip Hop Movement as a social movement.  

As you know, I was a former student of yours at Laney College and took your theatre arts class 

during the early 1980s.  As a part of that class, I read many of your works  (plays, poetry, essays, 

interviews, etc.) and wrote my own play titled A Day in the Life of Hughes, Langston, which was 

staged at the College of Alameda and EGYPT Theatre during 1982.  I also wrote a review of your 

play In the Name of Love, which was staged at Laney College and directed by Dr. Ayodele Nzingha 

and starred Zahieb Mwongozi. The Grassroots newspaper in Berkeley published the review during 

1982.  In addition, the Clute Institute for Academic Research published my article on you titled 

"Teaching Black Studies at the University of California, Berkeley: The Case of Marvin X and the 

Afro-American Studies Program" during 2009  In the special issue of Africology: The Journal of 

Pan African Studiesthat you edited, you published a poem I wrote dedicated to you during 2010.  

Furthermore, I attended the Black Men's Conference at the Kaiser Center in Oakland which you 

organized a long time ago during 1980.  Thus, we go way back as we say in the Gullah territory. 

When Amiri Baraka died, you asked me for money so that you could buy a ticket to attend the 

funeral.  I gave you money in the form of a "C" note.  I did that out of brotherly love for you and 

respect for Amiri Baraka.  I could not go to the funeral so I felt good about helping you to go.  

Lastly, my article does acknowledge that you were active on the East Coast as well as the West 

Coast.  For example, I mentioned that you were in the audience in Harlem  when Eldridge Cleaver 

made a despicable remark in public to Fannie Lou Hamer.  Regarding that incident, I quoted you 

in your book Somethin' Proper.  Remember, you said that the Harlem speech of Eldridge Cleaver 

was "disgusting, degenerate" on page 172.  You said that, not me. 

Yes.  I have a W. E. B. Du Bois Lecture Series at Contra Costa College wherein I do not allow 

speakers to use profanity, racial slurs, and ethnic slurs.  I believe that students should have the 

right to come to an event and not  be insulted by profanity, racial slurs, and ethnic slurs.  I believe 

in academic freedom, but there is a limit to it and a responsibility that comes along with it.  Each 

speaker in the lecture series has to agree in a contract not to use profanity, racial slurs, and ethnic 

slurs. In the interest of civility, I stand by that position.  I tell all speakers that if you cannot say it 

in a mosque, temple, synagogue, or church, you cannot say it in the W. E. B. Du Bois Lecture 

Series at Contra Costa College.  There are cultural centers and community centers wherein one 

can go and use that language.  I say go there.  

Yours in solidarity,

Vern

Marvin  replies to J. Vern

At San Francisco's Glide Church, one can say motherfucka or anything. What is profanity in a profane, obscene world? As you recall, I turned down your $400.00 honorarium because of your Puritanism that I consider reactionary. Clearly you missed the critical point of BAM's freedom of speech and liberation esthetics in my class and productions. Do you recall my poem Tenured Niggas, "Muzzled mouth dogs, think nothing, do nothing, say nothing, makin' too much money to be a nigga...."

Yes, you mentioned me at Marcus Garvey Park when Cleaver spoke, and my comments were reactionary because I drank the Muslim Kool Aid. Again, check my name at the time, Marvin X. I was trying to be holier than thou, e.g., I rewrote Flowers as Take Care of Business, minus the profanity. Harlem treated me like a holy man except they couldn't deal with me as a member of the NOI in the land of Malcolm X, Harlem. In hindsight, I would do what Cleaver said about Fanny Lou Hamer. 

Sun Ra chided me, "Marvin, you so right you wrong." He was referring to the production of TCB in which I took out a sex scene. 

For sure, I am going to say what I want to say til my dying day, fuck money, fuck fame and popularity. Instead of saying motherfuck you, I will be nice and say lakum dinukum waliya din, I.e., to you your way and to me mine. 

Reply by J. Vern:

Hello Marvin,

All I can say to that is WOW!  

Yours in solidarity,

Vern

Prayer for Young Mothers by Marvin X

Prayer for Young Mothers

Young mother hold on

we know you jumped life too soon

baby with baby

alone

man gone

jail prison

other baby mama

man holding his hand

hold on little mama

you have friends around the world

young girls trapped in prison of the womb

baby asking questions minute by minute

answers you are without

take your time

pace yourself

have a plan

for resurrection

you are the mighty the strong

don't give up give out give in

life is yours to win

keep faith til you win the race

in a moment there is time

to party look cute

work your mind

read a book

life ain't just lookin cute

cute but psycho

drop sacred seeds in yo baby's mind

don't call him motherfucker all the time

we know you stressed

angry

baby daddy wasn't true

he lied

said I love you
how long did you know him

did you know his name

a one night stand

booty call strange man

no matter

come up

my doctor pregnant at 16

family cast her out

now she doctor at 32

baby boy 16

see what I mean

you can do it too

think it out
plan it out

work it out

it's up to you

baby daddy can't save you

can't save himself

he baby too

like you.

Don't go crazy

don't drug out

suicide in the night

keep the faith

you from a Great Race

who suffered much

who cried many days

centuries

up from slavery of the body

now slavery of the mind

get a grip

hold tight the rope of God

He's checkin' every move

every step you take

He takes ten.

you can't help but win.

When baby cry

give him some tea

cool him out

don't put him cross knee

don't be mean

cause you see baby daddy in his eyes lips nose

son came through you but ain't you

ain't baby daddy either

on a mission of his own

into a world you may never see

be gentle yet firm

we know mother's love

unconditional

baby same

he don't want food

clothes toys

he wants mama 24/7

you his heaven.

we know the world awaits him

with frown no smile

be kind to man-child.

He may bless you one day

beyond your imagination

he may be the one to save us

from oppression.

--Marvin X

2/15/10

Is Prez Donald Trump a fool or triple damn fool?

Is Prez Donald Trump a fool or triple damn fool?

Since we are Gemini, May 29, same as JFK, and Trump is Gemini too, June 14, 1946, we have been forced to say we understand a madman who speaks out of his mind most of the time, often not thinking of the consequences of his remarks, especially upon becoming President of the United Snakes of America. In his Gemini multiple personalities, Narcissism and Schizophrenia, we have or share a minimal understanding of his psychosis, mood swings and ever changing statements that astound those with a modicum of sanity. His saving grace is that he has surrounded himself with a plethora of military advisers who have the disciple to keep him from advancing headlong into the precipice of global madness.

As a Black Nationalist, we appreciate his White Nationalism. Although White Nationalism is a mythology dead in the water of geo-political realities, most especially in America with its demographics of non-white peoples, thus Trump is on a suicide path into nothingness and dread.

You can champion White Nationalism til the cows come home, but as per the USA, one would be better to chant La Raza La Raza La Raza. Although I am a Black Nationalist, with clear understanding of the desire of white people to remain white, the reality in America is La Raza La Raza La Raza!

America first? Yes, Elijah Muhammad taught us Self First! Mama and Daddy said charity begins at home and spreads abroad. But what is the American reality rather than fantasy? White folks ain't even fucking while Latinos say they will fuck into power in America and last time I checked they are doing so.

Have you toured California's central valley from Sacramento to Los Angeles or San Diego? Start with the government in Sacramento, check out who's in power, then travel on through the central valley towns like Modesto, Turlock, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Selma, Hanford, Visalia, Reedly, and what will you discover?

You shall discover Latinos or La Raza are the mayor, city council, police, planning commission, board of education, etc. And why shouldn't they, they are the majority, they are the farm workers in the greatest agri-business economy in the world. Blacks were brought from the South to the valley but have retired to the good life as consumers rather than land owners and producers, workers.

But as per Prez Donald Trump and his European brothers, France, Germany, UK, in his white supremacy hubris, he ignores them in favor of  the axis of evil: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf States, sycophants all of an ephemeral globalism.

Trump is thus caught in the quagmire of his white nationalism and the deep state machinations of those who exist beyond economics and political domination, alas, they are so evil there is nothing to adequately describe their agenda of nothingness and dread. They have their underground hovels and outer space stations to retreat after they have destroyed the world for no reason whatsoever other than a masturbation to avoid the joy of sex!

If they truly cared about the proliferation of nuclear weapons would they not demand Israel disarm?

If they truly cared about terrorism, would they not demand Israel stop its State Terrorism and negotiate a peace treaty that culminates in the liberation of the Palestine concentration  camps with an independent Palestinian state?

After North American Africans have endured 400 years of white insanity, we are amazed Europeans think they enjoy any moral right to sanity and non-whites are to be disarmed of nuclear weapons while the Europeans are the only ones who have used such weapons, and in doing so avoided bombing Europeans but Asians were fair game. It matters not to us whether Iran or North Korea has nuclear weapons. The only people we are concerned about using such weapons is Europeans, especially European Americans.

-Marvin X

Marvin X on Dealing With Genius Children

Let us begin with the fact that all children are born genius and their minds configure imaginings beyond our comprehension. I was and still am astounded with the remark from my grandson as we walked to Oakland's Lake Merritt when he was three years old at best: "Grandfather, you can't save the world but I can!" We were departing my Academy of Da Corner at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland where I teach. Ishmael Reed said I was Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.
But at this same time, some teenagers were talking and my grandson entered their conversation, yes, at three years old. One of the teenagers came over to me and said, "Yo, dude, your grandson all in our conversation like he a teenager! He somethin' else!" When he said he could save the world and I couldn't, it was a relief. I felt I was relieved of the weigh of the world. As a woman friend told me, you got to sometimes take off that X. That X is a burden and sometimes you just need to be you, not the savior of the world.

So I listen to my children and grandchildren. With my children, I don't need to listen because I see them execution their dreams, mine and their ancestors. I do not think they are fully conscious of ancestor dreams and elder dreams, too often youth and children think they invented the wheel.

I suspect my mother knew I was her special child, my siblings told me Mom said I was years later. But she gave me freedom, even when I was totally out of control and she put me out in my junior year in high school. I was all in her business as per her new man, father of her last three children.
In the Oedipus syndrome,I  wanted to reconcile with my father although this was my delusional thinking, Mother had grown beyond my father who was twenty years her senior when they married and although he taught her many things, he was from the past world and she was of the future. It was doubtful my stepfather understood this, but they did have three children, my half siblings or siblings fuck that half shit, we all came from Mama's womb. Mama's baby daddy's maybe.

But as per my children and grandchildren, I follow Kahlil Gibran, children come through us but they are not us, we are the bow, they are the arrow. So no matter I may want them to continue my dreams, I step back to let them discover their bliss as Joseph Campbell taught us. You shall never be happy until you follow your bliss, i.e., your purpose or mission in life. Your elders and ancestors talk to you but you must listen to the god in your. I have no idea where my grandson was coming from when he told me I couldn't save the world but he could. After all, I had lived my life thinking I could save the world. I hope and pray I live long enough to see him and his generation save the world so very much in need of saving, for sure, there is no doubt in my mind adults cannot save themselves let alone the world in their delusional neo-colonial pursuit of Globalism.
--Marvin
5/6/18

Oakland's Musical Tribute to Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare

Oakland's Musical Tribute to Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare

We give all praise to Musical Director/Singer Bryant Bolling and the singers he gathered for a musical tribute to Drs. Julia and Nathan Hare. Dr. Nathan Hare sent Bolling a list of their favorite songs and Bolling selected from the list a few numbelrs for the singers and pianist Ben Jones. It was a small audience turn out but Marvin X convinced Bolling has hit show that must be performed again with proper promotion. Marvin suggested two venues: the Black Repertory Group Theatre, Berkeley and San Francisco's African American Culture Center, Fulton Street.

Those who missed today's concert missed a beautiful musical tribute to the Black revolutionary couple who spread radical black cultural consciousness coast to coast. Dr. Julia Hare's last hurrah is her speech at Tavis Smiley's Black Forum, see YouTube. Dr. Nathan Hare, with PhDs in Sociology and Clinical Psychology, is considered the Father of Black Studies since he was the first chair of a Black Studies Department on a major university at San Francisco State College/now University. He was the center of the longest student strike in American academic history. Ultimately he was removed as Chair but the strike of Black and Third World students established Black and Ethnic Studies at SFSU. Marvin X has agreed to write the Untold Story of the Black Student Revolution at SFSU.

Today's concert began with The Negro National Anthem performed by Marilyn Reynold. As I stood in honor of our national anthem, I have finally accepted that it is the consensus of the people this song represents our national identity, therefore, in my old age, I accept it. As a 60s revolutionary, I favored Farrakhan's White Man's Heaven is the Black Man's Hell along with Claude McKay's poem If We Must Die, also used by Sir Winston Churchill to rally the British in WWII.

In his deep baritone, Director/singer Bolling continued with My Way and Didn't We. Even though he's never met the Hares, Bolling knew enough to organize this tribute concert with his own money. He took a loss but I was so impressed the high quality of his singers that I will do all I can to help produce it as I said above.

Singer Will Herring performed The Great Pretender, For Your Precious Love and the In Crowd. I was shocked at Will's vocals since I've known him as a trumpet player. I had no idea he was a singer and a good one! When pianist Ben Jones couldn't get the right key, Will continued acapella to the joy of the audience.


During the testimonial time, Will said he became aware of  Dr. Nathan Hare as a student at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, alma mater of Paul Robeson. When Will went into a black history rant, Director Bolling reminded him to stay focused on the Hares. Will said he received copies of Dr. Hare's Black Scholar Magazine while in residence at the Black House student center. Although Will's rant on Black history that included recalling the USA's persecution of the great Paul Robeson, the similarity between Paul Robeson and Dr. Nathan Hare is striking. Both were white listed for their unapologetic Black radicalism. It is suspected Paul Robeson was poisoned by the CIA, especially for his Communist beliefs. As I departed the concert hall at the elegant Alteneim Senior Housing Center, one of the two ladies departing with me asked, "Marvin, do you think 'they' put something is Julia's coffee?" I replied, "One of my students believed after her speech at Tavis Smiley's Black Forum, when she stole the show, they had to put something in her tea." Dr. Nathan Hare, in his letter read to the concert organizers and attendees, noted that a Black Newspaper in England gave her a centerfold spread with the headline Dr. Julia Hare--the Female Malcolm X. She had an acid tongue of truth.


When I addressed the audience, I told them the concert reminded me of the many times I visited the Hares.  Julia would find her way to the grand piano to give me a private concert. It is heartbreaking to see her suffering Alzheimer but today's concert took me back to all those tunes she played for me, after all she was a trained classical pianist.

When she and Nathan first met, he notes she was the skinny girl who'd won a music contest at Oklahoma's Langston University. They have enjoyed a marriage of 60 years, while most of our marriages don't last 60 days! In the Nation of Islam, many of the marriages were called 30 day wonders! No more on this subject at this time.

We heard from the elegant Lady Sunrise singing What A Difference A Day Makes and Softly As in the Morning Sunrise, her signature tune.

Accompanied by pianist Ben Jones' version of Afro Blue, poet Zakiyyah read three poems dedicated to the Hares: Father of Black Studies, Lady Malcolm X and Earth Rebirth, soft poems touching our hearts, especially Lady Malcolm X that she undoubtedly was, with a mouth that wouldn't shut up. Dr. Nathan Hare said she never stopped talking, even in her sleep! Why do you think I got a second PhD in Clinical Psychology?"

But in his letter to the Tribute Concert, he told how he was tricked into  confining her that is the immediate desire of the mental health workers, but he caught himself and had her released when he realized he could not confine the woman he loved! And after all, confinement is for criminals, not the sick! He told how when he departed from visiting her in confinement and had to slip away, he would hear her calling his name and beating on the door.

Years ago, she was in hospice but came out to live another day, in fact, he wrote, several years, although she is going down slow, doesn't talk any more, or walk, and maybe she knows him and maybe not, but she loves music and the purpose of the concert was to video music for her listening pleasure, so it didn't matter if a large audience showed up today. For sure, I would say the performing artists would easily cost $10,000.00 for today's concert.

Pianist Ben Jones rendered a medley of tunes loved by Julia, including In A Sentimental Mood. I was overwhelmed by Lady Sunrise and the Ensemble version of To Be Young Gifted and Black.
--Marvin X
5/6/18

Marvin X, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare, Attorney Amira Jackmon

Marvin X poem: Oh, Ancestors Speak to Me

"Marvin, this is a Beautiful Poem. I saw myself in it and others that I know in it."

--Jerry Varnado, San Francisco State University Strike leader, 1968

Oh, Ancestors Speak to Me
Digame
Digame
Digame
por favor
speak to me
my legs cannot move if you do not speak
your voice is the spirit in my walk in my soul
I cannot move without your direction
digame
digame por favor
you guided me then departed
I am here alone in this wilderness
shall I be ashamed alone
can I walk without trembling
you stood so long
I thought forever you would hold my hand
strengthen my knees
you taught me don't get weak
stand tall
stay solid don't bend
solid
you told me in prison
Allah loves a soldier
hates cowards
Allah loves warriors
hates cowards
stay solid
don't bend

Oh Batin
speak
digame
Ali Sharif Bey
speak Islam
Sunni Shia Ahmaddia Sufi
Nation of Islam
speak
polytheism  Islam
Tell me
black stone rejected
corner stone
we black stone
rejected despised
socalled Negro
tool fool of the world
black stone
corner stone
yes Paradise Jahlove teach
they love everything about you but you
Lou Rawls say
what did you do to be
so black and blue
crucified on the cross and lynching tree of America, world
Ancestor Rev. James Cone
we love you
liberation theology supreme
a love supreme
a love supreme
Rev. James Cone
Jesus socalled Negro
crucified daily
can't drink coffee Starbucks
can't breathe
we here for you
can't breathe
can't talk walk
we hear
speak ancestors
digame
por favor
digame
speak from shanties tent cities speak
speak Mexico city dirt floor huts
speak Belize flying roaches
no black flag
let roaches live
digame Jamaica
digame Trinidad
digame Venezuela
speak
tin roof huts
speak poor but happy
speak Mexico
Speak Belize Honduras
speak Afro-Columbia
speak Tenderloin San Francisco
my home
cardboard box home Crack fiend
love in cardboard box
smoke crack
crack ho recite fatiha in Arabic
give head cardboard box love
homeless love
Oh, Tenderloin
I claim every alley doorway hindu hilton hotel
what alley I do not know
what doorway
what bus stop BART station line to line
tell me of cold winter nights East Bay Terminal
There with my brothers
Edward
Nadar
Squirrel
Muslims on the bottom
Supreme wisdom Muslims
on the bottom
I got it but didn't get it
Supreme Wisdom
How can I escapeTenderloin
dope fiends of every kind
good lovin' ho's
she married her ho' at Glide Church
put dat ho' on the street same night
took me home to smoke crack
no man in her house before me
lesbian pimp ho' bitch
no man in her house before me good pimpin' ass bitch

I live on bottom of the world
sea to sea
country to country
religion to religion
politics to politics
ideology to ideology
no matter Left Right

Digame
speak to me
I stand on shoulders
walk on feet
dream dreams you dreamed
No original thoughts beyond thoughts of freedom
I shall not betray you
sacred dreams not lost in madness of globalism
we are not PC diaper baby snow flakes
suffering micro aggression
stand tall
we endured FOI officials in Chicago
Supreme Captain Raymond Sharieff
National Secretary John Ali
Captain Elijah Muhamad
baddest niggas in the world
except when I got home to SF and Guru Alonzo Batin
said I was a punk motherfucker to confess to niggas worse than I could ever b
Batin said I was a punk bitch ass nigga for confessing to rats snakes vipers cobras
Batin gave manhood training
Black Arts West/Black House San Francisco
teach  Batin
Criminal Muslim supreme
Heroin addict
Imam in prison
addict/iman big yard
true believer
can't pimp Batin
call him hypocrite Muslim
think for self Muslim
gangster Muslim
true to the game
game true to you
Batin
stand on your shoulders
devoured your bean soup
wheat bread butter honey
Whiting fish
all night long science
marijuana science marijuana
Speak Batin
Speak Ali Sheriff Bey
Speak Aaron Ali
Master Teacher linguistics
Speak Brother Edward
raised us from  dead at San Francisco State University
UC Berkeley San Jose State University
Speak Brother Edward blessed us with supreme wisdom when we were deaf dumb blind playing bid whist in cafeteria at San Francisco State University.
Digame
Digame
Digame!
--Marvin X
5/4/18

Please attend the Musical Tribute this Sunday for Drs. Julia and Nathan Hare

TuBeNu Cultural Productions

Presents

A Musical Tribute Concert

Dr. Nathan Hare & Dr. Julia Hare

Sunday, May 6, 2018

2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

The Historic Altenheim Ballroom

1720 MacArthur Blvd. Oakland, CA, 94602

Free Admission – Donations Requested

Further Information contact Bryant Bolling (510) 393-4010

Greetings Family,

The Musical Tribute and Benefit for the Hares is Sunday, May 6, 2018

from 2pm to 5pm.  Please help get the word out. Email your network. Lets work towards having a full house for this musical event. Admission free but donations accepted at the door. No one turned away for lack of funds. Spread the word!

ADDRESS is 1720 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland 94606

Bryant "Mr.B" Bolling,

TuBeNu Cultural Productions

Draft 5/2/18 Rev. James Cone

On Tuesday, May 1, 2018, 11:17:33 PM PDT, Marvin X Jackmon jmarvinx@yahoo.com [blackantiwar] wrote:

Rev. James Cone represented the highest level of Black revolutionary Christian consciousness in his interpretation of the Christian myth-ritual, but most importantly he put Black Christianity in a Black African context, i.e., Jesus is Black, end of discussion.

Rev. Cone advanced the theology of liberation of the oppressed, not a celebration of the oppressor who could not in his role as master transcend Paul’s dictum that servants be obedient to your masters. Another of our Master Theologians, Howard Thurman, noted his grandmother made him read to her when he returned from school, "Read the Bible, boy, but stop when you get to Paul. I don't wanna hear nothing bout servants be obedient to your masters."

We were included  in the US Constitution as three-fifths of a man, not a full human being and in 2018 we are yet to achieve parity and equity with this socalled master. His woman has superseded us as a minority, yet even in  her minority status her labor is not equal to his in dollar amounts.

Dr. Nathan Hare says the white woman is the white man in drag since she is a stopgap measure to keep the North American African man from usurping the master’s power. Dr Frantz Fanon said the only reason for the season of the oppressed revolutionary man is to replace the master in every way, political, military, sexual, cultural, etc.

But this cunning and vile devil returned to the US Constitution,13th Amendment,that allows involuntary servitude or slavery! Oh, Happy Day, Jesus! Let's work our Constitution and lock these niggas down as commodity  on the Stock Exchange, pigs, corn, wheat, oil. Two point three million locked down, once again chattel or personal property of the State and Nation, victims crack, victims heroin, prison for mental health/drug addicts, dual diagnosed, 80/90% incarcerated, black, brown, poor white.

The happiest day in white America when the South enacted the US Constitution to re-enslave the North American African, alas, the South  has never quenched their desire to re-enslave the African. Why in the hell do you think we fought the Civil War. We would've won the Civil War if Lincoln hadn't armed 200,000 niggas. When we disarmed them 200,000 niggas, we put them back in slavery in every way we could. Terrorized they asses with KKK, cept we left them niggas alone had they own land, didn't go on they land, but them sharecroppers we terrorized them, raped and lynched they asses. Them niggas on they own land we didn't fuck with, them niggas would shoot back!

Revolution is the act of replacing the ruling class with the oppressed class, no matter the wretched condition of the oppressed Fanon called The Wretched of the Earth. As per the plethora of physical and mental traumas of the oppressed, once they engage in the activity and forward motion of revolution, at this moment they begin to heal from the addiction to white supremacy, type II, Dr. Nathan Hare, and they go about regaining family mental equilibrium.

When the oppressed man truly awakens from the sleepy time tea slumber of his comatose mental condition, i.e., menticide, he is energized for the fight of his life that is not with his natural enemy the White Man but initially he must overcome, survive and transcend the hatred, jealousy and envy of his brothers and sisters, siblings, partners, wives, brothers, friends, especially those closest to him.

Guard against being deceived. Your own mind can deceive you; in your psychosis you are convinced there are people outside your door plotting to kill you, you can hear them. In your psychosis you hear your woman coming to snatch you back to reality, but that is not she you hear knocking. No one is knocking except the devil inside your head.

So called friends who claimed they would be friends to the end, in the end betrayed you. Was not the Savior god betrayed by his brother Seth? Cain and Able? As per family love, check out Godfather Part 2, your family will whack you on a boat ride.

The slave master gave us a false narrative of the Resurrection Drama. In the Kemetic or African Egyptian version based on Nile Valley religion and  global versions of The Sixteen Crucified Saviors Before Christ, Kersey, we learn the Savior and his people were in harmony with the Nile Valley culture and civilization. The Nile or Hapi River is four thousand miles long, the longest river in the world. It's true name is Hapi not De Nile. One of my students said, "If we come out of De Nile and get to Hapi we shall then truly be Hapi."

The Resurrection Drama does not end with the Cross and Lynching Tree. We must fulfill the myth-ritual Kemetic version. Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension. John Coltrane said A Love Supreme. Love Supreme. Love Supreme.

Ascension: we transcend this wretched physical plane in the manner of Jesus, "I am in this world but not of this world." This world is an illusion for the deaf, dumb and blind that are to be exploited by the blood suckers of the poor.

As Sheikh Anta Diop taught us, African drama is tragi-comic, never tragedy as in the Northern Cradle tradition. The annual ebb and flow of the Hapi River that replenished crops was the foundation of the Osiris Resurrection Drama, repeated in the life of Jesus or Isa Ibn Mar'yam.

His Holiness Guruedy Bawa Muhaiyadin said, "Do not be fooled by the one billion one millions of the monkey mind. Man god/god man. Man is in god, god is in man We are indivisable, inseparable from the Divinity, we are One, there is no Me apart from Thee, Supreme, Divine Spirit in all things, see the sun, moon, stars, see mountains, streams, rivers, oceans. All is God/Allah, God/Allah is all, every step you take He is with you, inside you, your breath the air in lungs, the energy to think, love, contemplate the wonders of life. God/Allah, God in you/you in God.

We are the poor righteous teachers. Abdullah, servant of Allah. We all serve Allah/God. Did not Job serve God while he persecuted Job, yes, Job, the Negro/African/American who wants only a job. Was he not brought over here 400 years ago to do a job, i.e., build America!

This is not the slave master's interpretation of the Kemetic Savior God and his primordial, prototypical, archetypal  Resurrection Drama, known in the West as the drama of Sarapis, (orchestrated 332 A.D, Nicea Conference) that blue-eyed, blond haired hippy nailed to the cross in the pervasive Western white supremacy mythology. What white man was ever nailed to the cross and suffered the lynching tree, none but the Black African, especially the North American Africans and the entirety of African victims of the Euro-American slave system throughout the Americas, i.e., North, Central, South American Africans and our Caribbean brothers and sisters.

What must be acknowledged is that the Europeans enjoyed annual myth-ritual ceremonies in which it was a festive and communal occasion to burn people for joy and happiness. This was their tradition that preceded racism in any form. The burning and lynching was one of their critical rituals and had nothing to do with racism, alas, their own kind were the victims!

It just so happened that the burning and lynching of Africans in the Americas took on racial aspects in which the intersection of racism and European myth-ritual synchronized, morphing into the picnic, i.e., pick a nigga and roast him, lynch him that became a family and communal affair in which the entire community participated, promoted and enjoyed.

The Southern media has acknowledged their role in promoting the lynching of North American Africans.. As per media, it was largely on the shoulders of journalist Ida B. Wells to make plain the horrors of the Cross and Lynching Tree. Yes, the white supremacy media was as guilty as any KKK organizations in the proliferation of North American African victims of the Cross and Lynching Tree.

We give thanks to Rev. James Cone for making it plain, especially for Christians, too often duped by White Serapis Christianity, Born Again Christianity, that allows white people to be saved by grace and thus enabled to continue in their addiction to white supremacy, including a pervasive and problematic hatred, jealousy and envy of North American African Christians. For example, no black preacher is acceptable in the white Christian Born Again circuit if he has not graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary or a reasonable facsimile.

Rev. Cone originates from the Black Abolitionist tradition, shall we begin with David Walker's Appeal, 1829, the Christian slave revolts of  Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey; the Underground Railroad of Harriet Tubman, the freedom travails Sojourner Truth, et al.? Shall we conclude with such spiritual and political leaders as Noble Drew Ali, Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., et al.?

Rev. Cone must be seen as an integral part of liberation theology from throughout the Americas, a critical member of the priesthood, whether Vudun, Santeria, Candomble, Catholic Church, Rasta, et al. All were about the abolition of oppression and North American African Christianity was critical, despite the reactionary priests/preachers who denounced him as they denounced Martin Luther King, Jr. as a hoodlum and thug at the National Black Baptist Convention.

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail is sufficient answer to white and black ministers but most especially phony white liberals. Alas, on this May Day, 2018, when I informed a student at my Academy of Da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, across the street from the May Day Rally at Oscar Grant Plaza, when I told him the history of May Day as an international day to celebrate workers that the USA morphed into Labor Day, he said the Communists, Socialists are KKK too, in his ghetto Negro thinking mind. After all, the common Negro doesn't know the difference between Communism and Rheumatism!

On the other hand, during the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, many North American Africans chose Communism as an alternative to oppressive American capitalism. We note W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Richard Wright, and later Amiri Baraka, Angela Davis, and Democratic Socialists such as Dr. Cornel West and a host of revolutionary black nationalists who subscribe to Marxism, including Muslims who have the unique ability to syncretize Marxism and Islam associated with Marxism. We have no problem with the Marxism analysis of society, although we may employ an Islamic analysis. FYI, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has revealed how the West encouraged fundamental Islam to be a counterweight to Communism. But, alas, we Africans have the unique ability of syncretism in all our endeavors. This is why a Haitian can attend a Catholic mass followed by participation in a Vudun ceremony without feelings of contradiction. And a Muslim, such as myself, associated with Communists from Eldridge Cleaver to Amiri Baraka, yet maintained my mental equilibrium.

The Haitian revolution  used Vudun to become the first Africans in the Euro-American slave system to achieve national independence, although Palmeras in Brazil enjoyed freedom for a century!

Rev. James Cone advanced Christian liberation for North American Africans, Many have never heard of him, just as they have never heard of our beloved theologian and mentor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Most Honorable Howard Thurman. We pray North American Africans in the Christian tradition with seek out the radical, abolitionist Rev. James Cone advanced that will take us beyond the cross and lynching tree, but firstly will help us understand the myth-ritual we cannot escape no matter how sincere we are in our return to traditional African. The Christian myth-ritual, combined with our traditional faiths in ancestor gods and the ancient dance drama expressions, often expressed in Holy Ghost Church rituals of dance and talking in tongues, call and response and other aspects of ancient myth-ritual celebrations but most beautifully expressed in Yoruba celebrations, when combined with North American African Christian myth-ritual and Islamic myth-ritual as well, will empower us in the same manner Vudun enabled the Democratic Society of devotees to rise above individuality and come together in the highest level of spiritual unity that leads to the Promised Land MLK, Jr. spoke about in his final message on the Mountain Top.

Rev. James Cone, thank you for advancing Black Liberation Theology. Let us ponder your message and consider the truth therein that we may act upon your truth and sacrifice grounded in our ancestors.

--Marvin X

5/1/18