Saturday, April 23, 2016
Ishmael Reed says Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland!
photo Kamau Amen Ra
Marvin X as Plato
By
Marvin X
After stopping by Marvin X's
outdoor classroom at 14th and Broadway, downtown
Oakland, Ishmael Reed told the students gathered around
Marvin X, "He's the modern day Plato, teaching his
students on the street." Marvin told the people gathered
in front on DeLauer's bookstore, "Ishmael Reed is my
elder. He's always been supportive of my projects and I
deeply appreciate him for this."
Ishmael had come to the bookstore
/24/7 new stand to get a copy of the Sunday Los
Angeles Times which carried a review of his latest
book. He said the review cut him up as usual. He said
people cut him up for his views on Alice Walker and
other feminists, but according to Ishmael the most
critical review of Walker's Color Purple was by
Toni Morrison.
The people who stop at the open air
classroom include a cross section of Oakland's humanity,
including whites, blacks, youth and elders. David
Glover, director of OCCUR, stopped through to advise
Marvin to be a part of the cultural committee for the
Ron Dellums administration soon to take the reins of
Oakland.
A young sister stopped to say she
was in pain because her friends are being killed on the
streets for no reason. She has vowed not to be a victim
but she is traumatized at the loss of some many friends.
She is 19.
The police officer who works the
beat that includes 14th and Broadway, comes through
picking up litter. Seems a waste of time for the officer
to pick up litter when there are so many unsolved
homicides. The officer is known to post up at 12 o'clock
to listen to Plato talk with his variety of students.
A brother came by to challenge
Plato, telling him he didn't know anything, especially
since he wasn't from the south, New Orleans in
particular. Plato told him New Orleans was as much a
killing floor as Oakland, look at the recent deployment
of National Guard to stop the murders.
Another brother came through and
invited Marvin to speak with youth at a West Oakland
school. He agreed, telling the brother, "I recently
spoke with children at the Black Repertory Group's
summer camp. I was deeply impressed with their
intelligence. They asked serious questions, as serious
as any I've received from college and university
students across the country."
On Sunday, July 30, Plato was given
a book party in Richmond, another Bay Area killing
floor. But the party, hosted by Sister Shukuru, was
probably the most powerful gathering of black
consciousness people in Richmond history. The party was
attended by movement elders and organizers, including
Alona Cliffton, Phil Hutchins of SNCC, Margo Dashiel, Dr. James Garrett,
Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Jim Lacey, Ann Lynch, Suzzette
Celeste, Richmond poet President Davis representing
conscious hip hop.
Poet Opal Palmer Adisa gave a
reading of her work that was as spicy and hot as a two
dollar pistol in South Philly.
The audience was enraptured by the
musical accompaniment of Elliott Bey Savoy, who backed
Marvin's reading and the audience discussion. A brother
showed a video of himself reading Marvin X's poem The
Origin of Blackness in Venezuela. He read in Spanish,
then English. The poem was originally written in
English/Arabic. Marvin then read an updated version on
the theme of the poem, Black History is World History.
Much thanks to Sister Shukuru, a great organizer,
formerly with Brooklyn's East.
* * * *
*
| photo Pendarvis Harshaw |
posted 3 August 2006 /Chickenbones.com
Marvin X poem Apology to My Higher Self and Miles Davis - Time After Time (Live 1985)
Apology to My Higher Self
Oh, Higher Self
I apologize to you
Greater Self
Holy Self
Righteous Self
I seek to harm no one
but to glorify You always and forever
Have mercy on me
have mercy on myself
Oh, Higher Self
pleae forgive me for allowing my lower self to rule
Please have mercy on me Higher Self, Divine Self
If I will only flow in the flow of You
pick me up Higher Self
when my lower self comes to call
the whispering devil whispers into the hearts of men
and women and children
to take us all down under
to the thrashing floor
the road where wise men fear to tread
down in the dungeon
rat hole
I become the rat
associating with the rats
dwelling in the dungeon
of my mind
Lift me up Highter Power
let me dwell with You forever
in the Upper Room
surely I know truth from lies
surely I know fire from water
yet I walk into the fire
I am burned again again again
easy to lead in the wrong direction
hard to lead in the right direction,
the Elijah lesson teach us
And why do we love the devil
because he gives us nothing!
Take me Higher Power
into your loving hands
save me from the fire
whose fuel is men and stones,
Qur'an.
let not the weakness of my lower self
ontrol me
let me cast away illusions
a donkey is not a stalion
Oh Higher Power
catch me if I fall
take me forward faster
time after time
time after time.
--Marvin X
9/28/14
from Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems, 2016, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley CA, unpublished.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Marvin X Video Archives
Video #1: The President of Laney College, Oakland CA, Dr. Elnora T. Webb, speaks at BAM 50th Anniversary Celebration
BAM VIDEO # 3: BLACK ARTS/BLACK POWER BABIES inter-generational PANEL AT LANEY COLLEGE, OAKLAND, FEB 7, 2015
P-SPAN #413: Panel on Black Women Writers, at Laney College BAM 50th Celebration
Marvin X reads "Dope" by Amiri Baraka at Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland, 2014, with David Murray, Earle Davis and the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra
Marvin X Video Archives, Part Two: Reads #1 What If at Yoshi's, San Francisco, opens for Amiri Baraka and Roscoe Mitchell
RBG| WHITE SUPREMACY 2 -In The Crazy House Called America- Marvin X
Marvin X at University of Chicago Sun Ra Symposium Roundtable Discussion, May 21-22, 2015
Marvin X at New York University: An Evening with Poets Honoring the Lives of Poets Jayne Cortez and Amiri Baraka, 2014
Marvin X on Wall Street Part 1 WBAI Interview
Ancestor Amiri Baraka, BPP co-founder Bobby Seale, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Neo-BAM Director, Ahi Baraka, Marvin X
Marvin X- "Black History is World History" (poem written in the 80's)@Fr...
Marvin X at Memorial for Geronimo Ja Jiga Pratt, Defremery Park, aka Lil' Bobby Hutton Park, Oakland
RBG| WHITE SUPREMACY 2 -In The Crazy House Called America- Marvin X
Marvin X at University of Chicago Sun Ra Symposium Roundtable Discussion, May 21-22, 2015
Marvin X at New York University: An Evening with Poets Honoring the Lives of Poets Jayne Cortez and Amiri Baraka, 2014
Marvin X on Wall Street Part 1 WBAI Interview
Marvin X At the Black Caucus of California Community Colleges, Fresno City College
Marvin X at African American Museum/Library, Oakland
3 -One Day in the Life, a docudrama by Marvin X and Discussion on Art, Drugs and Revolution with Sonia Sanchez, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath, Marvin X, Sista's Place, Brooklyn NY, 1996, MC Omowale Clay
4 - One Day in the Life, a docudrama by Marvin X and Discussion on Art, Drugs and Revolution with Sonia Sanchez, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath, Marvin X, Sista's Place, Brooklyn NY, 1996, MC Omowale Clay
5 - One Day in the Life, a docudrama by Marvin X and Discussion on Art, Drugs and Revolution with Sonia Sanchez, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath, Marvin X, Sista's Place, Brooklyn NY, 1996, MC Omowale Clay
6 - One Day in the Life, a docudrama by Marvin X and Discussion on Art, Drugs and Revolution with Sonia Sanchez, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath, Marvin X, Sista's Place, Brooklyn NY, 1996 MC Omowale Clay
7 - One Day in the Life, a docudrama by Marvin X and Discussion on Art, Drugs and Revolution with Sonia Sanchez, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath, Marvin X, Sista's Place, Brooklyn NY, 1996, MC Omowale Clay
MARVIN X reading In the Name of Love, produced by Ahi Baraka
Super poem, even better presentation, combined pure artivity with
authority, plus the environment of my father and self. I cry in joy as I
hear this perfect self expression.--Stevon Williams, actor, singer
Hotep,
On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.
That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:
"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "
Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:
http://petitions.moveon.org/
Thanks!
On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.
That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:
"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "
Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:
http://petitions.moveon.org/
Thanks!
Marvin X,
Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour
Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Co-producer/director
Ancestor Amiri Baraka, BPP co-founder Bobby Seale, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Neo-BAM Director, Ahi Baraka, Marvin X
Ancestor Amiri Baraka, BPP co-founder Bobby Seale, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Neo-BAM Director, Ahi Baraka, Marvin X Prince
Prince dead
no screams howls
from river bed
No purple rain
no name
no free slave
no gain
no am I black/white
no mama/daddy songs
prince gone.
--Marvin X
4/21/16
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Coming soon from Black Bird Press: Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems by Marvin X, 2016
Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice
New and Selected Poems
Marvin X
Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice is raw, beautiful, painful, low-down and funky, uplifting like hearing Nat Turner has risen.--from the introduction, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, BAM Oakland, founder, Lower Bottom Playaz
He has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing.
--Amiri Baraka
Marvin X is the USA’s Rumi...X’s poems vibrate, whip, love in the most meta- and physical ways imaginable and un-. He’s got the humor of Pietri, the politics of Baraka, and the spiritual Muslim grounding that is totally new in English –- the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wisdom of Saadi.
--Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, New York City
His love poems will resound as long and as deeply as any love poems ever written by anyone: Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou.
--Fahizah Alim
...This is more than poetry--it is singing/song, it is meditation, it is spirit/flowing/flying, it is blackness celebrated, it is prophecy, it is life, it is all of these things and more, beyond articulation....
--Johari Amini (Jewel C. Lattimore)
With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing about him-I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and graduate school-why is attention not given to his work in the same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his incredibly rich body of work.He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is still kickin, still true to the word!
--Dr. Mohja Kahf, Professor of English and Islamic Literature, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express Black male urban experiences in a lyrical way.
--James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer Newspaper
Marvin X
photo Kamau Amen Ra
Contents
I Am John Coltrane
Christian Terrorists
The Negro Knows Everything
Little African Woman
I Am American
Party of Lincoln Sinking
To Mexico With Love
Don't Let My Son Look Like This
Talkin Ignut
What is Love
I Will Go into the City
For the Women
I Don't Want to Know Your Name
I Release You
Funny thing I Already Knew
Fly Like a Hawk
Oh, Mighty Kora
Poem for Unresolved Grief
You Don't Know Me
It is Fine to Dream
If Only You Knew How Beautiful You Are
African Blues Ain't Blue
Oh, Mighty Kora
Again the Kora
Empire
Don't ask, don't take
Something is Goin on up in here
Post Black Negro
Remembering Dad
And We Wonder
And then there are Angels
Cyberspace Dead
Memorial Day
Dream Time 2
If I Were A Muslim In Good Standing
Old Warriors
In the Temple of X
There Was an Island
A Street Named Rashidah Muhammad (Dessie X)
Poem for Clara Muhammad
Prayer for Young Mothers
This
Yes, it’s all there
When I think about the women in my life
Letter to dead negroes in cyberspace
We’re in love but you don’t know me
Growing up
In my solitude, for Duke
A Day we never thought
Mama’s bones
Love is for the beloved
Lesbian
Poem for unresolved grief
Song for Reginald Madpoet
Benazir Bhutto
Dis Ma Hair
Ancestors II
Facing Mt. Kenya
O, Kora, Elegy for John D
Who are these Jews?
For Jerri Jackmon
When Lemmie Died
And then the end
How does it feel to be a nigger
No black fight
Praise song for Askia Toure
Bank the Bankers
Don't dream bout ma man
Ah, air so fresh
I Am a Revolutionary
Do you want to see me tomorrow
Can you feel the spirit
My people were never slaves
Poem #3 for R
Poem #2 for R
O, Malcolm X
Fathers sing blues too
To Egypt with Love
Letter to my grandson, Jahmeel
Closure
Kamau
Don't Say Pussy
What If
Publication date: Late May, 2016. $19.95. Pre-publication price: $15.00. To pay by credit card, call 510.200.4164. Not available in book stores, order direct from publisher: Black Bird Press,
1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA, 94702.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
His Black Consciousness Program Rocked the Bay Area like no other black panthers black arts black studies kwanza Khalid Ab...