Marvin X on his star student, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga

Marvin X on his star student

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga

Yes, she is the very best of us, a mother, genius in our midst. We have to own her otherwise "they" shall claim her as their chattel real, personal property.

We can get sucked into their white hole and before we know it we are in too deep. Baraka suffered from this artistic schizophrenia, trying to please two worlds but at his best, in his last days, he belonged to us and came to speak our language rather than theirs! He warned us against listening to the Sirens calling us to their island with their enticing sounds. Yes, Mama Ayanna, we must protect Ayodele as our treasure, warrior woman, artistic freedom fighter supreme. Yes, perhaps she learned verbosity from her Master Teacher, but she may also learn his lesson of silencia por favor.

North American African Poet

i am a poet

language and ideas

are my meat & bread

the eye a tool

that captures the light spilling

on to the fully dressed fig tree

the flight of birds

the wind over the grass

the pain in a mothers eyes

the hunger in a childs

the anger in a mans

i listen for the meaning behind the words

waiting for the truth

like an off schedule bus

reflecting reflecting reflecting

like a mirror the

things that pass

through me living with the things

that will not pass away

but cling stubbornly to life

myths that crumble when examined

lies manifest to protect the guilty

the unevenly cut pie

the wolves selling merry-go-round tickets

law in the land of the lawless

the ugly secrets bandaged by

a flag and an anthem

living in the nation

buried deep within the nation

there is another rhythm

a steady rising wave

another drum beating

real reality lives here

not the story in books

funky non commercial real

realness is Africans dancing

in front of the white house

demanding freedom and the american

way come out to talk

its telling the truth no matter

what it sounds like

or what they want to hear

its not caring when they see

you point the zombie finger &

make that high-pitched squeak

that denotes they have noticed

you are awake traveling in stealth

with the sheep when wolves smell

lions and guerrillas they panic

cause they are unruly

refused to be ruled by wolves

won’t ape the story

on the news they are noisy

hard to control and known

for waking sheep i like lions

& apes

& sheep that are

awake so for them

i tell the truth

i write the songs

& the eulogies

explain the difference

between what is &

what needs to be

i am their poet

eating their pain

carrying it inside

trying to transform it into

food for the battle

bandaging the wounds

sucking out the poison

outing wolves

urging them to move forward fearlessly

i am the drum beating inviting the dance

i am the drum beating calling the dancer

i am the drum beating

i am the drum

Marvin X: Laughter for Leftists #001

Leftists need a sense of humor, learn to laugh because human behavior is tragi-comic at best. So they need to come out of their PC straight jacket, especially their Psycholinguistic Crisis. Don't say the N word, B word, MF word, LGBTXYZ word. Don't say brother, sister, king, Queen, God, goddess. In short, don't say shit, shut the fk up, especially if you ain't Pan African, Kemetic, Super Sunni, Five per cent, Mo, old black panther, new black panther, Wakandan, Kingdom of Africanan, Neo-Marxist, Communist, Democratic Socialist Muslim, or none of the above, just a low information vibration Nigga, shut the fk up. Yeah, eat yo mush and hush!

A brother called me today. He said, Marvin, I'm running behind for our appointment. I said, running behind? Nigga you 400 years behind. They said (and you know who they are; then again maybe you don't cause some niggas don't know who Miss Ann is, for sure we don't know who the white man is)--they said the other day it will take us 240 years to catch up with the wealth white folks have today? So as between 400 years and 240 years, where are you in the time spectrum? How long will it take you to get to me for our appointment today?

--Marvin X

4/10/18

marvin x planned works : a critical look edited by nefertiti jackmon

Marvin X: A Critical Look

  

marvin x, at oscar grant/frank ogawa plaza, oakland
photo pendarvis harshaw

Edited  by Nefertiti Jackmon 

Dedication 

My life and death are all for Allah. I believe in the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I believe in the teachings of Jelaluddin Balkhi, better known as Rumi. I believe in the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyadeen. Gain a knowledge of my teachers and you will understand me. If you reject my teachers, there is no need to proceed further.

preface 

 

Bismillah-r-Rahman-r-Rahim

If it is true that I am the father of modern Islamic literature in America, as Dr. Mohja Kahf proclaims, I would like to delineate my lineage. As a spiritual descendant of West African Muslims, I begin my literary biography in the Mali Empire, among those scholar/poet/social activists of Timbuktu: Ahmed Baba, Muhammad El-Mrili, Ahmed Ibn Said, Muhammad Al Wangari, and the later Sufi poet/warriors of Senegal and Hausaland, Ahmedu Bamba and Uthman dan Fodio.

In America, this literary tradition continued under the wretched conditions of slavery with the English/Arabic narratives of Ayub Suleimon Diallo, Ibrahima Abdulrahman Jallo, Bilali Mohammad, Salih Bilali, Umar Ibn Said and others who told how they got ovah, how they survived the worst terrorist regime in the history of mankind.  Their narratives are thus the origin of Muslim literature in America, an integral part of the beginning of American and African American literature in general. There is some suspicion that David Walker, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington and Benjamin Baneker may have also been descendants of Muslims.

Certainly they share the Islamic spirit of creative resistance (any means necessary), and we must acknowledge this spirit in the Islamic and Pan African writings of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the greatest African intellectual of the late 19th century. See his Islam, Christianity and the Negro Race, 1887. While Marcus Garvey was in London,1912, being taught  One God, One Aim, One Destiny, African For the Africans, Those At Home and Those Abroad, by his Egyptian Muslim mentor Duse Muhammad Ali, Noble Drew Ali,1913, established his Moorish Science Temple in Newark, New Jersey, later Chicago,  and created his Seven Circle Koran, a synthesis of Qur'anic, Masonic, mystical and esoteric writings.

And most importantly, Master Fard Muhammad arrived in Detroit, 1930, to deliver his Supreme Wisdom, mythological Sufi teachings, to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, later summarized in Elijah's primers of mystical Islamic theology and black nationalism, Message To The Black Man and The Theology of Time.

The next major work is Malcolm X's Autobiography , with the assistance of Alex Haley. This neo-slave narrative bridged ancient and modern Islamic literature in America. Let us also include Louis Farakhan's off Broadway drama Organa and his classic song A White Man's Heaven is The Black Man's Hell, anthem of the Black revolution of the 60s. Amiri Baraka utilized the Muslim myth of Yacub in his play A Black Mass, one of his most powerful works, an examination of the cloning of the white man, not such a fantastic idea today since the white man has begun cloning himself.

Askia Muhammad Toure must be credited for his Islamic writings, along with poetess Sonia Sanchez  (Laila Mannan) who served a brief tenure in the Nation of Islam. Yusef Rahman and Yusef Iman created powerful Islamic poetry as well.

Now we may safely proceed into an examination of "Marvin's World." Enter at your own risk.

The following articles, essays, reviews and interviews give a good summary of Marvin X, aka El Muhajir, Nazzam Al Fitnah, Nazzam Al Sudan, Maalik El Muhajir, Marvin Ellis Jackmon.

Kalamu ya Salaam called me the sledgehammer. Sister poet MC Melody said I am the human earthquake. Suzzette Celeste said I am a tsunami, but I am that I am, so let the critics have their say, after all, they may know more about me than I do. What do I know about myself? I'm just now figuring out who I am.

As-Salaam-Alaikum
El Muhajir (Marvin X)

Foreword

 Dr. Mohja Kahf

 

Marvin X: First Muslim American Poet
Have spent the last few days (when not mourning with friends and family the passing of my family friend and mentor in Muslim feminism and Islamic work, Sharifa AlKhateeb, (may she dwell in Rahma), immersed in the work of Marvin X and amazed at his brilliance. This poet has been prolific since his first book of poems, Fly to Allah, (1969), right up to his most recent Love and War Poems (1995) and Land of My Daughters, 2005, not to mention his plays, which were produced (without royalties) in Black community theatres from the 1960s to the present, and essay collections such as In the Crazy House Called America, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, 2005.

Marvin X was a prime shaper of the Black Arts Movement (1964-1970s) which is, among other things, the birthplace of modern Muslim American literature, and it begins with him. Well, Malik Shabazz and him. But while the Autobiography of Malcolm X is a touchstone of Muslim American culture, Marvin X and other Muslims in BAM were the emergence of a cultural expression  of  Black Power and Muslim thought inspired by Malcolm, who was, of course, ignited by the teachings and writings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that, taken all together, is what I see as the starting point of Muslim American literature. Then there are others, immigrant Muslims and white American Muslims and so forth, that follow.

There are also antecedents, such as the letters of Africans enslaved in America. Maybe there is writing by Muslims in the Spanish and Portuguese era or earlier, but that requires archival research of a sort I am not going to be able to do. My interest is contemporary literature, and by literature I am more interested in poetry and fiction than memoir and non-fiction, although that is a flexible thing.

I argue that it is time to call Muslim American literature a field, even though many of these writings can be and have been classified in other ways—studied under African American literature or to take the writings of immigrant Muslims, studied under South Asian ethnic literature or Arab American literature.

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!

Love and War Poems is wrenching and powerful, combining a powerful critique of America ("America downsizes like a cripple whore/won't retire/too greedy to sleep/too fat to rest") but also a critique of deadbeat dads and drug addicts (not sparing himself) and men who hate. "For the Men" is so Quranic poem it gave me chills with verses such as:

for the men who honor wives and the men who abuse them for the men who win and the men who sin for the men who love God and the men who hate for the men who are brothers and the men who are beasts

"O Men, listen to the wise," the poet pleads:

there is no escape for the men of this world or the men of the next

He is sexist as all get out, in the way that is common for men of his generation and his radicalism, but he is refreshingly aware of that and working on it. It's just that the work isn't done and if that offends you to see a man in process and still using the 'b' word, look out. Speaking of the easily offended, he warns in his introduction that "life is often profane and obscene, such as the present condition of African American people." If you want pure and holy, he says, read the Quran and the Bible, because Marvin is talking about "the low down dirty truth." For all that, the poetry of Marvin X is like prayer, beauty-full of reverence and honor for Truth. "It is. it is. it is."

A poem to his daughter Muhammida is a sweet mix of parental love and pride and fatherly freak-out at her sexuality and independence, ending humbly with:

peace Mu it's on you yo world sister-girl

Other people don't get off so easy, including a certain "black joint chief of staff ass nigguh (kill 200,000 Muslims in Iraq)" in the sharply aimed poem "Free Me from My Freedom." (Mmm hmm, the 'n' word is all over the place in Marvin too.) Nature poem, wedding poem, depression poem, wake-up call poems, it's all here. Haiti, Rwanda, the Million Man March, Betsy Ross's maid, OJ, Rabin, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other topics make it into this prophetically voiced collection of dissent poetry, so Islamic and so African American in its language and its themes, a book that will stand in its beauty long after the people mentioned in it pass. READ MARVIN X for RAMADAN!

Mohja Kahf / Associate Professor / Dept. of English & Middle East & Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville

Contents

Chapter One: A Literary Biography Lorenzo Thomas, Close Up and Personal Michael E. Idland, A Voice That Must Be Heard Lee Hubbard, Unplugged Chapter Two: Autobiography, Somethin Proper, 1998 Dr. Nathan Hare, introduction to Somethin Proper Dr. Julius E. Thompson, A Most Significant Work Fahizah Alim, A Proper Response James G. Spady, Making An Inventory and Constructing Self Reginal Major, Trampling His Soul Dingane (Joe Goncalves), Journey of A Restless Mind Dr. James Smethurst, Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement Chapter Three: Drama, 1965-- Michael E. Idland, Major Works and Themes Steven Winn, 'Day' A Searing Account of Addiction Dr. Nathan Hare, Letter to Marvin X Dennis Leroy Moore, Parable of the Man Who Was Crucified Lil Joe, Sexual Repression in Sergeant Santa Chapter Four: Essays, in the Crazy House Called America, 2002 James W. Sweeney, foreword Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA, introduction Dr. Nathan Hare, In the Crazy House of the Negro Dr. Nathan Hare, Letter to Marvin X Junious Ricardo Stanton, A Healing Peek Into His Psyche La Vonda R. Staples and Brenda A. Sutton, A Yoruba Chief Holds Court Lil Joe, Like Malcolm X, Marvin X Is A Revolutionary Muslim John Woodford, Bittersweet Fruits of Wisdom Aeeshah and Kokomon Clottey, The Quality of Heart Brecht Forum, Existential Musing Chapter Five: Poetry, Fly To Allah, 1969, Love and War, 1995 and Land of My Daughters, 2005 Johari Amini (Jewel C. Latimore), Fly To Allah Dr. Mohja Kahf, Love and War Rudolph Lewis, Using the Past Rather Than Glorifying Ishmael Reed, Overcoming With Faith and Will Chapter Six: Essays, Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, 2005 Rudolph Lewis, Discourse by Exaggeration and Humor Lil Joe, The Evolution of Consciousness Dr. Nathan Hare, He's Really That Good Pam Pam, Wish I, interview Terry Collins, Wish I, interview Chronology of Marvin X (El Muhajir ) 1944 Born May 29, Fowler, CA to Owendell and Marian M. Jackmon, second child. Sits atop desk as father and mother publishes Fresno Voice, the Central Valley’s first black newspaper. Father was a Race man who served in WWI. He introduced Christian Science to wife who becomes a lifelong follower of Mary Baker Eddy. Mr. Jackmon remained a Methodist. Marvin attended Lincoln and Columbia elementary schools in Fresno. In Oakland where the family moved, he attended Prescott, McFeely and St. Patrick elementary schools, also Lowell Jr. High. Wrote in the children’s section of the Oakland Tribune. 1962 Graduated with honors from Edison High School in Fresno. Classmate and girlfriend was poet/critic/professor Sherely A. Williams (now deceased). Marries Pat Smith, Catholic school girl, first son born, Marvin K. Attends Merritt College in Oakland where he meets Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Ken Freeman and Ernie Allen. Introduced to Black Nationalism. Wins short story contest in college magazine, story published in SoulBook, revolutionary nationalist publication. 1964 Second son born, Darrel, now deceased. Graduates with AA in sociology. Attends San Francisco State College. 1965 At the request of novelist John Gardner, San Francisco State College drama department produced first play, Flowers for the Trashman. Called the best playwright to hit SF State by Kenneth Rexroth. Worked as TA for novelist Leo Litwak. 1966 Writings begin to appear in Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Negro Digest (Black World), Black Scholar, Journal of Black Poetry, Black Theatre, and Muhammad Speaks. Black Dialogue staff visits Eldridge Cleaver and Bunchy Carter in Soledad prison. Marvin is present. Black Dialogue publishes Cleaver’s essay, “My Queen, I Greet You,” later it appears in Soul On Ice. Co-founds Black Arts West Theatre with Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt, Duncan Barber, Hillery Broadus and Carl Boissiere. 1967 Co-founds Black House political/cultural center in San Francisco with Eldridge Cleaver, Ed Bullins and Ethna Wyatt.  Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez,Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Chicago Art Ensemble, Avotja, Reginald Lockett, Emory Douglass, Samuel Napier, Lil Bobby Hutton, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, attend Black House. Black Panthers plan invasion of state capital at Black House. Marvin joins Nation of Islam, flees to Toronto, Canada to protest draft and resist Vietnam War. 1968 Goes underground to Chicago shortly before assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lived on Southside during riots. Meets Don L. Lee, Gwen Brooks, Hoyt Fuller, Phil Choran, Carolyn Rogers, Johari Amini and others of Chicago BAM (Black Arts Movement. In Harlem joins Ed Bullins at the New Lafayette Theatre. Works as associate editor of Black Theatre magazine. Associates with Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Sun Ra, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Last Poets, Barbara Ann Teer, Milford Graves. Publishes Fly to Allah, poems that later establish him as the father of  Muslim American literature, according to Dr. Mojah Kahf of the University of Arkansas department of English and Islamic Studies. 1969 Apprehended returned from Montreal, Canada, charged with draft evasion. Defended by Conrad Lynn. Returns to California to stand trial and teach at Fresno State University until removed at the insistence of Governor Ronald Reagan, “by any means necessary.” Angela Davis is also removed from teaching at UCLA. Student protesters burn computer center at Fresno State. Students from throughout California attend draft trial in San Francisco. 1970 Convicted, flees into exile a second time, this time to Mexico City and Belize. Marries Barbara Hall, a student from Fresno State College, in Mexico City. Revolutionary artists Elizabeth Catlett Mora and Poncho Mora witness civil ceremony. Deported from Belize because his presence was not beneficial to the welfare of the colony of British Honduras. While in custody, police ask him to teach them about black power. Sentenced to five months in Federal prison, Terminal Islam. Serves as Muslim minister. 1971 First daughter born, Nefertiti. Founds Black Educational Theatre in Fresno. Performs musical version of Flowers as Take Care of Business. Reactionary negroes kill choir director in theatre, put hit out on poet. He flees to San Francisco, opens Black Educational Theatre in Fillmore District, joined by Sun Ra’s Arkestra. Produced five hour musical version of Take Care of Business, with cast of fifty at Harding Theatre on Divisadero, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes. 1972 Produced Resurrection of the Dead, a myth/ritual dance drama with Plunky, Babatunde Lea, Victor Willis as lead singer (Village People), dancers included Raymond Sawyer, Jamilah Hunter, Nisa Ra, Thomas Duckett. Lectures at University of California, Berkeley in Black Studies. Marries UCB student, Nisa (Greta Pope), second daughter born, Muhammida El Muhajir. Awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Travels to southern Mexico, Oxaca, Trinidad and Guyana. Interviews prime minister Forbes Burnham. Interview appeared in Black Scholar. Published Woman—Man’s Best Friend, poems, proverbs, lyrics, parables, Al Kitab Sudan Press. 1973 Third daughter, Amira Sauda, born to Barbara (Hasani). Returns to San Francisco State University, awarded BA. Earns MA in one semester, English/Creative writing. Teaches at SF State, black literature, journalism, radio and television writing. 1975 Lectures at Mills College, Oakland. Produced musical version of Woman—Man’s Best Friend. Upward Bound program pressured director Connie Wye to halt production. She refused, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and expired. 1976 Organizes Eldridge Cleaver Crusades. Hires staff of Black Muslims for Cleaver’s ministry. Meets Donald Rumsfeld, Charles Colson, Jim and Tammy Baker, Rev. Robert Schuller. Deals with Rev. Billy Graham, Rev. Falwell, Pat Roberson, Cal Thomas, Pat Boone, Hal Linsey, Art DeMoss. 1978 Returns to Fresno. Falls in love with Sharon Johnson, childhood friend. See autobiography Somethin Proper. 1979 Lectures at University of Nevada, Reno. Awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities planning grants. Produced Excellence in Education Conference. Participants included Eldridge Cleaver, Dr. Harry Edwards, Dr. Wade Nobles, Fahizah Alim, Sherley A. Williams, Ntizi Cayou, Dr. Ahimsa Sumchi. Publishes Selected Poems. Returns to Oakland to organize Melvin Black Human Rights Conference at Oakland Auditorium to stop police killing of black men. Participants included Minister Farakhan, Angela Davis, Paul Cobb, Eldridge Cleaver, Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dezzie Woods-Jones. Police killings stop but drive by shootings begin along with introduction of Crack. 1980 Produced National Conference of Black Men at Oakland auditorium. Participants included Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Oba T’shaka, Dr. Lige Dailey, John Douimbia (founder), Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones. 1981 Taught drama at Laney College. Did production of In the Name of Love. Taught manhood training at Merritt College. 1982 Taught English at Kings River Community College, Reedly CA. Retires from Teaching with 97% student retention rate. Meets Marsha Satterfiend. 1983 Vends on streets of San Francisco, organizers vendors (mostly white) under his non-profit corporation. Harassed under color of law, “too much power for a nigguh” in downtown San Francisco, especially in the Union Square shopping area. 1984 Vends political buttons at Democratic and Republican conventions. San Francisco Chronicle called him the “Button King.” In Dallas, the Republicans observed his salesmanship and said, “If he makes one more dollar, he’ll be a Republican.” Descends into the muck and mire of hell: Crack drives him into the mental hospital several times. 1989 Writes article on Huey Newton, based on last meeting in Oakland Crack house. Article becomes source of Ed Bullins’ play, Salaam, Huey, Salaam. Article is beginning of autobiography, Somethin’ Proper. 1990 Begins recovery at San Francisco’s Glide Church with Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani. Transcribes testimonies of Crack addicts. Writes docudrama of his addiction and recovery One Day In The Life. 1995 Transition of Marsha Satterfield at 41 years old, cancer. Poet flees to Seattle, WA. Works on autobiography. Publishes Love and War, poems. 1996 Produces One Day In The Life with Majeeda Rahman’s Healthy Babies Project, a recovery program for woman and children. Play performed at Alice Arts Theatre. 1997 One Day In the Life opens at Sista’s Place in Brooklyn, New York, also Brecht Forum in Manhattan and Kimako’s Blues in Newark, New Jersey, home of the Barakas. 1997 Attends National Black Theatre festival, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Meets Carolyn Turner. She provides him with time and space to finish autobiography, plenty of sweet tea and dirty rice, in the tradition of the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. 1998 Transition of Eldridge Cleaver. Kathleen Cleaver approves poem “Soul Gone Home” to be read at funeral in Los Angeles. Marvin and Majeeda Rahman organize memorial service in Oakland. Participants included Emory Douglas, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Dr. Nathan Hare, Reginald Major, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Kathleen and Joju Cleaver. Publication of autobiography Somethin Proper. 1999 Establishes Recovery Theatre. Begins run of One Day in the Life. Gets support from Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco after Uhuru House performance. One Day becomes longest running black play in the Bay. Ishmael Reed says, “It’s the best drama I ever saw.” 2000 Meets Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA. 2001 Produces Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness at San Francisco State University. Participants included: Nathan and Julia Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Dr. Cornell West, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Ishamel Reed, Askia Toure, Avotja, Eddie Gale, Rudi Wongozi, Rev. Andriette Earl, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Elliott Bey, Destiny, Tarika Lewis, Phavia Kujichagulia, Suzzette Celeste, Tureeda, Geoffrey Grier, Rev. Otis Lloyd, Kalamu ya Salaam, Ptah Allah-El. Funded by Glide Church and Vanguard foundation. Video of Kings and Queens screened at New York International Independent film festival. In Newark on 9/11, stopped at airport by police. Daughter Muhammida’s documentary Hip Hop the New World Order, screened on 9/12. 2002 Transition of son Darrel at 38, suffered manic oppression. Publication of In the Crazy House Called America, essays. 2004 Produced San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair. Participants included Amiri and Amina Baraka, Nathan and Julia Hare, Al Young, Askia Toure, Kalamu ya Salaam, Ishamel Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Reginald Lockett, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Davey D, Opal Palmer Adisa, Devorah Major, Fillmore Slim, Rosebud Bitterdose, Sam Hamod, Tarika Lewis. Published Land of My Daughters, poems, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, essays. Published issue of Black Bird Press Review newspaper. 2006 Writes Sweet Tea, Dirty Rice, poems; Up From Ignorance, essays; Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality, essays; Mama Said Use The Mind God Gave You, autobiographical novel. Archives go to Bay Area university. Transition of friends: Dr. Salat Townsend, Paul Shular, Alonzo Batin, Dewey Redman and Rufus Harley. Bibliography of Marvin X Books Sudan Rajuli Samia (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1967) Black Dialectics (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1967) Fly To Allah: Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969) Son of Man: Proverbs (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969) Black Man Listen: Poems and Proverbs (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1969) Woman-Man's Best Friend (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1973) Selected Poems (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1979) Confession of A Wife Beater and Other Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1981) Liberation Poems for North American Africans (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1982) Love and War: Poems ( Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1995) Somethin Proper: Autobiography (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1998) In The Crazy House Called America: Essays (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 2002) Wish I Could Tell You The Truth: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005) Land of My Daughters: Poems (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)  Works In Progress It Don't Matter: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2006) You Don't Know Me and Other Poems (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2006) In Sha Allah, A History of Black Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1954-2004 (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2006). Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality by Nisa Islam as told to Marvin X, 2006. Play Scripts and/or Productions Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: San Francisco State University Drama Department, 1965. Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: Black Arts West/Theatre, 1966. Take Care of Business, musical version of Flowers with music by Sun Ra, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes: Your Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco, 1972. Come Next Summer, San Francisco: Black Arts/West, 1966. The Trial, New York, Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech, 1970. Resurrection of the Dead, San Francisco,  choreography by Raymond Sawyer, music by Juju and Sun Ra, Your Black Educational Theatre, 1972. Woman-Man's Best Friend, musical, Oakland, Mills College, 1973. How I Met Isa, Masters thesis, San Francisco State University, 1975. In The Name of Love, Oakland, Laney College Theatre, 1981. One Day In The Life, Oakland, Alice Arts Theatre, 1996. One Day In The Life, Brooklyn, NY, Sistah's Place, 1997. One Day In The Life, Manhattan, Brecht Forum, 1997. One Day In The Life, Newark, NJ, Kimako's Blues, 1997. One Day In The Life, Oakland, Uhuru House, 1998. One Day In The Life, San Francisco, Bannam Place Theatre, North Beach, 1998. One Day In The Lifee, San Francisco, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 1999. One Day In the Life, Marin City, Marin City Rec Center, 1999 One Day In the Life, Richmond, Unity Church, 2000. One Day In the Life, San Jose, San Jose State University, 2000. One Day In the Life, Berkeley, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2000. One Day In the Life, Sacramento, New Colonial Theatre, 2000. Sergeant Santa, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre script, 2002. Other Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, Merritt College Student Magazine contest winner, 1963. Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, SoulBook Magazine, 1964. Flowers for the Trashman: A One Act Drama, San Francisco, Black Dialogue Magazine, 1965. Flowers for the Trashman, Black Fire, An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, edited by Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, (New York: Morrow, 1968). Take Care of Business: A One Act Drama, aka Flowers, (New York: The Drama Review, NYU,1968) The Black Bird (Al Tair Aswad): A One-Act Play, New Plays from the Black Theatre, edited by Ed Bullins with introduction (interview of Ed Bullins) by Marivn X, (New York: Bantam, 1969) "Islam and Black Art: An Interview with Amiri Baraka" and foreword by Askia Muhammad Toure, afterword by Marivn X, in Black Arts: An Anthology of Black Creations, edited by Ahmed Alhamisi and Haroun Kofi Wangara (Harold G. Lawrence) (Detroit: Black Arts Publications, 1969). "Everything's Cool: An Interview with Amiri Barka, aka, LeRoi Jones", Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, NY, 1968. Resurrection of the Dead, a ritual/myth dance drama, Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem,  1969. Manifesto of the Black Educational Theatre of San Francisco, Black Theatre, 1972. The Black Bird, A Parable by Marvin X, illustrated by Karen Johnson ( San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan and Julian Richardson and Associates Publishers, 1972). "Black Justice Must Be Done," Vietnam and Black America: An Anthology of Protest and Resistance, edited by Clyde Taylor (Garden City: Double-day/Anchor, 1973) "Palestine," a poem, Black Scholar magazine, 1978. Journal of Black Poetry, guest editor, 1968. "The Meaning of African Liberation Day," by Dr. Walter Rodney, a speech in San Francisco, transcribed and edited by Marvin X, Journal of Black Poetry, 1972. Muhammad Speaks, foreign editor, 1970. (Note: a few months later, Marvin X was selected to be editor of Muhammad Speaksuntil it was decided he was too militant. Askia Muhammad (Charles 37X) was selected instead.) A Conversation with Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Black Scholar, 1973. VIDEOGRAPHY OF EVENTS/PRODUCTIONS Proceedings of the Melvin Black Human Rights Conference, Oakland, 1979, produced by Marvin X, featuring Angela Davis, Minister Farakhan, Eldridge Cleaver, Paul Cobb, Dezzie Woods-Jones, Jo Nina-Abran, Mansha Nitoto, Khalid Abdullah Tarik Al Mansur, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T-Shaka, and Marvin X. Proceedings of the First Black Men's Conference, Oakland, 1980, John Douimbia, founder, Marvin X, chief planner, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T'Shaka,Norman Brown, Kermit Scott, Minister Ronald Muhammad, Louis Freeman,   Michael Lange, Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones, et al. Forum on Drugs, Art and Revolution, Sista's Place, Brooklyn, New York, 1997, featuring Amiri and Amina Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath and Marvin X. Eldridge Cleaver Memorial Service, produced by Marvin X, Oakland, 1998, participants included Kathleen and Joju Cleaver, Emory Douglas, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Dr. Nathan Hare, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Reginald Major, Majidah Rahman and Marvin X. One Day in the Life, a docudrama of addiction and recovery,  filmed by Ptah Allah-El, produced, written, directed and staring Marvin X, edited by Marvin X, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 1999. Marvin X Interviews Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, former actor in Marvin X's Black Theatre: Berkeley, La Pena Cultural Center, 1999. "Abstract for An Elders Council," lecture/discussion, Tupac Amaru Shakur One Nation Conference, Oakland: McClymonds High School, 1999. Marvin X at Dead Prez Concert, San Francisco, 2000. Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, produced by Marvin X at San Francisco State University, 2001, featuring Dr. Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare,  Rev. Cecil Williams, Destiny, Phavia, Tarika Lewis, Askia Toure, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Rudi Wongozi, Ishmael Reed, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Marvin X, et al. Live In Philly At Warm Daddies,  a reading accompanied by Elliot Bey, Marshall Allen, Danny Thompson, Ancestor Goldsky, Rufus Harley, Alexander El, 2002. Marvin X Live in Detroit, a documentary by Abu Ibn, 2002. In the Crazy House Called America, concert with Marvin X and Destiny, San Francisco: Buriel Clay Theatre, 2003. Marvin X  in Concert (accompanied by  harpist Destiny, violinist Tarika Lewis and percussionists Tacuma and Kele Nitoto, dancer Raynetta Rayzetta), Amiri and Amina Baraka, filmed by Kwame and Joe, Berkeley: Black Repertory Group Theatre, 2003. Marvin X Speaks at the Third Eye Conference, Dallas, Texas, 2003. Marvin X and the Last Poets, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 2004. Proceedings of the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair, produced by Marvin X, filmed by Mindseed Productions, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre, 2004, participants include: Sonia Sanchez, Davey D, Amiri Baraka, Sam Hamod, Fillmore Slim, Askia Toure, Akhbar Muhammad, Sam Anderson, Al Young, Devorah Major, Opal Palmer Adisa, Tarika Lewis, Amina Baraka, Julia and Nathan Hare, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Reginald Lockett, Everett Hoagland, Sam Greenlee, Ayodelle Nzinga, Suzzette Celeste, Tarika Lewis, Raynetta Rayzetta, Deborah Day, James Robinson, Ptah Allah-El, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Marvin X, et al. (Note: let me please acknowledge some of the historic personages in the audience: Gansta Alonzao Batin (mentor of the Bay Area BAM, made his transition shortly after the conference), Willie Williams of Broadside Press, Detroit, Gansta Brown, Gansta Mikey Moore (now Rev.), Arthur Sheridan, founder of Black Dialogue magazine, also co-founders Aubrey and Gerald LaBrie, Reginald Major, author of Panther Is A Black Cat. Thank you all for making this event historic, ed. MX) Get Yo Mind Right, Marvin X Barbershop Talk, #4, a documentary film by Pam Pam and Marvin X, Oakland: 2005. Marvin X Live in the Fillmore at Rass'elas Jazz Club, A Nisa Islam production, filmed by Ken Johnson, San Francisco, 2005. Marvin X in the Malcolm X Room, McClymonds High School, accompanied by Tacuma (dijembe and percussion, dancer/choreographer  Raynetta Rayzetta, actor Salat Townsend, filmed by Eddie Abrams, Oakland, 2005. AUDIOGRAPHY In Sha Allah, interview with Nisa Islam, Cherokee, 2004. In Sha Allah, interview with Nadar Ali, Fresno, 2004. In Sha Allah, interview with Manuel Rashid, Fresno, 2004. In Sha Allah, interview with John Douimbia, Grand Ayatollah of the Bay, San Francisco, 2004. In Sha Allah, interview with Minister Rabb Muhammad, Oakland, 2004. In Sha Allah, interview with Antar Bey, CEO, Your Black Muslim Bakery, Oakland, 2004. In Sha Allah, interview with Norman Brown, Oakland, Oakland, 2004. In Sha Allah, interview with Kareem Muhammad (Brother Edward), Oakland, 2004. Love and War, poems, Oakland, 1995. One Day In The Life, docudrama, Oakland, 1999. Jesus and Liquor Stores, Marvin X and Askari X, Oakland, 2002 Wake Up, Detroit, Marvin X interviewed by Lawrence X, Detroit, 2002.. Wish I, interview with Pam Pam, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005. Wish I, interview with Terry Collins, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005. Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement, interview with Professor James Smethurst of UMASS, Oakland, 2003.

*   *   *   *   *

The Contributors

Dr. Mohja Kahf, professor of English and Islamic Literature, University of Arkansas. Her essay is revised (by ed.) from an earlier version that appeared online at Muslim Wake Up.Com. She is the senior editor of the forthcoming anthology Muslim American Literature, University of Arkansas Press. Marvin X is a co-editor. Her recent collection of poetry is E-Mails from Scheherazad, University Press of Florida.

Lorenzo Thomas, professor of English at the University of Houston, Texas, and author of Extraordinary Measures: Afrocentric Modernism and Twentieth-Century American Poetry, University of Alabama Press, 2000.

Michael Idland's essay is from African American Dramatists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.

Lee Hubbard is a Bay Area journalist, this interview appeared in the San Francisco Bayview newspaper.

Dr. Nathan Hare, sociologist/psychologist, is the father of black studies in America. He and his wife, Julia, are close associates, comrades and advisors to Marvin X. He is author of the classic sociological study The Black Anglo-Saxons. With wife Julia, he is co-author of The Endangered Black Familyand The Miseducation of the Black Child.

Fahizah Alim writes for the Sacramento Bee newspaper. Marvin X is her mentor. Her critical comments on Islam and male/female relations have been a source of inspiration to the poet.

La Vonda R. Staples is an online personality for newblackcity.com and creator of "Literally Speaking," an internet live book club.

James G. Spady's essay appeared in the Philadelphia New Observer. He is recipient of the American Book Award and the National Newspaper Association's Meritorious Award. His works have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals such as African Studies Review, International Journal of African Studies, College Language Association Journal, Black Scholar, Presence Africaine, Journal of African Civilizations and elsewhere.

Steven Winn is drama critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.

John Woodford is former editor-in-chief of Muhammad Speaks. He is currently editor of Michigan Today at the University of Michigan.

Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA is a social worker and spiritual practitioner at the East Bay Church of Religious Science. She also teaches counseling at Oakland's Merritt College.

James W. Sweeney is former director of the Oakland Independent Support Center, an outpatient center for the homeless and dual diagnosed. He is a former Berkeley City Councilman.

Aeesha and Kokoman Clotty are directors of Attitudinal Healing Center in Oakland and co-authors of Racial Healing.

Rudolph Lewis manages the African American literary website ChickenBones. He will soon publish "The Best of ChickenBones," and it is one of the best sites for African American literature on the internet. The best source for up-to-date writings by Marvin X, up-to-the-minute! Thanks Rudy for your hard work-a true trooper!

Ishamel Reed is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, editor and publisher. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, and for twenty years has been a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley. He is a supporter of Marvin X's many projects.

Lil Joe is Los Angeles community activist and revolutionary theoretician. He was among the group of revolutionary students from southern California who supported Marvin X when he fought to teach at Fresno State University but was removed by then Gov. Ronald Reagan, 1969. These students also supported his draft trial. They said, "We want Marvin X, not in Vietnam, not in jail, but on campus." Joe was also a member of the Black Panther Party. (Note: We love you Lil Joe for raising high the banner of revolution! As Mao taught, "The reactionaries will never put down their butcher knives, they will never turn into Buddha heads.")

Pam Pam is a community activist in San Francisco's dangerous Sunnydale district. She also produced, filmed and co-directed a film on Marvin X, Git Yo Mind Rite. She has a weekly program on San Francisco's KPOO radio.

Terry Collins, nephew of Malcolm X through his sister Ella Collins, is one of the founders and directors of KPOO radio. Terry was one of the revolutionary students at San Francisco State University, along with his roommate Danny Glover (who performed in Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre), fellow students Joe Rudolph (KPOO founder, peace be upon him) and Marvin X.

Dr. Julius E. Thompson's essay appeared in African American Review. He is a professor of African American Studies.

Reginald Major is author of The Panther Is A Black Cat, a study of the Black Panther Party. He writes for Pacifica News Service.

Dingane (Joe Goncalves) is founder and publisher of the 60s bible of poetry, the Journal of Black Poetry.

Dennis Leroy Moore is a New York filmmaker. His  As An Act of Protest is an awarding winning film about the Neo-Black Arts Movement.

Junious Ricardo Stanton is a journalist who writes for newspapers nationwide, especially online journals such as The Black World Today.

Brecht Forum is a New York center for radical culture.

Johari Amini's (Jewel C. Latimore) review is from Negro Digest (Black World), 1969. Johari is one of the beautiful sister poets of the Chicago Black Arts Movement.

James Smethurst’s The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. He is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts.

Dr Yosef Ben Jochannan ~ Black Man Wake Up!!!

marvin x poem cops eat raw black men

Cops eat raw black men

For lunch. 

Suck blood hearts

These cannibals

Claim civility

Revel savagery

Suck truth from Black boy heads

Girls too are booty. 

MX

4/9/18

Poem for AB

Who has the most poison gas in dey ass

US, Syria, Russia, Israel, who? 

Who poots louder than Putin? Trumpian? Zionian? Saudi Arabian in Yemen? 

Who burned alive SLA, Move people? 

Who sends children to school with no protection? 

Who interviews a nut 47 times but don't take him to nut house, who?

Who drops guns in da hood like doodoo? 

And who is doodoo

Dry doodoo is the worst

It flies gets in eyes

Airborne worse than poison gas

Ask SF Tenderloin children

What doodoo do 

On way to school.

Who overdosed 99% with opioids? Big Pharma, Big China, Big Mexican Mafia, who? 

Who told FB to sell yo cuzin's address to Obama, Hillary and Donald, who?

Who made you ignut deaf dumb blind? 

Who trampled truth under foot? 

Who told you JC is coming back after 2018 years, who? 

--Marvin X

4/7/18

AB and MX

Senior Citizens and the Vitamin Scam

Older Americans Are Hooked On Vitamins Despite Scarce Evidence They Work

californiahealthline.org

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When she was a young physician, Dr. Martha Gulati noticed that many of her mentors were prescribing vitamin E and folic acid to patients. Preliminary studies in the early 1990s had linked both supplements to a lower risk of heart disease.
She urged her father to pop the pills as well: “Dad, you should be on these vitamins, because every cardiologist is taking them or putting their patients on [them],” recalled Gulati, now chief of cardiology for the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix.
But just a few years later, she found herself reversing course, after rigorous clinical trials found neither vitamin E nor folic acid supplements did anything to protect the heart. Even worse, studies linked high-dose vitamin E to a higher risk of heart failure, prostate cancer and death from any cause.
“‘You might want to stop taking [these],’” Gulati told her father.
More than half of Americans take vitamin supplements, including 68 percent of those age 65 and older, according to a 2013 Gallup poll. Among older adults, 29 percent take four or more supplements of any kind, according to a Journal of Nutrition study published in 2017.
Often, preliminary studies fuel irrational exuberance about a promising dietary supplement, leading millions of people to buy in to the trend. Many never stop. They continue even though more rigorous studies — which can take many years to complete — almost never find that vitamins prevent disease, and in some cases cause harm.
“The enthusiasm does tend to outpace the evidence,” said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
There’s no conclusive evidence that dietary supplements prevent chronic disease in the average American, Manson said. And while a handful of vitamin and mineral studies have had positive results, those findings haven’t been strong enough to recommend supplements to the general U.S. public, she said.
The National Institutes of Health has spent more than $2.4 billion since 1999 studying vitamins and minerals. Yet for “all the research we’ve done, we don’t have much to show for it,” said Dr. Barnett Kramer, director of cancer prevention at the National Cancer Institute.
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In Search Of The Magic Bullet
A big part of the problem, Kramer said, could be that much nutrition research has been based on faulty assumptions, including the notion that people need more vitamins and minerals than a typical diet provides; that megadoses are always safe; and that scientists can boil down the benefits of vegetables like broccoli into a daily pill.
Vitamin-rich foods can cure diseases related to vitamin deficiency. Oranges and limes were famously shown to prevent scurvy in vitamin-deprived 18th-century sailors. And research has long shown that populations that eat a lot of fruits and vegetables tend to be healthier than others.
But when researchers tried to deliver the key ingredients of a healthy diet in a capsule, Kramer said, those efforts nearly always failed.
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It’s possible that the chemicals in the fruits and vegetables on your plate work together in ways that scientists don’t fully understand — and which can’t be replicated in a tablet, said Marjorie McCullough, strategic director of nutritional epidemiology for the American Cancer Society.
More important, perhaps, is that most Americans get plenty of the essentials, anyway. Although the Western diet has a lot of problems — too much sodium, sugar, saturated fat and calories, in general — it’s not short on vitamins, said Alice Lichtenstein, a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
And although there are more than 90,000 dietary supplements from which to choose, federal health agencies and advisers still recommend that Americans meet their nutritional needs with food, especially fruits and vegetables.
Also, American food is highly fortified — with vitamin D in milk, iodine in salt, B vitamins in flour, even calcium in some brands of orange juice.
Without even realizing it, someone who eats a typical lunch or breakfast “is essentially eating a multivitamin,” said journalist Catherine Price, author of “Vitamania: How Vitamins Revolutionized the Way We Think About Food.”
That can make studying vitamins even more complicated, Price said. Researchers may have trouble finding a true control group, with no exposure to supplemental vitamins. If everyone in a study is consuming fortified food, vitamins may appear less effective.
The body naturally regulates the levels of many nutrients, such as vitamin C and many B vitamins, Kramer said, by excreting what it doesn’t need in urine. He added: “It’s hard to avoid getting the full range of vitamins.”
Not all experts agree. Dr. Walter Willett, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says it’s reasonable to take a daily multivitamin “for insurance.” Willett said that clinical trials underestimate supplements’ true benefits because they aren’t long enough, often lasting five to 10 years. It could take decades to notice a lower rate of cancer or heart disease in vitamin takers, he said.
Vitamin Users Start Out Healthier
For Charlsa Bentley, 67, keeping up with the latest nutrition research can be frustrating. She stopped taking calcium, for example, after studies found it doesn’t protect against bone fractures. Additional studies suggest that calcium supplements increase the risk of kidney stones and heart disease.

Charlsa Bentley takes five supplements a day. “It’s hard to know what’s effective and what’s not,” she says. (Courtesy of Charlsa Bentley)

“I faithfully chewed those calcium supplements, and then a study said they didn’t do any good at all,” said Bentley, from Austin, Texas. “It’s hard to know what’s effective and what’s not.”
Bentley still takes five supplements a day: a multivitamin to prevent dry eyes, magnesium to prevent cramps while exercising, red yeast rice to prevent diabetes, coenzyme Q10 for overall health and vitamin D based on her doctor’s recommendation.
Like many people who take dietary supplements, Bentley also exercises regularly — playing tennis three to four times a week — and watches what she eats.
People who take vitamins tend to be healthier, wealthier and better educated than those who don’t, Kramer said. They are probably less likely to succumb to heart disease or cancer, whether they take supplements or not. That can skew research results, making vitamin pills seem more effective than they really are.
Faulty Assumptions
Preliminary findings can also lead researchers to the wrong conclusions.
For example, scientists have long observed that people with high levels of an amino acid called homocysteine are more likely to have heart attacks. Because folic acid can lower homocysteine levels, researchers once hoped that folic acid supplements would prevent heart attacks and strokes.
In a series of clinical trials, folic acid pills lowered homocysteine levels but had no overall benefit for heart disease, Lichtenstein said.
Studies of fish oil also may have led researchers astray.
When studies of large populations showed that people who eat lots of seafood had fewer heart attacks, many assumed that the benefits came from the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil, Lichtenstein said.
Rigorous studies have failed to show that fish oil supplements prevent heart attacks. A clinical trial of fish oil pills and vitamin D, whose results are expected to be released within the year, may provide clearer questions about whether they prevent disease.
But it’s possible the benefits of sardines and salmon have nothing to do with fish oil, Lichtenstein said. People who have fish for dinner may be healthier due to what they don’t eat, such as meatloaf and cheeseburgers.
“Eating fish is probably a good thing, but we haven’t been able to show that taking fish oil [supplements] does anything for you,” said Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Too Much Of A Good Thing?
Taking megadoses of vitamins and minerals, using amounts that people could never consume through food alone, could be even more problematic.
“There’s something appealing about taking a natural product, even if you’re taking it in a way that is totally unnatural,” Price said.
Early studies, for example, suggested that beta carotene, a substance found in carrots, might help prevent cancer.
In the tiny amounts provided by fruits and vegetables, beta carotene and similar substances appear to protect the body from a process called oxidation, which damages healthy cells, said Dr. Edgar Miller, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Experts were shocked when two large, well-designed studies in the 1990s found that beta carotene pills actually increased lung cancer rates. Likewise, a clinical trial published in 2011 found that vitamin E, also an antioxidant, increased the risk of prostate cancer in men by 17 percent. Such studies reminded researchers that oxidation isn’t all bad; it helps kill bacteria and malignant cells, wiping them out before they can grow into tumors, Miller said.
“Vitamins are not inert,” said Dr. Eric Klein, a prostate cancer expert at the Cleveland Clinic who led the vitamin E study. “They are biologically active agents. We have to think of them in the same way as drugs. If you take too high a dose of them, they cause side effects.”
Gulati, the physician in Phoenix, said her early experience with recommending supplements to her father taught her to be more cautious. She said she’s waiting for the results of large studies — such as the trial of fish oil and vitamin D — to guide her advice on vitamins and supplements.
“We should be responsible physicians,” she said, “and wait for the data.”

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.