Friday, June 10, 2016

Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali!


America loves and honors all resistance fighters when they are dead; will even turn them into American heroes, naming streets and schools  after them, even putting them on twenty dollar bills in the case of Harriet Tubman, but will they quote Harriet on the twenty dollar bill when she said, "I could have freed more slaves if they had known they were slaves!" As they say in Houston, Texas, "You better ax somebody!"

 Oh, Billy boy, are you part of the problem or part of the solution? I hear Ali singing from Paradise, "Oh, Allah, look what they did to my song!" And as per  Hillary for president, Dr. Nathan Hare taught us,"The white woman is the white man in drag!" Our esteemed sociologist and clinical psychologist also taught us the "fictive theory," i.e., everything the white man says is fiction, i.e., a lie, until proven to be fact!" How can Hillary speak before Planned Parenthood when the most dangerous time for a Black child is in the womb?

Ask the Native Americans about American's  forked tongue! In our hour of grief and mourning at the transition of our beloved Muhammad Ali, let us take off our rose colored glasses and see clearly we must guard against being deceived and remain ever on the alert for we are in the midst of devils of the worse kind, who have no good intentions for us, yes, all of us in the 99%, whether white, black, brown or yellow, no matter what gender.

Elijah taugh us to trust no one but wear the armor of God and walk through the midst of our enemies as Jesus did until we reach the Upper Room of our Father's House!

Attalah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm Shabazz. "Oh Sister Queen, we love you in the name of Allah for keeping the light of your father, Malcolm X, a burning flame of freedom fire! We love you and honor you and all your siblings. We honor little Malcolm Shabazz as well for all he did of righteousness! And we honor and respect your dear Mother, Betty Shabazz, Queen Mother of the Black Nation in the wilderness of North America!"

Even on the day of this last rites to a true American hero, it's amazing how language can trick us, especially when we are ignorant of it. This is why I stress part of our condition is due to our psycholinguistic crisis. As my elder and associate, Dr. Nathan Hare explains, "We cannot claim to suffer amnesia because amnesia presumes we have forgotten something that I maintain the connection was so disconnected that it is beyond amnesia, i.e., we simply have no memory of our past history; not that it was totally erased but close to it." For example, when I listen to kora music, I am enraged to think this is the music we listened to ten thousand years ago, as Ancestor Ali Farka has told us when they asked him was he playing the Blues when he accompanied the Rolling Stones and B.B. King. He responded, "My people have been playing this music for ten thousand years, long before they found themselves captives of the American slave system (Ed Howard term) in the Mississippi Delta and created the music you call Blues." Surely you never imagined the Blues originated from African music of ten thousand years ago when we were in peace, when a man could lose his wallet and recover it years later; yes, Blues originated from a culture without jails and prisons--in you did wrong you were simply banished from the tribe, sometimes forever!


 Mrs. Muhammad Ali
All praise to Sister Muhammad for caring and loving Muhammad Ali!

When Muhammad Ali (may he rest in the grace of Allah) told the world he was the greatest, we thought he was ego tripping, but in fact he had been taught the most simple lesson in Islam, i,e, Alllahu Akbar or God is the Greatest! Along with: La-ee-laha-ee-la-illah, Muhammadan rasulullah, i.e., there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.

So Ali was not ego tripping but expressing fundamental Islamic and Nation of Islam teachings, 101. Such teachings are not foreign to the Super Sunnis who suffer their dogmatic version of orthodox Islam, but just note that after four hundred years in the American slave system, we care nothing about orthodoxy, whether Islamic, Christian, Communist, Socialist or any other ideological or theological madness imposed on us by some foreign entity that is forever coming to us in their paternalistic manner to teach us the right way, again, no matter the theological or political  persuasion, as if we can't think for ourselves.

I am so thankful my Mother (Marian Murrill Jackmon) taught me, "Boy, use the mind God gave you!" Thank you, Mom! If we don't, we may surely end up in Jonestown feeding ourselves and our children poisoned Kool-Aid.
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Imam Muhammad and Rev. Jim Jones. We cannot 
condemn the Imam for associating with Jim Jomes
when the entire Black leadership of San Francisco
supported him even after he was exposed as a devil
and departed for Jonestown, Guyana, South America.
Before Jim Jones arrived in Guyana, we interviewed
Prime Minister Forbes Burnham for Muhanmad Speaks
and Black Scholar Magazine, then soon discovered
he was working for the CIA to prevent Guyana from
becoming another Communist regime like Cuba. America
would accept a Black Power government before another
Communist regime in South America. The USA will use
puppets like Prime Minister Burnham to assassinate Dr.Walter Rodney,
one of our greatest minds for Pan African liberation. When he
allowed Jim Jones into the jungle, it only happened after a pay off
and compromise of Guyana officials just as he had done with the
Black leadership of San Francisco who are guilty with Jim Jones
in the mass murder of 900 of mostly North Americans Africans
who were brainwashed enough to drink poisoned Kool Aide and
give it to their children. Moreover, the Jonestown massacre is a
demonstration of the utter desperation of our condition in America
as I write.


Alas, imagine Muhammad Ali's so called Sunni teacher was Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, close friend of Rev. Jim Jones who murdered 900 mostly Black people in Jonestown Guyana, South America. What is more tragic is not only did Rev. Jim Jones hoodwink and bamboozle the poor masses but the entire Black leadership of San Francisco (no need to mention names, but we will say his personal physician was Dr. Carlton Goodlett, publisher of the San Francisco Sun Reporter Newspaper; Goodlett could have administered Rev. Jim Jones his personal poison to prevent the death of 900 poor, mostly North American Africans who fled American seeking solace in the jungles of South America). After all, Elijah taught us the Yacubian mythology that informed us Dr. Yakub used three workers in his bio-tech lab (such as those bio-tech labs in Emeryville Ca., a few blocks from where I live in Berkeley Calif), but we accept the fact they are cloning humans in the best of the Yacoubian myth-science manner. And who were his three main workers: the doctor, nurse and undertaker. Who was with Michael Jackson, his doctor! Who was with Prince, the doctor's son! And you want me to believe the teachings of HEM is poppycock? We suggest you examine your Super Sunni mythological notions that force you to kill people at the drop of a hat because you are suffering the addiction to so-called orthodox religiosity. 

Any religiosity is religiosity and we don't excuse ideology in the same manner of dogmatism that allows one to slip into darkness to the degree one will commit the worst acts of barbarity and savagery. So much for the crisis of spirituality and crisis of the intellectual who refuses to do what my Mother said, "You the mind God gave you." Alas, we are often so smart we outsmart ourselves, as my father told me. He said, "Boy, you should be a billionaire but you outsmarted yourself." And Mom added, "Boy, you don't need them Nigguhs, them Nigguhs need you! They just using your mind. You need to use the mind God gave you and leave them Nigguhs alone!" 

In truth, Mom was just like me or I was just like Mom: in her Real Estate business, she devoted her life to helping our people, in short, she was a Race Woman, just as my father was a Race Man, but Mom went further once she adopted the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science that afforded us not medicine cabinet in our house; we had to know the truth and the truth would set you free, according to Christian Science. Mom was thus a half century ahead of most Negroes in spirituality although today many have found their way closer to her spirituality when they come upon the teachings of Science of Mind, founded by the white man, Ernest Holmes. How amazing so-called Negroes can accept Science of Mind's theology that man is god but not Elijah Muhammad's. 

Surely there is some addiction to white supremacy here, and we must note most of the new-found followers of Science of Mind are the petty-bourgeoisie so-called Negroes who found the theology of a "Nigger" unacceptable but the white man saying essentially the same thing, quite acceptable. One of my elders, now ancestor, heard my partner (at the time) deliver the opening message at my concerts, he whispered to me, "Marvin, that girl teaching Islam, that's Islam," although my partner was convinced she was teaching Science of Mind religiosity. I allowed her to give the opening address only became I knew, as my elder said, she was teaching essentially Islam or quite simply, the truth! And how many versions of the truth exist? Either it's the truth or it's a lie!

And so we end today with the last rites of Muhammad Ali, and as ancestor Betty Shabazz taught us, "Find the good and praise it!" And so we do as she said, we find the good in Muhammad Ali and praise it, not ignoring his glaring contradictions that we all have upon examination!

What a joy it was to travel along the path with Muhammad Ali, to suffer his sufferings, even transcending his suffering when we experienced exile from America twice, then jail and prison. Yet, we are so thankful for the experience, for every minute of it: yes, exile, jail and prison was a learning experience and we are thankful to be a fellow traveler on the highway of the Most High, Worthy of Much Praise, Muhammad Ali. We are thankful for that brief moment we met at the home of Elijah Muhammad's house, even though we did not do the interview I came to do; even thought I did not meet Elijah Muhammad, but I met Clara Muhammad, first lady of the NOI, and I appreciate my interchange with Ali. He went into a room to converse with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and came out to tell me he was instructed to not do the interview for Ramparts Magazine. He said, "Brother, this is the man I'm willing to die for; so what he's says, I do!" 

Ali noted I had blood on my shirt from shaving and asked me if I needed some money since I had waited for him several days in Chicago while he was in Detroit. When I said, yes, he reaching in his pocked and gave me a few hundred dollars. I departed Chicago as high as I have ever been, after all, I met Ali in the house of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and exchanged greetings with the first lady of the Nation of Islam, a story I will tell about later in more detail since I was able to interview Sister Nisa Bey who lived in the house of Elijah off and on for ten years and gave me her story of ten years in the House of Elijah! All praise is due Allah for Muhammad Ali. Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali Ali!
--Marvin X (El Muhajir)
6/10/16
Oakland CA
Black Arts Movement Business District

Fillmore Slim will accompany Marvin X at San Francisco Juneteenth, 2016


 

Talent Itinerary for SF Juneteenth 2016

66th Annual SF Juneteenth Festival Itinerary
Saturday, June 18, 2016 * 10am-6pm
Freedom Stage 1
(Fillmore Street, between Turk and Sutter)

Hosted by Tony Sparks and Jay Rich
Stage Coordinator: Farah Dews
10:20AM – 10:55AM – FROM THE SOUL – (Joyful Soul Music)
11:20AM – 11:55PM – GREER ROCKETT (Jazz)
GREER ROCKET QUINTET
12:15PM – 12:45PM – PROJECT LEVEL – (Rap-Youth Act)
1:15PM – 2:00PM – CISUM (R&B)
2:15PM – 2:50PM – ROB BESS (Soulful R&B)
3:00PM – 3:20PM – NICIA DELOVELY (Spoken Word)
Nicia De'Lovely
3:40PM – 4:30PM – STABE WILSON (Jazz)
4:50PM – 6:00PM – RAYMOND COATS (Blues)
Liberty Stage 2
(Fillmore and O’Farrell St.)

Say It Like That Comedy featuring Marvellus Live and Glamis Rory
Stage Coordinator: Stephanie Fanner
10:00AM – 11:00AM – DJ SUPREME
11:00AM – 11:30AM – SISTERS KEEPER (R&B-Youth Act)
11:45PM -12:20PM – AVERY SELLASSIE BLACKWELL (Hip Hop)
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12:25PM – 12:45 PM – MARVIN X  (Spoken Word) accompanied by
Fillmore Slim on acoustic guitar
 
 Master Poet Marvin X and Fillmore Slim
photo Markel Archie

Master Poet Marvin X
photo Pendarvis Harshaw
 
 
1:00PM – 1:40PM – LLOYD GREGORY (Contemporary Jazz)
LLOYD GREGORY
2:00PM – 2:45PM – DALE ANTHONY (Gospel)
dale anthony
3:05PM – 3:40PM – THE SEASTRUNK BROTHERS (Old Skool Soul)
3:55PM – 4:45PM – RASHAAD CARLTON (Soul-R&B)
5:05PM – 6:00PM – BROWN SUGAR (R&B)
brown sugar
Justice Stage 3
(Fillmore and Eddy St.)

Hosted by Shea Suga
Production Manager: Shelly Tatum
Stage Coordinator: Evan Ward
10:00 – 11:20AM – DJ Music
11:30AM – 11:50AM – FOREIGN FAMILY (R&B)
FOREIGN FAMILY
12:00PM – 1:00PM – Dr. FUNK aka DJ HIGHTOP
1:05PM – 1:25PM – TYSON AMIR (Spoken word-hip hop)
1:30PM -1:55PM – ADRIAN MARCEL, Universal Recording Artist – (R&B)
2:20PM – 3:20PM – PRINCE Tribute with special guests
from the  original band  “Prince & the RevolutionandNew Power Generation
Party Flyer 3-sm
3:35PM – 4:05PM – THE JAMMING NACHOS – (Rock and Roll Youth Act)
4:20PM – 4:55PM – MEN OF ENDURANCE (Gospel)
men of endurance
5:15PM – 6:00PM – BOHEMIAN KNUCKLE BOOGIE (Jazz)
Uhuru African Village Experience Stage 4
(Fillmore & Turk St.) 1PM-6PM

Prescott Circus Theatre & Circus Bella
Nitty Dupree – Ground Level Performance
13221659_10153840097166107_6189006204256539001_n
Mario B. Productions Fashion Stage (Fillmore Plaza)
featuring performances by:
J Jones
The Stonies
Vic Da Baron
April Foolz
Rayn
 
 RBG FLAG POSTER no logos.jpg
 
June 19, Berkeley Juneteenth
 Marvin X 
autographs books 
exhibits archives 
of the Black Arts Movement

Berkeley Juneteenth Festival, Sunday, June 19, 2016



 James Sweeney (left) and Marvin X at last year's festival. Marvin will autograph books and display his archives of the Black Arts Movement at this years event.

photo Harrison Chastan 

June 25, West Oakland Juneteenth

July 3, San Francisco Public Library, reading of Black Hollywood unChained contributors: Cecil Brown, Dr. Halifu Osumare, Douglas Allen Taylor, Ishmael Reed, Justin Desmangles and
Marvin X

 9780883783535: Black Hollywood Unchained - Ishmael Reed (Editor)

July 23, Oakland Black Expo, Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza, Marvin X reads and speaks on the Black Arts Movement Business District




September, 9-11 Black Arts Movement South 51st Anniversary Celebration, Dillard University, New Orleans, LA


 Marvin X in previous appearance at University of Houston TX

September, University of Houston, Texas, Africana Studies, Texas Southern University and elsewhere in the Big H. TBA

September, Black Arts Movement Theatre Festival, Flight Deck Theatre, Oakland
TBA

The Black Arts Movement Business District 
presents
BAM THEATRE FESTIVAL
Flight Deck Theatre
September 2016
The plays 
The day of his play 'The Toilet' debuted at the St. Marks Playhouse ...
The Toilet by Amiri Baraka
Flowers for the Trashman by Marvin X

A scene from Marvin X's BAM classic Flowers for the Trashman, produced by Kim McMillon's theatre students at University of California, Merced. 
 Bathroom Graffiti Queen
by Opal Palmer Adisa
produced by 
Dr. Ayodele Nzinga
The Lower Bottom Playaz

September, Black Book Store, Seattle Wa, hosted by Hakim, TBA

August 1, September 30, Laney College Theatre, Oakland, Marvin X opens for Donald Lacy's Color Struck.

https://s.yimg.com/fz/api/res/1.2/ztJaGg_Rjuh42W3VyiTu1g--/YXBwaWQ9c3JjaGRkO2g9Mzg5O3E9OTU7dz00MDA-/http://i2.wp.com/sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BPP-50th-0415-web.jpg?resize=400%2C389

October, 20-23 Black Panther Party 50th Anniversary at Oakland Museum of California. Marvin X speaks/reads.
 

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga replies to Lynette McElhaney on Marvin X and Tale of the Eloquent Peasant

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga replies to President Lynette McElhaney's response to Marvin X and Tale of the Eloquent Peasant



Dear Madam President McElhaney,



Marvin X, my mentor and elder, found your response quite eloquent and urged me to respond to you since you referenced my efforts in engaging the community to help with the implementation of a Black Arts Movement Business District. I am deeply committed to the creation of a Black Arts Movement Business District as envisioned by those who dreamed it fifty years ago. Marvin X and the late Amiri Baraka, both internationally known founding members of The Black Arts Movement envisioned Black Cultural Districts nationwide. In his hometown, Newark, New Jersey, Baraka called his vision The Jazz District. Marvin’s vision for his hometown, Oakland CA., is an immense one. It is in service to that dream that I join the conversation.



Your reply reminds us of the weight of your responsibilities as a council person and you state your current priorities. Thank you for offering us your understanding of where BAMBD fits into current City of Oakland matters as well as the short outline for implementing the stages of BAMBD.  As a resident of District 3 who works and lives in the BAMBD footprint, I appreciate your timely update. There is a great deal of community interest in the successful implementation of a vibrant cultural district that will help address some of the issues that are priorities for you.



The things you are prioritizing should indeed be pressing issues for the entire council. I note that some of your priorities align the proposed pillars of BAMBD, which we envision as a comprehensive entity with a design that addresses pressing needs of Oakland’s disenfranchised and marginalized North American African communities in a wholistic fashion.



In my humble opinion, the successful implementation of the Black Arts Movement Business District is the only tangible solution currently offered to provide relief to a portion of the city’s population who feel they are part of a purge. Neither 90 day moratoriums, nor plans to provide affordable housing in 2020 will serve those who need solutions to exorbitant rents now. Considering the fact that $2,270.00 a month is the median rent for a one bedroom in Oakland according to Zumper which places Oakland in a tie for 5th on a list of the most expensive cities in America for renters, housing is certainly a pressing issue, which if unaddressed will result in the continued exodus of low and moderate income people from Oakland. If something is not done there will be no substantial North American African population in Oakland to enjoy or benefit from a Cultural District.



We look forward to the implementation of BAMBD and its potential to provide additional economic opportunity in Oakland.  The same population plagued by negative interactions with law enforcement is by and large the same group that is affected by housing issues and urgently needs the work you are attempting with police reform. A recent report cites that much of the cycle of violence in Oakland can be tied to structural disparity; that cycle of disparity places the disenfranchised in negative relationship with law enforcement and hastens gentrification while amplifying displacement.



I applaud your efforts to speak to the negative relationship with law enforcement and its deadly effect. I eagerly await the opportunity to assist in the implementation of BAMBD to offer a space to grow solutions that speak to your priorities as well as our vision for North American African survival and meaningful progress in Oakland.   



I am also encouraged by your acknowledgment of our community organizing, our visioning and collaborative research of existing cultural districts to better inform any decision of what form our own district should adopt. To that end I request a meeting with you to discuss pending development in the BAMBD footprint and to formally request the assistance of your office in the process of drafting community benefit requests for any and all pending development within the footprint.  



I look forward to the reconvening of the Culture Keepers to hear your progress on these matters and to work closely with you to make BAMBD a comprehensively designed vehicle that offers tangible ways to address our total needs.



In Service,

Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

Founding Director,

Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc

BAMBD Servant & Architect

www.themovementnewsletter.blogspot.com 

Agenda of the Black Arts Movement Business District Town Hall Meeting, Sunday, June 12, 3-6PM
by Aries Jordan
Aries Jordan
 

 THE MOVEMENT 
NEWSLETTER OF THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT BUSINESS DISTRICT
www.themovementnewsletter.blogspot.com

The next Black Arts Movement Business District Town Hall is scheduled for Sunday, June 12/2016, 3-5pm at East Side Arts Alliance, 23rd and International Blvd, Oakland.

 Inline image 2


Table of Contents
1. Geoffery's Inner Circle
2. Calendar of Events
3. Will we resist America's Black removal plan? Marvin X 
4. Marshawn Lynch's Beast Mode opens in the BAMBD
5. Joyce Gordon Gallery 
6. Anyka's Betti Ono Gallery
7. Marvin X and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant
8. Lynette McElhaney replies to Marvin X and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant 
9. Dr. Ayodele Nzinga replies to President of Oakland Council, Lynette McElhaney's response to Marvin X and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant
10. African American Museum/Library
11.The Last Rites of Muhammad Ali and review of film Muhammad Ali
12. Malonga Center for the Arts 
13. Kiss My Black Arts
14. Two poems by Aries Jordan
15. Economy tied to gun violence in Oakland
16. Oakland Main Library
17. Book discussion of Black Hollywood unChained edited by Ishmael Reed, San Francisco Public Library, July 3, 2016
18. Hillary Clinton wins Democratic presidential primary: a good or bad day for women?
19. Black woman crowned Miss America 
20. The Black Panther Party and the Black Arts Movement Business District 
21. Black people in the USA are in a state of economic emergency 
22. BAMBD Town Hall meeting agenda Aries Jordan 
23. Poem by Black Arts Movement chief architect ancestor Amiri Baraka 
24. Qatar and the BAMBD Billion Dollar Trust Fund 
25. BAMBD Supporters: Donald Lacy, Fania Davis, Margaret Gordon
 BAMBD Culture keepers will meet soon.


1.


 Businessman Geoffery Pete, Post News photographer Troy Williams and BAMBD planner Marvin X

2. BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT BUSINESS DISTRICT
                                CALENDAR OF EVENTS


BAMBD Town Hall, Sunday, June 12, 3-6pm, Eastside Arts
San Francisco Juneteenth Festival, Saturday, June 18

Berkeley Juneteenth Festival, Sunday, June 19

West Oakland Juneteenth, June 25, San Pablo and Brockhurst

Book Discussion of Black Hollywood unChained, San Francisco Public Library,
July 3, 1:30-3:30
100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco

25th Oakland Black Expo, Saturday, July 23, Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza

City of Oakland Cultural Keepers, Tuesday, July 26, 6-8pm, Oak Center Cultural Center, 14th and Adeline

Black Arts Movement Theatre Festival, Sept, Flight Deck Theatre, Broadway

Donald Lacy's play Color Struck, Laney College Theatre, Sept.

Black Arts Movement South 51st Celebration, Dillard University, New Orleans LA
September 9-11, 2016
 
 

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Ishmael Reed: The Latest on the Greatest, Amsterdam News, 9/18/2015

9/18/2015
9/18/2015


Latest on ‘the Greatest’

by Ishmael Reed




Few African-American writers, no, make that American writers, have been as productive and insightful in their literary careers as Ishmael Reed. Whether fiction or nonfiction, Reed’s publications never fail to be provocative and provide a fresh perspective on our culture and history. 

During a recent appearance at Quincy and Margaret Troupe’s salon and gallery in Harlem, Reed discussed his latest book, “The Complete Muhammad Ali” (Baraka Books, 2015). Only a few days from their monthlong sojourn in Mississippi to participate in their Gloster Project, which provides cultural enrichment to the children of the area, the Troupes presented Reed with a platform and forum to showcase his assessment of Ali.

Reed, accompanied by his daughter Tennessee, began the session by reading briefly from a chapter in the book that focused on the ties between the Nation of Islam and organized crime. But Reed is a raconteur, a beguiling storyteller who is at his best reciting his encounters, and for nearly an hour he regaled the audience.

“The Nation of Islam sent a message to the Gambino family that if anything happened to Ali, they would kill all of the family members … including Frank Sinatra,” Reed said, recounting what Agieb Bilal had told him about the tension between the NOI and the mafia. 

This episode was just one of many that Reed discussed in wide-ranging comments about the book and the people he had interviewed over the past decade or so. At the beginning of the presentation, he had given the listeners some indication of the book’s purpose, which was very similar to what he wrote:
“I call this book ‘The Complete Muhammad Ali’ because most of the 100 books about the champion, the majority of which are worshipful, are either too adoring or make excessively negative assertions, like Jack Cashill’s blaming Ali and Gerald Ford for the loss of Vietnam. For Mark Kram, Ali is a malicious buffoon. For Thomas Hauser, he’s a saint, though Hauser’s opinion has changed.”

And after reading this book, others will probably be changed in their opinions about Ali because Reed allows his interviewees a grand opportunity to express themselves in responding to Reed’s probing questions and sometimes to his questionnaire, one of them asking if there’s a feud between Ali and Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Of the many respondents, Bilal was among the most interesting and informative, particularly his remarks on the relationship between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. From his position as assistant national secretary in the NOI from 1972 to 1975, he was in the catbird seat to witness the inner workings of the organization. He explained that Muhammad sent Malcolm overseas in 1959, “to test the waters.” 

Bilal told Reed that there were three different things that led to Malcolm’s disillusionment with the NOI. “He didn’t feel the Nation of Islam was involving itself enough in the struggles of Black people on the frontlines,” Bilal began. Another issue that bothered Malcolm, he continued, was the NOI’s inadequate response to the police murder of Ronald Stokes, a NOI member, in Los Angeles in 1962. Then, of course, there were the revelations that Muhammad had fathered children with his secretaries. Even more telling was when Bilal said how Malcolm witnessed Muhammad “slapping a sister, which was totally out of character.”

Reed’s revelations are astonishing and a few of them from his informants beg for confirmation, for example, that Betty Shabazz was separated from Malcolm, which seems incredible because she and her children were at the Audubon Ballroom when he was assassinated.
There are other moments when informants could have been challenged and pushed to elaborate on a response, but that would have made the book even more expansive. Overall, Reed has done a splendid job of rounding up the voices who help to humanize a man who deemed himself “the Greatest,” and who, for many of his fans, was a “Black Adonis,” impervious to insult and ridicule.

We can certainly question some of the people he chose to interview, which in many respects are like a poll with a margin of error. But the author has the last word on what his informants have to say and what comments are included or edited out. After winnowing answers from such notables as Quincy Troupe, Stanley Crouch, Jill Nelson, Marvin X, Hugh Masekela and Emanuel Steward, what’s his final word on Ali?
“How do icons like JFK and Muhammad Ali maintain their saintly status by overcoming flaws that would ruin an ordinary person?” Reed asked. “Like those lofty ones, King David, for example, an adulterer and murderer? They get a pass and are mythologized.”

There’s no mythologizing by Reed, nor sniping, just his way of stepping aside to let others reflect on a giant of our culture in an almost complete fashion.

Ishmel Reed and his daughter Tennessee / CONTRIBUTED

Ishmel Reed and his daughter Tennessee / CONTRIBUTED

Save the date: Discussion of Black Hollywood Unchained, San Francisco Public Library, Saturday, July 3, 1:30-3:30PM

 
On Saturday, July 3, contributors to the anthology Black Hollywood unChained, edited by Ishmael Reed, Third World Press,  will discuss their contributions: Cecil Brown, Dr. Halifu Osumare, Ishmael Reed, Jesse Allen Taylor and Marvin X.


Cecil Brown is a writer and actor, known for the film Which Way Is Up? (1977), Horror Vacui (1984) and Doctor Dracula (1978). His most famous novel is The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger; his biography of Richard Pryor is Kiss My Rich, Happy, Black Ass. Another work is Hey, Dude, What Happened to my Black Studies?



Dr. Halifu Osumare is currently Professor of African American and African Studies at University of California, Davis. She was the Director of AAS from 2011-2014, has been a dancer, choreographer, arts administrator, and scholar of black popular culture for over thirty years.


ishmael reed photo kathy sloane low res 

Ishmael Reed is a prize-winning essayist, novelist, poet and playwright. He taught at the University of California-Berkeley for thirty-five years, as well as at Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. Author of more than twenty-five books, he is a member of Harvard’s Signet Society and Yale’s Calhoun Society. He lives in Oakland, California.

Douglas Allen Taylor’s first novel,Sugaree Rising,” was released by Freedom Publishers of San Francisco. He is a journalist who has written for many Bay Area publications.

Marvin X is the author of 30 books; also a playwright, essayist, educator and activist/organizer of the Black Arts Movement. He is co-founder of the Black Arts Movement Business District, downtown Oakland.

San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium, Saturday, July 3, 2016, 1:30-3:30PM. 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco.

This event is co-presented by the African-American Center of the San Francisco Public Library and the Before Columbus Foundation. 

About the Book

In Black Hollywood Unchained, Ishmael Reed gathers an impressive group of scholars, critics, intellectuals, and artist to examine and respond to the contemporary portrayals of Blacks in films.  Using the 2012 release of the film Django Unchained as the focal point of much of the discussion, these essays and reviews provide a critical perspective on the challenges facing filmmakers and actors when confronted with issues on race and the historical portrayal of African American characters. Reed also addresses the black community’s perceptiveness as discerning and responsible consumers of film, theatre, art, and music.

Twenty-eight contributors including this book’s editor, Ishmael Reed, offer insightful, informed and provocative points of view on the ever changing, yet unchanged, landscape of Hollywood and film production in America. While the 2012 release of Django Unchained was the film that generated nation-wide conversations and many of the essays in this collection, this book intentionally extends that dialogue about race, history, entertainment and the image of Blacks on the screen to include an examination of the culture of contemporary films and television. Black Hollywood Unchained is critical of the roles of actor, film-maker and viewer as it asks questions that redirect our thinking about the multi-billion dollar industry we call “the movies.”

Contributors

 
J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, Houston A. Baker Jr., Amiri Baraka, Playthell G. Benjamin, Herb Boyd, Cecil Brown, Ruth Elizabeth Burks, Art T. Burton, Stanley Crouch, Justin Desmangles, Lawrence DiStasi, Jack Foley, David Henderson, Geary Hobson, Joyce A. Joyce, Haki R. Madhubuti, C. Liegh McInnis, Tony Medina, Alejandro Murguía, Jill Nelson, Halifu Osumare, Heather D. Russell, Hariette Surovell, Kathryn Waddell Takara, Jerry W. Ward Jr., Marvin X, Al Young