Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Hustler's Guide to the Game Called LIfe
Coming Soon from Black Bird PressHustler’s Guide to the Game
Called Life
Marvin X
Contents
Parable of Value
Parable of Plato Negro’s
Plato Negro’s Republic and Morality
Plato Negro’s Republic,
Parable of Leave Me ‘Lone
Parable of a Nigguh
Parable of Slow Dance on the Killing Floor
Parable of the Demons
Parable of Solutions
Parable of Da Corner
Parable of Lord Have Mercy
Parable of Jazz
Parable of Nigguh Please!
Parable of Helen Thomas
Parable of Parental Partiality
Parable of the
Parable of the Wannabe Actor, Part II
Parable of Women without Men
Parable of Trinkets and Gadgets
Parable of the Man who could Write
Parable of the Man Who Talked to No One
Parable of the Man Who Fell
Parable of the Negro as Terrorist
Parable of the White Woman
Parable of the Dying White Man
Parable of the Tour
Parable of the Mike
Parable of the Reader’s Theatre
Parable of Stormy Weather
Parable of Ancestor Coretta Scott King
Parable of the Religious Haters
Parable of the Poet
Parable of the
Parable of Walter Riley
Parable of
Parable of I am Oscar Grant
Parable of
Parable of the Angel
Parable of Living in the Last Days
Parable of the San Francisco Negro
Parable of the Death and Resurrection of a City
Parable of the Spider
Parable of July 4, 1910
Parable of a beautiful day in the Bay
Parable of a City Traumatized
Parable of
Parable of the Father who lost two Sons
Parable of I Shot the Sheriff
Parable of the Wannabe Actor
Parable of the Letter
Parable of the Moment
Fable of the horse, cow and bull
Parable of Prayer
Parable of the Death Angel
Parable of Pain
Parable of Malcolm’s Killer
Parable of the Immigrant
Parable of Bitch Led Nigguhs
Parable of the Neo-Haitian Revolution
Parable of the Butt Kickers
Parable of the Penguin
Parable of the Catholic Church
Parable of the Poetic Victory
Parable of how to stop killing in the Pan African hood
Platonic Negro Dialogue on the Poetic
Parable of Woman Stoned to Death
Parable of Bobby Seale’s 73rd Birthday
Parable of Mythology of Pussy and Dick Hits
Parable of Mythology of Pussy and
Parable of Mythology of Pussy and Dick at
Parable to the Common People of Oakland
Parable of a Pan African Love
Parable of
Parable of Nisa Ra on Mythology of Pussy
Parable of Plato Negro’s Great Grandfather
Parable of Fahizah Alim
Parable of You Don’t Know Me!
Parable of Mythology as Hottest Book in
Black Bird Press, 2010
1222 Dwight Way
Berkeley Ca 94702
300 pages
$100.00
Order now, pre-publication discount less 40%
Wisdom of Plato Negro in San Francisco Theatre Festival
Sunday, August 8, The Academy of Da Corner Reader's Theatre will perform parables from the Wisdom of Plato Negro at the San Francisco Theatre Festival, Yebra Buena Center, 3rd and Mission, downtown San Francisco. Performers include Rashidah Sabreen, music, Raynetta Rayzetta, choreography/dance, Paradise, reader, Talibah, reader, Valarie Harvey, reader,
Mechelle LaChaux, reader/singer.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Marvin X Calls for Black Arts West Theatre Festival
Marvin X Calls Black Arts West Theatre Festival
Marvin X, godfather of the West Coast Black Arts Movement, is calling a Black Arts West Theatre Festival in honor of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre founders Stanley E. Williams and Quentin Easter, also in honor of Margo Norman, who transitioned recently. Margo performed in the plays of Ed Bullins shortly before he hooked up with Marvin X to establish Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore District.
Before Black Arts West came on the scene, there was Aldridge Players West, with Adam David Miller, et al. After Black Arts West, there was John Doyle's Grassroots theatre and Michael Cattlett's theatre.
And then came the Lorraine Hansberry. In 1972, Marvin X established Black Educational Theatre in the Fillmore, and in the late 90s, Recovery Theatre in the Tenderloin and throughout the Bay and Northern California. His play One Day in the Life is the longest running play in the history of North American Africans in Northern California. It ran from the late 90s into the new millennium.
Other theatres came and went, and few were able to survive on the meager budgets grant agencies doled out. The Lorraine Hansberry was the exception, partly because of their non-political stance as per the cultural revolution. But when they produced a performance of Marvin X's One Day in the Life, they transcended the apolitical. They'd also produced a work on the Black Panther Party, along with their signature work of August Wilson.
No matter the politics of Stanley and Quentin, and for that matter August Wilson, Marvin X considers them comrades in the arts. Any black artist with an iota of consciousness is all right with me. Actually, I appreciate artists period! Of course I appreciate revolutionary arts even more. But any black artists must have some degree of radical consciousness since he must confront and submit himself to the art of Western mythology.
Even the Lorraine Hansberry theatre brothers told Marvin X, "Marvin, the Black bourgeoisie would like to support you, but they cannot accept your language, if you could only alter your language they will support you." But when Marvin X submitted to the black bourgeoisie request, they did not accept his B script. Even Quentin Easter cried, "Marvin, you have taken all the chocolate out the milk!"
Marvin recalls one night at the Lorraine Hansberry: "The theatre was packed to overflow. Actually, when Stanley came he said, oh, no, this is a fire hazzard! People were seated on the stage."
Usually, I would go into the audience during my monologue, but not this night, the audience was seated onstage for lack of seats. They were from recovery programs from throughout the Bay Area. The Theatre District was horrified when all these recovering addicts took intermission on Sutter Street in the midst of the theatre district.
But more than this, Dr. William H. Grier was in the house. For those who don't know, Dr. William H. Grier is the co-author of Black Rage, the classic psychological study of North American Africans in the 60s. One of his sons is David Allen Grier, but his son Geoffery was playing the role of Black Panther c0-founder Huey P. Newton in my play One Day in the Life.
In truth, Geoffery was never able to match the psychopathic personality of Huey Hewton. Even though Geoffery had been a Crack fiend with me in San Francisco's Tenderloin District, he found it difficult to match the psychopathology of Huey Newton.
But Dr. Grier, being the psychiatrist he was, asked me how I was feeling before the play began.
I responded with a statement that didn't hardly satisfy the doctor. He told his son Geoferry, "I don't know what's wrong with Marvin. He has Mayor Willie Brown introducing his play. He has a packed house. He has a Jaguar car packed outside, yet he's singing the blues."
Dr. Grier, it's called Divine Discontent. In ghetto language, it's called an ungrateful bastard.
No matter, let us put together a Black Arts West Theatre Festival in honor of Stanley Williams, Quentin Easter and Margo Norman, now ancestors in the Black Theatre Movement. Of course, we can never forget Nora Vaughn and her Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theatre.
--Marvin X
7,11,10
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Marvin X in SF Theatre Festival
Marvin X in SF Theatre Festival
Marvin X will perform at the San Francisco Theatre Festival, Sunday, August, 8tl, at the Yerba Buena Center, 4th and Mission Streets, San Francisco. Marvin X will performs readings from his book The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables. He will be accompanied by Rashidah Sabreen on guitar, choreography by Raynetta Razetta, Linda Johnson, and readings by Paradise, Hunia, Ayo Dele Nzingha and Marvin X.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Stop War on Iran
Take Action Now!
- Sign the Petition - http://www.stopwaro niran.org/ petition. shtml
- Make an Emergency Donation to help with organizing expenses - http://stopwaronira n.org/donate. shtml
- Link to us - http://stopwaronira n.org/link. html
July 1, 2010
PROVOCATIONS AND WAR THREATS AGAINST IRAN:
IS WAR IMMINENT?
In the final two weeks of June we have seen a number of serious developments in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. While almost completely ignored by the U.S. mainstream press, there is considerable alarm around the world and especially in the Middle East. Some of these developments are unprecedented and could denote a sharp escalation in the U.S./NATO and Israeli campaign against Iran, or even all-out war.
Anti-war and progressive people and organizations should note the following:
* On June 18, a U.S. naval carrier group, reportedly accompanied by at least one Israeli vessel, passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and toward the Persian Gulf. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Force, , included and aircraft carrier, guided missile cruiser, Aegis-class destroyers and the German frigate GGS Hessen.
*According to Iran's Fars New Agency, the Israeli Air Force recently unloaded military equipment at a Saudi Arabia base near the city of Tabuk.. Even more ominously, the Saudi's are reported to have realigned their missile defense system to allow for an air corridor for Israeli planes in the event of a war with Iran.
* U.S. forces stationed in the Central Asian country of Azerbaijan have massed along the Iran/Azerbaijani border. The U.S. forces, which are part of the so-called war on terror, are supposed to be supporting the war in Afghanistan. Iranian revolutionary guards have called in tanks and anti-aircraft units to the area in what amounts to a war alert.
* On July 1, President Barack Obama signed an agreement negotiated in the U.N Security Council stepping up sanctions on Iran and its economy. However, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) publicly worried that China may undercut the sanctions.
* On June 28, Iran announced that it would not challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza at this time. An Iranian flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid and flying the Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, was en route to Gaza accompanied by Iranian naval vessels. The expedition reportedly had the diplomatic support of both Russia and Turkey.
* Yesterday, June 30, Ali Akbar Salehi, the Islamic Republic's vice president and director of the nuclear program, announced that Iran has produced another 37 pounds of uranium enriched to 20 percent. Iran has a right to do this under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which it signed (and the Israelis have not signed). Iran maintains that their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Significantly, the 20 percent level is far below the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon.
* There has been speculation that if the U.S. and NATO attempt to inspect Iranian ships in order to enforce the new sanctions, the resulting confrontation may lead to war.
* Among the world leaders who have issued strong warnings about U.S. intentions is Fidel Castro, who certainly knows what it is like to have your country threatened with military attack, including with nuclear weapons. In his published Reflections on June 27, he stressed the importance of the Cuban people, and progressives everywhere to be prepared to respond, even to the most horrendous catastrophe, which could be the outcome of a U.S.-Israeli war against Iran: "What would be [the worst] is to suddenly be made aware of news of serious events, without having heard any news whatsoever beforehand about such possibilities, thereby falling into confusion and panic...."
Much analysis is no doubt necessary to determine the seriousness of the above developments. It should be remembered, that almost all large military operations in this era require months, if not years, of meticulous planning. The fact that the Pentagon has not chosen to reveal their plans to the mainstream media does not mean that such plans do not exist. However, the most immediate task of anti-war and anti-imperialists around the world is to to respond quickly to these provocations emanating from Washington and prepare to resist any and all attempts to make war on Iran.
Take Action Now!
- Sign the Petition - http://www.stopwaro niran.org/ petition. shtml
- Make an Emergency Donation to help with organizing expenses - http://stopwaronira n.org/donate. shtml
- Link to us - http://stopwaronira n.org/link. html
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
More on Oscar Grant
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JUNE 30TH, 2010
Contact: Tony Coleman, Rachel Jackson
(510) 225-4083 or info@oaklandforjustice.org
OAKLAND ORGANIZERS DEFEND RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE AFTER MEHSERLE VERDICT
WHO: Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Thursday, July 1st, 11:00 AM
WHERE: 14th & Broadway, Oakland (at the flag poles in Frank Ogawa Plaza )
As the Mehserle murder trial verdict draws near, Oakland community organizers fear that the Mayor and Oakland Police Department’s contradictory actions will hinder the exercise of First Amendment rights. Officials claim to support free speech, while video of heavily armed officers – marching in military formation, swinging batons on peaceful mock-protesters, and preparing pepper spray, tear gas, and tanks – sends the opposite message: that protestors will be brutalized, for the “crime” of protesting police brutality.
Despite this intimidation, the Oakland Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant and all victims of police abuse, supports the call for a community gathering at the intersection of 14th Street and Broadway in Oakland , 6pm, the day the verdict is announced.
Tony Coleman of OneFam raises key questions, “After years of cuts to youth services, now the City can pay for PSA’s and pay outreach workers to say that Oakland officials love young people? Where was funding or action against police abuse last year, when Dellums told protesters he ‘was too busy,’ to comment on the shooting of Oscar Grant? And why are gang-prevention officers high on the list of officers to be cut from the OPD? This is hypocrisy, and it’s way too little, way too late.”
“The police are out of control in California and beyond, from Seattle to Detroit to New York , and it’s past time for Obama to step up,” says Rachel Jackson of the New Years Movement for Justice. “Despite the hype, there are no ‘outside agitators’ when a problem is nationwide. The ‘outsiders’ are officers who don’t live in cities they patrol, would never send their children to Oakland schools, and believe the solution to crime is to pack prisons with non-violent offenders.”
Hannibal Shakur from the Laney Black Student Union drives the point home: “I get targeted by the police regularly, including for the ‘crime’ of documenting police abuse on video. It’s offensive and condescending to imply that young black men need ‘outsiders’ to tell us how to respond to racism.”
Regardless of the Mehserle verdict, police violence must stop. At this historical moment, the Oakland Assembly urges us to look to each other for healing and solutions to community problems. The Oakland Assembly for Justice will facilitate a youth-focused program to express and process emotions our on the day of the verdict, in a space where our voices will be heard.
RALLY * OPEN MIC * SPOKEN WORD * YOUTH SPEAK OUT!
Day of the Verdict – Community Gathering – 14th & Broadway, 6pm
The Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant is a grassroots coalition of concerned citizens working with statewide partners to stop the epidemic of police abuse. For more information, see www.oaklandforjustice.org.
From: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Date: June 30, 2010 1:07:02 PM PDT
To: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Subject: Press Release from the Black Electeds and Clergy of the East Bay.
Contact: Desley Brooks (510) 238-7006
Keith Carson (510) 272-6695
For Immediate Release
Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay’s statement regarding Upcoming Oscar Grant Verdict
An Open Letter to the Community:
Within the next couple of days and/or weeks there will be a verdict in the Oscar Grant case. This case has struck a nerve in Oakland and around the world. In anticipation of the verdict the Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay wanted to share some information with our community.
Representatives of our organization have been monitoring this case since Oscar Grant was senselessly murdered by Johannes Mehserle on January 1, 2009. We demanded that a reluctant District Attorney file criminal proceedings against Mehserle; we helped to organize community pressure on BART to bring about organizational change and implementation of polices and procedures to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again; we have attended all of the court proceedings; and most importantly we have demanded justice for Oscar Grant, his family and everyone that Oscar represents – because we all could be Oscar Grant.
A community needs to know that its leadership will stand to protect their interests. While we are hopeful that our Justice System will be just; we are mindful of incidences where it has failed us. When the system failed us in the Rodney King case, the Justice Department stepped in to ensure that the Community’s interests were protected. We, the Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay, stand prepared to call upon all State and Federal agencies to seek any and all recourse if an unjust verdict is rendered in this case.
We know that emotions may run high depending on the outcome of Johannes Mehserle’s criminal proceedings. The current State Court proceedings are just one step on the road to justice for Oscar Grant. As such, we are asking that you work with us to shut down anyone who would engage in destructive behavior in our community. We are also asking that you work with us as we continue to demand justice for Oscar. We have been assured that the Justice Department is monitoring the Mehserle case.
Martin Luther King said that peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice. In the same vein as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Rodney King, and many others we will receive JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT.
The struggle continues,
Hon. Desley Brooks
Hon. Keith Carson
Minister Keith Muhammad
Rev. Dr. Harold R. Mayberry
Rev. Zachary Carey
Hon. Darleen Brooks
Hon. Kathy Neal
Hon. Marlon McWilson
Bishop Keith Clark
Rev. Dr. Kevin Barnes
Hon. Darryl Moore
Hon. Alice Spearman
Partial listing
Parable of Oakland Police Riot
Parable of Oakland Police Riot
The Oakland Police are planning to riot. This is the community consensus based on conversations at the crossroads. They shall be waiting for the crowd to gather in front of City Hall after the verdict is announced in the Oscar Grant murder trial. The consensus among the people is that the BART police officer shall not be found guilty of murder. The prosecution has been weak as water, with no real effort to convince the jury Oscar Grant was murdered in cold blood last New Year's day.
Oakland police have been planning for weeks how they will handle the expected protests. They have been training in riot control, the old condemned North County jail has been prepared to handle protesters. Even the jail above City Hall has been made ready. All downtown businesses have been told to close early on Thursday and don't leave cars parked in the downtown area.
OPD Chief Bates says he wants peace but is prepared for war. Mayor Dellums concurs. The religious leaders, aka Pharaoh's magicians, are in league with the police to keeps the masses calm.
Yet the consensus among the people is that, if anything, it shall be a police inspired riot, instigated by agent provocateurs, Cointelpro agents and undercover police. The police want a riot so they can justify not getting laid off, having their budget cut and forced to contribute to their retirement fund. A good riot will make them eligible for Federal funds such as gang abatement monies and other grants from criminal justice and Homeland security.
So the OPD is ready to whup heads and slaughter demonstrators after they are instigated by agent provocateurs.
As far as we're concerned, justice for Oscar Grant was granted by Louvelle Mixon. Dr. Fritz Pointer said Mixon's shootout with the OPD allowed the Oakland masses to enjoy an "obscene pride" after years of police abuse under the color of law.
We are against all violence except in self defense. When the police stop acting like an occupying army and understand they work for the people and not the reverse, perhaps then, and only then, shall there be real peace in the hood.
The Supreme Court's decision to allow Americans to defend themselves with guns must be understood by reading the subtext: let them niggers keep killing each other, so long as they don't cross the line into the white community. If they cross the line, we're ready for them.
We know who sells guns to the brothers and sisters in the hood, and we know who allows the dope in. We cannot disassociate guns and drugs from politicians and developers who are eager to gentrify ghetto neighborhoods with buppies , yuppies and puppies. They will employ such tactics as gang abatement and eminent domain to ethnically cleanse the hood for the pseudo liberal black and white bourgeoisie.
A friend attended a gang abatement meeting full of whites. He wondered aloud where are the guys who are targets of gang abatement? Four of them were in jail and two others are home owners who must now stay one hundred blocks from their homes.
We cannot view this problem solely in a local context, but it must be seen within the wider context of the global wars against the poor in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere. Through the tribal chiefs, America paid insurgents in Iraq to lay down their arms--that was the real surge, not the phony surge of General Patraeus, that was essentially the ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods in Baghdad, separating the Sunnia from the Shia by in numerous checkpoints, along with forcing four million internally and externally displaced refugees. In the most restive Anbar Province, Sunni insurgents were paid to lay down their arms and join the security patrols in their neighborhoods. This is the reason for the dramatic decrease in violence.
They are employing the same tactic in Afghanistan. The plan is to pay the Taliban billions to lay down their arms and pledge allegiance to the corrupt Karzai who is hardly the president of a nation but the Mayor of Kabul, the Capital. The Taliban shall be given jobs, housing and education.
Isn't this fantastic! Jobs, housing and education! Why not try this tactic in the hoods of America, specifically in Oakland, Mayor Ron Dellums, OPD Chief Bates, Attorney General Holder, President Barack Hussein Obama. But oh, no, you rather pay the Taliban because they are a threat to your national security, although there is more violence in the hoods of America annually than the combined violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Is not the violence in the hoods of America a threat to national security? Children can't go to school, men and women can't go to work and come home safely, worshippers can't attend church, the elderly are prisoners in their homes in the day and night. Where is the national security?
It is costing you one million dollars per soldier per year to occupy Afghanistan, yet you have not reported the killing of one Al Queda soldier on the soil of Afghanistan. And then you say you must stay in Afghanistant until you improve the army who is so illiterate they are too retarded to defend themselves, yet these are the people who ran out Alexander the Great, the Monguls, the British, the Russians, and soon they will run your asses out. Yet you tell us you must occupy their land until they are literate enough to defend themselves?
I rest my case. Let us pray for peace in the streets of Oakland, a valiant city, home of the Western Pullman Porters, home of the Black Panthers. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
--Marvin X
Academy of Da Corner
14th and Broadway
6/29/10
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
www.parablesandfablesofmarvinx.blogspot.com
The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables
Black Bird Press, 2010
311 pages
$100.00
Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way
Berkeley Ca 94702
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In conversation with several North American African elders between eighty and ninety years old, the consensus is that the present situation ...
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His Black Consciousness Program Rocked the Bay Area like no other black panthers black arts black studies kwanza Khalid Ab...
