Letter to Lothario on the other side of Paradise

Letter to Lothario Lotho on the other side of Paradise

Lotho, you were angry with me for not attending your mother's furneral, Margo Norman. I ask you to forgive me, Lotho, even though I knew of Margo Norman before I knew you.

I remember your mother was in the plays of Ed Bullins at the Firehouse Theatre in San Francisco, circa 1966, just prior to Ed and I founding Black Arts West Theatre on Fillmore Street in SF.

I told you when you came by Academy of da Corner that I was exhausted from attending funerals, although I will do my best to attend yours. Hell, I am trying to miss my funeral, how you like that?

But, Lo, I want you to know we love you, especially that dramatic spirit Margo Norman put in you, that made you love the stage. Actually, how could you help yourself, it was in your DNA.

We thank you for the role you played at UC Berkeley in the struggle to de-colonize the University, you along with Carl Mack, Arthur Jenkins, Fahizah, Nisa, Roy Thomas, Charlie Brown, Umtu Wa Haki, Betty Brumfield, and those before you who set the stage for the inclusion of African American Studies at UCB.

We thank you for the thousands of concerts you served as master of ceremonies, doing your best to energize the crowd with poetic lines of rhyme. So rhyme to us now Lotho, let us hear your song from Paradise calling us home through the door of no return.

We love you, Lotho, take it slow, and don't be on the down low!

We hope you enjoyed your thousand wives and that they loved you unconditionally.

Your brother for eternity,

Marvin X

Surely we are from Allah and to Him we return, Al Qur'an.

Ministers Drafted into the First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

Queen Phavia Kujichagulia, Esteemed Minister of Poetry, Music, Song, Dance and History, conferring with Prime Minister of Poetry Marvin X. photo by Gene Hazzard, Oakland Post Newspaper Ministers of Choreography and Dance, L to R: Linda Johnson, Drummer Val Serant, and Raynetta Razetta, chief choreographer of Marvin X. photo by Kamau Amen Ra, at celebration of Amiri Baraka 75th birthday, Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center, San Francisco. Minister of Children, Jah Amiel Muhajir photo by Reginald James Blind poet Charles Blackwell, Minister of Visions and Dreams, First Poet's Church. We are so honored to have Charles in our assembly of poets, artists and common people. As he says, his poetry is meant to inspire those who should be inspiring him, those with clear vision. And yet the Holy Spirit has made his poetic mission to give sight to the seeing, who yet cannot see. Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry, with Gregory Fields, Minister of Planning and Legal Affairs, at their street ministry, Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Ishmael Reed calls Marvin X, "Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland. If you want motivation and inspiration do not spend all that money attending workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work." photo by Walter Riley Mumia Abu Jamal, Esteemed Senior Minister of Information and Liberation, Live from Death Row

Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, A Love Song

Malcolm and Betty, A Love Song

Malcolm's alleged letter to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, pleading for help with his domestic relations with Better Shabazz, may be a fabrication, but if it is authentic, it reveals, once and for all, the deep love and affection Malcolm and all followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had for the man who was a father to us all, a master teacher in the oriental tradition, someone we came before in the most humble manner, the precious lamb of God.

Malcolm's letter reveals the honor and respect paid to HEM from the highest official to the lowest believer or laborer--so it is important for outsiders seeking an understanding of the Nation of Islam to study carefully the overall tone of this missal.

It is especially important that young North American Africans consider the respect Malcolm showed his leader and teacher. Such respect must be paid to elders deserving of such. Our community will not progress until such humility is evident in the inter-generational crisis. Let not the present young generation be so ignorant as we were in the 60s that we called for the killing of any adult over thirty (Black Panther Bobby Seale). Huey P. Newton expressed great respect for the HEM, even seeing the Panthers as subservient to the NOI. Huey said to me, "A Party can be part of a nation."

As per Malcolm's letter to Elijah regarding his wife, Betty, clearly he was pleading for help in a desperate situation, a marriage on the rocks. It appears that the psychological damage he inflicted on himself during his hustling, pimping and prison life, combined with his new found responsibilities as a leader and organizer of the NOI, provided him little time and even desire to satisfy his young wife, Betty, although they didn't produce six children from doing nothing!

Life has a way of catching up with us when we least expect it--nothing in the universe is forgotten, perhaps only forgiven. And time is the great monster we see on the horizon, once we belatedly discover our life's mission. For a revolutionary, a wife and family are often merely cosmetic, for such a revolutionary personality is often totally absorbed and obsessed with his mission.

It becomes impossible to ever relax and take a chill pill, especially when we don't consider this has been a four century struggle for freedom here in the wilderness of North America. We don't know how to pace ourselves, thus we try to get to the finish line in a day, when it ain't gonna happen that way, as Dr. John Henrik Clarke reminded us, this is not a sprint but a long distance race!

So although we are provided a family or acquired one, family is often totally ignored and neglected in favor of an abstraction called freedom. But shall there be freedom without family?Are we fighting to stand on the mountain top alone? What joy is this, what pleasure? Men often have their eyes glued to the sky and it takes a woman to bring us down to earth, almost literally, as in: "Git in the bed Malcolm and let them nigguhs go for a minute. Forget the X, just be Malcolm, please. You doin all this work for what? What you gonna have for your family when them nigguhs cut you loose?"

It is so very difficult to focus on the beloved because we are obsessed with the task at hand and the snakes in the grass, with deception and treachery the nature of political life.There is clear evidence things got better between Malcolm and Betty. On more than one occasion I heard her discussing Malcolm, saying that he was, more than anything, her lover. And then she smiled, blushed and gave out that little laugh she was known for, revealing a deep love for the man. I am confident, in the afterlife, they are together in spite of the hell they endured in this life. Once I learned Betty was a Gemini like myself, I instantly understood her alleged crazy actions and insatiable desires.

--Marvin X from In the Crazy House Called America, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2002.

Chauncey Bailey and Malcolm X, A Comparison

Malcolm X and Chauncey Bailey, A Comparison

Malcolm X and Oakland Post Editor Chaucey Bailey were both killed by Muslims in conspiracy with the police. Manning Marable's biography will lay bare more evidence of police involvement. Fifty years later there is call for a new trial to consider the New York police role in the murder of Malcolm X.

We wonder will it take fifty years before the citizens of Oakland call for a new trial in the assassination of Chauncey Bailey in broad daylight downtown? But just as Malcolm's killers were acting at the behest of the New York Police, even serving as his body guards, Chauncey's killers were mentored by the Oakland Police, and were under surveillance as well. So how could Chauncey be murdered without their prior knowledge?

And to show the depths of the conspiracy, the Monkey Mind Media only lightly touches on police involvement, after all, Harry Harris, an embedded reporter with the OPD, has long ago outlived his usefulness as an objective voice. He may as well be the chief OPD spokesman. The tragedy is that we cannot separate the Monkey Mind Media from other institutions who defend the political economic structure. They all benefit from the blood of the oppressed, the wretched of the earth. The irony is that they work for the consent of the governed.

The Chauncey Bailey Project, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and the Robert Maynard Institute has reaped millions spreading half truths and is guilty of the sin of omission by not pursuing the very subject matter that is the main reason Chauncey was assassinated: his investigation of City Hall corruption and police corruption. Why has not the Monkey Mind Media used its arsenal of writers and reporters to go beyond surface level scanning of Chauncey's most serious work, police and political corruption, including murder, drug dealing, money laundering, shake downs and false arrests? Yet they laud him as a valiant journalist, but fear to tread in his footsteps. Are they simply cowards or just sycophants. For sure, Chauncey was in the tradition of Freedom's Journal, the first African newspaper published in 1827. I will never forget the day at the Oakland Post Newspaper office when he recited the founding days of that newspaper so vital to representing the voice of slaves. The Monkey Mind Media is more in harmony with the slave masters of today, especially as we advance to neo-slavery. Ishmael Reed thus calls them the Jim Crow Media.

The result is a community full of ignorance and fear at the very thought of blaming the police and politicians for a murder that is a common occurrence throughout the world and most especially just below our border in Mexico.

If you believe in such, it is just a coincidence the Manning biography of Malcolm was released during the trial of those accused of murdering Chauncey. And just as the New York police have yet to stand trial for their role in the murder/conspiracy, the officers who mentored the Bakery brothers are yet to have their day in court.

There is a plethora of community persons willing to testify about police abuse under the color of law. There was a security guard on duty at McDonald's near the crime scene who recognized Officer Longmire as one of the officers who shook him down when he ued to hustle. Longmire was in charge of the crime scene, yes, the mentor of the suspected killers, yet he refused to talk with an eye witness at the crime scene. He was momentarily removed from duty but returned after the chief of police slipped safely into retirement.

Police from New York to Oakland should be aware there is no hiding place. As we watch people around the world, especially in the Middle East, calling for justice and the end to police corruption and abuse under the color of law, the day shall surely come when police in America will face the wrath of people's justice. They can avoid this rapidly arising day of judgment by confessing their sins and deciding to be on the side of the people's revolution. If not, they shall surely find themselves on trial for crimes against humanity.

--Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

http://www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com/

Parable of Malcolm's Killer

Parable of Malcolm's Killer

He was rewarded for his dastardly crime by a dastardly society universally known for murder and mayhem. Why wouldn't he be rewarded with his freedom after killing one of America's most dangerous men, simply because he spoke the truth, the low down dirty truth about America, her dirty linen, her funky drawers, her bloody cum filled panties.

Yes, Malcolm told it all, in the tradition of David Walker, Henry Highland Garnett, Garvey, DuBois, and of course Malcolm's teacher, Elijah Muhammad. Why wouldn't America free the killer of Malcolm? He silenced Big Red, the main man screaming in the belly of the beast.

You gave him a stamp, a movie, streets and schools named after him, yet you disrespect him by freeing his cold blooded killer, who slaughtered him in front of his wife and children. Yes, the killer walked. He shall get a book contract and make millions as the man who slew the King, Malik, also called our black shining prince, a troubled warrior who defied his teacher that taught him trust no one, not even Elijah himself.

Listen to your teacher, don't defy him. He taught you security. Yet agents were your body guards, New York police agents in black face, self confessed, who gave you mouth to mouth resuscitation. Why would the police try to save your life? It was high drama. Why would the police apprehend the co-conspirators? It's a funky situation! The killer walked. He will get his brownie points, a book, a movie, maybe a medal of freedom.

He killed the preacher of truth for the father of lies! Where the Nation of Islam was involved, it cannot be absolved. Those who fanned the flames cannot be forgiven. They were as dastardly as the killer(s). And yet, the division in our community must be healed. The martyrdom of Malcolm, Malik Shabazz, is similar to the Sunni killing of the Shia imams. There is an eternal pain in the Shia community, and there is a similar pain in the black community.

There must be communal healing of this trauma and unresolved grief. It has poisoned our spiritual life, intellectual life and political life. There are those who hate Islam as a result of Malcolm's assassination, no matter the US Government's role in the affair--and strangely many of those who hate Islam have no similar hatred of America, so there is an addiction to white supremacy in the anti-Islamic haters.

Intellectually, scholars with a Malcolm bias have written revisionist history, blinded by their emotional bias, unable to put the NOI in perspective. No matter how one might try, one cannot go from Garvey to Malcolm in any realistic historical analysis, yet our scholars suffer a myopia when attempting to put Malcolm in his proper perspective.

Politically, at some point we must understand shit happens in revolution! Persons are betrayed, assassinated, ostracized. This is the nature of revolution. The black revolution was no different than the French, Chinese, Russian, Mexican, African. Get over it! Accept the pain of Malcolm, the tears in the night.

And how many of you who say you love him so much have done a damn thing he said? You haven't done nothing Malcolm said, for that matter, you haven't done anything anyone said, whether Malcolm, Martin, Elijah, Garvey, Noble Drew Ali, Jesus, Muhammad or Buddha!

We must attain revolutionary maturity and stop crying crocodile tears over events of the past. We must move on, understanding the actors played their parts, now the drama is over. The end. Yes, the killed has walked onto the stage of life, but it shall be short lived--what price glory? It would be better that he died long ago than face the wrath of the people who loved Malcolm as their brother, son, and black shining prince.

--Marvin X 5/2/10

Marvin X: Writes Eight Books in 2010

Marvin X: Eight Books in 2010

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, Volume I

If you want to learn about inspiration and motivation, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.--Ishmael Reed

Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life, (Wisdom of Plato Negro, Volume II)

Mythology of Love:

Toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, 416 pages.
This book is the most wanted title in the Marvin X collection.
Youth in the hood fight over it and steal it from each other. Girls say it empowers them, and the boys say it helps them step up their game. Mothers and fathers are demanding their sons and daughters read this. Paradise Jah Love says they fight over it as if it's black gold!

I Am Oscar Grant, essays on Oakland, $19.95.

Critical essays on the travesty of American justice in the cold blooded murder of Oscar Grant by a beast in blue uniform.

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself

essays on Obama Drama, $19.95.

Marvin X is on the mark again with his accurate observation of the Obama era. The black community was so excited with Obama being the first Black Prez that they forgot he was a politician-not a messiah. Marvin X brings the community back to the reality of what Obama stands for-at the moment! He has not given up on Da Prez, he simply wants people to see what he stands for and what he still has an opportunity to do for our communities. Make sure you put Pull Yo Pants Up Fada Black Prez & Yo Self on your to-buy list It will be the best book you will read in 2010!--Carolyn Mixon

Marvin X, Guest Editor, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, 480 pages In honor of the Journal of Black Poetry, Marvin X collects poetry from throughout the Pan African world. This massive issue is a classic of radical Pan African literature in the 21st century. Amiri Baraka says, "He has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the innovators and founders of the new revolutionary school of African writing."

Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box

In this collection he calls upon the people to become proactive rather than reactionary, to initiate the movement out the box of oppression by any means necessary, although Marvin X believes in the power of spiritual consciousness to create infinite possibilities toward liberation.

Soulful Musings on Unity of North American Africans, 150 pages

Marvin X explores the possibilities for unity among North American Africans. Available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.

By Manning Marable

(New York: Viking/Peguin Group, 2010. Pp.594. Prologue, Epilogue, Bibiliography and Index,

$30.00)

Marable's Impartiality:

Tony Martin wrote the essay "George Padmore as a Prototype of the Black Historian" in his book "The Pan African Connection". He explains that there is a distinction between historical impartiality and so called objectivity.

Objectivity is academic colonialism because one can hide his biases in the shadow of objectivity. Impartiality is when the historian or social scientist honestly presents facts accurately but interprets and analyzes them critically. After reading "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" I must say that consistent with the methodology of African history, Professor Marable was able to be impartial (scientific objectivity is impossible).

Sometime being impartial is not popular, but at least all facts concerning the subject are appraised in an effort to prove or disprove certain claims. The basic question I think Marable raises is : "Has the many published works about Malcolm done him justice?"

I think Professor Marable answered the question by saying, "Yes, but only to the extent that those writing about Malcolm were (personally) affiliated with him. So their personal misconceptions and limitations about Malcolm, to the reader of their works, becomes Malcolm's misconceptions and limitations.

Let's put Manning's narrative in context, with the thousands of documents in the book. For a long time I thought Brietman's "Last Year of Malcolm X", Collins'"Seventh Child" and Sales' "From Civil Rights to Black Liberation" were substantial attempts to articulate aspects of whom and what Malcolm was about, but the tinge of personal affiliation adversely affected their overall impartialness in assessing Malcolm and his contributions to advancing African humanity

Let's not forget Kly's "Black Book: The True Political Philosophy of Malcolm X", that Marable, or his researchers forgot to cite in his extensive Bibliography). For a long time Brietman's work stood out because he was a European American affiliated with the Socialist Workers Party and was the only writer able to show Malcolm's ideological development in the last year of his life; there seemed to be no documented works written by an African objective enough to meet this goal.

Sales was exceptional in that his was one of the few books in which the OAAU (and to an extent the MMI) was analyzed and assessed. Sales was an observer/participant in the OAAU, in the manner of Muhammed Ahmed's affiliation with RAM (see his work,"We Will return in the Whirlwind"), and was able to make a major contribution to African historiography.

Collins' "Seventh Son" was a major contribution to understanding Malcolm because it provides us with the central role that Malcolm's big sister, Ella Collins, played in his development, as well as a crucial narrative of Boston's historical role in Malcolm's development. (Marable was able to 'impartially' do this with other cities as well)

Kly's Black Book is the first book I recall that specifically deals with Malcolm's political philosophy, grounded in a uniquely Muslim perspective, especially in terms of struggle and martyrdom, and the specific objectives of the OAAU. Considering that Kly, once the Canadian coordinator of the OAAU, joined the ancestors earlier this year and Marable recently joined the ancestors, we can only wonder what insights each could have provided each other, if they were not already in communication. Dr. Kly, in line with the Aims and Objectives of the OAAU, has left us with the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM); http://www.ihraam.org/ and Marable was able to leave us with this final narrative about Malcolm.

Marable has not said anything 'new'. What he did, in fact, was present as many sides and dimensions as humanly possible in one work. I cite the Breitman, Sales, Collins and Kly because they(like all who speak on Malcolm) are speaking from their personal, limited perspectives.

Manning has simply used a good method to present information available about Malcolm. No one has ever alluded to those missing "Alex Haley chapters" that the Negro lawyer (who tried to get Rosa Parks to sue the hip hop group Outkast) bought and put away in a vault.

White publishers probably had knowledge of their existence, but to make the info plain, to provide it for the people, tha the Marable contribution. But the information is not new, for certain controversies concerning Malcolm (his infidelity, internal conflicts with personnel, diplomatic ties, etc) has been housed in communities over the country.

I think Marable had the ability to present as much as he could in one document, which takes courage and impartiality, which is what he had! In this manner, the reader is presented with a fuller picture of Malcolm, and can make their own judgments and observations, because the same information is presented in a fresh manner.

What I must say to defend and support Marable's scholarship is that this book has in the most impartial way possible (since to our knowledge he was too young to be involved in the organizations centered around Malcolm), yet he provides a historiographical biography in a superior fashion than Haley.

Haley was more of a novelist, lacking the intellectual tools, acumen and agenda that Marable had to paint the most accurate picture of Malcolm based on all the information about his ideology and organization(s).

--ZULU King

Zulu King is Minister of Logic, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists. He is associate editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, Guest Edited by Marvin X.