State to takeover Detroit

Detroit must cut $200 million in spending or face a takeover by the state of Michigan, Mayor Dave Bing said on Tuesday.

With the city's population dropping to a 100-year low, while its budget deficit is projected to climb to $1.2 billion by fiscal 2015, Bing outlined a plan to the city council to balance Detroit's finances over five years.

That plan includes cuts in personnel costs, a one-year suspension of a payment to employee pensions, and a temporary gambling tax increase.

"If we are unable or unwilling to make these changes, an emergency financial manager will be appointed by the state to make them for us. It's that simple," Bing said in his budget address.

In March, Governor Rick Snyder signed into law a bill that bulks up the state's ability to intervene in fiscally troubled local governments and appoint someone to oversee them. The new law also gives state-appointed financial managers the power to modify or end collective bargaining agreements with public sector workers -- a move that sparked pro-union demonstrations in the state capitol earlier this year.

Bing, who pegged the current deficit at $155 million, said the city council, unions and the pension boards had to work together to turn around Detroit's finances. Otherwise, he said, the state will step in and "existing contracts will be voided, legislative powers will be stripped and decisions will be made without the input of elected officials or residents."

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That reality was not lost on members of the city council.

"I want to make sure we're not the group that's the answer to the trivia question -- Who was in charge of the city of Detroit when the emergency financial manager came in and took over?" said Council Member James Tate.

Detroit's shaky finances are a major concern in the $2.9 trillion municipal bond market, where the city's bonds are rated in the junk category. Detroit was also cited in a recent Reuters poll as a potential candidate for rarely used municipal bankruptcy.

The mayor's proposed fiscal 2012 $3.11 billion all-funds budget includes nearly $1.22 billion of general fund spending, according to budget documents.

Some of Bing's budget-balancing proposals depend on getting bills passed through the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature. They include the higher tax on Detroit casinos, pension reforms, the suspension of state driver licenses for three unpaid Detroit parking tickets and the continuation of the city's ability to collect income and utility taxes.

Detroit's population under current state law must be at least 750,000 to collect the taxes, which generated $265 million last year, Bing said.

U.S. Census figures released last month showed Detroit's population fell to 713,777 in 2010 from 951,270 in 2000, as the region suffered from a struggling automotive industry, plant closures and job losses.

Bing said while he believes the final census count will be revised upward, the city must deal with the reality of a shrinking population base and the loss of state and federal funding.

State revenue sharing has already been dropping and Detroit expects to receive less than half of the $332 million it got in 2002, according to Bing, who added that talks with the legislature and governor were ongoing.

But Council Member Saunteel Jenkins said she will be pushing for revenue alternatives in case Michigan lawmakers don't pass needed legislation.

Detroit, which sold nearly $250 million of deficit financing bonds last year, begins fiscal 2012 on July 1.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall, writing by Karen Pierog, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters

Howard Univ. to Establish Ronald Walters Center

Press Release





FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Kerry-Ann Hamilton
Media Relations Manager
k_hamilton@howard.edu
202.238.2332
http://www.howard.edu/newsroom/




Howard to Establish Ronald Walters Center

WASHINGTON (April 11, 2011) – Howard University President Sidney A. Ribeau announced the establishment of the Ronald W. Walters Center during the 40th anniversary Congressional Black Caucus Foundation symposium held on campus.

Political activist, prolific author and media commentator Ronald W. Walters, Ph.D., served as a Howard University professor for 25 years, political science department chair, and was a preeminent global scholar and expert on American political behavior, Black politics and comparative politics. He died in September 2010

The Ronald Walters Center will serve as an interdisciplinary focal point for public policy research, publication and leadership development. “Through this center, his name, his spirit and his work will live on as we prepare others to follow in his footsteps and impact the world as much as he did,” Ribeau said.

Walters served as a campaign manager and consultant for the Rev. Jesse Jackson during his two presidential bids and was a policy adviser for former Congressmen Charles Diggs (D-MI) and William Gray (D-PA).

Walters was instrumental in the creation of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The Ronald Walters Center will examine the role of African Americans in the development of U.S. foreign policy; the impact of globalization on the African-American community; and the role of African Americans in U.S. presidential and congressional politics. It will also house the Walters papers.

The Center will also establish a visiting scholars program to provide research opportunities for internal and external scholars, including post-doctoral students. The Center will sponsor conferences, symposia, quarterly newsletters and other activities.

Marvin X Calls for General Strike

The following story from the archives of Marvin X calls for the general strike. This speech was made several years ago in Houston, Texas, but today it appears America, black and white, is ready to shut down this nation to institute a redistribution of wealth, the ultimate solution to the economic woes of all the suffering American people.

Marvin X Calls for a General Strike for Reparations

On Saturday at Houston's Mt. Ararat Baptist Church, the National Black United Front hosted a forum on reparations. Keynote speaker was Att. Deadra Pellman who filed a lawsuit against corporations who benefited from slavery, including insurance companies. Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee presented a paper entitled "Making the Case for Slavery Reparations."

Also on the panel was a sister who is a direct descendent of slaves and she told an eloquent story of her genealogy. In attendance were Mrs. and Mr. Omari Obadele, legends of the reparations movement and founders of N'Cobra, the organization that has spearheaded the call for reparations. The Nation of Islam was present, along with the New Black Panther Party of Houston.

Marvin X called for a general strike to go along with litigation and legislation--mass action to keep the pressure on the American people until we achieve self-determination and sovereignty. He said we should demand reparations for our ancestors if no one else. The poet described his train ride from South Carolina to Houston: as he looked out at the trees, the woods, the swamps, the marsh, the rivers, he thought about the many thousands gone, bones buried deep in the clay, in the creeks. He thought about the slaves who tried to escape but failed and the ones who did make it to freedom.

For all these people, we must fight for reparations, and as Brother Kofi of NBUF noted, we must fight for compensation for the vestiges of slavery: our deplorable mental and physical health, our poor housing and now gentrification, lack of economic parity and educational opportunities. On another level, Marvin X noted that we are the 16th richest nation in the world (GNP), so even without repa! rations we have enough money to come up, if we use it wisely. We must take authority over our economic resources.

The forum ended with Marvin X reading his poem "When I'll Wave The Flag."Later that evening, the poet's daughter, Nefertiti, hosted a book party for her father, but because of the ENRON disaster many of the lawyers and MBAs present were unemployed and unable to purchase his book of essays, but they listened attentatively as he read.

Free Tibet!

FREE TIBET!

In response to your request for articles for posting, I will send you shortly an article if written in my newspaper, UP FRONT News ("The paper that can't be bought and can't be sold.") about an issue that I feel strongly is under-reported in the black media, i.e. the ongoing racist Genocide in Occupied Tibet.

Much of the political world, and in particular that which refers to itself as "left" and/or "progressive", perhaps still swayed by Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong's Marxist, populist, anti-imperialist rhetoric, simply continue to ignore the fact that the very imperialist Chinese invasion of independent Tibet in 1950 was the beginning of what has been a imposition of a thoroughly racist occupation which has led to the deaths of over 1 million Tibetans and the exile of hundreds of thousands more.

It is apparent that most Americans, regardless of political ideology remain unaware that 1.) before the Chinese invasion of 1950 Tibet was an independent nation and 2.) the dark-complexioned Tibetan people are completely ethnically, linguistically, and culturally distinct from their light-complexioned oppressors. In fact, relatively speaking, the Tibetans are" black people."

Indeed in many cases it's not so "relative" inasmuch as I've seen photographs of Tibetan nomads who spent long periods of time (praying) in the Himalayan sun, who are almost as black as charcoal.

In fact Mao had a deep hatred of the Tibetans, in part because of their deep religiosity (which explained the systematic destruction of many Tibetan temples the took place as the Chinese military took over Tibet). Mao and his expansionist Communist Party allied regarded the Tibetans as inferior and in need of Chinese-style modernization, a racist attitude not unlike Hitler's view of non-German Europeans.

A probably not very widely read Chinese military document is illustrative. In March, 1959 as the Chinese were completing their conquest of Tibet (a nation led by a pacifist Dalai Lama, so it wasn't a fair fight) there was a monk-lead uprising in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, which was brutally crushed by the Chinese military at a cost of many thousands of Tibetan lives.

One day a Tibetan exile living in New York City showed me a Chinese military booklet that discussed the rebellion and its suppression. It referred to the estimated 70,000 Tibetans killed as "insects."

Pro-Communist China apologists (e.g. the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Workers World Party) falsely allege that the Dalai Lama is a "CIA agent." That would have made the French underground fighters against the Nazi's the equivalent as there is no question and anti-Nazi fighters got assistance from the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. In if in fact the Dalai Lama, receiving no assistance from the world's democracies as he tried to save his country's independence, accepted support from the CIA, how could one blame him?

There is an enormous amount of information (a good deal of which I have and have written and spoken about publicly about the de facto Genocide that continues in Tibet and the fact that the United States is in fact aiding and abetting the destruction of what may be one of the oldest cultures on the earth. Why is the world's purported greatest democracy turning a blind eye to the destruction of Tibet? Profits. "Communist" China is the perhaps the profiteering capital of the world, intimately connected with the multinationals based here and in other capitalist powers.

As far as I am aware, relatively few African-Americans have spoken out on this issue. There are a number of reasons for this, such as the fact that the relatively small U.S.-based Tibetan diaspora (small compared with, say, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Italian-Americans-Irish-Americans) tend to be less than publicly demonstrative about the situation in their occupied nations. (There is however an annual increase in Tibetan demonstrations on March 10, the anniversary of the aforementioned revolt and its suppression. There were also "Free Tibet" demonstrations around the world protesting the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In fact a New York City Council resolution originally proposed by me and introduced by then City Councilman (now State Senator) Tony Avella (D.-Queens), which called for the removal of the 2008 Olympics from China because of the Tibet Genocide) was suffocated by Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a "leader" not known for her
sensitivity to the black agenda (e.g. the Sonny Carson street name change issue) who is notoriously considerate of mega-corporate power (e.g. the cartel known as the China Lobby).

In fact I do not believe that the activist "free Tibet" community, at least here in New York, has reached out sufficiently to African-
Americans, who certainly know what it is to struggle against oppression and racism. Indeed I've discussed this reality with a number of Tibetan activists, some of whom are personally acquainted with the Dalai Lama (who, as you know, like Dr. Martin Luther King, is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.)

I've also discussed this issue with a number of African-American leaders including in particular my pastor, Rev. Dr. Demetrius S. Carolina, Sr., of the First Central Baptist Church in Staten Island. Indeed, as a consequence he has not only referred to the Genocide in Tibet in one of his sermons but also issued a brief and eloquent statement in which he urge the government of China to, "Afford the Tibetan people what is rightfully theirs: independence and freedom to control their own destiny and place in the world today!"


Whether he knows it or not (yet) President Obama, by making the categorically false statement that "Tibet is part of China", has made the Genocide in Tibet a campaign issue starting immediately. If he really believes that, all those history courses he took at those fine Ivy league schools need recalibrate their Asian history curricula. If he knows that statement to be false, he is simply bowing to the might of the China Lobby.

In any event, the only morally defensible position for Obama to take is to (as he has in the case of Palestine and Kosovo) recognize Tibet as a free country - and then to whether the inevitable tantrum in Beijing.

I will forward to you (probably tomorrow, as the internet cafe I am using is about to close for the day) a copy of my UP FRONT News article, "Tibet Is a Nation, The Tibetans Are Not Chinese, Therefore Free Tibet."
-- Tom Weiss

A Mother's Message to the Police of America

A Mother's Message to the Police of America
Those of us who came of age in the 60s will recall that many of the riots and rebellions were the result of a mother rescuing her son from the hands of the police.
Before we knew it, all hell had broken loose, cities burned to the ground. In a recent conversation with Oakland Tribune Editor Martin Reynolds, he urged me to inform him of incidents of police abuse. Well, Martin, a mother approached me today in Berkeley to inform me the Berkeley police were harassing her son under the color of law, even though he has no police record. She was awakened by neighbors one night who told her the police were engaging her son outside. She got out of bed, dressed and went outside.

Even though he had a Cannabis card for the legal possession of marijuana, he was arrested and taken to jail. She had to pay $3,000.00 for bail and $5,000.00 for a lawyer.

Her son is now suffering trauma and apparently is harassed almost daily when he comes home from work. He begs his mother to move from the home she owns and where her family has lived for over a half century. The mother refuses to move, after all she owns the home and only must pay taxes,plus she is retired and a widow on a fixed income. She has no desire to have a house payment, for she cannot afford it.

The little money she had saved was lost when the stock market fell due to the Wall Street pyramid scheme. So she must now deal with a son in terror of coming home from work each night. She has not been able to convince him to rid himself of his fear. Her only fear is that he will be stopped alone by the police and her son will fail the tone test (depending on ones tone of voice, when stopped by the police, one of three things can happen: one can be killed, arrested or released). Her son has not taken quietly to harassment under the color of law.

But she says if anything happens to her son she will react in a manner of those mothers during the 60s. Unlike her son, she is fearless and will respond in the manner of a warrior woman. She will not go out without taking somebody with her, she swears on the blood of Jesus!

The mother wants to know where can she and other elderly persons go for help when confronted with problems such as police harassment of their children?

We think the police of America should be aware of this mother's cry and get prepared to make radical changes in their behavior, for they may soon face the wrath of a people who say enough is enough, just as the people in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain are doing at this hour. The oppressive police in those land shall soon be accountable in the court of people's justice for their abuse under the color of law.

We know the police are nothing but an occupying army in our community. They are another gang of thugs who practice wickedness under the color of law. The days of wickedness are soon to end once they people overcome fear as they did during the
60s, especially here in the Bay Area with the Black Panther Party and as they are doing throughout the Middle East and North Africa at this hour.

The Black Panthers said one is either part of problem or part of the solution. It is past time for the police of America to cease their reign of terror, harassing black and other minority men. We have seen them in action from Oakland to New York, stopping black men at will and asking for ID, are you probation or parole, then releasing them, sometimes taking their money, jewelry and any drugs. Often the men are severely beaten before they are released, not to mention the brothers and sisters who are victims of homicide under the color of law, killed in cold blood like Oakland's Oscar Grant and so many others coast to coast.

It may not be long before the courts of the people will hold accountable all those officers who have blood on their hands. There is no hiding place!
--Marvin X,
4/23/11

The Revolutionary Vision of Jesus

The Revolutionary Vision of JesusRodney D. Coates* ~


I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ.
--Fidel Castro

There are many who will condemn me as a heretic –both within the church and among so called progressives – for declaring that Jesus was a revolutionary and had a revolutionary vision for the world. Yes, Jesus –that Jesus that we celebrate, that we proclaim, and that we have been labeled as his followers – the Christ (or Promised one). And even though I will be condemned, well so also was Jesus, and even though they will try to crucify me, well so was Jesus, but I will not stay down, as well as Jesus –for his teachings continue to ferment change, rebellion, and revolution –some 2,000 years after they were spoken. I will begin with the beginning of his ministry, where he identified his vision. It is this vision which clearly articulates his revolutionary stance. In Luke 4:14 we note:

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."(Luke 4:14-21, ESV)

His mission

1) Proclaim good news to the poor

2) Proclaim liberty to the captives

3) recover sight ot the blind

4) set at liberty those who are oppressed

Not only did he identify with the poor, the helpless, but he also identified with those imprissioned and were oppressed. Jesus, a member of an oppressed group was from the least of those groups –Nazareth. What do we know of Nazareth –as Jonathan said “Can anything good come from Nazareth”,. Nazareth was a ghetto, one of the least among the opressed. And Jesus never lost sight of an outcast among the outcast. Jesus who proclaimed that “ “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 18:25)” set himself against a religious ideology that had increasingly become obsessed with materialism and the objectification of religion. Hence, he was appalled at how the temple had become prostituted to the materialist interests of the Sanhedrin. Consequently, he marked himself for death when he in concert with the religious leaders had defiled and corrupted the Holy temple with their greed. (John 2: 13 - 22. Matthew 21: 12 - 13. Mark 11: 15 - 17. Luke 19: 45 - 46.)

If we examine his mission statement, perhaps we will learn more about this Jesus.

1) Proclaim good news to the poor

What was this good news to the poor. Perhaps we need to go back to Isaih, fore it is here that we can understand not only the context but also the intent of Jesus’ revolutionary vision. From Isaih condemned the religious and political hyprocrasy of the Theocracy when he charged that:

They deprive the poor of justice and deny the rights of the needy among my people. They prey on widows and take advantage of orphans. Isaiah 10:2


"The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. Isaiah 41: 17


Share your food with the hungry, take the poor and homeless into your house, and cover them with clothes when you see [them] naked. Don't refuse to help your relatives. Isaiah 58: 7

So clearly, this Jesus was committed to a vision that challenged a materialist obsession that had pervaded the Temple, his people. He was also challenging a perversion of religion whereby the poor, homeless, and downtrodden were blamed for their situation. He ostensibly blamed the social structure, and those in leadership for the destitution so pervasive in these lives. And what of his second mission statement, how might this be understood.

2) Proclaim liberty to the captives


Political, economic, social, cultural, and racial captives throughout the ages have found comfort in these words. Liberation theology, slave rebellions, social transformations have all been launched with these words. Even past this if we consider the thousands of prison ministries, teen shelters, homes for sexually abused, and the like that have taken this as their mission statement –the power of this vision becomes clearer when take a look at the entire phrase.

to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.


Captives made explicit reference to slaves and prisoners to those detain. In a society –both then and now where people could be bound as slaves, where a whole system was predicated on a military, industrial,prison complex where slavery and prison labor accounted for not only a tremendous amount of human misery but also imperialist exploitation –this was truly a revolutionary call to action. The Jewish and Roman state could not have doubted the insurectional appeal of such a proclamation.

Jesus’ third mission statement demonstrates his consistent concern with those who were not only ill but suffered from were disabled.

3) recover sight ot the blind

We see in the ministry of Jesus a not only compassion but action with respects to the disabled. Disability was not something that merely deserved our charity, but our active involvement with. While others would shun these, Jesus would embrace them.

And lastly, what more revolutionary could you hope for when one considers his final mission statement.

4) set at liberty those who are oppressed

The oppressive system imposed by both Roman Imperialism and the Jewish Temple were not only apparent but invassive. All aspects of Jewish life were dominated by this oppression. Jesus in this mission statement not only alligned himself with the downtrodden, but also proceeded to began a ministry to the oppressed. Many have argued that we may draw a pedagogy of social justice by reading, understanding and implementing not only his teachings but his parables.

Ultimately, Jesus understood that actions speak louder than words. When asked by his friend, cousin John the Baptist (who had been marked for marterdom) are you the Christ -0 Jesus reponds:

Luke 7: 22 So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

The clarity of Jesus’s vision and ministry has been obscured not only by ideologues but also much of the organized church that has in many ways bastardized the message. But clearly, as we look throuhgout acts we note that the early followers of Christ were commited to selling all that they had and distributing it to the poor, tending the sick and shut ins, serving the widows and orphans, and attempting to bring the Kingdom of God (i.e. the Good news) to the lives of the all.


Note: Rodney D. Coates is a professor of sociolgy and he can be reached at coatesrd@muohio.edu

The song that lies silent in the heart of a mother sings upon the lips of her child....
--Kahlil Gibran

Dr. Fritz Pointer Responds to Dr. Rodney Coates on Jesus as a Revolutionary

One could just as well claim that Hercules and Robin Hood are revolutionary characters, though both, like Jesus, are mythical figures. Then, what about the other face of our sweet savior, the megalomaniac who in Luke 19:27 orders his followers to bring unbelievers to him "and slay them before me."

He repeatedly condemns and damns those who do not embrace him as the one true savior: "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Those who are skeptics, who doubt Jesus' delusions of greatness "are of your father the devil." "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And "if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth [like a withered branch] into the fire" (Matthew 23:33; John 8:43-44; Matthew 25:41; John 15:6. This is extreme megalomania and has nothing to do with "Revolution."

He even approves of eunuchs, especially those who deliberately castrate themselves so that they can be "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake" (Matthew 19:12). He is also a home wrecker: "a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:35-37; Luke 12:53). And, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).

This sounds more like a cult leader who wages war against the competing loyalties posed by the families of his followers - anything but a revolutionary. He does not urge the poverty stricken mobilize against the wealthy. In fact, his precursor, John the Baptist, tells the working poor to "be content with your wages" (Luke 3:14). Jesus has no problem with that. He reminds the poor that "the servant (slave) is not greater than his lord" (John 13:16). He accepts the notion that masters have a right to whip servants whenever a servant's performance is not up to snuff. The servant who knowingly disobeys his lord "shall be beaten with many stripes" while the servant who performs poorly but without deliberate disobedience "shall be beaten with few stripes" (Luke 12: 47-48).

What kind of revolutionary is that? And, Peter tells slaves that they must "be subject to your masters with all fear" (1 Peter 2:18). For the Christ whose divinely inspired wisdom is supposedly timeless and universal, transcending the historic limitations of place and culture it does no good at all to say that he was a product of his time...women kissing his feet and whatnot. What's revolutionary about that? Women are forbidden to teach, adorn themselves, speak in church, or visit friend. They must live in fearful and chaste subjugation to their husbands and whatever other men who might enjoy dominion over them ( 1Corinthians 11:3,9; 14:34, 35; 1 Timothy 2:9, 11-12 and 5:13; Luke 7:45-46; John 12:3). Now, what's revolutionary about that? I am sick of neophyte christians, etc. cherry-picking from this incoherent, cobbled together text, the bible, to satisfy their own religiously inspired nonsense, and imposing or attempting to impose their misunderstanding on thinking people. Enough already.
--Fritz Pointer

Dr. Fritz Pointer is professor emeritus of English at Contra Costa College. His father was a minister. His siblings include the Pointer Sisters.

Bibliography of Marvin X

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)

Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, BBP, 2007
How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a Pan African 12 Step Model, BBP, Berkeley, 2008

Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, a memoir, BBP, 2009.

Mythology of Love, toward healthy psychosexuality, BBP, 2009

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parable/fables, BBP, 2010

Hustler's Guide to the Game Called Life, (Vol. II, The Wisdom of Plato Negro), BBP, 2010

Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yo Self, essays on Obama Drama, BBP, 2010

Notes on the Wisdom of Action or How to Jump Out of the Box, essays, BBP, 2010

I AM OSCAR GRANT, essays on Oakland, BBP, 2010

Soulful Musings on the Unity of North American Africans, BBP, 2010

Guest Editor, Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, BBP, 2010

Works In Progress

Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, poems, BBP, 2012

In Sha Allah, A History of Black Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1954-2004 (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2012).

Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality by Nisa Islam as told to Marvin X, 2012.

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 Speaks until 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

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 archives of Marvin X are at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.