Black Panther Architect Fred T. Smith Joins Ancestors

 

ARCHITECT FRED T. SMITH HAS JOINED THE ANCESTORS

Poet/planner Marvin X and architect Fred Smith, both were student activists at Oakland's Merritt College, the West Coast hot-bed of Black Nationalist consciousness. Marvin X has learned his friend recently joined the ancestors. Rest in Peace, Fred!

photo Adam Turner

In my interview with my dear brother, Architect Fred T. Smith, RIP, for his vision of a Black Arts Movement Business District, he said, "Marvin, in my 30 years as an architect, you are to only person who asked me for an African-centered design....But if you look closely, American architecture is pervasive with African, aka Moorish design."

After weeks of delays  for one reason or another--you know North America Africans are the most busy people in the world, alas, most are busy doing absolutely nothing, to paraphrase ancestor James Brown, talking loud but doing nothing–Anyway, today, February 27, 2017, we finally met with architect Fred Smith to render our vision for him to consider design plans for Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District along the 14th Street corridor, from the lower bottom to Lake Merritt. He requested a meeting with members of the BAMBD community planning team before designing his idea for the BAMBD. When I initially asked him to give us his concepts, he stated that it should not be my idea but a communal effort.

Today he reiterated his initial point, stating we need a meeting of community minds because the BAMBD is a massive project that includes one hundred blocks and we must consider an almost block by block design plan. He informed me that although I am one of the chief visionaries, it will and must take a communal vision. We must allow community input for those hundred blocks. What do the people see, what do they want? The BAMBD is bigger than any one mind can conceive. And, he noted, as it is part of the City of Oakland's Downtown Plan for the next twenty-five to fifty years, we need ideas from the generation who will be here when we are gone, i.e., the young people.

Adam Turner, designer of the BAM/BAMBD newspaper, The Movement, was elated to be privy to the conversation as his interests are in design, especially as a child of the computer design era. The architect informed him that some ideas of his era are not always sound and will not pass the test of planning and  construction. Fred noted the first priority of design is safety. Will the building withstand the plethora of earthquakes the Bay Area is known to experience? He said bricks will not suffice in this area. Although I said nothing on this point, my mind raced to the 1989 earthquake that caught me at 2nd and Mission, escaping bricks that rained down from buildings across the street from where I took shelter.

But the priority item of our discussion was the architectural design for the Black Arts Movement  Business District. From the architectural design viewpoint, how would it look? Firstly, Fred noted, we must understand the architectural design history of America. Who designed  it, who built it? Of course, North American Africans! Thus, he said we need not  reinvent the wheel since many of our Afro-centric designs are already in place coast to coast in building construction from the White House to the Oakland Container Port, created by Thomas Berkely. Since he attended the funeral last week of Queen Mother Makinya, I reminded him of  the comment someone made, maybe Tarika Lewis, a relative, who said look around this chapel (Evergreen Cemetery), Queen Mother is here doing her thing. Look at the Egyptian architecture. 

Fred noted so-called Spanish architecture is Moorish, i.e. African, Arab. Greek and Roman architecture is Kemetic or Egyptian, i.e., African. I asked him what would be considered Afro-centric architecture in the modern era. Well, be clear that we need not reinvent the wheel since so much African design is already here, we just need to build on it. I tourned Adam, "Adam, you know my screen door has the Sankofa symbols in  the wrought iron, which Fred noted was traditional African metal work. Further, I told Adam, if recall the picture of my daughter Muhammida and poet Samantha, standing by a fence in Accra, the Sankofa symbol is in the wrought iron fence. 

Fred said it  would be nice if BAMBD had the money to send me to Africa to study modern African building design. Then my friend, former Merritt College study body president and gun toting Black Panther Party member, hit me with a knock out punch. "Marvin, in all my years as an architect, I have never had the discussion we are having now about Afro-centric design! For sure it's not taught in the schools. But no one has ever asked me to design an Afro-centric structure. I designed a house for one brother but he wanted Tudor architecture so I went to England to check out their designs. Had a great time, but never has anyone come to me as you have today. 

When I was exiled in Mexico City as a draft resister to the imperialist war in Vietnam, I checked out the building designs and noted they reflected Mexican culture in colors and structure. So what would be the African tradition in design? He said it would be colors, arches, columns, pyramid motifs. He said, "Marvin, I've seen your plays and they reflect an African architectural design." He lost me here but the artist often has no idea what critical minds see in their work. But I do know my concept of ritual theatre is African and aboriginal in structure. For example, there is no separation between actors and audience, alas, they are one!

Again, Fred noted designing a district is a massive undertaking that must be communal with a vision of the future. Afro-futurists, step to the front of the line and represent. We pass the baton to you! 

In closing, Fred noted that young North American African architects should be given internships with developers so they can enter the field because they are most often excluded and once the developers make deals with white supremacy unions and get pass the planning commission, they sail home to continue white supremacy development, aka, gentrification or ethnic cleansing in design, construction and occupation when the project is completed. 

We must note that Carmel has a North American African heading their construction of a 600 unit apartment complex in the BAMBD at 14th and Franklin. But only ten per cent or 60 of the 600 units are below market rate. BAMBD is working on a benefits package with Carmel but it is for below market retail space. In a meeting with Carmel to have them consider BAMBD, my daughter, Attorney Amira Jackmon, a bonds attorney who deals with billion dollar bonds on a daily basis, noted the Carmel that they should up the percentage of below market rate units to 20%. The BAMBD benefits team has incorporated Attorney Jackmon's investment partnership proposal in its benefits package, so we shall see. 

Architect Fred Smith noted that we should not have an adversarial relationship with developers because they are going to build what they want, especially once they get pass the planning commission. Of course, I say we need to have our own people on the planning commissions of all cities where we reside, otherwise, the planning commission will acquiesce to developers, lobbyists and slimy, slothful politicians. I wish somebody would give me an Amen. I wish somebody would say Ache!

--Marvin X, Planner, BAMBD/BAM, 2017

Notes from Off the Record by Marvin X

       Marvin X at the University of Chicago, Sun Ra Conference on Afro-Futurism

       photo Burrell Sunrise, 2015

Note #1 We understand no part of NO or PC pseudo Woke zombies, sycophants of the 

global medical dictatorship. Elijah Muhammad taught us the myth of Yakub, based on three workers, i.e., 

the doctor, nurse and undertaker. In the neo-Yakubian world, Dr. Fauci is Yakub, in league 

with the globalists and Eugenicists, alas, Hillary's shero is Margaret Sanger, Mother 

of murdering black babies, yes, in association with the Bill Gates family. If you survive Covid, 

Monkey Pox and the plethora of toxins awaiting you from the Yakubian world, including the 

fake war in the Ukraine, the fake gas crisis, alas, how can there be a gas crisis when 

America was energy independent a few months ago? 

This world is far beyond fake news. Chris Rock, yes, before he got slapped, said of women, 

"Everything about you is a lie!" Fake eyes, hair, lips, hips, pussy, ass, mind, heart, and soul. 

And this goes for the men too. They are as fake as fake can get. These days, it is said men 

can have a cycle and babies. Which one would you like to buy from me, the Brooklyn Bridge 

or the Golden Gate Bridge?

Let me ramble on in my off the record notes. And I have told people not to tell me 

shit on the phone, email, FB, Twitter, Instagram or Tic Tock, don't tell me shit because 

when I quote you you deny you ever told me the truth that you told me. Let us continue.

The American nation spends $700 billion on its annual defense budget, yes, she is 

the number one arms merchant of the world. She just sold Ukraine $40 billion 

dollars of guns. And yet she is totally overwhelmed by mass murder in America. 

I must repeatedly quote James Baldwin, "The murder of my child will not make 

your child safe!" And further, "The notion of white supremacy has led white people 

to rationalizations so fantastic it approaches the pathological."

I am so thankful for the black woman at Emory University who authored 

the just released book called 2, the most thorough deconstruction of the 2nd 

Amendment, and alas, she discovered the Second Amendment was, in the deep 

structure, about Negroes With Guns (Robert F. Williams). In my December, 

1968, interview with James Baldwin at his New York apartment, he said, 

"Nothing else happened here but us." The book 2 made it clear to me the 

2nd Amendment was about keeping guns out of the hands of North American 

Africans, from slavery down to the end of the Civil War when 200,000 Black 

Troops were disarmed while the Confederate losers of the war returned home 

with their weapons to instill fear and terror on the North American Africans that 

persists down to the present moment. Explain to me how and why a NAA 

can be shot 60 times for driving while black or running while black! Meanwhile, 

a white boy in Highland, Ill, suburb of Chicago where black on black homicide 

is unceasing, can commit mass murder but is arrested without incident. America is 

beyond insane! What nation spends $700 billion on national 

security, yet its borders allow in every filthy unclean bird? You allow 

across your border migrants suffering pervasive poverty, ignorance and disease. 

Yet you do not address these issues within your own citizens.

You are clearly in league with global drug cartels who smuggle meth, fentanyl 

and other drugs that kill thousands of Americans yearly, to say nothing of. 

the opioids sold by the pharmaceutical industry in conspiracy with the Yakubian 

Medical Dictatorship. 

America is Babylon the Great Whore, full of liars and murderers, thieves 

and robbers, the blood suckers of the poor. She calls other nations Banana 

Republics and shit holes, then immediately reveals herself as the Chief Banana 

Republic and shit hole!. A few days ago she was gas independent but is now 

dependent after allowing green heads to dictate her economic and national 

security. There is no sane planning policy, no sane anything, only a plethora 

of fake everything. And this is not hyperbole but reality. 

What parents of rational minds will send their children to public schools 

that are firstly, insecure and secondly ideological and educational shit 

holes with the dominant curriculum not ABCs but a degenerate concern 

with birds and bees. And the supreme irony is that the children are taught 

birds can be bees and bees can be birds. 

Enough!

--Marvin X

7/7/22 

The indefatigable, peripatetic Marvin X's Black Bird Press just edited and

published Endemic Racism in America by Rt. Congressman William L. Clay, Sr.

The poet Ishmael Reed called him "Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland," and Dr.

Cornel West described him as  "The African Socrates in the hood." Bob Holman said he is

"The USAs Rumi, Hafez and Saadi," 

Marvin X is currently organizing the Black Street Vendors Association in Oakland. 

He also publishers magazines such as Outlaw, Black Street, and Black Bird Press News 

and Review. Author of over thirty books, he is also a founder of the Black Arts Movement 

and Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District.

He's taught at Fresno State University, San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley, UC

San Diego, Mills College, Laney and Merritt Colleges, the University of Nevada, Reno and elsewhere.

Marvin X reads and speaks coast to coast. Send letter of invitation to jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

Please give a generous donation to the memorial for Journal of Black Poetry Publisher/Editor Dingane Jose Goncalves

Hotep,

I thought you might be interested in supporting this GoFundMe, https://gofund.me/13c554f3

Even a small donation could help Marvin X and Planners reach their fundraising goal. And if you can't make a donation, it would be great if you could share the fundraiser to help spread the word.

Thanks for taking a look! Black Power to the People. All power to the People!

Marvin X

Co-Founder, National Black Arts Movement

Tentative Memorial Program for Dingane Joe Goncalves, Founder,The Journal of Black Poetry 

Venue, East Oakland Black Cultural Zone, CDC, Carolyn Johnson, CEO

73rd and MacArthur,  Oakland 

Saturday,  August 27, 2022

2-6PM

1. Musical interlude,  Tarika Lewis, et al.

2. Youth Poets Open Mike

3. Rev. Mutima Imani, Libation and Mistress of Ceremony 

4. Norman Brown,  Welcome 

5. Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Bryant Bolling 

6. Obituary,  Dr. Oba T'shaka 

7.Poem by Oakland's First Poet Laureate,  Dr. Ayodele 

8. Black Arts Movement poets

Askia Toure,  Haki,  Last Poets,  Avotcja, devorah major, Kalamu ya Salaam, Phavia Kujichagulia, Judy Juanita, Fritz Pointer, Marvin X 

9. Eulogy,  Dr. Sonia Sanchez 

10. Words from Goncalves family, Barbara, Abina, Amma,Sabira

11. Music by Violinist Tarika Lewis

12 Comments 3 min ea 

12. Repast

Sponsors

Carolyn Johnson,  Black Cultural Zone CDC 

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga,  Black Arts Movement Business District CDC, City of Oakland’s first Poet Laureate 

Delores Nochi Cooper,  Founder, Berkeley Juneteenth Association 

Ustadi Kabiri,  Junkyard Cultural Project 

Dr. Oba T'shaka,  Emeritus Professor, Black Studies, San Francisco State University

Cinnabar, Laney College 

Marvin X,  Black Arts Movement, Black Bird Press, Black Vendors Association 

Left to right Dingane Jose Goncalves, Publisher and Editor of the Journal of Black Poetry. On right his brother Dominic Goncalves. The Journal of Black Poetry was the Bible of the 60s Pan African Poetry Revolution. Guest Editors included Haki Madhubuti, Askia Toure, Marvin X et al. Kalamu ya Salaam wrote, "Playwright Ed Bullins and poet Marvin X had established Black Arts West, and Dingane Joe Goncalves had founded the Journal of Black Poetry (1966). This grouping of Ed Bullins, Dingane Joe Goncalves, LeRoi Jones, Sonia Sanchez, Askia M. Touré, and Marvin X became a major nucleus of Black Arts leadership." Nikki Giovanni's first published poem appeared in the Journal of Black Poetry. If you were a Black poet in the 60s, no matter from America, Africa, the Caribbean or Asia, you were welcome to publish in the Journal of Black Poetry. Only Black World Magazine had a wider circulation but it didn't match the number of poets published in JBP. Thank you Dingane Jose Goncalves, you Cape Verde, Boston African! LOL

Although not pictured, Dingane Jose Goncalves was on the staff of Black Dialogue Magazine, along with (Left to right) Aubrey LaBrie, Marvin X, Abdul LaBrie, Al Young, Arthur Sheridan and Duke Williams. It was because Black Dialogue Magazine was inundated with poetry that Dingane founded The Journal of Black Poetry. 

Poet Playwright Ed Bullins RiP, contributed to the Journal of Black Poetry

Sonia Sanchez and Dingane were dear friends and comrades in the BAM revolution.

Nikki Giovanni's first published poem appeared in the Journal of Black Poetry.

Left to Right: LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal, Co-Editors of the BAM anthology Black Fire

Journal of Black Poetry, Marvin X Guest Editor

Art by Ben Caldwell

The Journal of Black Poetry featured this collection of leaflets promoting the Black Arts Movement coast to coast. Upper left is a Sun Ra and Poets (Askia Toure, The Last Poets, Marvin X, et al.) at the New Lafayette Theatre's

Workshop. Upper right leaflet promotes Marvin X's refusal to fight in Vietnam. Lower left is LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) at the San Francisco Black House. Lower right is a leaflet promoting the Last Poets at Harlem venue The East Winds.

Journal of Black Poetry, Marvin X Guest Editor

Haki Madhubuti contributed to the Journal of Black Poetry

Co-Founder of the Black Arts Movement and Co-Editors of the Journal of Black Poetry, Askia Toure and Marvin X

Marvin X reviews Oakland's Malcolm X Jazz/Art Fest

 Outlaw Magazine Reviews Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland, 2022

by Marvin X, Publisher/Editor

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Emory

"Marvin X is a rare black man who keeps it real!"--Woody Johnson, Black Artist, Oakland, CA

Today was a  sunny day in Oaktown, a perfect day to honor Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, the annual event produced by Eastside Arts Alliance, located at 23rd Ave. and International Blvd. Technically, their location might be called The Fruitvale, some call it the Ho’ Stroll, but it is a multi-cultural district. During the Crack Era we Crack Heads (including myself) called this area the United Nations because there were crackheads who smoked together from throughout the Americas, and so many beautiful Latina (OK, Latinax, since I’m X) Crack Heads. 

As per the Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, the Covid Pandemic closed down ESA’s festival at San Antonio Park on E.18th and Foothill. A Miller Lite version was produced this Saturday: Miller Lite because it was scaled down will limited arts and crafts booths, mostly non-profit organization booths. 

Since my memory is failing (and what should one expect after a life-78, May 29- of drugs, alcohol, sex, rock n’ roll and revolution, exile, deportation, jail and prison, black listed and house arrest; so after a meeting with my printer and graphic designer in deep east Oakland, something–yes, that little black bird sitting atop our shoulder as we traverse our daily round, the black bird said go by San Antonio Park because that Malcolm X Jazz/Art Fest may be today. Well, my little black bird also told me to make my way from deep east Oakland by way of Highway 13, that tree-filled stretch of road in the Montclair District. The plethora of green gives me a moment of meditation. I turn my travel music down, Jimmy Smith, Hammond B3, music of my childhood in West Oakland. I depart Highway 13 at Park Ave. exit, take Park to 14th Ave. to 18th and Foothill, up Foothill to the park and the Malcolm X Jazz/Art Fest was indeed in progress.

Now the real fun begins. Firstly, when I departed my house this morning, my mind was on the 11 AM meeting with my graphic designer and printer. I am at the last stages of editing and publishing a book by US Congressman Rt. William L. Clay, Sr., Endemic Racism in America, Black Bird Press, Oakland, CA. Is this not the topic of the day? Brother Clay, one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus, has given us a required text for American Political Science 1.0.

Firstly and lastly, it is an original source, a horse’s mouth! As my meeting did not stress me out, I arrived and drove my vehicle onto the grass, alongside other cars. Before I could get out, I scanned the scene of vendor spaces with knowledge that information booths had priority. Soon a young lady approached me with the message that if I was not a non-profit, there were no booths available and I should register next year. Now, if you know anything about the Outlaw personality known as Marvin X, you know he understands no party of no. The young lady and he went around and around in their linguistic battle but as the master linguists, she was no match and the conversation ended with her inviting him to have a space a few feets from where he was parked. She informed him to look at the space that had a table and chairs provided. He thanked her and she departed. 

Still, his memory failure had no allowed him to bring his tent and plethora of books he’s published and those of his associates Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare, such as his own manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy (Insanity). He only had three copies in his car and the same number of the Hare’s The Endangered Black Family: Coping with the unisexualization and coming extinction of the Black Race. But he did have ample copies of what he considers his magnum opus Outlaw Magazine #1, featuring The Mythology of Pussy and Dick, the now classic 18 page pamphlet that he toured with coast to coast, from the Bay Area to the Dirty South, i.e., Houston, TX, Beufort, SC, Jackson, Mississippi, Grambling, LA, Washington, D.C. (Spent a week at Howard University in the classes of Dr. Greg Carr and Dr. Tony Medina).

After setting up his table with mostly copies of Outlaw Magazine with the provocative headline The Mythology of Pussy and Dick; subtitle: Poetic and Prose notes on the deconstruction of partner relations in the #MeToo Era, he began passing them out. The magazine says $20.00 donation but those who know Marvin X know he’s gives away at least 50% of the 30 books he’s written.

Perhaps this is why one of his students said he was the poorest famous person she’d ever met. He says,”Do you think we made revolution for money? Of course there are opportunists in every movement, the revolution as well, people who pimped revolution to be come rich and famous. Did Malcolm die rich, Kwame Toure’, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus? The Spiritual Man and Woman are beyond material things. Fact check!

As people passed his table, he handed them the magazine, some gave the donation price of $20.00, some gave less. He gave it freely to those without money. He told them he was blessed and they were blessed that he was able to give it to them for free, especially since it did cost several thousand dollars. But he told several people they were covered by “the blood” of those inside the magazine. 

A white man took the magazine and asked if he could sit down at the table next to the poet, philosopher, planner, organizer (he recently received a $100,000 grant to organize black street vendors at Lake Merritt, from which he and other blacks were banned since childhood. The City of Oakland has tried every trick in their trade to terminate black vendors from Lake Merritt. Marvin X says, “It’s clear to me that the consensus of the black vendors is that they shall stand their ground, no matter what polytricks the polytricians configure, especially as election time nears and the polytricians want the votes of lakeside residents and businesspersons. Vendors as registered voters can challege the opposition with votes, not to mention that black vendors are in conformity with the State Law on Vending SB946.

Marvin X, speaking through his Black Street Magazine, calls upon vendors to STAND OUR GROUND, but also register to vote so we can challenge the polygtricians white supremacist (insane) lake residents and businesspersons who, after a lucrative business day of robbing the locals and the globals from Oakland to Palestine and Ukraine.

The white man took his time reading Outlaw Magazine. A few feet to the right of his stand a black brother stood reading the magazine intently for an hour or more. The white man finally said to Marvin, “It’s good to read something that inspires one.            

Marvin’s elder, associate and  advisor, Dr. Nathan Hare, Clinical Psychologist/Sociologist, said he read the magazine cover to cover. He agreed to write a review. Mar’yam Wadi, San Francisco State University mother of the Black Students Union and Black Studies, read Outlaw Magazine and said it was the best writings by the poet since she met him in the SFSU Negro Students Association before she forced the name change to Black Students Union and submitted the first draft curriculum for the Black Studies Department.

Brother Woody came by and was promptly given the magazine. Woody is one of our Sculpturists and thinkers. After perusing Outlaw, he said, and agreed to be quoted, “Marvin X is one of our rare black men who keep it real!”

Greg Morozumi came by and Marvin made him take a seat. He is one of the key founders of multicultural art in the Bay, also a co-founder of Eastside Arts Cultural Center. Greg has suffered a stroke and unable to speak. When he kept trying to tell Marvin about a young lady who gave a donation for Outlaw, Marvin gave him a pen and paper to write. He wrote that she was the daughter of Yuri Kochiyamam, one of the first persons to reach Malcolm X as he lay assassinated on the stage. As I didn’t know she was Yuri’s daughter, I was happy to meet her and told her how much her mother let me know she loved me. The said she recalled me and how much her mother thought about me.

As per review, when I arrived, music from New Orleans was playing. And then the festival musicologist Howard Wiley came on with a variety of blues, jazz and hip hop, including vocalist Martin Luther. Howard Wiley noted his performances at Malcolm X Jazz/Fest included performing with Amiri Baraka, David Murray, the Last Poets (and “Outlaw” Marvin X). I was elated to hear the brother playing the Hammond B3, as noted above, the instrument that takes me immediately to my childhood in West Oakland. 

Eastside Arts presented their poets and wannabe poets who were given apprecitation from the audience who were provided seats to enjoy the music and beautiful weather. 

On the political side, there was a speaker from the City of Oakland Downtown Plan for the next 25 to 50 years. He encouraged people to become aware and involved in the plan but in truth few black persons know about the plan since we are the last to know anything, especially about our future in Amerikkk. The Oakland City Plan has been in progress for several years. Why are you not fully informed about the plan and what is Black people’s plan in the plan? As we know, if you don’t have a plan, “they” have a plan for you. Does the 25 to 50 year plan include reparations, including land, housing and sovereignty?

On January 19, 2016, the City of Oakland established the Black Arts Movement Business District, since then the district has had no budget, no signage, i.e., banners, African Liberation flag displayed throughout the BAMBD. Alas, how many blacks know we have a Black Arts Movement Business District from the lower bottom of 14th Street to Lake Merrritt? Did you know there is a bust of Dr. Huey P. Newton on Mandela Way and a Huey Newton Way on Center Street? Did you know in the BAMBD dowtown area along 14th Street has been renamed Chauncy Bailey Ave., in honor of the slain Editor of the Oakland Post Newspaper. Alas, his death is no less significant than the death of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, shot in the head by Zionists state murderers. Don’t cry for Ukraine if you can’t shed corcodile tears for Shireen, Chauncey and Gary Webb, let alone the tens of journalists killed in Mexico and Latin America, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

FYI, my concern is global, Pan African, pan Human. But, I am firstly a revolutionary Black nationalist. My life long desire is no different than the Palestinians, a nation of our own.  Or for that matter, La Raza, La Raza, La Raza. 

Por favor, we need to take cues from La Raza who have a thriving Latintown, as the Asians have Asiantown and the whites have whitetown. 

Isn’t it ironic Blacks celebrate Malcolm X in Latintown? Why don’t Latinos (I’m not playing linguistic polytricks with x,y, z, infinity!) celebrate Cinco De Mayo at Bobby Hutton Park, DeFermery in West Oakland?

People stopped at my table to do video interviews. They wanted to know why I wasn’t on stage as I used to be when Amiri Baraka, the Last Poets, David Murray and my  other peers came to town. I told then it was ideological or shall we say political. Some people play dogmatic polytricks. 

FYI, my politics are of, for and by the consent of the governed, the people. I don’t give a fuck about ideologies, sectarian religiosities and dogmatic spiritual mythologies. 

As a devotee of Sufism, I believe in the wisdom of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s The Religion of the Heart! What do masjids, temples, churches and holy places matter if the Divine does not dwell in your heart? You kiss the black stone and proceed to murder, you kiss the wailing wall and proceed to murder, you kiss the US Constitution and proceed to murder, and you murder with an annual defense budget of 700 billion dollars. After trillions wasted and unaccounted for in Iraq and  Afghanistan, you have now hurried your bitch punk ass into Ukraine for a most dubious engame most likely to end with nuclear war. 

In the hustler’s game they teach, “How you start out is how you end up!” The USA supported Ukraine without air support, some punk ass shit after repeated calls from their PM for air support. Alas, in the USA military/industrical/complex there is no need for air support, all we need is eternal war. War, what is is good for? I was happy to see one of my favorite Bay Area musicians JOHN SANTOS stop by and have a seat. John Santos reads my books as a  person of consciousness. I love John for his consciousness. 

Ricky Vincent, KPFA’s History of Funk, came by and departed with Outlaw. Several times I made people remove their funky masks so I could recognize them, especially since I am 50% blind. 

One of the Bay Area’s great choreographers, Traci Bartlett, got her Outlaw. When a dance segment performed, I’m didn’t check but I suspect Traci was involved in the choreography. We must give full credit to the Eastside Arts for training the next generation of radical artists, not weak punk ass artists who do art for art’s sake in the best tradition of european white supremacy, hereafter labled white insanity. 

When I recognized a woman from behind by her braided hair and gait, I called her and she turned around. It was Diva Carolyn Johnson of the East Oakland Black Cultural Zone. We were last together at the People’s Junkyard to organize the Black Vendors Association. Carolyn appreciated the black space of the People’s Junkyard and begged me to inform the Junkyard People that she wants to support the People’s Junkyard as a sacred black space in deep east Oakland.

From elder to young adults

The young man at the booth next to me, bought a copy of Outlaw and informed me he was a seeker of knowledge. I tried to inform him my duty is to share knowledge. We know the lesson from Elijah Muhammad: ”What is the duty of the civilized man?” The duty of the civilized man is to teach the deaf, dumb and blind the knowledge of civilization. Question: If the civilized man fails to perform his duty, what is the consequence? Answer: If the civilized man fails to perform his duty, he shall suffer a severe chastisement by Allah.

I, Marvin X, El Muhajir, confess I was chastized by Allah for failing to perform my duty: I was attacked, knocked flat on my back by youth, teeth knocked out, bum rushed and got away from the savages bleeding and bloody; knives and guns pulled on me, 

The festival was winning down. The Queen Mother of Eastside Arts came into my presence, Elena Seranno. Elena is a great cultural asset, especially as an arts administrator. We see her work so there is no doubt she is a true trooper, Greg as well. People need to praise and honor Greg for his work in radical arts of the people. He needs to be provided all the necessary physical therapy so he can speak again. His inability to speak is unacceptable to me. 

In conclusion, let the people know that whatever ideological and other differences I may have with Eastside Arts, there is one truth that united us which was the true and living spirit of Amiri Baraka. And he loved us all the same.

Back at the stage, Howard Wiley performed, then came dancers.Wiley blew again from the Black Classical Music Book, and then soon came Tongo, San Francisco Poet Laureate. And he came with music, too loud to honor the poet. Now Howard Wily performed too many years not to control the musicians who can get lost is the sound of their music to the neglect of the poet. Tongo’s poem was great  but the musicians drounded him. No matter, Howard introduced Tongo as having the spirit of Baraka, the Last Poets Marvin X, et al.

As far as we know, the event ended peacefully. 

–Marvin X

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

Poet Marvin X at Laney College

BVA Ona Move in San Leandro

 

Staff of BVA, Left to Right Desiree, Egyptsia, MX and Ari

Black Vendor Market

1680 E14th, San Leandro 

Open daily 

11AM-6PM

510-776-7671

It's time to Buy Black 

Do 4 Self

Join the Black Street Vendors Association 

We Ona Move 22

BVA 510-575-7148 

We support:

Black Cultural Zone,  East Oakland 

Black Arts Movement Business District CDC,  West Oakland 

Berkeley Juneteenth Association Berkeley 

Black Street Magazine,  Voice of the Black Street Vendors Association,  Bay Area 

Fantastic Negrito Vendors Place, 34th and San Pablo Av., North Oakland 

Staff of the Black Street Vendors Association, Bay Area, Notes by BVA Founder/Planner Marvin X

Staff of the Black Street Vendors Association, Oakland CA

Marvin X,  Founder, Planner 

Angelo Jackson,  Treasurer 

Egyptsia Mosley, Director of Membership 

Secretary,  Desirae Rosgen

Administrative Consultant,

Mutima Imani 

Note from Founder Marvin X:

Dear Friends, the thoughts I express below are my thoughts and not those of the BVA. As the Founder I take the liberty to express my thoughts but as the BVA is organized, we want the young team of leaders to speak for themselves since they are being prepared to assume full leadership of the BVA. I am thankful to know these young people are highly qualified to assume leadership of the BVA. With the guidance of Mutima Imani and myself, plus the support of the Black Arts Movement Business District, CDC, under the direction of Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, the support of Delores Nochi Cooper, Founder of the Berkeley Juneteenth Association, Inc., and Carolyn Johnson of the East Oakland Black Cultural Zone, CDC, we are confident the BVA leadership can navigate Bay Area Black entrepreneurs into the future. 

FYI, the BVA is not limited to street vending. Our approach is holistic: vendors must invest to come up

(We have agreed to use the African/Caribbean Sou-sou investment method that allows each investors to have his/her turn to come up.)

We shall explore housing for vendors from a collective model.

We shall buy products collectively rather than individually. And we shall buy from each other as opposed to spending money with other than our own kind. 

We shall consider Bit Coin and other monetary methods to avoid the sinking dollar that is backed by nothing except the ink on the paper. We shall employ barter as a traditional method of trade.

We are blessed to have a team of young people with skills in high finance so we are confident we can avoid the pitfalls of financial scams.

ASAP, we shall meet with the general membership to take our organization to the next level economically, politically and spiritually. We accept the Biblical dictum, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things shall be added unto you."

Our purpose is to be the model of do for self entrepreneurship. We demand first class treatment of our customers and ourselves. 

We call upon all Black Street Vendors to join the BVA to unify ourselves to make Good Trouble as Ancestor John Lewis said. All members must register to vote for political equity. We must be organized to combat those organized against us. As voters they can recall politicians and, when organized and registered, we can recall politicians as well. Vendors, join the BVA and register to vote. The ballot or the bullet. Fidel Castro said, "The weapons of today are not guns but consciousness!" The BVA rejects the crumbs the City of Oakland through the Dept of Parks and Rec is offering us. As first class citizens, we reject kibbles and bits offered not in the name of social justice and equity but to placate white citizen council lake residents and merchants who are determined to continue the age old tradition of denying Blacks full rights to enjoy Lake Merritt. The whites think we have no memory of their white supremacist tradition of denying Blacks the enjoyment of Lake Merritt. The BVA shall not waste our energy in fruitless political battles to enjoy the mess of pottage the Parks and Rec conspires to allocate at. the behest of City Hall, Lake Merritt White Citizen Council, (along with a few whites dipped in chocolate called post black negroes who are neither post black nor negroes but colonial elites in the best manner of African neo-colonialism, just as President Obama was a neo-colonial negro, yeah, I said it and mean it and don't give a damn about your cancel culture or your economic black listing, alas, we have suffered house arrest, prison, exile, attempted assassination for the last half century from the Left and the Right, Twiddledum and Twiddledee). 

I repeat, America just passed its annual $700 billion dollar national defense budget while the Democratic and Republican parties sang Silent Night. 

Oakland Black Street Vendors attempted to vend at Lake Merritt during Covid for economic survival but our presence was anathema to lake residents. The Oakland murder rate and the thousands of homeless are quite acceptable to the blood suckers of the poor. Again, I call upon Black Street Vendors to find spaces in the downtown area or in the hood to deliver food and necessary items to our people. And we reject the protests of Arab grocers and liquor store owners who never consider hiring our people but short change and take advantage of our woman for sexual pleasure but if we reciprocate they charge us with violating their family honor. It is time we step up to the front line to demand the respect of our women and young girls. Let me paraphrase Ancestor James Baldwin, "The sexual abuse of our children will not make your children safe." I remember when a young female student of mine asked me to intervene with an Arab because he had shortchanged her. I went into the store in East Oakland chanting, "Ahlan wa sahlan. La ee la hah ee lah el lah. Muhammandan Rasullah." The Arab said he would return my students money only because I chanted Arabic. We think if I had come into his store chanting "You sand nigger motherfucker, don't you ever shortchange my sister again, bitch as motherfucker!", I think he would have given her the proper change as well. 

You want me continue or shut up? FYI, I am not anti-Arab. In fact I am pro-Palestinian. I want to see a Palestinian state just as I want to see a Black State under the sovereignty of North American Africans with sufficient reparations for the next 50 to 100 Years, with access to the sea and air. We might need a doom system like the Zionist so we don't suffer another Black Wall Street or a bombing like the Philly destruction of the Move Movement.   

Hell no, we don't trust white people or white niggas. In the Kenyan liberation struggle, the Mau Mau had to kill more reactionary uncle tom Africans than British colonialists.

We got some niggas in America whiter than the white man. Malcolm told you the house negroes say boss is we sick? And what did Harriet Tubman say, "I could have freed more slaves if they had known they were slaves!"

--Marvin X/El Muhajir

1/9/22