Thursday, November 18, 2010
Dr. Nigger
Dr. Nigger
Dr. Nigger
Can you cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Can you save my life
without changing my life
Can you dance soft-shoe while
humming those negro tunes
when my white life codes blue
Can you reach inside yourself
beyond the shit we put in you…
past painful moments we put in you…
past despair and hopelessness
we’ve put in you and
find that old black magic in you
to save my life without changing
all the shit we put in you
Dr. Nigger
Can you breathe in me
air free of nigga
from a nigger not free
to breathe in free air
Can you stay on the colored side
of the color line and reach across
without touching me with nigga hands
to restart my blue heart without
changing my cold heart
Can you reach past the life
we’ve taken from you to
save my life and not
let white life pass me by
Dr. Nigger
save my life
without taking my life
Cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Dance soft-shoe while
humming negro tunes
while you save my life
without changing my life
when my white life codes blue
Copyright © 2009 by Neal Hall, M.D.
Nigger for Life, NealHall,2009.
Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies
NEXT ISSUE
Volume 4 • Number 2 • December, 2010
The next issue of The Journal of Pan African Studies will feature a poetry anthology edited by guest editor Marvin X. He is well known for his work as a poet, playwright and essayist of the Black Arts Movement. He has worked with Ed Bullins in the founding of Black House and The Black Arts/West Theatre in San Francisco, California (Black House served briefly as the headquarters for the Black Panther Party and as a center for performance, theatre, poetry and music). Marvin received his B.A. and M.A. in English from San Francisco State University and has received writing fellowships from Columbia University and the National Endowment for the Arts, and planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
MARVIN X, GUEST EDITOR
Associate Guest Editors:
Ramal Lamar, Ptah Allah El
Senior Editor, Itibari M. Zulu
Dedicated
to
Dingane, aka, Jose Goncalves,
Publisher, Editor
Journal of Black Poetry
Contents
Photo Essay: Journal of Black Poetry Poets
Dedicated to the Honorable Dingane, Jose Goncalves, founder, Journal of Black Poetry
Those 60s Journals: JBP, Black Dialogue, Soulbook,Black Theatre, Black World/Negro Digest,Umbra
Compiled by Rudolph Lewis
The Poets
Part One: In My Negritude
Shaggy Flores
Ras Griot
Phavia Kujichagulia
Chinwe Enemchukwu
L. E. Scott
Rodney D. Coates
J. Vern Cromartie
Dike Okoro
Neal E. Hall
Marvin X
Mohja Kahf
Muslim American Literature, An emerging field: Dr. Mohja Kahf
Ayodele Nzingha
Askia M. Toure
Review by Kamaria Muntu: Mother Earth Responds, Askia Toure
Michael Simanga
Amiri Baraka
Kalamu ya Salaam
Kola Boof
Louis Reyes Rivera
Aries Jordan
Ptah Allah El
Review by Zulu King: Tainted Soul by Ptah Allah El
Hettie V. Williams
Part Two: Whirlwind
A Dialogue on the Poetic Mission: Marvin X, Rudolph Lewis,
Jerry Ward, Mary Weems, C. Leigh McInnis
Haki Madhubuti on the Poetic Mission
Tracey Owens Patton
devorah major
Anthony Mays
Bruce George
Jeanette Drake
Itibari M. Zulu
Renaldo Manuel Ricketts
Nandi Comer
Al Young
Ghasem Batamuntu
Mona Lisa Saloy
Eugene B. Redmond
Fritz Pointer
Gwendolyn Mitchell
Felix Orisewike Sylvanus
Rudolph Lewis
Kamaria Muntu
Ed Bullins
Mabel Mnensa
Kwan Booth
Tureeda Mikell
Part Three: Amour of Ancestors
Everett Hoagland
Charles Blackwell
Jacqueline Kibacha
John Reynolds III
Darlene Scott
Jimmy Smith Jr.
Sam Hamud
Opal Palmer Adisa
Amy ”Aimstar” Andrieux
Lamont b. Steptoe
Avotcja Jiltonilro
Anthony Spires
Benecia Blue
Neil Callender
|
Tanure Ojaide
Pious Okoro
Tony Medina
Dr. Ja A. Jahannes
Brother Yao
Zayad Muhammad
Nykimbe Broussard
Kilola Maishya
Niyah X
Adrienne N. Wartts
Greg Carr
Darlene Roy
Tantra Zawadi
Ishmael Reed
Quincy Scott Jones
Bob McNeil
Ariel Pierson
Marie Rice
Yvonne Hilton
Bolade Akintolayo
Latasha Diggs
Felton Eaddy
B. Sharise Moore
VIEWS, REVIEWS, NEWS
Medical Mythology, Ramal Lamar
Dialogue on Qaddafy’s Apology for Arab Slavery:
Sam Hamud, Kola Boof, Rudolph Lewis
Two Poets on Oakland CA: Ishmael Reed, Marvin X
A Pan African Dialogue on Cuba
Carlos Moore, Dead Prez, Black Intellectual/activists
Letters to the Editor
Black History: San Francisco Bay Area Celebrated Amiri’s 75th by Lee Hubbard and Marvin X
Photos by Kamau Amen Ra
Dr. Nigger
Dr. Nigger
Can you cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Can you save my life
without changing my life
Can you dance soft-shoe while
humming those negro tunes
when my white life codes blue
Can you reach inside yourself
beyond the shit we put in you…
past painful moments we put in you…
past despair and hopelessness
we’ve put in you and
find that old black magic in you
to save my life without changing
all the shit we put in you
Dr. Nigger
Can you breathe in me
air free of nigga
from a nigger not free
to breathe in free air
Can you stay on the colored side
of the color line and reach across
without touching me with nigga hands
to restart my blue heart without
changing my cold heart
Can you reach past the life
we’ve taken from you to
save my life and not
let white life pass me by
Dr. Nigger
save my life
without taking my life
Cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Dance soft-shoe while
humming negro tunes
while you save my life
without changing my life
when my white life codes blue
Copyright © 2009 by Neal Hall, M.D.
Hypocrisy of Neo-liberial, pseudo leftist KPFA
Hypocrisy of Neo-liberial, pseudo leftist KPFA Radio
In his letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said he would rather be with the KKK than phony white liberals. The OJay’s told us “They smile in your face but all the time they want to take your place….”—or shall we say keep you in your place!
The arrogance of KPFA’s addiction to white supremacy or the intention to maintain a Jim Crow media is evident in the recent moves to eliminate quality programming, especially such programs as the Morning Show with Amy Allison, Hard Knock Radio with Davey D, Africa Today with Walter Turner and Transitions on Tradition with Greg Bridges. Clearly, to eliminate these shows is tantamount to eliminating the Black presence on this socalled progressive station.
But the supreme irony is how KPFA can eliminate Black shows while simultaneously beg for money by airing its extensive archives of Black social justice activists such as Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz, Martin and Coretta Scott King, James Baldwin, Cornell West, Angela Davis and others. It appears KPFA is squarely in the white supremacy tradition of “You love everything about me but me,” as Paradise tells us in his classic poem. If I may paraphrase, “You love the black voice, you love the black sound, you love the black knowledge, you love the black philosophy—you love everything about me but me!”
Yes, while the station is kicking black programs off the air, it is raising thousands of dollars for the continued pseudo leftist/Zionist programming. How arrogant can you be to think in 2010 only white people are qualified to discuss national and international affairs, or local affairs for that matter?
The American tragedy is that she never asked the descendents of kidnapped and enslaved Africans what they think about the world. We must listen to sick, depraved white people who think they are so damn smart but don’t know shit about the world as former Brazilian president Lula informed his French counterpart. “You blue-eyed people think you are so damn smart but it’s obvious you can’t solve the world’s problems because you are the cause of them.”
And yet you have the never to pimp the voices and wisdom of our ancestors for the benefit of white supremacy. Ishmael Reed is correct, you are the Jim Crow Media and the Nigger Breakers!
--Marvin X
Marvin X released five books in 2010: The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Mythology of Pussy and Dick, toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, I AM OSCAR GRANT, Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yosef; The Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life (Volume II, the Wisdom of Plato Negro). Available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. His Reader’s Theatre recently performed at the San Francisco Theatre Festival. He is the guest editor of Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies.
Academy of da Corner,
14th and Broadway, Oakland
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Final Preview, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, December 2010
Preview #22, Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies, Marvin X, Guest Editor
Deadline 15 November, 2010
Ptah Allah El, Richmond CA
BLACK STUDIES WENT TO COLLEGE
AND NEVER CAME HOME
Black Studies went to college and I miss her
And when she comes home, I will hug and kiss her.
Black went to college and started a strike
Then the Third World Liberation fronted the mic.
Black Studies went to college, became a controversy started
Killed Bunchy Carter.
Black Studies lost her destiny and fate
She changed after 1968.
Black Studies went to college got her BA, MA, and PHD.
Now she petty bourgeoisie.
Black Studies went to college and forgot where she came from
She so damn smart, the community going dumb, dumb, dumb…
Black Studies went to college now she ain’t no good
Forgot all about the hood.
Black Studies went to college and pledged Greek
Now she don’t even speak.
Black Studies went to college and became Afrocentric
So complex, she simplistic.
Black Studies is acting like charades
Too many African costume balls and masquerades.
Black Studies went to college and I miss her
When she comes home, I will hug and kiss her.
Ptah A. Mitchell El M.F.D.
Ptah Mitchell is an educator and poet that is dedicated to keep the legacy of African American intellectuals and artists alive in the 21st Century. Ptah is also the first student to graduate from the University of Poetry, founded by Marvin X. He has written two books, Ghetto Folklore and Tainted Soul.
Shaggy Flores, New York
Negritude
For Pedro Pietri, Tato Laviera, Jesus Papoleto Melendez and Trinidad Sanchez Jr.
We be those Negroes
Born to Slave Hands
Resurrecting forgotten African Gods
When Transplanted to New Lands
Mixing Ebonics
With Splanglish Slang
We be those Negroes
Children of Yoruba y Ibo
Bilingual and Indio
Afro-Caribes
Masters of plantation work
Race mixing
And Orisha Spirit raising
We be those Negroes
Creating Jazz with cats
Named Bird, Dizzy, Duke, and Armstrong
Cubop Bugalu Sal-Soul Searching Journey men
Mongo-Santamaria/Chano Pozo Drum Gods
And Celia Cruz
AZUCAS!
Legends leaving our cultural footprints
On the muddy minds
of the mentally dead
We be those Negroes
Creating Schomburg museums
of Black Studies
In Nuyorican Harlem streets
Where we once dance
during zoot suits riots
to Conga
Maraca
Bata
Break beats
and Palladium Massacres
We be those Negroes
Drawn as Sambos and Jigaboos
By political cartoonist
Who couldn’t erase
The taste of
Africa
From Antillean Culinary
Magicians
Creating miracles
with Curries call SoFritos
We be those Negroes
Younglords
Island Nationalist
Black Panthers
Vieques Activist
Santeros
And Guerreros
Brothers of Garvey
Children of Malcolm
Black Spades
Savage Skulls
Chingalings
And Latin Kings
We be those Negroes
Like Harvard Educated Lawyer
Don Pedro Albizu Campos
Stationed
In all Black regiments
Learning the reality
Of Jim Crow Society
And their gringolandia
Government Race public policies
Calling Bilingual Niggers
Spics
We be those Negroes
Before Sosa
Before Clemente
Before Jackie
Giving Negro league
Baseball legends
A place
Under the sun
to call home
When no one else
Would have them
We be those Negroes
Dancing
Moving
Breaking
Egyptian
Electric Boogalooing
Locking
On concrete jungles
To Cool Herc
Jamaican
Sound Boy Systems
And aerosol
symphony backgrounds
We be those Negroes
Charlie Chasing
Rock Steadying
A dream call Hip-Hop
In Bronx Backyard Boulevards
Between
Casitas and Tenements
With Roaches for Landlords
We be those Negroes
Writing Epics
Like Willie Perdomo testaments
Called “Nigger-Recan Blues”
And Victor Hernandez Cruz
Odes to “African Things”
Hiding our dark skinned
Literary Abuelitas
With Bembas Colora
In places where the Whiteness police
could never find them
We be those Negroes
Denied access to Black Nationalist run
Karenga Kwanza Poetry readings
Because we remind the ignorant
Of the complexity that is their culture
Neither Here nor There
Not quite Brown
Not quite White
We navigate uncharted
Waters
Of Black Identity Boxes
We be those Negroes
Mulatto
We be those Negroes
Criollo
We be those Negroes
Moreno
We be those Negroes
Trigueños
We be those Negroes
Octoroons and Quadroons
We be those Negroes
Cimarrones and Nanny of the Maroons
We be those Negroes
Cienfuegos y Fidel
We be those Negroes
Luis Pales Matos and Aime Cesaire
We be those Negroes
Puentes,
Mirandas,
Riveras,
Colons,
Felicianos,
Lavoes and
Palmieris
We be those Negroes
Judios
Y a veces
Jodios
We be those Negroes
Dominicanos y Cubanos
We be those Negroes
Jaimiquinos y Haitianos
We be those Negroes
Panameños y Borinqueños
We be those Negroes
Seeking freedom from
Irrationality
In an age of Nuclear
Goya Families
And Television
Carbon Copy Clone
Univision/BET/MTV
Slave Children
We be those Negroes
Known by many names
And many deeds
Spoken of in Secret
By African-American
Scholars
In envy during their nightly
Salsa
Dance classes
As they try
To pick up White Girls
We be those Negroes
Caribbean
Negritude
Heroes
Sometimes negating our destiny
But always finding
Peace
In the Darkness
Of Sleep
We be those Negroes
Negroes
We
Be
--Shaggy Flores
Shaggy Flores Nuyorican Massarican Poeta |
Tainted Soul
By T. Ptah Mitchell
Blackbird Press, Berkeley, 2010
Pages.148 , $15.00)
This book is a film script about one of the North American Africans ( NAA's) who hijacked a plane, landed in Cuba, got fronted on by the government, thrown in the dungeon, and politicized with 'los gentes veridad', the unspoken mass of 'Afro-Cubans' who go through the same shit as their fellow NAA's here in America. The reader is exposed to a non-romanticized survey of modern Cuba, as well as the classic contradictions of Pan Afrika and the so called Afrikan Diaspora. Without taking a side in the dynamics of this ongoing dialogue on 'how to struggle and how to win', the author does introduce the reader to a world where you don't have to hop on a plane, risk extradition or even xenophobia, since the perspective and stylistics is really first person even when written from second or even third person.
The screenplay was inspired from a book. Reading the script only makes one want to see the movie.
Michael, the main character, is an average nigga from the local NAA community; one of the lumpen, if you will. He has an idealized notion of revolution and Cuba as a haven for North American revolutionaries based on the social climate, recent events and heresay. His main problem is that he is an affiliate of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and not a member per se, like many in the community who loved and supported the Party but did not follow the ideological and organizational rules to a tee. So Micheal's loyalty to the movement while unquestioned on his part, was questioned by some of his so called comrades. Since he was not part of the 'inner circle' his lines to Cuba are not solid. In fact he might have been led on to do an impossible mission because some of the brothers , doubting Micheal, didn't believe he could pull it off. But when he did pull it off, with little strategy and tactic, no means were provided to support him. He essentially hijacks the plane because he was informed that if he did so, he would be greeted with open arms from the revolutionary Cuban government as an ally against the spread of American imperialism. The problem was that he did not receive authorization and support from the Central Committee of the Party; also, during the hijacking, he made the mistake of jacking a high level undercover agent from Cuba on the plane,who was coming back to Havana to debrief his supreiors.
To Micheal all white people, (except his white ho back in Berkeley of course), were the enemy, so he had no clue that there was another revolutionary on the plane besides him. So by the time the plane landed in Cuba, Cuban did not know whether Micheal was an agent of revolutionary blacks in America, a spy for the American government, since there was no communique between Cuba and the Black Panther Party of this specific activity.
Micheal is thrown in jail after Cuban officials decide that he's an American spy and not a revolutionary and sentences him to 12 years in Havana prison. It is this unknown aspect of Cuban society that for the first time I've seen (save Carlos Moore's book "Castro, the Blacks and Africa") is explored and illustrated, where the parallels of black life in Cuba are similar to black life in the USA. We fill the prisons there, we're dropping out of school there, we're at the bottom of society there. We're labeled as the thugs, criminals and any original social practices we demonstrate become either illegal or subsidized. Sounds familiar?
Here Michael learns from the majority of the Cuban prisoners the harsh reality of Cuban society. The bottom of the slave ship, all these African's from all over the Western Hemisphere, imprisoned for so called 'counterrevolutionary' activities: from attempting to leave Cuba, to criticizing government, etc. But these people never met a real nigga from the USA, and they could not understand why Micheal wanted to come to Cuba so bad, how loud, audacious, courageous and principled he was, even in the face of the Cuban police.
One crucial thing I must say, the ability for Ptah to tell this story and remain objective, authentic and loyal to the audience, with out taking sides requires skill and diplomacy. At times I doubted if this was a 'reactionary' story of a 'revolutionary' story, because so many contradictions come up. Many times I asked myself, do I support Michael smashing on the Cuban government? I mean they have done much to help us Afrikans in America, from medical school, to Assata, Robert F. Williams to Hip Hop. But then I remembered something Kwame Ture (RIP) said to the effect that the principles of socialism and revolution will always remain in tact, it is the human organization we must work on. This informs me that the Revolutionary Government will remain in principle as long as she is honest with herself and accepts criticism from inside as well as from outside. And we must remain vigilant and militant that criticism should be not considered or labeled as 'reactionary' or 'counterproductive'.
Nowadays movies are much like music, if you're promoting revolutionary culture, you'd best have independent means to put out your own art and technology. Kudos to Black Bird Press for putting out the book. As the author says in the introduction, everyone in L.A. has a cousin who is a big shot in Hollywood. So either wait (forever) for some one else to put your movie out for you, or do it your self. Perhaps the more who read Tainted Soul will demand a movie version, as the people demanded a movie that documented one of the most revolutionary acts of modern afrikan history, the liberation of Haiti. A task, that our most ablest of Pan Afrikan artists, Elder Danny Glover so aptly assumed responsibility of.. Tainted Soul in no way compares to a historiography of Haiti, but does contribute to that 'great pan African conversation' and does bring local hood heroes to the forefront of international affairs. Hopefully, we don't have to wait too long for the movie.
--Zulu King
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Amiri Baraka Celebrates Abby Lincoln at Eastside Arts
Amiri Baraka Celebrates Abby Lincoln and Max Roach at Oakland’s Eastside Arts
Amiri Baraka celebrated his relationship with fellow artists, now deceased, Abby Lincoln and Max Roach at Eastside Arts theatre tonight. He was accompanied by the Muziki Roberson band. Marvin X opened the set with a reading of his Parable of the Woman in the Box., from his book Mythology of Pussy and Dick, toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality.
His parable was warmly received. Marvin X told the audience this coming weekend Eastside Arts will present his first play Flowers for the Trashman (1965, San Francisco State University Drama Department production) along with Opal Palmer Adisa’s Bathroom Graffiti Queen, produced, directed and performed by Ayodele Nzingha.
Amiri Baraka’s performance was great as usual although we expected his wife, Amina, to accompany him as vocalist, performing the work of Abby Lincoln, a close friend of the Barakas. Baraka told of her funeral and the repast that lasted until 5am in the morning at a New York jazz club.
Baraka told of his relationship with Abby and legendary drummer Max Roach, and how they were not only artists but would become lovers and husband and wife. He said this was a 60s marriage of power, along with Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, and we must add Amiri and Amina Baraka, Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott, Elijah and Clara Muhammad. Baraka told how these marriages helped solidify the liberation movement. They were, after all, symbols and examples of unity, male/female unity utterly lacking in today’s liberation movement. Baraka said he was shocked when Abby and Max separated.
He recited poetry dedicated to the couple, poems he’d read at both their funerals. The band was with him at every point, accenting his poetic message that included a plethora of his classic poems, backed with the music of Max, Monk, and other jazz legends.
This was a concert of spoken word and music at its highest level, performed by the godfather of the Black Arts Movement, our greatest living revolutionary artist. Those hip hop artists need to stop ego tripping and sit at the feet of the masters. When we produced the Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness Concert at San Francisco State University, we recall how Dr. Cornell West sat patiently for five hours before Marvin X called him to the mike. Cornell then declared, "I don't know if I'm a king or queen because there is so much darkness in my soul...but I'm thankful to be here among so many of the maladjusted to injustice." The maladjusted to injustice included: Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare, Mrs. and Mr. Amina and Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Ishmael Reed, Rev. Cecil Williams, Tarika Lewis, Destiny Muhammad, Rudi Mwongozi, Eddie Gale, Phavia Khujuchagulia, Tureeda Mikell, Kalamu ya Salaam, Elliott Bey, Marvin X, et al.
--Marvin X
11/13/10
Coming Next Weekend to Eastside Arts
Opal Palmer Adisa's Bathroom Graffiti Queen
and
Marvin X's Flowers for the Trashman
playwrights
Marvin X
Opal Palmer Adisa
Ayodele
Nzingha,
producer,
director,
actress
Two Black Plays at Eastside Arts Alliance
We are happy to announce two black plays will be performed at Eastside Arts Alliance: Opal Palmer Adisa's Bathroom Graffiti Queen and Marvin X's classic Flowers for the Trashman. The plays are produced and directed by Ayodele Nzingha, founder of the Lower Bottom Playaz of West Oakland. Ayodele portrays the Queen in this one-woman production that stole the show at the recent San Francisco Theatre Festival at Yerba Buena Center.
Flowers for the Trashman is Marvin X's first play, produced in 1965 by the drama department at San Francisco State University while he was an undergrad. It is a timeless story of the father-son relationship. It is a classic of the Black Arts Movement and was published in Black Fire, the anthology of BAM, edited by Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka, 1968.
These two plays will provide an evening of powerful theatre by two of the Bay Area's greatest writers, Opal Palmer and Marvin X. Ayodele's role will give the audience a chance to see a great actress deliver a high quality performance. The young brothers in Trashman are equally skilled after performing the play for some time. It is refreshing to see young men doing something positive.
The Eastside Arts Alliance is located at 23rd and International Blvd., Oakland. Dates: November 19.20,21, donation $5.00. 8pm.