Marvin X.mov

Happy Birthday, Dr. Huey P. Newton

Happy Birthday, Huey P. Newton

As we celebrate Black History Month, it is important to note the importance of self-study on the part of students at Oakland's Merritt College prior to the establishment of the Black Panther Party by my Merritt College comrades Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. We had off campus study groups to decolonize our consciousness of white supremacy. These study groups were independent and not connected with Merritt College. There was no black studies so we had to study on our own, although there were white professors who gave us an inkling of Black History, but most of our knowledge was gained independently. This is the lesson for students of today, even those majoring in black studies since such courses can be watered down, diluted and polluted by reactionary tenured professors who are part of the colonial elite of state intellectuals allowed to give a revisionist history of our history and struggle.

Some of the books we read on our own and discussed in independent study groups are the following:

Black Bourgeoisie, E. Franklin Frazier
Facing Mount Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta
Wretched of the East, Franz Fanon
History Will Absolve Me, Fidel Castro
Neocolonialism, the last stage of Imperialism, Kwame Nkrumah
Negro Slave Revolts, Herbert Apteker
Myth of the Negro Past, Melville J. Herskivits

--Marvin X
2/17/11



Black History Month: Remembering Huey P Newton
Posted: February 17, 2011 by Davey D in 2011 Daily News

Today February 17th 2011 is the birthday of Huey P Newton-co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense..Since its Black History month we figured it be good o give folks some insight on who Huey was and who the Panthers were.. Below are some clips that give some insight.. Here's a bio on Huey…

Huey Newton, the youngest of seven children, was born in Monroe, on 17th February, 1942. His father, who named his son after the radical politcian, Huey P. Long, was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

At Merritt College in Oakland, California, Newton met Bobby Seale and in 1966 they formed the Black Panther Party. Initially established to protect local communities from police brutality and racism, it eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group. The Black Panthers also ran medical clinics and provided free food to school children. Other important members included Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Fred Hampton, Bobby Hutton andEldridge Cleaver.

The activities of the Black Panthers came to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Hoover described the Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country" and in November 1968 ordered the FBI to employ "hard-hitting counter-intelligence measures to cripple the Black Panthers".

The Black Panthers had chapters in several major cities and had a membership of over 2,000. Harassed by the police, members became involved in several shoot-outs. This included an exchange of fire between Panthers and the police at Oakland on 28th October, 1967. Newton was wounded and while in hospital was charged with killing a police officer. The following year he was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter.

After being released from prison Newton renounced political violence. Over a six year period 24 Black Panthers had been killed in gun fights with the police. Another member, George Jackson, was killed while in San Quentin prison in August, 1971.

Newton now concentrated on socialist community programs including free breakfasts for children, free medical clinics and helping the homeless. The Panthers also became involved in conventional politics and in 1973 Bobby Seale ran for mayor of Oakland and came second out of nine candidates with 43,710 votes (40 per cent of votes cast).

Newton published his book, Revolutionary Suicide in 1973. The following year he was arrested and charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Released on bail, Newton fled to Cuba but in 1977 he returned to the United States and was freed after two hung juries.

Newton returned to his studies at the University of California and in 1980 he received a Ph.D. in social philosophy. His dissertation was entitled:War Against the Panthers: A Study in Repression in America. Huey Newton was shot dead on 22nd August, 1989, while walking along a street in Oakland.

courtesy of http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAnewtonH.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhTD1CY1COs&playnext=1&list=PL0B8A60B9092950FA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuU7bEqKcLk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ypqCYPduI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oIWjbhZI-A&feature=related

Bay Area Black Authors March for Chauncey Bailey

Bay Area Black Authors Meet and March for Chauncey Bailey
Saturday, February 19, 2011,
at the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival
and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair
at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street,
downtown Oakland, Noon til 6pm
Admission Free
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

http://blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com/

The Bay Area Black Authors Black Bailey Project will march in his honor to the site of his assassination by a conspiracy of the OPD on Saturday, Feb 19, Noon til 6pm, during the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, downtown Oakland. The BABA Black Bailey Project says the media, especially the Chauncey Bailey Project, has focused on the Black Muslim Bakery brothers, but BABA agrees with what James Baldwin said on the assassination of Malcolm X, "The hand that pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullets!"

BABA's Black Bailey Project wants to investigate the real reasons Chauncey was killed, not the phony reasons the CBP has disseminated in the media, focusing solely on the BMB brothers. Why would he be killed for investigating what was public information, the bankruptcy proceedings of the BMB? Why and how were the BMB brothers brainwashed into believing that the man who was their father's longtime friend and colleague at Soulbeat Television, was suddenly the mortal enemy of his sons?

Bay Area Black Authors will publish an anthology of their writings on the assassination of Chauncey Bailey, one of the very few journalists killed in American history. Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb says, "Chauncey was our soul, blood and bones. And we take authority on the matter of facts concerning his assassination. We are taking authority on his legacy to our community and the world.We do not accept the OPD's, the DA's, the CBP's explanation of his cold blooded murder." Marvin X concurs, "We think the BMB brothers were used as patsies by the OPD, just as the kidnappers of Patty Hurst brainwashed her and turned her into a revolutionary named Tanya. The OPD mentored the BMB brothers into doing devious acts, reminding us of Iago's tipping the scales of Othello's mind to make him kill his beloved wife Desdemona in Shakespeare's classic drama.

And then the media concurs with the conspiracy to make millions off the blood and bones of Chauncey Bailey. The Bay Area Black Authors and the Post Newspaper Group ask for an accounting of how much money the CBP has received and want an equal share of any future monies derived in his behalf. BABA and the PNG will establish a fund for the future education of Chauncey's son and a trust fund for BABA. Royalties from the forthcoming anthology by BABA will be divided between the two. BABA and PNG want to know how many million were received in the name of Chaucey by the Chauncey Bailey Project, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and the Robert Maynard Foundation?

The March by Bay Area Black Authors may include a stop at the 6th floor of the Tribune building where Chauncey worked before he was fired for frivolous reasons. According to reports, he was fired because then Mayor Jerry Brown said he was going to stop that nigger from snooping around city hall and the OPD. Thus, the real reason Chauncey was smoked was his investigation of City Hall corruption and corruption at the OPD. There are witnesses willing to testify that the same officer who mentored the BMB brothers was part of a Black OPD shakedown squad, similar to the Riders, who robbed dope dealers, planted false evidence and conducted false arrests.

Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair Program

12 Noon
Social/refreshments

1p.m. Open Mike

2.p.m. Authors Speak

2:30pm Walk for Chauncey to 14th and Alice

3:30pm

Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival

The primary purpose of the Poetry festival and book fair is have the community purchase books from local authors for donation to juvenile hall, country jail and prisons. The Post News Paper Group has pledged $1,500.00. The Center of Hope Church has pledged $2,000.00, including producing a forum at their church so youth can meet authors to gain a better appreciation of literature.

Men Who Read Books in Prison

Men Who Read Books in Prison and transformed their lives

This Saturday, the Journal of Pan African Studies and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair will have Bay Area Black Authors selling books that will be donated to juvenile hall, county jail and prisons, also after school programs. The public is invited to attend to help decrease illiteracy and promote literature as a tool of transformation in the lives of incarcerated men and women.

Festival organizer, author, poet, activist Marvin X says, "Many imprisoned brothers write to me for books. And I don't mind sending books because they have come by Academy of da Corner and told me books have transformed their lives. Ideally, I wish they would, as Paul Cobb says, crack a book before they are booked for Crack.

FYI, the American prison movement began at Soledad Prison's Black Culture Club that championed reading conscious literature. Eldridge Cleaver was a member of that club, along with Alprentis Bunchy Carter, both became radical activists upon their release, joining the Black Panther Party. George Jackson was a petty criminal before incarceration but became self educated from books. The author of Soledad Brother, he is regarded as the messiah of the prison movement. Books elevated his consciousness.

My brother, Ollie, a lifelong criminal, said he was never the same after reading John Hope Franklin's From Slavery to Freedom. We know Tookie Williams gave up the gang life and after reading began a writing career that got him nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature. The world knows how books changed the life of Malcolm Little, the man who became Malcolm X after reading.

The short time I spent in prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam, I read. One of my friends at the federal prison made an announcement to the brothers, "Listen up, brothers, if you want a book on any subject come to Marvin X's locker. He's got books on every subject!"

The Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair is Saturday,
February 19, Noon til 6pm. Admission free. The will be an open mike/speak out, along with music, exhibits and performance by the Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre.

Program

12 Noon
Social/refreshments/music

1pm
Walk for Chauncey Bailey
2pm
Open Mike
3pm
Authors speak
3:30
Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Reading & Reader's Theatre

Participants: Jerri Lange, Michael Lange, Al Young, devorah major, Geoffrey Grier, Ptah Allah El, Eugene Allen, Renaldo Ricketts, Anthony Spires, Paradise Jah Love, Tureadah Mikell, Ramal Lamar, Hunia Bradley, Alona Clifton, Mechelle LaChaux, Timothy Reed, Fritz Pointer, Aries Jordan, Phavia Kujichagulia, Ayodele Nzingha, Itibari M. Zulu, Niyah X, Maisha, Cecil Brown, Marvin X. Music by Kwic Time, Augusta Collins, Rashidah Sabreen.

Sponsors: Post Newspaper Group, Black Bird Press, Journal of Pan African Studies, Academy of da Corner, Hug a Thug Book Club, It's About Time, East Side Arts, Kakakiki Slave System, San Francisco Recovery Theatre, Lower Bottom Playaz, Oakland Local, Black Hour, Black Dialogue Brothers, San Francisco State University Ethnic Studies Department. email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

That Old Black Magic: Black Arts West

That Old Black Magic: Black Arts West

On Saturday, February 19, Noon til, something exciting will happen at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street at Franklin, downtown Oakland. Something magical will occur when the poets and writers hit the mike. Earthquake, tsunami , hurricane, all of the above and more, for in the beginning was the word and the word was God. Thus when the poets gather, especially the conscious poets, just know a balm in Gilead is about to be dispensed, a balm of conscious literature by some of the most powerful poets and writers in the world.

As Guest Editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, Marvin X made it his duty to collect material from the most powerful poets in the world, and most especially from the Bay Area. Without question, they are top of the line: Al Young, devorah major, Ayodele Nzingha, Tureada Mikell, Phavia Kujichagulia, Fritz Pointer, Itibari M. Zulu, Ptah Allah El, are about the business of spreading consciousness in the land.

You will hear them and many more, young and old, who will spit truth to the winds for radical change. Can you spare some change, Ptah asks. Marvin X asks can you change? Al Young reminds us of Emmitt Till. Fritz Pointer recalls how Oakland responded to the killing of four OPD officers, sadly, he says the oppressed masses experienced an obscene pride after years of abuse under the color of law.

Phavia describes a human race to the finish line. Ayo asks how will she be remembered and reasons, reasons.... Paradise Jah Love tells us they love everything about us but us! Jerri Lange shares her narrative of a black woman's life in the media.

Just a few of the tales that will be told on Saturday at the Joyce Gordon Gallery poetry festival and book fair. The event will benefit the incarcerated. Books will be purchased for donation to juvenile hall, the country jail and local prisons.

You can support this project by attending and purchasing books written by local authors. You should support them whether you have heard of them or not. They are the continuation of the Black Arts Movement of the 60s, that originated here in the Bay Area as well as on the east coast, midwest and south. But the Bay Area was special since the predominate poetry journals and magazines of consciousness were published here, namely the Journal of Black Poetry, Black Dialogue and Soulbook, three of the most radical journals of the time. The Journal of Pan African Studies continues the tradition online. It receives over 14,000 hits per month. Itibari M. Zulu is the Senior Editor.

Poetry, music, parables, dance, and more will be part of the celebration on Saturday. The event is supported by the Post Newspaper Group, Bay Area Black Authors, Journal of Pan African Studies, School of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University, Kakakiki Slave System, Oakland Local, Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre, Black Bird Press, Eastside Arts, It's About Time, Black Hour, San Francisco Recovery Theatre, Lower Bottom Playaz, Hug a Thug Book Club and Black Dialogue Brothers.

Program

12 Noon

Social, refreshments, book signings

1pm

Walk to 14th and Alice for Chauncey Bailey
Authors Speak

2pm

Open Mike/Speak Out

3pm

Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Reader's Theatre Performance

Music provided by Kwic Time, Augusta Collins, Mechelle LaChaux, Rashidah Sabreen

For more information, email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

Chauncey Bailey Book Fair

Chauncey Didn't Need a Byline

Every writer wants an attribution to his story, a byline. Chauncey Bailey wrote thousands of stories with no byline. It only said California Staff or Sun Reporter Staff or Oakland Post Staff or Oakland Tribune Staff, yet it was all Chauncey Bailey, multiple personality, yet one essential message, truth.
Chauncey, we love you,
Oaktown for the get down!

Chauncey was so bad!
He didn't need a tape recorder
his mind worked
in the tradition
he listened
he looked into your eyes
then told your story
no notes
you could look at Chauncey
interviewing
writing nothingoo
you wonder
what dis nigguh doin
but he got it all
gist of it for sure
that's Chauncey
my man
my brother
I love you Chauncey
I miss you.
--Marvin X
2/12//11

The Reactionaries Will Never Put Down Their Butcher Knives

The Reactionaries will never
put down their butcher knives--Urgent News:
Pharaoh Mubarak flees Cairo, the people triumph!

We have heard the defiance of Pharaoh Mubarak. It is the arrogance of the king who refuses to leave his throne when his time has come, who is blind to the fact that his divinity arises from the consent of the governed. Such hardheadedness is one of those classic tragic flaws so well delineated repeatedly in the plays of William Shakespeare. And yet Diop told us the central theme in African drama is not tragedy but comedy, and for sure Mubarak is the clown and his actions are comedic to the extreme because his words were full of sound and fury but signified nothing except the wisdom of a fool.

The people have decided his fate and they are absolute and resolute that his reign has ended. The only person who is not clear that a new day has dawned is the president himself. Thus, this is a classic African comedy, for in the end we know the people shall triumph. Mubarak is not alone in his intransigence, it is the same performance by the madman in the Ivory Coast who lost the election yet refuses to go. So there are African clowns from the North to the West and all points in between. Yet the comedy is that the people shall triumph, they shall win in the end. All's well that ends well. The tragic elements are the past horrors and the momentary conflagration , the comedic element is the reality of a new tomorrow, a tomorrow that will reconnect the people with their eternal history of glory.

This Egyptian tragi-comedy of obstinacy reveals a personality totally delusional and separated from reality. We know the people shall not be moved, that their will must be done. His benefactors in the West should advise him that the show is over, that there is an airplane awaiting his arrival. And they should advise him to take his vice devil, Omar Suleiman, with him. And on the same plane reserve a space for other reactionaries throughout the region and the world. Mao was right,"The reactionaries will never put down their butcher knives, they will never turn into Buddha heads!"

This tragi-comedy is so very different from the Osirian drama that Egypt originated, and yet it is similar, for it is about change, the annual inundation of the Nile, the harvesting of the corn, the triumph of life over death, yes, we are witnessing a resurrection drama of the first order. It is the self crucifixion of the pseudo savior and the resurrection of a people orchestrated by their children as Horus.
--Marvin X (El Muhajir)
2/10/11

Vendors are welcome to participate in the African Marketplace.

Vendors Welcome to participate in the African Marketplace

The Bay Area Black Authors/Post Newspaper Group
presents
Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and Chauncey Bailey Book Fair

Vendor table $50.00, must bring own table
Contact Marvin X at jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Joyce Gordon Gallery 406 14th Street at Franklin
downtown Oakland
Noon til 6pm


Participating authors, poets, readers
Al Young
Tureeda Mikell
Phavia Kujichagulia
devorah major
Cecil Brown
Alona Clifton
Rashidah Sabreen
Augusta Collins
Anthony Spires
Paradise Jah Love
Ptah Allah El
Jerri Lange
Michael Lange
Eugene Allen
Renaldo Ricketts
Geoffrey Grier
Ramal Lamar
Hunia Bradley
Mechelle LaChaux
Timothy Reed
Ayodele Nzingha
Itibari M. Zulu
Ed Howard
Fritz Pointer
Niyah X
Maisha
Kwan Booth
Marvin X
Kwic Time
Earl Davis
Noon
Book Fair
1pm
Open Mike
2pm
Authors Speak
3pm
Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Reading

Sponsors: Post Newspaper Group, Black Bird Press, Journal of Pan African Studies,
Ethnic Studies Department, San Francisco State University, Oakland Local,
Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre, SF Recovery Theatre, Lower Bottom Playaz,
It's About Time, Eastside Arts, Greg Bridges, Davey D, KPFA, KPOO, Hug A Thug Book Club,
Black Dialogue Brothers, Kakakiki Slave System, Black Hour, Black Women Organized for Political Action

The Poetic Mission

The Poetic Mission: A forum on the poet and the poetic mission

by Rudolph Lewis, editor

http://www.nathanielturner.com/


Overview

Recently (24 January 2009), Marvin X, a well known writer and one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) sent out by email a provocative piece titled "Poetic Mission." On the surface the concern was the controversial investigation of the murder of the Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey. But "Poetic Mission" goes farther and makes an argument about the role of the poet and poetry.

Here are excerpts from Marvin X's "Poetic Mission":

The mission of the poet is to express the mind of a people, a culture, a civilization. He extends the myths and rituals, taking them to the outer limits like a Coltrane or Eric Dolphy tune, stretching, transcending all that is, was and will be. His tool is language, from which he cannot be limited by political correction or submission to the culture police on the left or the right. The poet is a healer in the time of sickness, inspiring wholeness and celebrating the positive. He must point out contradictions and lies. . . . The poet's mission was well defined in Mao's classic essay Talks on Art and Literature at Yenen Forum. The poet is either part of the problem or part of the solution—is he with the oppressor or the oppressed? Or we can recall the words of ancestor Paul Robeson, "The artist must become a freedom fighter." For whom does he write? Does he write to satisfy Pharaoh and his minions, or is his mission to liberate the suffering masses from ignorance, although he should never consider himself superior, since the teacher always learns from his students. If he listens, the poets will come to know the pain and trauma of his people and his duty is to relieve the pain and trauma with visions, plans and programs for the collective good. Healing words can start the prairie fire. The poetic challenge is to take people to new vistas of consciousness that reveal the soul, individual and communal, which are one. Language is a communal experience that is not the property of the poet. He can add to it with his imagination, but is there imagination without myth-ritual? What is the source of imagery except the collective myth of a culture or civilization. In time of struggle and crisis, the poet must become a propagandist who whips defeat into victory, sadness into joy. Truth is paramount—there are lives at stake, hence this is no game, no job for money, no position for public adoration, no ego trip. Call it revolution, change of the most radical form.

--Marvin X, "Poetic Mission."

Reading Marvin's "Poetic Mission" provoked a slew of questions, which I emailed to him and others in my address book. Poets Jerry Ward, Jr., Mary Weems, and C. Liegh McInnis (with a poem) responded. Marvin responded to a number of my questions, directly. Below I will I place them in a Q & A format. After which, I will present the other responses.

Rudy: Maybe the subject should be "poetic missions." The heart of the problem for the poet is to discover what is the Mission, isn't it, if there is such a thing?

Marvin: Everyone, whether poet, scientist, lover, street sweeper, dope fiend, must ultimately define his/her life’s mission or purpose. This is why brother Ptah suggested and I included the 13th Step in my How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. What is the mission of the poet—words can kill or heal. Sonia Sanchez says, “Will your book free us?” Apparently not since the stores are full of black books and we still ain’t free. The dope fiend must come to understand recovery is only a step—once clean and sober then what? Only to sit in meetings claiming sobriety while still drunk on recovery—so after recovery, then discovery of one’s mission. Remember that Nancy Wilson song, “I Never Been to Me”? So we can be poet, mother, wife, husband, yet never discover our true mission in life, and even when we discover our mission, we may be too fearful to execute it.

Rudy: Is the audience "the people" or is it the poet's sense of the people? Or is the poet's audience, his choir? Is the poet really a "truth sayer"?

Marvin: The people are real live people who we should encounter in their/our daily round, thus we hear their cries if we listen, for they will tell us all, if we listen. It is not some echo in our head, life is beyond imagination (the poet’s sense of the people). They will tell you their joy and suffering as they have told me while I was “selling Obama T shirts. The “people” told me again and again the ritual they planned for inauguration day, they told me their joy and happiness, no matter what intellectuals think. So it is my job to express their joy in this world of sadness and dread. It was the same with the murder of Oscar Grant. The people told me of losing their loved ones to homicide, yet received no attention because it was a black on black crime. They said even the police showed no real concern. Thus we must be guilty of selective suffering. If a white man kills us, we protest. When we kill us, nothing happens. The murderer still walks the streets and everybody knows he’s the killer, but we say nothing out of fear, so families suffer grief and trauma alone, in silence. These people are not some abstraction, some imaginary sense of the people, not his choir. The poet is either about truth or he is about lies, the choice is his.

Rudy: Does not the poet often obfuscate (or exaggerate) the truth, maybe for good reasons, maybe for awful consequences? I suspect that neither poems nor poets have a special Mission. It is a romantic notion that has outlived its times.
Marvin: All art is exaggeration. What is music but the exaggeration of natural sounds, birds, bees, water, wind, rain, thunder. The poet often takes poetic license with events, especially for dramatic effect. The poet, the musician, the painter must decide to join the revolution, as they did during the 60s and earlier, throughout time. This is not a romantic notion. How can the conscious poet ignore the suffering of his people when he sees they are ignorant, suffering poverty and disease? The poet must decide to aid them or leave them alone and praise the king, pharaoh or whomever he decides to clown for, shuffle and dance. For thousands of years the poetic mission has been to cry for freedom and justice. We know the source of art for art’s sake—simply art of the master class, the rulers and oppressors who pass by the man on the roadside, robbed and half dead.

Rudy: Poems can be sledge hammers (hurtful) or they can be subtle (very subtle), like Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem, Praise song for the day? Which ones indeed carry more truth? Which ones are more effective in getting us where we want to go?

Marvin: As is well known, my style is the sledge hammer (Kalamu ya Salaam) or to write with venom (Dr. Julia Hare--although I say it's the anti-toxin, full strength!). The youth on the streets of Oakland who read my books say, “You’re very blunt.” Indeed, it is a style reflecting my lifestyle (you’re too rough to be a pimp, said a prostitute). And yet I am in awe of the feminine style. It is so gentle, subtle, smooth like a razor cutting to the heart. I am amazed at the feminine approach or style, especially in writing. But Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem was too soft for me, bored me to tears. Alice Walker’s as well. Now the poetic message from Rev. Lowery was great. It moved the soul, my soul, it had the language of the people, not that academic bullshit language of Alexander’s. See my “A Day We Never Thought” on the inauguration. But all these poems are a matter of style, not truth. Some like it soft, some like it hard. Some like Miller Lite, some like OLE English 800. We can get to the truth many ways, just get there.
Rudy:Is poetry the same as propaganda, which some associate with out right lies and distortions? How do we reconcile the two?

Marvin: All art is propaganda of one class or another, one group or another. Alexander’s poem is bourgeoisie art to me. Would I be allowed to read my poems on such an occasion? The bourgeoisie runs from me on sight, no need to say boo. Although the Oakland Post Newspaper claimed they were going to run “A Day We Never Thought.” I did not try to be the sledge hammer with this poem. I wanted to express the joy of the ancestors, the living and the yet unborn. Oh, Happy Day. Finally, the poet is not limited to one approach. He is able to don the feminine persona when necessary. It is his duty to know the spirit of male and female, and the non-gender of the spirit world?
Rudy: As you know many of the poems of the BAM period are relics and say more abut the mindset of the period or the poet, for instance, some of the poems of Nikki Giovanni or poems of Sonia Sanchez. The poets themselves might argue that they are not relevant for today. Or they would denounce or apologize for them as the expression of youth, and not really the Truth.

Marvin: The mission of the Black Arts Movement was truth. There is still truth in the BAM poems, yes, forty years later. There is truth in Baraka’s Toilet, Dutchman, and the poems of Nikki and Sonia. Yes, these poets might say their poems are not relevant but they are not truthful. The Dutchman is real. “If Bessie Smith had killed some white people, she wouldn’t need to sing the blues. She could have talked very straight and plain about the world—no metaphor, no innuendo….” And Sonia’s lines are still relevant even if she finds them distasteful, such as “What a white woman got cept her white pussy?” Are the above words youth or truth? Of course time causes a maturation of thought. All the things I thought at twenty, some of them I no longer think, but there is still much truth in my early writings. Khalid Muhammad used to tell me to hell with my current writings, he loved my early books such as Fly To Allah and Woman, Man’s Best Friend. These are the books that awakened his consciousness, he told me more than once. Baraka, the man who taught me how to say motherfucker, now objects the use of the term, except in a moment of passion. As for myself, all words are holy and sacred, none are obscene. What is obscene, saying motherfucker or actually fucking your mother, sister, daughter, son? There are those persons here in the Bay who object to my language, yet they have been indicted for incest and child molestation. Simply because these/us BAM poets have reached old age does not negate the truth of our early writings. Of course the rappers took our language to another level that may indeed transcend truth for pussy and dick nonsense.

Rudy: Is poetry not also a personal statement that says more about the person at the time of writing, than it does the Truth? Take for instance your poem in response to the slaughter in Gaza.

Marvin: My poem “Who Are These Jews” is basic truth. And if it’s true for me, it’s true for you. But the essence of the poem was said by Jesus 2000 years ago, John 8:44. Was Jesus lying then, am I lying now? At what point do we come out of denial and admit we got some devils up in here? Why should Hamas recognize the existence of Israel, does Israel recognize the existence of Hamas, the democratic victory of Hamas?

Rudy: How do the "people" really know when the poem or the poet has really failed to speak to the real needs of the people?

Marvin: Are the people deaf, dumb and blind? Have you not read a poem or book that changed your life? The people tell me all the time my writings transform their lives. Truth transforms, lies do not, not for the better. Lies lead to destruction, truth to construction of people and society.

Responses



Jerry Ward



THE TRUTH is not an entity but a conflicted set of conditions, phenomena which our human minds might envision or speculate about but never fully grasp. In that sense, poetry seeks to represent an insight about a truth. What is made of a truth in a poem varies among readers and most certainly between different generations of readers, particularly if the poem is topical. You are right in suggesting that we ought to talk about the missions of poetry. When I write a poem, I do have a mission in my head, but my readers may or may not perceive what that mission was intended to be or to do. Knowing that poems have both limits and unforeseen consequences, I believe my work is designed to move readers to have fresh thoughts. The act of reading a poem involves change, of course, but whether the reader gets the point is a matter of chance.—Jerry *





Mary Weems

Poetry is an art and like all art its success/impact/power is up to the interpretation of each audience member who engages it. What constitutes a good poem or a powerful poem or a truth telling poem varies based upon interpretation . . . there is no one meaning, no one way of expressing whatever inspires a poet to write. Also, poets write for a variety of purposes . . . some, like me (Harlem Renaissance poets, Black Arts Movement Poets, Socially conscious Spoken Word artists), use our poetic voices most often as political acts to speak out against the injustices of the day, to speak truth to power—historically, this is one of the reasons many poets have been considered dangerous to various power regimes resulting in imprisonment, exile, and censorship. Some poets believe the role of the poet is to make the mundane memorable, to record various degrees of beauty based upon their interpretation of what that is, to describe the world they are living in for future generations, without regard for politics, protest, or social justice. Some poets believe it's all about performance, giving the audience what they want to hear for popularity purposes, to win Slam poetry competitions. Some poets are introspective to the point of confessing, zeroing in on their personal trials, tribulations, and successes. I am not one to publicly dis a poet because a poem that says nothing or little to me, could mean the world to someone else who is able to step inside the poem and make meaning based upon the experiences they bring to what the poet has written. A poem that doesn't make me feel anything, though it may be technically flawless, is not a good poem to me, but— There is no one way to be a poet, there is no one purpose, there's only folks who have a gift for metaphor, simile, rhyme, rhythm, imagery, trope, allegory, for seeing the world through a particular lens—doing our best to do what we do because we have to . . . Mary

“What Good Are Poems?”

By C. Liegh McInnis




Can a poem be as affective as a .357?
Can the images of a poem spray buck shot holes
into the body of a greenback stuffed sheet wearing shoat?
Can a poem be thrown as a brick through the window of a grocery store
so that we may pillage and plunder its shelves for food for the hungry?
Can a poem be laid on top of a poem, be laid on top of a poem,
be laid on top of a poem until we have built a shelter for the homeless?
Does a poem need a million dollar war chest or a foundation grant
to be mightier than the sword?
What good does a poem do a spoiled, bloated belly?
Can a poem clothe the naked? Can a poem improve an ACT score?
Can a poem pay the rent?
Can poems assassinate Negro turncoats
who have sold their souls to racist rags?
Can poems cut short the lives of serpentine superintendents
who slyly suffocate African babies in Euro-excrement
disguised as Caucasian curriculums?
Poems are the sperms of revolution.
We need poets to stop adding extra syrup and saccharine
to their sonnets so as to appease the pale palates of people
who have not the stomach for the truth.
We need poets to stop masturbating away their talents into literary napkins.
We need poets to start impregnating thoughts of Black magnolias
bursting through white cement into the minds of Raven virgin souls
who without it toil in the reproductive process of self-aversion.
Poems are the sperms of revolution.
Are you making love to your people, or are you fornicating away your existence?

from Da Black Book of Linguistic Liberation

Haqq Shabazz, Man ona Move

Haqq Shabazz, Man ona Move

Haqq Shabazz has his life in order: faith, family and work. His faith is Islam, yes, he prays five times a day. He's been married 35 years to wife Beverly. They have one child, Brea, an honor student at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, an aspiring dancer/singer who hopes to be another light of creativity in the Bay.

Her father is a music producer who has worked with the late Tupac Shakur, East Oakland's Too Short and jazz artist JLP. Born in and raised in Oakland, he graduated from Oakland Tech and attended San Francisco State University. He comes from a musical background. His mother, Constance Hewitt, is half sister of Mary Wilson of The Supremes who toured with the Motown Review.

As a child, he spent time behind scenes accompanying his mother on road trips and tours. He learned a lot about the music business through these experiences. Working with Tupac allowed Shabazz to connect with Inner Scope Records in the early 90's. He started his own label Ham-A-Lot Records and later Lock Records which produced compilations generating sales across the nation.

Currently Shabazz is the CEO and founder of Village Life Entertainment5. Village Life Entertainment 5 LLC is a Mind Seed Label which has Sony distribution. VLE5 currently has four main artist and signing more. Some of the artist are Jazz JLP, Rap J-Loc and R&B Dancer, Brea Nicole Shabazz.

With several prior successful business ventures, he is looking forward to acquiring Mindseed Records, owned by his mentors, Edwin and Joann Anderson. Mindseed has the multi-media equipment necessary for the Digital Age. When he first met Ed and Joann, he listened to Ed for three and a half hours, getting the full scope on the record business. Ed is known for his loquaciousness , but he is also known as a Renaissance Man well versed on a variety of subjects. His studio is top of the line multimedia, video and audio recording. Acquiring Mindseed will take Shabazz to the next level.

Shabazz's other dream is to unify California rappers and entertainers, teaching them how to network rather than ego trip, how to be independent of the mega record companies who exploit them royally. He wants to give them tips on how to upgrade their business acumen to take full advantage of the new technology so they can transcend selling from the trunk of their cars.

Marvin X and Bay Area Black Authors Meet

Marvin X and Bay Area Black Authors Poetry Festival and Book Fair









Marvin X autographs book. He wrote eight last year. photo by Gene Hazzard




Marvin X is a man of many names and talents. He's known variously as Marvin Ellis Jackmon, Marvin X, El Muhajir, Jeremiah, Rumi, Plato Negro, the Sledgehammer, Human Earthquake,and Senior Citizen General. His talents include poet, playwright, essayist, publisher, editor, director, producer, promoter, professor, community organizer. Last year he published eight books, making him one of the most prolific authors in the world. The Last Poets, his friends from the Black Arts Movement of the 60s, say, "Marvin X writes a book a month." He wrote his memoir of Eldridge Cleaver in three weeks, daily sharing each chapter with his online readers.

When he's not writing, he dons the persona of Plato Negro, teaching at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway. "If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money on workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland, " says fellow Oakland writer Ishmael Reed.
"Marvin's play One Day in the Life (about his addiction and recovery) is the most powerful drama I've seen." His Reader's Theatre performed selections from his book The Wisdom of Plato Negro at the San Francisco Theatre Festival. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Marvin performed at Yoshi's San Francisco with fellow poet Amiri Baraka and Roscoe Mitchell of the Chicago Arts Ensemble.


On Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm, the Senior Citizen General brings his troop of Bay Area Black Authors, poets, actors and readers to the Joyce Gordon Gallery for a poetry festival and book fair. He recently edited the poetry issue of the Journal of Pan African Studies, an online journal featuring writing from throughout the Pan African world or Diaspora.

The poetry issue is massive, 475 pages of poetry from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, South Korea, New Zealand and throughout the United States. The Bay Area poets in the issue will read at the Poetry Festival/Book Fair, including California poet laureate emeritus Al Young, San Francisco poet laureate emeritus devorah major, Fritz Pointer (brother of the Pointer Sisters and professor emeritus of English at Constra Costa College), Phavia Kujichugulia,
multi-talented musician, poet, historian, among others.

Al Young, California poet laureate emeritus


The Poetry Festival is in honor of Digane Jose Goncalves, editor and publisher of the 60s Bible of Poetry, the Journal of Black Poetry. The Journal of Black Poetry published more poets than any literary magazine in American literature, including the work of Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Amiri Baraka, Last Poets, Haki Madhubuti, Al Young, and Marvin X.

devorah major, San Francisco
poet laureate emeritus,
author









Mutiltalented
Phavia Kujichagulia,
poet/historian, griot





Jerri Lange, author, Jerri, A Black Woman's Life in the Media





















Fritz Pointer, poet, author, professor of English emeritus, Contra Costa College




The Book Fair is in honor of slain Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, a dear friend and colleague of Marvin X. He wants the book fair to be a time of healing for this community. The Post Newspaper Group is co-sponsoring the book fair and will purchase books from 15 selected authors for donation to juvenile hall, the county jail and prisons. We urge the community to support local authors and the incarcerated. Bay Area Black Authors and the Post Newspaper Group are making this an on-going project. Authors include Jerri Lange, author of Jerri, A Black Woman's Life in the Media. Her colleague and now author, Belva Davis is invited.

The event is free but bring some cash to purchase a book basket for the imprisoned. Paul Cobb says, "Crack a book before you are booked for Crack!" This Black History month we recall several men who read books in prison and changed their lives: Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, George Jackson and Tookie Williams.

Marvin X says, "If books can change lives, wouldn't it be cheaper to educate the 2.4 million people in American jails, prisons and juvenile halls, but the slave system needs bodies, they are cannon fodder for the capitalist economy. This book fair will take some of the burden off mothers who come by Academy of da Corner to buy books for imprisoned sons and daughters. Paul Cobb must be congratulated for helping liberate the captives."

Marvin X and former student
Fahizah Alim, Sacramento Bee
writer emeritus. She says,
"His writing is orgasmic!He is the
voice of the black man whose cry
has been muffled by the clank of
prison bars, the explosion of gunfire,
and the loud silence of apathy and
compliance."

The Joyce Gordon Gallery is located at 406 14th Street @ Franklin, downtown Oakland. Call 510-837-5107 for information. Email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.

16 Year Old Girl Confronts Marvin X on Black History

16 Year Old Girl Confronts Marvin X on Black History

photo by
Francisco Barradas



Marvin X was recently confronted by a 16 year old female at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

The poet is known to be abrasive and often practices theatre of assault on those who pass through the crossroads. Like Legba, you may be in trouble crossing Marvin's path. He is eternally helpful, but has been known to be "the sledgehammer" (Kalamu ya Salaam) in his approach.

Dr. Julia Hare says his pen is filled with venom. "If there was ink in his pen one could recover, but there is no recovery from a pen filled with venom."

Essentially his approach is provocative, something he learned from hustling on the streets of New York. "To get a person's attention on the streets of New York you gotta say something raw that will stop them in their tracks. When I used to sell my anti-domestic violence poem on the street in New York, I would ask the people, 'Do you beat your wife?' Surprisingly, after getting their attention, several replied, 'Yes, I beat my wife and she likes it!' Or, 'No, I don't beat my wife, she beats me!"

The other day a young lady came to him at his peripatetic Academy and said she had passed him one day and he said something negative to her about her knowledge of black history, trying to get her to take a leaflet. So she came back to let him know that she was not ignorant of black history because her parents had taught her.

Marvin X, aka Plato Negro teaching on the streets of Oakland (Ishmael Reed designation), was taken aback by her boldness, up in his face, although people are known to give him a piece of their mind, several have threatened to kill him because of his mouth or acidic personality.

He listened to the young lady and was honored to hear she had knowledge of black history. This had happened to him one time before in Philly when he was selling his poster poems on the street. To get the attention of the Philadelphia Negro (W.E.B. DuBois) , he would say, What were you doing, July 4th, 1776, were you in the celebration or on the plantation?" Actually, he was quoting his poster poem about July 4, 1776. A lady came by with her son and hearing the question, her son replied, "We were on the plantation!" The mother told Marvin who stood in shock that her son knew the answer, "We from the South, so we know our black history!"

The Oakland young female told him she had read his now classic pamphlet Mythology of Pussy. She read it with her mother. He asked her what she thought about it? First she said her mother agreed with some parts and some parts she didn't. As for herself, she wished she had read it when she was eight years old instead of sixteen. Marvin told her that he and his friends wished they'd had such a pamphlet to read when they were sixteen because it would have taught them to have a different attitude toward women and themselves, especially with respect to sexuality.

But eight years old? Actually, a mother had come by the Academy a few weeks ago and suggested he write a pamphlet for eight year old girls. Apparently they are having sex, though the mother only said, "Write the pamphlet!"

In truth, the poet was on the phone with a friend who has a child care center. The friend received a call from his wife who runs the center. He said he had to get off the phone to go to a parent conference because two five year old girls were caught having sex with each other.

Another time the friend cut the phone conversation short to go attend another parent conference because a two year old boy was trying to have sex with all the girls at the child care center. And when his Pamper was changed his penis stood straight up and he just smiled!

Plato Negro apologized to the 16 year old for having said anything that offended her. He gave her a leaflet and invited her to attend the poetry festival and book fair on February 19th, Noon til 6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Oakland. We hope you will attend and please bring your children. One purpose of the festival/book fair is to have the community purchase books from local authors for donation to juvenile hall, Santa Rita County Jail and local prisons.

Many of our youth, especially young men, don't read until incarcerated. Some of the men we are studying and honoring this black history did not read until imprisoned: Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, George Jackson, Tookie Williams. Crack a book before you are booked for Crack, says Post Newspaper Group Publisher, Paul Cobb. Author Ptah says, Hug A Thug before the thug hugs you! Ptah will autograph his latest book at the festival/book fair.
--Marvin X
2/7/11



Black History is World History

BEFORE THE EARTH WAS
I WAS
BEFORE TIME WAS
I WAS
YOU FOUND ME NOT LONG AGO
AND CALLED ME LUCY
I WAS FOUR MILLION YEARS OLD
I HAD MY TOOLS BESIDE ME
I AM THE FIRST MAN
CALL ME ADAM
I WALKED THE NILE FROM CONGO TO DELTA
A 4,000 MILE JOG
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY


I LIVED IN THE LAND OF CANAAN
BEFORE ABRAHAM,BEFORE HEBREW WAS BORN
I AM CANAAN, SON OF HAM
I LAUGH AT ARABS AND JEWS
FIGHTING OVER MY LAND
I LIVED IN SABA, SOUTHERN ARABIA
I PLAYED IN THE RED SEA
DWELLED ON THE PERSIAN GULF

I LEFT MY MARK FROM BABYLON TO TIMBUKTU
WHEN BABYLON ACTED A FOOL, THAT WAS ME
I WAS THE FOOL
WHEN BABYLON FELL, THAT WAS ME
I FELL
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY

I WAS THE FIRST EUROPEAN
CALL ME NEGRITO OR GRIMALDI
I WALKED ALONG THE MEDITERRANEAN
FROM SPAIN TO GREECE
OH GREECE!
WHY DID YOU KILL SOCRATES?
WHY DID YOU GIVE HIM THE POISON HEMLOCK?
WHO WERE THE ALIEN GODS HE INTRODUCED
CORRUPTING THE YOUTH OF ATHENS?

THEY WERE MY GODS, BLACK GODS FROM AFRICA
OH, SOCRATES, PLATO AND ARISTOTLE
WHOSE PHILOSOPHY DID YOU TEACH
THAT WAS GREEK TO THE GREEKS?
PYTHAGORAS,WHERE DID YOU LEARN GEOMETRY?
DEMOCRITUS, WHERE DID YOU STUDY ASTRONOMY?
SOLON AND LYCURGUS, WHERE DID YOU STUDY LAW?
IN EGYPT, AND EGYPT IS AFRICA
AND AFRICA IS ME

I AM THE BURNT FACE, THE BLAMELESS ETHIOPIAN
HOMER TOLD YOU ABOUT IN THE ILIAD
HOMER TOLD YOU ABOUT ULYSSES, TOO,
A STORY HE GOT FROM ME.
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY

I AM THE FIRST CHINESE
CHINA HAS MY EYES
I AM THE ABORIGINAL ASIAN
LOOK FOR ME IN VIETNAM,CAMBODIA AND THAILAND
I AN THERE, EVEN TODAY, BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY

I USED TO TRAVEL TO AMERICA
LONG BEFORE COLUMBUS
CAME TO ME ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS
AMERIGO VESPUCCI
ON HIS VOYAGE TO AMERICA
SAW ME IN THE ATLANTIC
RETURNING TO AFRICA

AMERICA WAS MY HOME
BEFORE AZTEC, MAYA, TOLTEC, INCA AND OLMEC
I WAS HERE
I CAME TO PERU 20,OOO YEARS AGO
I FOUNDED MEXICO CITY
SEE MY PYRAMIDS, SEE MY CABEZA COLOSAL
IN VERA CRUZ AND YUCATAN
THAT'S ME
I AM THE MEXICAN
FOR I AM MIXED WITH ALL MEN
AND ALL MEN ARE MIXED WITH ME

I AM THE MOST JUST OF MEN
I AM THE MOST PEACEFUL
WHO LOVES PEACE DAY AND NIGHT

SOMETIMES I LET TYRANTS DEVOUR ME
SOMETIMES PEOPLE FALSELY ACCUSE ME
SOMETIMES PEOPLE CRUCIFY ME
BUT I AM EVER RETURNING
I AM ETERNAL, I AM UNIVERSAL
AFRICA IS MY HOME
ASIA IS MY HOME
AMERICAS IS MY HOME
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY.
--Marvin X
1981

Black History: Four black male youth reading at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway,
Oakland. Photo Gene Hazzard, Oakland Post Newspaper










Marvin X will be at the Bay Area Black Authors and Post Newspaper Group Poetry Festival and Book Fair, Saturday, February 19, Noon til 6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, downtown Oakland. Call 510-837-5107. Email jmarvinx@yahoo.com
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com

Part Two: Why the Chauncey Bailey Book Fair

Part Two: Why the Chauncey Bailey Book Fair







It has come to my attention that there are those in our community who are in need of healing regarding the Chauncey Bailey matter, that there are those who are emotionally challenged as a result of the assassination. Some persons have expressed their dislike for all Muslims as a result, so emotionally challenged they cannot think critically but only emotionally.

Simultaneously, other persons have expressed their dislike of Chauncey Bailey, for one reason or another, as if Chauncey was a perfect man without defect. For all these reasons, I say it is time for us to get a healing so necessary for intellectual advancement and community unity.

Of course, many of us have been brainwashed by the Jim Crow Media (Ishmael Reed term) into accepting the biased, racist propaganda of the Chauncey Bailey Project, a group of journalists who have pimped the Chauncey Bailey story, making millions from media articles and grants for researching his murder. Yet their stories have mainly blamed the Black Muslim Bakery brothers and downplayed the fundamental role of the Oakland Police Department in conspiring to kill Chauncey.

We ask one simple question, how could a man long associated with Dr. Yusef Bey, especially having worked with him at Soulbeat Television for decades, suddenly become the mortal enemy of Dr. Bey's children for possibly writing an article on the bankruptcy proceedings that was public information? The Jim Crow media journalists wrote their stories and were possibly threatened for exposing the dark secrets of Dr. Bey, but they did not suffer assassination.

We must look in the deep structure of the matter for critical understanding. There we see a crucial role of the OPD in mentoring the Bakery brothers to believe Chauncey was their mortal enemy. One is reminded of Shakespeare's Othello wherein the character Iago convinces the Moor Othello that his wife has been unfaithful and the Moor is so convinced that he kills his wife Desdemona and then himself, yet it was all a ruse concocted and conspired by his evil, jealous so-called friend and adviser Iago. The OPD is Iago, the Bakery boys Othello! Chauncey was Desdemona.

We know the more important writing project of Chauncey was investigating corruption in the police department and City Hall under then Mayor Jerry Brown who is reported to have said, "I'm going to stop that nigger from snooping around City Hall and the OPD." Indeed, Chauncey was on to Jerry Brown's gentrification agenda and fraudulent loans and grants for the Ice skating rink, the Fox Theatre and the School of the Arts, among other projects.

As per the OPD, Chauncey was investigating a suspected Black Riders, North American African police officers on the OPD who were shaking down drug dealers, money laundering, planting false evidence and false arrests. Such behavior is a well known tactic in police departments coast to coast and most certainly below our border in Mexico, so why would it be so fantastic to imagine such actions in the OPD?After all, the OPD White Riders were charged with such behavior though found innocent after dubious trials.

Chauncey didn't live to publish his findings and somehow his brother unwittingly released his computer to the Chauncey Bailey project associates, thus we may never know the content of his notes.

Again, we do not claim Chauncey was an angel. He had his foibles. I have recalled how he once reported an off the record conversation with me on his news show. His report upset people at a writer's conference after he broadcast my critical remarks. And though I was angry with Chauncey, I am known to do the same thing.

And so it is time for this community to get a healing. There are Muslims who are hesitant to attend the Chauncey Bailey Book Fair because they feel uncomfortable about how the media has painted the picture of Muslims as killers. Yet how often do we hear suspected murderers called Christian killers?

Be aware of the Jim Crow Media that is determined to create chaos and division in our community. The young men suspected of killing Chauncey are victims just like Chauncey. There is no doubt in my mind that the OPD played a crucial and fundamental role conspiring to take him out.

We need only look at the brutality of police in Egypt to see such debauchery is possible, and imagine that their behavior is paid for with money from America. Imagine, the majority of Oakland's budget goes to the OPD to brutalize and oppress citizens like a foreign occupying army.

Our Constitutional rights of assembly are violated at every turn. Last Friday night a social event was interrupted by the OPD because they received a "report" that a large crowd of black people were on the street. I was standing on the corner of 14th and Franklin with Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb when the OPD arrived. He had to convince them nothing was going on out of order so they departed.

The Bay Area Black Authors shall carry on the tradition established by the Black Press since 1827 with the founding of Freedom's Journal to tell the truth. Indeed, one of the last comments Chauncey said to me was recalling the historical significance of Freedom's Journal that was created while we were deep in the oppression of the American slave system. We honor Chauncey because he was squarely in the tradition of Freedom's Journal, also David Walker's Appeal, 1829.
--Marvin X
2/8/11

All Decolonialism is Successful--the West Doesn't Get It

All Decolonialism is Successful--the West Just Doesn't Get It!

Fanon taught us all decolonialism is successful, i.e., once the colonized man and woman determine freedom is the goal, only death itself can stop them from achieving victory. Today in Egypt we have seen people lying in front of tanks declaring the tanks shall crush them before they will leave Tahrir or Liberation Square if Mubarak doesn't leave first. It is this ineluctable energy and will to be free that must first be implanted in the minds of the stunted men and women seeking freedom from colonialism and neo-colonialism, which are one and the same, for Nkrumah told us neo-colonialism is merely colonialism playing possum, hiding in the shadows, just as America has been doing the past thirty years.

Indeed, the crucial player is not the puppet but the puppet master. He who pays the piper calls the tunes. The Egyptian kleptocracy has ripped off billions of the people's money for their personal consumption. But the greater theft is stealing the soul of a people, to instill them with fear from a brutal regime acting at the request of its master playing possum in the corner, yet calling all the tunes, neutering a people of their birthright to be free. The arrogance of America is overwhelming when we consider their advice on solving matters in Egypt, a nation with ten thousand years of continuous culture and history while America has been on the scene of the world for a few seconds and is the master of modern savagery disguised as civility.

While we focus on Mubarak and his regional kleptocrats of their people's humanity, we shall ultimately come to the realization he was only following orders from America and Israel. How can a president agree to imprison his Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine for Zionism, to deny them food, water, building materials after they suffered a devastating military attack with overwhelming force executed by the Zionists in the last Gaza war of genocide? We need not ask how a Jew can create a concentration camp of 1.4 million people, then systematically slaughter them within it.

The power Mubarak has exercised for three decades, along with similar behavior by his counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and the Persian Gulf, stem directly from the roots of Western White Supremacy. The brutality is the residue of behavior learned from the playbook of the Slave System so well practiced in America, and before America by her European brother, the English, Spanish and French, who perfected such torture, psychosocial and economic rape and robbery.

Thus while we watch the final dance of the puppets, our eyes must follow the strings leading to the puppet master. We must examine his behavior at this hour, his verbal contradictions, hesitations, equivocations. For he is the one really in trouble at the new day dawning before his eyes, before he ever imagined such a day would occur and he would be so utterly unprepared for the new reality that is a challenge to the core of his psyche.

And so he requests a stalling action to delay the people's victory. He calls for stability and most of all no violence, although he paid an annual grant of nearly two billion dollars to maintain a regime with violence, including state murder, torture, robbery and the theft of a nation's soul, the most criminal act of all, to crush the spirit of a people with ten thousand years of history.

The question is thus what shall happen to the master, not the slave. The Slave System can and shall be removed by the very nature of itself. Once the oppressed realizes his conditon and yearns for freedom, the matter is solved, yes, it becomes a life and death affair, and finally, he has no fear of death, for he realizes persecution is worse than slaughter, as the Qur'an teaches.

For the West, the oppressor also is a stunted man or crazed man, drunk on power and domination, a glutton for conspicuous consumption or materialism. He and his minions shall resist and resist but they face a more determined opponent now, one who has regained his mental equilibrium and is thus fearless unto death. The military budget is useless, the bullets harmless, the tear gas a balm in Gilead, the torture chambers a hotel suite in paradise.


Like the suicide bomber, but with a more sane objective that transcends religiosity, the oppressed cannot be persuaded or tricked out of their birthright any longer. They see clearly now that their date with destiny is achievable and within range. This is why all decolonialism is successful once the people are mobilized and unified.

Facing such a formidable people, the Slave System must stand down because the people shall have it no other way. The master naturally wants a gradual dismantling of his apparatus of oppression, after all, it has been great fun this standing on the necks of people with his boots in their backs and up their asses.

But the master is now forced to detox and enter long term recovery from the addiction to White Supremacy. He may need to take in a few of his colonial elites and servants, yes, bring them home to the Motherland with him.

But, alas, even the Motherland is no longer a safe haven because those captured in the domestic Slave System want freedom as well. They shall have a message to the master once it is crystal clear in their minds the master only knows the slave system and is thus incapable of any other arrangement that is fair and equitable, that is true freedom, justice and equality, for no slave system wants to share the wealth, thus it must be taken by the awakened people who vow to sleep no more.

Yes, the Million Man Marchers must return to complete their march, since they left the Washington Mall prematurely, most likely because they were ordered to get out of town before sundown and were not prepared in the manner of their Egyptian brothers and sisters, to achieve liberty or death.

Consequently, the Million Man Marchers have only treaded water since their trip to Washington. It was a feel good session, a necessary brotherhood ritual, but Sun Ra said the Creator got things fixed, if you don't do the right thing you cannot go forward or backward, one is simply stuck, yes, stuck on stupid with Super Glue on our behinds. We must finish the march, like those Civil Rights marchers who had to regroup to cross that bridge into Selma, Alabama.

The victory of Obama was a Pyrrhic victory, hollow and almost useless except for the few opportunists who shall benefit, it was a transformation but not a transaction, proving of no utilitarian value, certainly no economic value since Obama has primarily sought to placate his Wall Street bandits and Global finance benefactors, although he shall offer a few crumbs to the masses around reelection time. He must surely be aware of happenings around the world that may alter his agenda of dispensing kibbles and bits to those suffering the slave system. By 2012, it is quite possible those who suffer the slave system shall have had enough, kafeya, basta ya, nada mas!

"I could have freed more slaves if they had known they were slaves."
--Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her people



--Marvin X
2/8/11