Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Coming Events: Women's History Concert








Coming Events: Women's History Concert

On Saturday, March 19, Bay Area Black Authors and Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre present Women Poets in the Journal of Pan African Studies, Bathroom Graffiti Queen, a drama by Opal Palmer Adisa, produced, directed and starring Ayodele Nzingha of the Lower Bottom Playaz.

The Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre will perform material from the Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables, by Marvin X. Music by Mechelle LaChaux and Rashidah Sabreen.

Women poets performing include: Ayodele Nzingha, Aries Jordon, Phavia Kujichagulia, Tureadah Mikell, devorah major. Readers Theatre cast members are Talibah, Mechelle LaChaux, Hunia Bradley.

Author Timothy Reed and Journalist Jerri Lange will read and discuss their books.

The event will have books available to purchase for donation to juvenile hall, country jail and prison, a project of Bay Area Black Authors, the Post Newspaper Group, Hug A Thug Book Club and Academy of da Corner. jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com. Call
510-8375421. The event is at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, downtown Oakland.
3-6pm.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Call for Papers




Call for Papers:

The Black Chauncey Bailey Project

an anthology of essays on the assassination of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey

Edited by Marvin X, published by Black Bird Press, Bay Area Black Authors and the Post Newspaper Group. Deadline, September, 2011.

We welcome papers, essays, memoirs, opinion, critical reviews, investigative reports, scholarly writings on Chauncey Bailey, who was assassinated in broad daylight on his way to work at 7:30 in the morning.

We invite authors to approach the topic from any angle that transcends the Jim Crow Media's version that he was killed by the Black Muslim Bakery Brothers solely because he was investigating the financial records and sexual behavior of bakery founder, Dr. Yusef Bey.

We welcome investigative writings that also focus on the role of the Oakland Police Department, City Hall under then Mayor Jerry Brown and Mayor Ron Dellums, and possibly other local, state and national politicians.

Papers can address the life and times of Chauncey and his work, especially at the Oakland Tribune, California Voice, Soulbeat Television and as Editor of the Oakland Post.

Another approach can be the unique fact that he is one of the few journalists killed in American history, especially compared with journalists in other countries such as Mexico, Columbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, China and many African nations.

The killing of Chauncey Bailey can be approached historically as it cannot be separated from the killing of black men in the Bay Area and America in general. Why does such killing continue under the color of law? The Black Panther Party began partially in reaction to the police killing of Denzil Dowell in Richmond, California. Because the OPD is yet to be charged in the assassination, doesn't absolve them of conspiracy in the matter. Their officers may yet be indicted, most certainly in the court of people's justice.

Length should be one thousand to two thousand words, but there can be exceptions. The proceeds from this anthology will go to a trust fund for Chauncey's son and Bay Area Authors. Writers will be compensated for their submission.


We invite you to submit your manuscript as a MS Word attachment to jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

Best Regards,

Marvin X, Editor






















































































































































Maze - Joy and Pain

Malcolm X


O, Malcolm X

We love you
ain't did nothing you said
yet the chickens home to roost
me being a country boy
makes me glad
like you said
but what now
chickens home
will we go into the coop
get the golden eggs
stand up on the real
even lay down for the cause
in front of tanks, guns, tear gas
like the Egyptians
we know you smilin
bout Egyptians
but ain't we Egyptians too
Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists
Sun Ra said
We remember you in Egypt
camel riding
praying in the Majed
we remember
we love you.
--Marvin X
2/21/11

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Exiled Black Panther Field Marshall Don Cox Makes Transition


Exiled Black Panther Field Marshall Don Cox Makes Transition in France

For DC

Let us push forward in the wind
fly on freedom's wings
he could not come home
so the world was his home
mighty warrior
leader in battle
we love you DC.
We shall see you again
in the wind.
--mx

from Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice Poems, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, late 2011.


DC and son in France
He was Field Marshall of the Black Panthers and wanted for murder in the USA. DC was in charge of the Panther military.


Upon his transition, his wife Barbara, who lives in Philadelphia, issued the following statement:
I received a call this morning that D.C., aka Donald L Cox, has made his transition to the ancestral grounds.
Brother DC was 74 years of age. born april 16, 1936. Passed on February 19, 2011. He will be cremated and his ashes spread around his home in france and some brought back to California and the Bay Area.
I will be leaving for France on Wednesday the 23 and staying for a month to clean up his business or whatever needs to be done.
I can be reached by my email barbaracoxeasley@aol.com or don's phone at 01133468698308...Femember france is 6 hours ahead of eastern standard time.
He passed in sleep of unknown causes. He had just been out in his garden the day before, preparing the ground for spring. His children and grandchildren were preparing to spend time with him in 2012....it is not to be.

His wife,barbara easley cox(BC), had just spend last summer with him and his daughter, kimberly, was there in october. They are both thankful for the memories.

Barbara

Friday, February 18, 2011

Pharoah, American, Let My People Go!


Let My People Go!

I do not care who you are, kings for life, presidents for life, let my people go! I don't care if you are American running dogs or religious running dogs from Saudi Arabia, let my people go. I don't care if you are Sunni or Shia, let my people go. I don't care if you are Christian Imperialists, let my people go! Take your guns, your tanks, you drones, your plane, your tear gas, your tanks, and let my people go. Let them go right now, today, right now!

My people belong to God, not me, not you, not religious movements, but God Almighty, not Sunni, not Shia, not Hamas, not Hezballah, no sect, no group, no cult, no tribe, no nation, but to God. Let my people go! No president for life owns the people, no king, no prime minister, no globalists, imperialists from America owns the people, only the people own the people. Let my people go!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Hip Hop on Happy Birthday Huey Newton

Hip Hop on Happy Birthday Huey Newton
by Devismama

Happy Birthday Huey P. Newton! Co-founder of The Black Panther Party an African-American left-wing organization working for the right of self-defense for African-Americans in the United States. The Party achieved national and international impact and renown through their deep involvement in the Black Power movement and in politics of the 1960s and 1970s, as the intense anti-racism  of the time is today considered one of the most significant social, political and cultural currents in United States history. The group’s “provocative rhetoric, militant posture, and cultural and political flourishes permanently altered the contours of American Identity.”  unfortunately, the young black people who have a media platform today are mainly rappers/artists. and as much as i love hip hop, although the majority of rap artists ‘portray’ the confidence, fearlessness, badass attitude of the panthers, the content, intellectualism, or politicism is non-existent.  huey & the panther crew were college educated young men/women (aging in range from 16 - 25).  they were well read. according to writer marvin x who studied with huey & co at merritt college in oakland, their independent reading list comprised of:  Black Bourgeoisie, E. Franklin Frazier Facing Mount Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta Wretched of the Earth, 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  i contend that being a rapper/artist/in the public eye does not make one conscious politically or active socially but you’d hope that after gaining a certain level of celebrity, you’d take it upon yourself to read some books, do some learning at least if for nothing else you sound smart if you’re given a platform such as oprah/charlie rose/bill maher etc.  perhaps if a certain artist had read a few of the books on the list, he might have been better able to articulate sentiments such as ‘george bush doesn’t like black people’!  and even though wiz khalifa’s new song ‘huey newton’ has absolutely NOTHING to do with the newton’s life/legacy perhaps it will inspire a few kids to google him just to find out who the hell wiz is talking about.Marvin X was my teacher. Many of our comrades came through his Black Theatre: Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Emory Douglas, Sam Napier.--Dr. Huey P. Newton

Happy Birthday Huey P. Newton! Co-founder of The Black Panther Party an African-American left-wing organization working for the right of self-defense for African-Americans in the United States. The Party achieved national and international impact and renown through their deep involvement in the Black Power movement and in politics of the 1960s and 1970s, as the intense anti-racism of the time is today considered one of the most significant social, political and cultural currents in United States history. The group’s “provocative rhetoric, militant posture, and cultural and political flourishes permanently altered the contours of American Identity.”

unfortunately, the young black people who have a media platform today are mainly rappers/artists. and as much as i love hip hop, although the majority of rap artists ‘portray’ the confidence, fearlessness, badass attitude of the panthers, the content, intellectualism, or politicism is non-existent. huey & the panther crew were college educated young men/women (aging in range from 16 - 25). they were well read. according to writer marvin x who studied with huey & co at merritt college in oakland, their independent reading list comprised of:

Black Bourgeoisie, E. Franklin Frazier
Facing Mount Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta
Wretched of the Earth, 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

i contend that being a rapper/artist/in the public eye does not make one conscious politically or active socially but you’d hope that after gaining a certain level of celebrity, you’d take it upon yourself to read some books, do some learning at least if for nothing else you sound smart if you’re given a platform such as oprah/charlie rose/bill maher etc.

perhaps if a certain artist had read a few of the books on the list, he might have been better able to articulate sentiments such as ‘george bush doesn’t like black people’!

and even though wiz khalifa’s new song ‘huey newton’ has absolutely NOTHING to do with the newton’s life/legacy perhaps it will inspire a few kids to google him just to find out who the hell wiz is talking about.


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

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

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

Monday, February 14, 2011

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

Saturday, February 12, 2011

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

Thursday, February 10, 2011

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

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

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?



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.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

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.