Friday, November 26, 2010

A Project of the Marian M. Jackmon Foundation, donations accepted































































































































































Black on Black Friday


Why do we lack the economic vitality of Chinatown, Mexico town, white town, gay town? And yet Black America is the 16th richest nation in the world, but most of our money goes out the hood to feed and enrich others. When will we do for self and kind? Of course first there must be love of self and kind that is sorely lacking at this hour, although the economic situation is, as Elijah demanded, forcing black unity. Families are now living together who used to hate each other, but circumstance is forcing them to get along.

We cannot demand others give us economic justice when we don't give ourselves such. Why should the white man hire you when you don't want to hire you, you rather hire a Mexican, yet you would not think of going to Mexican town to ask for a job, nor would you go to Chinatown, white town or gay town. Yet from coast to coast Mexicans are working in Soulfood restaurants and other black businesses because you won't acquire the discipline to hold down a job. You want to tell the boss what to do. Smoke yo blunt and talk on the cell phone at work. One day you will help self and kind first, then help others.

Some of you declined to purchase my $100.00 book, The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Volumes I and II, yet you who went to college bought numerous hunid dollar books that drove you insane, that have you yet addicted to the virus of white supremacy. At least my hunid dollar book was written in an attempt to restore your sanity. Furthermore, the entire contents of the book is available for free on my blog.

You want economic justice, stop spending your money with those who hate you, who won't employ you. Are you some kind of trick sucker? Get a grip on your mind and fly right as the old folks used to say. If you boycotted Black Friday by shopping with your own kind or simply staying at home, America would ask what do you people want? If you boycotted the shops, stores and malls during the holidays, America would beg you to say what you people want!
Why are you spending $200.00 for tennis shoes that cost 50 cents to make in China.

But what do you want, Hamlet, or shall we call you Othello's children! Do you want a job or can you use the mind God gave you to create your own job? Don't you see that even if you possess the skills for jobs in the present era, you are not wanted. This is not entirely a racial matter but a matter of the filthy, greedy, blood sucking capitalist system you want to be part of. Imagine, even with high unemployment, the corporations are doing fine, making mega profits with bonuses.

Yet you are unemployed and possibly homeless since your good job was outsourced to India and China, and you were a victim of the sub prime loan scam. Of course the sub prime pyramid scheme shall ultimately backfire in the face of the capitalists as we see in France, England, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. And yes, ultimately it shall hit America. The shit ain't hit the fan in America yet. Wait until they do title searches on all the foreclosed properties that the new owners attempt to purchase. Yes, they shall indeed be toxic securities, absolutely worthless.

Think of all the black wealth that has gone with the wind, all the real estate blacks accumulated from sweat, blood and tears. The little inheritance our ancestors and elders acquired is gone because we were greedy and did not guard against being deceived, or did not exercise the dictum buyer be aware.

And so, in the Sisyphean tradition, we begin again the climb up the hill with the rock in hand. We should consider establishing micro-loan banks to help our people out of poverty as people are doing around the world. We must become entrepreneurs and do for self. There is no other way out of this conundrum unless we, in the manner called revolution, seize the institutions that have stolen our wealth and divest them in the name of the people, then share the wealth, feeling no sorrow for the blood suckers of the poor, the greedy capitalist swine and their running dogs.

Marcus Garvey told you, Up you mighty Race, accomplish what you will!
--Marvin X

Black Bird Press Books
1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702






















Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality is an enclyclopedia of knowledge.Marvin X is a griot if there ever was one.
--Mumia Abu Jamal, Live from Death Row

Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality by Marvin X is a dangerous book, for it reveals the inner workings of capitalist and imperialist governments around the world. It's a book that stands with and on behalf of the poor, the dispossessed, the despised, and downtrodden. He’s a needed counselor, for he knows himself on the deepest personal level and he reveals that self to us that we might be his beneficiaries. --Rudolph Lewis, editor, Chickenbones





Fly to Allah and Son of Man, proverbs, 1968, established Marvin X as the father of Muslim American literature and one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement.--Dr. Mohja Kahf

$19.95 each
























Marvin X is
guest editor
of the Poetry
Issue, Journal
of Pan African Studies, December, 2010,
an online journal. A print
edition is available from
Black Bird Press.

Donation $49.95
503 pages


In the Crazy House
Called America, essays,
2002. Do you doubt the
title?

People who know Marvin X already know him as a peripatetic, outspoken, irreverent, poetic “crazy nigger,” whose pen is continually and forever out-of-control. As a professional psychologist, I hasten to invoke the disclaimer that that is in no way a diagnosis or clinical impression of mine. I have never actually subjected this brother to serious psychoanalytical scrutiny and have no wish to place him on the couch, if only because I know of no existing psycho-diagnostic instrumentality of pathology of normalcy that could properly evaluate Marvin completely.—Dr. Nathan Hare, Black Think Tank, San Francisco

Donation: $19.95


Land of My Daughters,
poems, 2005.

Consciousness-altering, astonishing -- Marvin X is the USA’s Rumi & his nation is not “where our fathers died” but where our daughters live. X’s poems vibrate, whip, love in the most meta- and physical ways imaginable and un-. He’s got the humor of Pietri, the politics of Baraka, and the spiritual Muslim grounding that is totally new in English –- the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wisdom of Saadi.--Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, NYC


I'm beginning to read your wonderful book (Land of My Daughters, poems) - Aloud! There's no way that the silence(s) in your poems could remain...quiet. There is a spiritual faucet of images, an outcry (un grito), humming deep and wild. And after I read your poetry, a ring keeps bouncing off my ears. Must be that preacher in you, that poet who has learned to dance with hurricanes! Un abrazo, Jose Angel
--jose angel figueroa, New York City

Donation $19.95


Love and War,
poems, 1995.
Dr. Mohja Kahf
said read these
poems for
Ramadan!

Donation $19.95


Youth who otherwise don't read, do read this book and even squabble over ownership, as if it were black gold!

--Paradise Jah Love

This book empowered me. I didn’t know I had that much power!—Young sister

It helped me step up my game!—Young brother

Thank you, thank you, for writing this. I am going to make my son and daughter read it.—A Mother

We are fortunate to witness such openness and honesty, though it makes the smug uncomfortable in their fake comforts….--Lil Joe


Mythology of Pussy and Dick is a compilation of everything Marvin X has written over the past 40 years on male/female relations. There are those who will miss this opportunity to receive wisdom from our brother because of the language he uses to describe the male and female anatomy, his perceived objectification of women and men…. --Delores Nochi, introduction

Donation $49.95
418 pages

Wish I Could Tell You the Truth,
essays, 2005.

Marvin X has been ignored and silenced like Malcolm X would be ignored and silenced if he had lived on into the Now. Marvin’s one of the most extraordinary, exciting black intellectuals living today—writing, publishing, performing with Sun Ra’s Musicians (Live in Philly at Warm Daddies, available on DVD from BPP), reciting, filming, producing conferences (Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair); he’s ever engaging, challenging the respectable and the comfortable. He like Malcolm, dares to say things fearlessly, in the open (in earshot of the white man) that so many Negroes feel, think and speak on the corner, in the barbershops and urban streets of black America….
--Rudolph Lewis, Chickenbones.com
Donation $19.95


Eldridge Cleaver, My friend
the Devil, a memoir, by
Marvin X. Recounts his
thirty year relationship
with the man he introduced
to the Black Panthers. Jimmy
Garrett says it was the funniest
book of 2009. Introduction by
Amiri Baraka.
Donation $19.95



















Tainted Soul
by
Ptah Allah El

A movie script based
on the life of a Black
Panther who hijacked
a plane to Cuba and was
transformed by the Cuban
revolution. $19.95










The Wisdom

of Plato Negro,
Parables/fables
by Marvin X,
Volumes I and II,

2010
. "Marvin X is
Plato teaching on the
streets of Oakland.
If you want to learn about
inspiration and motivation,
don't spend all that money
going to workshops and seminars,
just go stand at 14th and Broadway
and watch Marvin X at work."
--Ishmael Reed

Donation $100.00 (includes volumes I and II)







I AM
OSCAR
GRANT!

essays on
Oakland
by
Marvin X
$19.95





Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez
and Yoself

essays on
Obama Drama
by
Marvin X
2010
$19.95





Notes on the Wisdom of Action

or How to Jump Out the Box
essays
Marvin X
$19.95












Order Now directly from the Publisher. Not available in bookstores or online.
Please send money order to ( free priority mailing):

Black Bird Press

1222 Dwight Way,
Berkeley CA 94702

















To book Marvin X for readings, performance, speaking engagements, please contact his agent:
Muhammida El Muhajir, www.suninleo.com.













When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express Black male urban experience in a lyrical way. -- James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer

His writing is orgasmic!—Fahizah Alim, Sacramento Bee


He comes in the spirit of Imhotep to bring peace of mind to the world. — Ptah Allah El, Richmond CA

He’s the new Malcolm X! Nobody’s going to talk about his book, HOW TO RECOVER FROM THE ADDICTION TO WHITE SUPREMACY, out loud, but they’ll hush hush about it.

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


Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because by re-contexualising it will add another layer of attention to Marvin X's incredibly rich body of work. Muslim American literature begins with Marvin X.
--Dr. Mohja Kahf, Department of English, Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Marvin X's autobiography Somethin' Proper is one of the most significant works to come out of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It tells the story of perhaps the most important African American Muslim poet to appear in the United States during the Civil Rights era. The book opens with an introduction by scholar Nathan Hare, a key figure in the Black Studies Movement of the period. --Julius E. Thompson, African American Review

Much of Marvin X's poetry is militant in its anger at American racism and injustice. For example, in “Did You Vote Nigger?” he uses rough dialect and directs his irony at African Americans who believe in the government but are actually its pawns. Many of the proverbs in The Son of Man (1969) express alienation from white America . However, many of Marvin X's proverbs and poems express more concern with what African Americans can do positively for themselves, without being paralyzed by hatred. He insists that the answer is to concentrate on establishing a racial identity and to “understand that art is celebration of Allah.” The poems in Fly to Allah, Black Man Listen (1969), and other volumes are characterized by their intensity and their message of racial unity under a religious banner.
--Lorenzo Thomas, University of Houston, Texas

He has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the innovators and founders of the revolutionary school of African writing. --Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)


I welcome reading the work of a “grassroots guerilla publicist” who is concerned with the psychological/intellectual freedom of his people. I think of Walter Rodney as the “guerilla intellectual” who was organically connected to the grassroots. Key book here would be The Groundings With My Brothers [and sisters]. Or Steve Biko’s I Write What I Like. I think though that Dr. M. is closely affiliated with Frances Cress Welsing’s Isis Papers: Keys to the Colors (along with Bobby Wright’s thesis). Of course we need to also consult that classic: The Black Anglo Saxons, and Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie. What I am most impressed with is Dr. M’s Pan-Africanist perspective. We all need to “Detox” as Dr. M states, wherever we are in this world. So the Pan-African element is important. Du Bois knew this, and many of the other giants. Even though they were also, ironically, “infected” like most of us in some way today. I think this citation from Step I is important: “…We are only powerless when we deny who we are and do not recognize we exist in harmony with the universal spirit of peace, justice and mercy. White supremacy is an illusion in the minds of those who believe it and those who accept the scam”….
--Mark Christian, PhD Associate Professor Sociology & Black World Studies Miami University (Ohio)

About the Marian M. Jackmon Foundation



Marian Murrill Jackmon, Marvin X's mother, with her
brother, Clarence Murrill (May they rest in Allah's grace and mercy). She was a business woman and
spiritual counselor. A self educated woman, more than anything, she hated ignorance. She repeatedly told her son, "Use the mind God gave you, boy!"



The Marian M. Jackmon Foundation's mission is spiritual and educational. Its purpose is to preserve and diseminate the writings of Marvin X, also to give scholarships in the name of Darrel P. Jackmon, (RIP, son of Marvin X), in the field of Arabic/Persian and Middle Eastern literature. Also, to give scholarships to women majoring in business, with an interest in spirituality.

Academy of da Corner

A current project is Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. For the past four years, Marvin X has shared knowledge and mentored youth and adults. The Academy is a free speech zone and sacred space for those suffering the trauma of white supremacy and attempting to recover. It is also a micro-loan bank. Send donations to the Marian M. Jackmon Foundation, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. Your donation can be tax deductible.


Young men at Academy of da Corner, 14 th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Photo Gene Hazzard, Oakland Post Newspaper. Marvin X has given away thousands of dollars worth of his books at the Academy. People have reported seeing youth sitting on the street or riding the bus reading his books intently. Brothers have come from jail saying they read his books and their lives were transformed.







On left, Ptah Allah El, first graduate of Academy of da Corner (University of Poetry) and now a professor. Ptah's oral exam was on teaching teachers, a deconstruction of the Egyptian heiroglyph for "to read."
His thesis was published as Ghetto Folktales, original writings. On right, unidentified student, center Marvin X, aka Plato Negro.
























Left to right, Brother Jermaine, a top student at the Academy. His interest is spiritual consciousness. Next to him is attorney/activist Walter Riley and Blues legend Sugar Pie De Santo.

Student/teacher, Gregory Fields. Gregory is also
working on a video documentary of the Academy.


Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre
Performed at the San Francisco Theatre Festival, 2010

Alona Clifton, reader


















Rashidah Sabreen,
dancer, singer, reader























Paradise Jah Love,
poet, reader






















Mechelle LaChaux,
singer, reader, actress







Hunia Bradley,
reader














Eugene Allen, reader





















Dancers, Rashidah,
Linda Johnson,
Raynetta Rayzetta;
drummers Val Serrant,
Tumani













Ayodele Nzingha
reader
















Phavia Kujichagulia,
reader


The Reader's Theatre is available for performance local and
nationwide. Contact suninleo.com or jmarvinx@yahoo.com








Poet Returns Home to West Oakland for His First Play Flowers for the Trashman












Poet/Playwright Returns Home to West Oakland

Performs at Black Dot Cafe

On Saturday, November 20, Marvin X. Jackmon, poet/playwright/essayist/producer/organizer/teacher, returned to his childhood neighborhood in West Oakland where he attended Prescott elementary and Lowell junior high school.

On Saturday afternoon he had a conversation with actors in the Lower Bottom Playaz who have been performing his first play Flowers for the Trashman, 1965, San Francisco State University Drama Department production while he was an undergrad.

He told the young actors he was flunking an English literature class taught by legendary Medievalist professor/author John Gardner. Gardner asked him what he wanted to do pass the class. The poet said write. The professor said write what. Write a play. Gardner said write it! Flowers for the Trashman was the product. The play became a classic of the Black Arts Movement and established Marvin X as one of founders of the most radical movement in American literature. BAM forced America to include ethnic and gender literature in the academic curriculum. See the Black Arts Movement by James Smithurst, University of North Carolina Press.

The poet described his childhood in West Oakland, Harlem of the West. While I was growing up, West Oakland was the Harlem of the West. I grew up on 7th and Campbell, in my parents florist shop. West Oakland was booming with a vital economic and cultural community on 7th Street, with shops, restaurants, cafes, clubs, associations. It was the end of the railroad line, home of the first black union, the Pullman Porters, led by C. L. Dellums, uncle of Oakland's Mayor Ronald Dellums.

My mother and father were Race people, the name accorded to those who had racial consciousness in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. They were activists in many social organizations, especially the NAACP. Before the family moved to Oakland, his parents edited the Fresno Voice, the first black newspaper in the Central Valley. His maternal great grandfather, E. Murrill, was mentioned in 1943 edition of the Fresno Bee Newspaper. He was so well known the newspaper noted that whites and blacks attended his funeral. His maternal relatives were pioneers to the West coast.

After the war, his parents left Fresno and came to Oakland. There my parents opened a florist shop while my mother worked at the Navy Supply Center as a clerk. The Army base at the end of 7th Street employed many blacks who migrated to the Bay Area during WWII. Seventh Street was bumper to bumper cars, especially on the weekends. The street was crowded with people enjoying Negro life and culture. See Marvin's autobiography Somethin' Proper, Black Bird Press, 1998.

The poet told of his introduction to drama at New Century Recreation Center on 5th Street at McFeely School where he attended elementary school. He recalled a dance teacher at New Century was Ruth Beckford, queen of African choreography in the Bay Area. She was one of the most beautiful women of my childhood with her short natural hair, African body and black velvet skin. I adored her whenever I could catch a glance of her. So fine, so fine.

While doing a play at children's play at Mosswood Park, the poet said he was in the sandbox when a little white girl called him a nigger for the first time and told him to get out of the sandbox. In those days, we didn't go to Mosswood Park often and definitely did go to Lake Merritt, only on holidays such as the 4th of July. A nigguh would get his ass kicked by white boys if caught at Lake Merritt.

Pine Street, where the Black Dot Cafe is located, was the ho stroll, from 7th to 16th by the Southern Pacific train station. There was a hotel near the train station where you could rent a room for a few minutes. Although the area where Black Dot is located is gentrified, someone in the audience informed the poet the hotel is still there.

As a child, the poet used to play up and down the streets in the vicinity of Black Dot Cafe, and later he used to sell black newspapers and magazines in the area, including Jet, Ebony, Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Currier, Detroit Black Dispatch, et al. As a child, he also wrote in the Children's Section of the Oakland Tribune.

As per the play, the setting is a jail cell with the lead character the poet as a young college student with his ghetto friend. They had an encounter with the police coming from a dance and end up in jail for failing the tone test with the police. In jail, the story evolves into a narrative of the father/son relationship, although most critics focus on the rage expressed by Joe, the militant college student who goes off on the white man in the cell. This rage made it a classic of the Black Arts Movement nationwide and worldwide. The play was produced in Europe as well. It appeared in Black Dialogue Magazine and the 60s classic anthology Black Fire, edited by Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka.

In conversation with the actors, they told the poet how the play affected them as fatherless young men, suffering the estrangement and abandonment by their fathers. For them, the play was/is a play within a play, thus giving a level of consciousness as they performed the ritual and were transformed by it. The poet told them this is the purpose of drama, to transform.

He said on one level, the drama reveals his failure as a father since when it was written he had fathered two sons by the age of twenty-one. The play ends with his lines "I want to talk with my sons. I want to talk with my sons." The poet noted that he had been able to talk with one of his two sons, but not with the other who is now almost 50 years old. This son still has feelings of abandonment and neglect. The poet told the young men and women we must break the cycle of such trauma. Otherwise it shall go on forever. Such is the purpose of Flowers for the Trashman, a man-hood training ritual drama to transform lives.

He spoke on the function of ritual drama to transform. This play Flowers for the Trashman is a manhood training ritual so that young men are changed by witnessing it. They will get over some of their hatred and trauma with fathers, for soon they shall be fathers and how shall they behave? Shall their sons hate them, shall they hate their sons, when shall it end?

Truth is, we were not brought over here to have healthy relationships, father/son, mother/daughter. We were brought here for our labor, to be slaves and later wage slaves, coming down to the present. In a 1968 interview with the poet, James Baldwin told him, "For a black father to raise a black son is a miracle. And I applaud the men who are able to do this. It's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad!"

--Marvin X
11/20/10

Bibliography of Marvin X

Books

Sudan Rajuli Samia (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan Publishing, 1967)
Black Dialectics (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1967)
Fly To Allah: Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Son of Man: Proverbs (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1969)
Black Man Listen: Poems and Proverbs (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1969)
Woman-Man's Best Friend (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1973)
Selected Poems (San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan, 1979)
Confession of A Wife Beater and Other Poems (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1981)
Liberation Poems for North American Africans (Fresno: Al Kitab Sudan, 1982)
Love and War: Poems ( Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1995)
Somethin Proper: Autobiography (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 1998)
In The Crazy House Called America: Essays (Castro Valley: Black Bird Press, 2002)
Wish I Could Tell You The Truth: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)
Land of My Daughters: Poems (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2005)

Works In Progress

It Don't Matter: Essays (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2006)

You Don't Know Me and Other Poems (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2006)

In Sha Allah, A History of Black Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1954-2004 (Cherokee: Black Bird Press, 2006).

Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality by Nisa Islam as told to Marvin X, 2006.

Play Scripts and/or Productions

Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: San Francisco State University Drama Department, 1965.

Flowers for the Trashman, San Francisco: Black Arts West/Theatre, 1966.

Take Care of Business, musical version of Flowers with music by Sun Ra, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes: Your Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco, 1972.

Come Next Summer, San Francisco: Black Arts/West, 1966.

The Trial, New York, Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech, 1970.

Resurrection of the Dead, San Francisco, choreography by Raymond Sawyer, music by Juju and Sun Ra, Your Black Educational Theatre, 1972.


Woman-Man's Best Friend, musical, Oakland, Mills College, 1973.

How I Met Isa, Masters thesis, San Francisco State University, 1975.

In The Name of Love, Oakland, Laney College Theatre, 1981.

One Day In The Life, Oakland, Alice Arts Theatre, 1996.
One Day In The Life, Brooklyn, NY, Sistah's Place, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Manhattan, Brecht Forum, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Newark, NJ, Kimako's Blues, 1997.
One Day In The Life, Oakland, Uhuru House, 1998.
One Day In The Life, San Francisco, Bannam Place Theatre, North Beach, 1998.
One Day In The Lifee, San Francisco, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 1999.
One Day In the Life, Marin City, Marin City Rec Center, 1999
One Day In the Life, Richmond, Unity Church, 2000.
One Day In the Life, San Jose, San Jose State University, 2000.
One Day In the Life, Berkeley, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2000.
One Day In the Life, Sacramento, New Colonial Theatre, 2000.

Sergeant Santa, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre script, 2002.

Other

Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, Merritt College Student Magazine contest winner, 1963.

Delicate Child, a short story, Oakland, SoulBook Magazine, 1964.

Flowers for the Trashman: A One Act Drama, San Francisco, Black Dialogue Magazine, 1965.

Flowers for the Trashman, Black Fire, An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, edited by Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, (New York: Morrow, 1968).

Take Care of Business: A One Act Drama, aka Flowers, (New York: The Drama Review, NYU,1968)

The Black Bird (Al Tair Aswad): A One-Act Play, New Plays from the Black Theatre, edited by Ed Bullins with introduction (interview of Ed Bullins) by Marivn X, (New York: Bantam, 1969)

"Islam and Black Art: An Interview with Amiri Baraka" and foreword by Askia Muhammad Toure, afterword by Marivn X, in Black Arts: An Anthology of Black Creations, edited by Ahmed Alhamisi and Haroun Kofi Wangara (Harold G. Lawrence) (Detroit: Black Arts Publications, 1969).

"Everything's Cool: An Interview with Amiri Barka, aka, LeRoi Jones", Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, NY, 1968.

Resurrection of the Dead, a ritual/myth dance drama, Black Theatre Magazine, New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, 1969.

Manifesto of the Black Educational Theatre of San Francisco, Black Theatre, 1972.

The Black Bird, A Parable by Marvin X, illustrated by Karen Johnson ( San Francisco: Al Kitab Sudan and Julian Richardson and Associates Publishers, 1972).

"Black Justice Must Be Done," Vietnam and Black America: An Anthology of Protest and Resistance, edited by Clyde Taylor (Garden City: Double-day/Anchor, 1973)

"Palestine," a poem, Black Scholar magazine, 1978.

Journal of Black Poetry, guest editor, 1968.

"The Meaning of African Liberation Day," by Dr. Walter Rodney, a speech in San Francisco, transcribed and edited by Marvin X, Journal of Black Poetry, 1972.

Muhammad Speaks, foreign editor, 1970. (Note: a few months later, Marvin X was selected to be editor of Muhammad Speaks until it was decided he was too militant. Askia Muhammad (Charles 37X) was selected instead.)

A Conversation with Prime Minister Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Black Scholar, 1973.

VIDEOGRAPHY OF EVENTS/PRODUCTIONS

Proceedings of the Melvin Black Human Rights Conference, Oakland, 1979, produced by Marvin X, featuring Angela Davis, Minister Farakhan, Eldridge Cleaver, Paul Cobb, Dezzie Woods-Jones, Jo Nina-Abran, Mansha Nitoto, Khalid Abdullah Tarik Al Mansur, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T-Shaka, and Marvin X.

Proceedings of the First Black Men's Conference, Oakland, 1980, John Douimbia, founder, Marvin X, chief planner, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Oba T'Shaka,Norman Brown, Kermit Scott, Minister Ronald Muhammad, Louis Freeman, Michael Lange, Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones, et al.

Forum on Drugs, Art and Revolution, Sista's Place, Brooklyn, New York, 1997, featuring Amiri and Amina Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Sam Anderson, Elombe Brath and Marvin X.

Eldridge Cleaver Memorial Service, produced by Marvin X, Oakland, 1998, participants included Kathleen and Joju Cleaver, Emory Douglas, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Dr. Nathan Hare, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Reginald Major, Majidah Rahman and Marvin X.

One Day in the Life, a docudrama of addiction and recovery, filmed by Ptah Allah-El, produced, written, directed and staring Marvin X, edited by Marvin X, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 1999.

Marvin X Interviews Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, former actor in Marvin X's Black Theatre: Berkeley, La Pena Cultural Center, 1999.

"Abstract for An Elders Council," lecture/discussion, Tupac Amaru Shakur One Nation Conference, Oakland: McClymonds High School, 1999.

Marvin X at Dead Prez Concert, San Francisco, 2000.

Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, produced by Marvin X at San Francisco State University, 2001, featuring Dr. Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Destiny, Phavia, Tarika Lewis, Askia Toure, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Rudi Wongozi, Ishmael Reed, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Marvin X, et al.

Live In Philly At Warm Daddies, a reading accompanied by Elliot Bey, Marshall Allen, Danny Thompson, Ancestor Goldsky, Rufus Harley, Alexander El, 2002.

Marvin X Live in Detroit, a documentary by Abu Ibn, 2002.

In the Crazy House Called America, concert with Marvin X and Destiny, San Francisco: Buriel Clay Theatre, 2003.

Marvin X in Concert (accompanied by harpist Destiny, violinist Tarika Lewis and percussionists Tacuma and Kele Nitoto, dancer Raynetta Rayzetta), Amiri and Amina Baraka, filmed by Kwame and Joe, Berkeley: Black Repertory Group Theatre, 2003.

Marvin X Speaks at the Third Eye Conference, Dallas, Texas, 2003.

Marvin X and the Last Poets, San Francisco: Recovery Theatre, 2004.

Proceedings of the San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair, produced by Marvin X, filmed by Mindseed Productions, San Francisco, Recovery Theatre, 2004, participants include: Sonia Sanchez, Davey D, Amiri Baraka, Sam Hamod, Fillmore Slim, Askia Toure, Akhbar Muhammad, Sam Anderson, Al Young, Devorah Major, Opal Palmer Adisa, Tarika Lewis, Amina Baraka, Julia and Nathan Hare, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Reginald Lockett, Everett Hoagland, Sam Greenlee, Ayodelle Nzinga, Suzzette Celeste, Tarika Lewis, Raynetta Rayzetta, Deborah Day, James Robinson, Ptah Allah-El, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Marvin X, et al. (Note: let me please acknowledge some of the historic personages in the audience: Gansta Alonzao Batin (mentor of the Bay Area BAM, made his transition shortly after the conference), Willie Williams of Broadside Press, Detroit, Gansta Brown, Gansta Mikey Moore (now Rev.), Arthur Sheridan, founder of Black Dialogue magazine, also co-founders Aubrey and Gerald LaBrie, Reginald Major, author of Panther Is A Black Cat. Thank you all for making this event historic, ed. MX)

Get Yo Mind Right, Marvin X Barbershop Talk, #4, a documentary film by Pam Pam and Marvin X, Oakland: 2005.

Marvin X Live in the Fillmore at Rass'elas Jazz Club, A Nisa Islam production, filmed by Ken Johnson, San Francisco, 2005.

Marvin X in the Malcolm X Room, McClymonds High School, accompanied by Tacuma (dijembe and percussion, dancer/choreographer Raynetta Rayzetta, actor Salat Townsend, filmed by Eddie Abrams, Oakland, 2005.

AUDIOGRAPHY

In Sha Allah, interview with Nisa Islam, Cherokee, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Nadar Ali, Fresno, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Manuel Rashid, Fresno, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with John Douimbia, Grand Ayatollah of the Bay, San Francisco, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Minister Rabb Muhammad, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Antar Bey, CEO, Your Black Muslim Bakery, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Norman Brown, Oakland, Oakland, 2004.
In Sha Allah, interview with Kareem Muhammad (Brother Edward), Oakland, 2004.
Love and War, poems, Oakland, 1995.
One Day In The Life, docudrama, Oakland, 1999.
Jesus and Liquor Stores, Marvin X and Askari X, Oakland, 2002
Wake Up, Detroit, Marvin X interviewed by Lawrence X, Detroit, 2002..
Wish I, interview with Pam Pam, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005.
Wish I, interview with Terry Collins, San Francisco, KPOO Radio, 2005.
Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement, interview with Professor James Smethurst of UMASS, Oakland, 2003.


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Bolivia Says Yankee Go!

Bolivia's Morales rages against US 'coup-plotting

President Evo Morales addressing the conference of defence ministers of the Americas in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. President Morales is a staunch critic of the US

Bolivian President Evo Morales has accused the US of backing coup attempts against him and other left-wing Latin American leaders.

Mr Morales said US policies to combat drugs and terrorism were pretexts for "intervention" in the region.

He was addressing a meeting of regional defence ministers, including US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.

Mr Gates listened but made no public response to the accusations.

The US embassy later expressed disappointment at Mr Morales's remarks.

In an hour-long speech, Mr Morales accused the US of backing failed coup attempts in Venezuela in 2002, in Bolivia in 2008, and in Ecuador this year.

He also accused it of involvement in the ousting of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

"Latin American compatriots, we must recognise that the US beat us in Honduras, the North American empire beat us. But the people of America also won in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador", he said.

"The score is 3-1".

The US has previously strongly denied involvement in all those cases.

US defence secretary Robert Gates at the conference of defence ministers of the Americas in Bolivia Mr Gates did not respond to President Morales's remarks

Mr Morales did not mention Mr Gates by name, but much of his speech was clearly directed at the US defence secretary and former CIA director.

The Bolivian leader said "nobody" would stop his country from forming the alliances it chose.

"Bolivia, under my leadership, will have agreements and alliances with every one," he said.

'Shared dreams'

Mr Gates did not respond to Mr Morales's accusations when he addressed the conference later in the day.

Instead, he backed a plan to improve disaster relief cooperation to respond to regional events such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile earlier this year.

He also gave his support to a proposal for greater transparency on defence spending in the region to prevent arms races.

"Let us not lose sight of our shared dreams and common aspirations for a free, prosperous and secure Americas", he said.

Mr Gates had earlier warned Bolivia to be careful in its dealings with Iran, which has offered to help it develop nuclear energy.

""As a sovereign state Bolivia obviously can have relations with any country in the world that it wishes to", he said on Sunday.

"Bolivia needs to be mindful of the of the number of UN security council resolutions that have been passed with respect to Iran's behaviour".

Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, is a long-standing opponent of US influence in Latin America and an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

President Barack Obama's administration has been trying to improve US relations with Latin America in the face of the rising influence of China and other powers, but has faced strong opposition from left-wing leaders in the region such as Mr Morales and Mr Chavez.

Womanist Musings: The F.B.I. and the NSA Are Not Cool: By Kola Boof

Womanist Musings: The F.B.I. and the NSA Are Not Cool: By Kola Boof

Dr. Yacoub's America


Dr. Yacoub's America


In the populist black studies of Elijah Muhammad, we are taught a big-head scientist genetically engineered the white man by separating the dominant and recessive genes from the aboriginal Asiatic black man. Yacoub's bio tech lab was not much different from the bio-tech labs operating in Berkeley and Emeryville, a few blocks from my house. We have no doubt they have cloned a man in these labs, but are simply delaying the announcement.

According to Elijah's Myth of Yacoub, the young scientist found the magnetic attraction between two pieces of steel. We maintain America is the land of Yacoub's children who love playing with steel. America spends a trillion dollars making weapons of steel, making her the number one arms merchant of the world. Children in the hood are addicted to steel as well, whether guns to mainly kill each other or cars they turn into weapons of destruction, using cars in "side shows" where people are needlessly injured or killed. The children will stand in the street or walk directly into a two thousand pound piece of steel and plastic, fearing nothing. If you stop before hitting them, they will curse you and/or pull out a piece of steel to shoot you. They use steel to resolve all disputes, sometimes before a discussion or conflict resolution.

Yocoub utilized three workers on his bio-tech project: the doctor, nurse and undertaker. These workers conspired to create the man of steel or devil. They practiced a form of selective breeding, allowing the black to mate with a brown and a brown with a lighter person until the white devil was created after hundreds of years, 600 to be exact. Two blacks were not allowed to mate in this experiment. Even today, there are some blacks who demand their children not marry another black skinned person, only someone lighter. This is no doubt residue from the Yacoubian psychopathology. If two blacks produced a baby, the doctor, nurse and undertaker would conspire to murder the baby to keep the experiment on track.

In modern America, we must note the three workers, doctor, nurse and undertaker, are aided and abetted by workers from the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry, who are determined to fulfill their wish, "let us make a man." The petrochemical workers produce the food in oil, not earth. As much as possible the crops are genetically engineered. If not, they are created by a healthy dose of insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and dyes.

Naturally, the oil based rather than soil based food leads Yacoub's children directly from the fruit of petrochemical workers into the hands of pharmaceutical workers in league with the doctor, nurse and undertaker. The prescription drug dealers connect with insurance companies to guide the patient into the hands of the doctor, nurse and undertaker.

When poor Michael Jackson was found dead at the hands of his doctor, we knew the Myth of Yacoub was alive and well. Michael was so addicted to the Myth of Yacoub that he exceeded the limit of propriety in attempting to alter his blackness in favor of the Yacoubian ideal of whiteness. But note his doctor administered the hemlock that took him into oblivion.

There is almost no way to avoid the scheme or conspiracy of the Yacoubian team of workers, the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, medical and funeral agents.

When a man entered prison, the inmates warned him, "Don't get sick. Whatever you do, don't get sick up in here. There's a prison graveyard full of nigguhs who got sick." And so it is the same in America, don't get sick. Yacoub's team of workers are eagerly awaiting you, sharpening their knives until you get to the doctor and nurse, and finally the undertaker.

The only solution is to avoid stress, for dis-ease is brought about from stress, thus the food (petrochemical) is useless and dangerous; the medicine (pharmaceutical) is useless and dangerous as it is not designed to heal only prolong the illness unto death. Part of the last rites administered to the victim of Yacoub is that ride in a steel hearse.
--Marvin X
11/21/10

Veterans: Soviets in Afghanistan - Programmes - Al Jazeera English

Veterans: Soviets in Afghanistan - Programmes - Al Jazeera English

Monday, November 22, 2010

Brazil Celebrates Black Consciousness Day

Brazil commemorates Black Consciousness Day recalling fugitive slaves’ leader

Hundreds of cities, towns and villages throughout Brazil commemorated Saturday Black Consciousness Day with different festivities and cultural activities. Brazil is considered the second Black Country in the world behind Nigeria, with 75.8 million African-Brazilians and is still exposed to the consequences of racial discrimination.

Zumbi dos Palmares, a symbol for Afro-Brazilians


A hundred twenty two years after the abolition of slavery in 1888, Brazil recalls and honours on November 20th “Zumbi dos Palmares”, the last chief of a republic of fugitive slaves.

Killed on November 20, 1695 by the big landowners of the time he has become a symbol of resistance against slavery and has only lately been recalled as such.

According to Brazil’s statistics office, IBGE, of the 10% poorest and indigent Brazilians, 74% are black or coloured.

Afro-Brazilian organizations admit that some progress has been achieved by Afro-Brazilians in publicity or in less-demeaning roles in the country’s famous soap-opera industry. Similarly the colour of skin is less linked to household cleaning and maintenance services.

In Rio do Janeiro Black Consciousness Day inspired three plays in local theatres, with one of them particularly touching. ”The whip revolt” occurred a century ago, 22 November 1910 when a black officer from the Brazilian navy, Joao Candido, the son of former slaves and crew members of the cruiser “Minas Gerais” mutinied in the bay of Rio do Janeiro.

Candido and the 1.173 men on board threatened to bombard the city with the powerful guns and cannons of the cruiser unless the long established practice of corporal punishment and whip lashing were not abolished by the navy.

It was all triggered when a crewmember was sentenced to a punishment considered exaggerated: instead of the customary 25 whip lashes he was to receive 250 lashes.

United States also adhered to the celebration with a message from the State Department.

“The United States Government and the American people congratulate the people of Brazil as they recognize Black Consciousness Day, also known as Zumbi dos Palmares Day, on November 20. The life of Quilombo leader Zumbi and his unrelenting struggle against slavery stands as an enduring symbol of freedom and justice.

“Today, both Brazil and the United States recognize the important contributions of Afro-descendants in our societies and the imperative of combating discrimination, which has negatively impacted both of our countries. Just last month, our governments, in partnership with civil society and our private sectors, met for the third time in Salvador da Bahia under the historic U.S. – Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality. Together we are celebrating the diversity of our heritage and developing and sharing best practices to ensure equal opportunity for Afro-descendants and indeed all citizens of our nations.

“On this significant day, we congratulate the people of Brazil and look forward to a long and fruitful partnership as, together, we provide leadership and examples of democracy, diversity, and social justice to our Hemisphere and to the world”.

Elijah Muhammad's Great Grandson heads Schomburg

We know the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Clara Muhammad are smiling to know their great grandson Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad will head the world's greatest collection of black history that is housed at the Schomburg Library in Harlem. We think Malcolm and Betty Shabazz are smiling as well.
--Marvin X

Meet the new director of Schomburg
http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/meet-next-director-schomburg-center-drkhalil-gibran-muhammad?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4ceabfb290a32b30,0#comment-3131

Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad to head the Schomburg Center



By Herb Boyd
Special to the Amsterdam News
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a scholar of African-American history from Indiana University, has been named the new director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

There were more than 200 nominees or scholars seeking the position since the announcement that Dr. Howard Dodson, Jr. would retire from the position next year. Dr. Muhammad, who is the son of the noted New York Times photographer Ozier Muhammad and the great-grandson of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, assumes the position next July.


“I am extremely excited to be selected to fill this prestigious position,” Dr. Muhammad said in an interview Wednesday afternoon at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I hope I can fulfill the legacy left by Dr. Dodson.”

Over the last several months the Schomburg Center has been mired in rumors that the center was imperiled and ever more so upon the notice that Dr. Dodson would no longer be at the helm. Furthermore, there was an outcry from the community with the demand that Dr. Molefi Asante of Temple University be appointed the new director.

“Yes, I am well aware of all the controversy and the first thing I want to do is to secure the trust of the community and the staff here at this historic institution,” Dr. Muhammad said. “This position affords me a national platform to contribute to conversations and even policy debates on issues pertaining to the arts and culture.”

A native of Chicago, Dr. Muhammad served as assistant professor of history at Indiana University for five years, where he completed a major scholarly work The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (Harvard University Press, 2010).

According to Dr. David Levering Lewis, who nominated Dr. Muhammad for the position, the new director’s book “renders an incalculable service to civil rights scholarship by disrupting one of the nation’s most insidious, convenient, and resilient explanatory loops: whites commit crimes, but black males are criminals.”

“I am currently working a book that will deal with the history of racial politics surrounding the creation and swift dissolution of Prohibition-era ‘tough-on-crime’ laws, specifically New York’s four-strikes law of 1926,” he said.


When asked about some of his immediate plans, Dr. Muhammad said he would devote time and attention to some of the programs already underway at the Schomburg and initiated by Dr. Dodson. “I certainly will continue his thrust into digital technologies, particularly as we reach out to the younger members of our community.”

At 38, Dr. Muhammad, who grew up on the Southside of Chicago, is vitally in touch with the mood, attitude and aspirations of many in the Black and Latino community. A 1993 graduate of University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in economics, he received his Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University in 2004, specializing in 20th century U.S. and African American history.

“I know that his career at the Schomburg Center will be one of excellence and innovation,” said Dr. Paul LeClerc, president of the NYPL.

Dr. Muhammad, who is married with three children, said that he will be convening a town hall meeting to get to know the community and for the community to get to know him.

“There has never been a more exciting time in the history of the Schomburg Center,” said search committee member Aysha Schomburg, great-granddaughter of Arturo Schomburg, the center’s founder. “Without any doubt, Khalil has the skills and the passion to build on the legacy. This is a great day for New York and especially for Harlem. We welcome him.”

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Poet/Playwright Returns Home to West Oakland, Performs at Black Dot Cafe




Poet/Playwright Returns Home to West Oakland
Performs at Black Dot Cafe

On Saturday, November 20, Marvin X. Jackmon, poet/playwright/essayist/producer/organizer/teacher, returned to his childhood neighborhood in West Oakland where he attended Prescott elementary and Lowell junior high school.

On Saturday afternoon he had a conversation with actors in the Lower Bottom Playaz who have been performing his first play Flowers for the Trashman, 1965, San Francisco State University Drama Department production while he was an undergrad.

He told the young actors he was flunking an English literature class taught by legendary Medievalist professor/author John Gardner. Gardner asked him what he wanted to do pass the class. The poet said write. The professor said write what. Write a play. Gardner said write it! Flowers for the Trashman was the product. The play became a classic of the Black Arts Movement and established Marvin X as one of founders of the most radical movement in American literature. BAM forced America to include ethnic and gender literature in the academic curriculum. See the Black Arts Movement by James Smithurst, University of North Carolina Press.

The poet described his childhood in West Oakland, Harlem of the West. While I was growing up, West Oakland was the Harlem of the West. I grew up on 7th and Campbell, in my parents florist shop. West Oakland was booming with a vital economic and cultural community on 7th Street, with shops, restaurants, cafes, clubs, associations. It was the end of the railroad line, home of the first black union, the Pullman Porters, led by C. L. Dellums, uncle of Oakland's Mayor Ronald Dellums.

My mother and father were Race people, the name accorded to those who had racial consciousness in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. They were activists in many social organizations, especially the NAACP. Before the family moved to Oakland, his parents edited the Fresno Voice, the first black newspaper in the Central Valley. His maternal great grandfather, E. Murrill, was mentioned in 1943 edition of the Fresno Bee Newspaper. He was so well known the newspaper noted that whites and blacks attended his funeral. His maternal relatives were pioneers to the West coast.

After the war, his parents left Fresno and came to Oakland. There my parents opened a florist shop while my mother worked at the Navy Supply Center as a clerk. The Army base at the end of 7th Street employed many blacks who migrated to the Bay Area during WWII. Seventh Street was bumper to bumper cars, especially on the weekends. The street was crowded with people enjoying Negro life and culture. See Marvin's autobiography Somethin' Proper, Black Bird Press, 1998.

The poet told of his introduction to drama at New Century Recreation Center on 5th Street at McFeely School where he attended elementary school. He recalled a dance teacher at New Century was Ruth Beckford, queen of African choreography in the Bay Area. She was one of the most beautiful women of my childhood with her short natural hair, African body and black velvet skin. I adored her whenever I could catch a glance of her. So fine, so fine.

While doing a play at children's play at Mosswood Park, the poet said he was in the sandbox when a little white girl called him a nigger for the first time and told him to get out of the sandbox. In those days, we didn't go to Mosswood Park often and definitely did go to Lake Merritt, only on holidays such as the 4th of July. A nigguh would get his ass kicked by white boys if caught at Lake Merritt.

Pine Street, where the Black Dot Cafe is located, was the ho stroll, from 7th to 16th by the Southern Pacific train station. There was a hotel near the train station where you could rent a room for a few minutes. Although the area where Black Dot is located is gentrified, someone in the audience informed the poet the hotel is still there.

As a child, the poet used to play up and down the streets in the vicinity of Black Dot Cafe, and later he used to sell black newspapers and magazines in the area, including Jet, Ebony, Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Currier, Detroit Black Dispatch, et al. As a child, he also wrote in the Children's Section of the Oakland Tribune.

As per the play, the setting is a jail cell with the lead character the poet as a young college student with his ghetto friend. They had an encounter with the police coming from a dance and end up in jail for failing the tone test with the police. In jail, the story evolves into a narrative of the father/son relationship, although most critics focus on the rage expressed by Joe, the militant college student who goes off on the white man in the cell. This rage made it a classic of the Black Arts Movement nationwide and worldwide. The play was produced in Europe as well. It appeared in Black Dialogue Magazine and the 60s classic anthology Black Fire, edited by Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka.

In conversation with the actors, they told the poet how the play affected them as fatherless young men, suffering the estrangement and abandonment by their fathers. For them, the play was/is a play within a play, thus giving a level of consciousness as they performed the ritual and were transformed by it. The poet told them this is the purpose of drama, to transform.

He said on one level, the drama reveals his failure as a father since when it was written he had fathered two sons by the age of twenty-one. The play ends with his lines "I want to talk with my sons. I want to talk with my sons." The poet noted that he had been able to talk with one of his two sons, but not with the other who is now almost 50 years old. This son still has feelings of abandonment and neglect. The poet told the young men and women we must break the cycle of such trauma. Otherwise it shall go on forever. Such is the purpose of Flowers for the Trashman, a man-hood training ritual drama to transform lives.

He spoke on the function of ritual drama to transform. This play Flowers for the Trashman is a manhood training ritual so that young men are changed by witnessing it. They will get over some of their hatred and trauma with fathers, for soon they shall be fathers and how shall they behave? Shall their sons hate them, shall they hate their sons, when shall it end?

Truth is, we were not brought over here to have healthy relationships, father/son, mother/daughter. We were brought here for our labor, to be slaves and later wage slaves, coming down to the present. In a 1968 interview with the poet, James Baldwin told him, "For a black father to raise a black son is a miracle. And I applaud the men who are able to do this. It's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad!"

--Marvin X
11/20/10

Friday, November 19, 2010

Introduction


Introduction to Poets

We are supremely honored to have the privilege to assemble this collection of poets from throughout Pan Africa and the Afro-Asian-Indigenous world. We are simply elated to present a variety of poetic expressions from North American Africans of every region. We think the reader shall find what Diop called the Cultural Unity of Africa, a kind of basic mythological order in the deep structure of the poems, expressing the eternal unity of a people, no matter their post traumatic slavery stress syndrome. We see the ancestors, the gods, the living and yet unborn are represented widely by poets from Africa, the Caribbean or America, suggesting the long held notion that African survivals are alive and well, not only in the mythology but psycholinguistics as well.

Concerns include the necessity of calling upon the ancestors and gods, the election of Obama, the continued contradictions of the democratic society in America and the emerging democracies in Africa. Ancestor Emmitt Till is called upon by several poets, including Al Young, Opal Palmer Adisa and others. Shaggy Flores mentioned Till and other tragic heroes of our liberation struggle.
Marvin X and Kalamu Ya Salaam mention the sheroe Dessie X. Woods or Rashidah Muhammad, the valiant woman who killed her rapist in the south, emancipated from prison, she went north and lived an activist life until her transition. The people of Oakland honored her with a street naming.

In dedicating this issue to the Journal of Black Poetry, we were conscious of Dingane's effort to make poetry a tool of communication for liberation. The general theme is Pan Africanism, but we wanted to continue his concept letting a hundred flowers blossom , let a hundred schools of thought contend, in the words of Mao. The reader will see this in the poetry and in the dialogue on the poetic mission, including Haki Madhubuti's statement.

We think the poets represent an inter-generational collection, although we invited hip hop poets and spoken word artists to represent themselves. We certainly didn't want this issue to be a collection of senior citizen poetry. For sure, we think we have gathered together some of the very best writers in America and Pan Africa. The USA regional representation should be balanced enough to see regional and national concerns and rhythms.

We thank Itibari M. Zulu, Senior Editor of the Journal of Pan African Studies for allowing us to edit this issue. It is indeed a labor of love. We also thank all the poets who answered our call. Those who were rejected or who sent poems that may have gotten lost in traffic, please accept our apology but keep on keepin on.

Let us close with acknowledgment of persons who recruited poets for this issue, especially Louis Reyes Rivera, Bruce George, Gwendolyn Mitchell, Eugene Redmond, Muhammida El Muhajir and Tony Medina. Salaam to my associate guest editors, Ramal Lamar and Ptah Allah El. They gave me an oral reading of the material, helped make selections and helped keep me focused on Pan Africanism as the general theme, since they are the next generation of Pan African scholars and poets. Let us not fail to acknowledge the contribution of Rudolph Lewis of Chickenbones.com. His compilation of material we used on the Journal of Black Poetry, and other critical magazines of the period and Dingane's role as publisher/editor was priceless for the historical narrative. Thank you, Rudy.
--Marvin X

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fifty years after the sixties - RIZ KHAN - Al Jazeera English

Fifty years after the sixties - RIZ KHAN - Al Jazeera English

Dr. Nigger

Dr. Nigger


Dr. Nigger
Can you cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Can you save my life
without changing my life
Can you dance soft-shoe while
humming those negro tunes
when my white life codes blue
Can you reach inside yourself
beyond the shit we put in you…
past painful moments we put in you…
past despair and hopelessness
we’ve put in you and
find that old black magic in you
to save my life without changing
all the shit we put in you
Dr. Nigger
Can you breathe in me
air free of nigga
from a nigger not free
to breathe in free air
Can you stay on the colored side
of the color line and reach across
without touching me with nigga hands
to restart my blue heart without
changing my cold heart
Can you reach past the life
we’ve taken from you to
save my life and not
let white life pass me by
Dr. Nigger
save my life
without taking my life
Cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Dance soft-shoe while
humming negro tunes
while you save my life
without changing my life
when my white life codes blue
Copyright © 2009 by Neal Hall, M.D.

Nigger for Life, NealHall,2009.

Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies

NEXT ISSUE

Volume 4 • Number 2 • December, 2010

The next issue of The Journal of Pan African Studies will feature a poetry anthology edited by guest editor Marvin X. He is well known for his work as a poet, playwright and essayist of the Black Arts Movement. He has worked with Ed Bullins in the founding of Black House and The Black Arts/West Theatre in San Francisco, California (Black House served briefly as the headquarters for the Black Panther Party and as a center for performance, theatre, poetry and music). Marvin received his B.A. and M.A. in English from San Francisco State University and has received writing fellowships from Columbia University and the National Endowment for the Arts, and planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

MARVIN X, GUEST EDITOR

Associate Guest Editors:

Ramal Lamar, Ptah Allah El

Senior Editor, Itibari M. Zulu

Dedicated

to

Dingane, aka, Jose Goncalves,

Publisher, Editor

Journal of Black Poetry


Contents

Photo Essay: Journal of Black Poetry Poets

Dedicated to the Honorable Dingane, Jose Goncalves, founder, Journal of Black Poetry

Those 60s Journals: JBP, Black Dialogue, Soulbook,Black Theatre, Black World/Negro Digest,Umbra

Compiled by Rudolph Lewis

The Poets

Part One: In My Negritude

Shaggy Flores

Ras Griot

Phavia Kujichagulia

Chinwe Enemchukwu

L. E. Scott

Rodney D. Coates

J. Vern Cromartie

Dike Okoro

Neal E. Hall

Marvin X

Mohja Kahf

Muslim American Literature, An emerging field: Dr. Mohja Kahf

Ayodele Nzingha

Askia M. Toure

Review by Kamaria Muntu: Mother Earth Responds, Askia Toure

Michael Simanga

Amiri Baraka

Kalamu ya Salaam

Kola Boof

Louis Reyes Rivera

Aries Jordan

Ptah Allah El

Review by Zulu King: Tainted Soul by Ptah Allah El

Hettie V. Williams

Part Two: Whirlwind

A Dialogue on the Poetic Mission: Marvin X, Rudolph Lewis,

Jerry Ward, Mary Weems, C. Leigh McInnis

Haki Madhubuti on the Poetic Mission

Tracey Owens Patton

devorah major

Anthony Mays

Bruce George

Jeanette Drake

Itibari M. Zulu

Renaldo Manuel Ricketts

Nandi Comer

Al Young

Ghasem Batamuntu

Mona Lisa Saloy

Eugene B. Redmond

Fritz Pointer

Gwendolyn Mitchell

Felix Orisewike Sylvanus

Rudolph Lewis

Kamaria Muntu

Ed Bullins

Mabel Mnensa

Kwan Booth

Tureeda Mikell

Part Three: Amour of Ancestors

Everett Hoagland

Charles Blackwell

Jacqueline Kibacha

John Reynolds III

Darlene Scott

Jimmy Smith Jr.

Sam Hamud

Opal Palmer Adisa

Amy ”Aimstar” Andrieux

Lamont b. Steptoe

Avotcja Jiltonilro

Anthony Spires

Benecia Blue

Neil Callender


Tanure Ojaide

Pious Okoro

Tony Medina

Dr. Ja A. Jahannes

Brother Yao

Zayad Muhammad

Nykimbe Broussard

Kilola Maishya

Niyah X

Adrienne N. Wartts

Greg Carr

Darlene Roy

Tantra Zawadi

Ishmael Reed

Quincy Scott Jones

Bob McNeil

Ariel Pierson

Marie Rice

Yvonne Hilton

Bolade Akintolayo

Latasha Diggs

Felton Eaddy

B. Sharise Moore

VIEWS, REVIEWS, NEWS

Medical Mythology, Ramal Lamar

Dialogue on Qaddafy’s Apology for Arab Slavery:

Sam Hamud, Kola Boof, Rudolph Lewis

Two Poets on Oakland CA: Ishmael Reed, Marvin X

A Pan African Dialogue on Cuba

Carlos Moore, Dead Prez, Black Intellectual/activists

Letters to the Editor

Black History: San Francisco Bay Area Celebrated Amiri’s 75th by Lee Hubbard and Marvin X

Photos by Kamau Amen Ra

Dr. Nigger


Dr. Nigger
Can you cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Can you save my life
without changing my life
Can you dance soft-shoe while
humming those negro tunes
when my white life codes blue
Can you reach inside yourself
beyond the shit we put in you…
past painful moments we put in you…
past despair and hopelessness
we’ve put in you and
find that old black magic in you
to save my life without changing
all the shit we put in you
Dr. Nigger
Can you breathe in me
air free of nigga
from a nigger not free
to breathe in free air
Can you stay on the colored side
of the color line and reach across
without touching me with nigga hands
to restart my blue heart without
changing my cold heart
Can you reach past the life
we’ve taken from you to
save my life and not
let white life pass me by
Dr. Nigger
save my life
without taking my life
Cure me without
touching me with nigga hands
Dance soft-shoe while
humming negro tunes
while you save my life
without changing my life
when my white life codes blue
Copyright © 2009 by Neal Hall, M.D.

Hypocrisy of Neo-liberial, pseudo leftist KPFA








Hypocrisy of Neo-liberial, pseudo leftist KPFA Radio

In his letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said he would rather be with the KKK than phony white liberals. The OJay’s told us “They smile in your face but all the time they want to take your place….”—or shall we say keep you in your place!

The arrogance of KPFA’s addiction to white supremacy or the intention to maintain a Jim Crow media is evident in the recent moves to eliminate quality programming, especially such programs as the Morning Show with Amy Allison, Hard Knock Radio with Davey D, Africa Today with Walter Turner and Transitions on Tradition with Greg Bridges. Clearly, to eliminate these shows is tantamount to eliminating the Black presence on this socalled progressive station.

But the supreme irony is how KPFA can eliminate Black shows while simultaneously beg for money by airing its extensive archives of Black social justice activists such as Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz, Martin and Coretta Scott King, James Baldwin, Cornell West, Angela Davis and others. It appears KPFA is squarely in the white supremacy tradition of “You love everything about me but me,” as Paradise tells us in his classic poem. If I may paraphrase, “You love the black voice, you love the black sound, you love the black knowledge, you love the black philosophy—you love everything about me but me!”

Yes, while the station is kicking black programs off the air, it is raising thousands of dollars for the continued pseudo leftist/Zionist programming. How arrogant can you be to think in 2010 only white people are qualified to discuss national and international affairs, or local affairs for that matter?

The American tragedy is that she never asked the descendents of kidnapped and enslaved Africans what they think about the world. We must listen to sick, depraved white people who think they are so damn smart but don’t know shit about the world as former Brazilian president Lula informed his French counterpart. “You blue-eyed people think you are so damn smart but it’s obvious you can’t solve the world’s problems because you are the cause of them.”

And yet you have the never to pimp the voices and wisdom of our ancestors for the benefit of white supremacy. Ishmael Reed is correct, you are the Jim Crow Media and the Nigger Breakers!

--Marvin X

Marvin X released five books in 2010: The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Mythology of Pussy and Dick, toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, I AM OSCAR GRANT, Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yosef; The Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life (Volume II, the Wisdom of Plato Negro). Available from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. His Reader’s Theatre recently performed at the San Francisco Theatre Festival. He is the guest editor of Poetry Issue, Journal of Pan African Studies.

Academy of da Corner,

14th and Broadway, Oakland

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com