Thursday, March 17, 2011

President Aristide Returns--God and the Devil in Haiti


President Aristide Returns
God and the Devil in Haiti




Baby Doc,
"Evil shall prevail!"



















God and the Devil in Haiti


When ousted Haitian President Aristide lands in Haiti, a man of God shall join Haiti's devil incarnate, Baby Doc. Of course the Great Satan is standing in the corner of the island throwing coal into the fire of Haiti's perennial political quagmire that has persisted since the revolution that ran out the Spanish, French and English and projected the island as the first Republic of liberated Africans in the Americas.

As the nation recovers from a devastating earthquake and cholera epidemic, we understand a priority of the White Supremacy nations is a first class hotel being built at the airport.

The elections this coming Sunday may be a repeat of the fraudulent elections of last year. For sure, the candidates are




Pres. Rene Preval and Pres. Jean Paul Aristide




hardly progressive, rather a conservative lot, including a singer and former first lady. The major political party has been banned from running, the party founded by Aristide.

The housing issue persists with million still in tents, rubble in the streets, parents with no school fees, sanitation, and ongoing corruption, drug dealing and money laundering.

Well, Haiti has one thing, if nothing else, hope! When God gave the devil power to torture Job, the devil could do any and everything except kill him. It may be this knowledge that allows the Haitians to survive under the very worse circumstances known to humanity.

But let us not forget the devil's plan is that evil shall prevail, thus we must keep all eyes on Baby Doc and his minions, especially his connection to the regime of the Great Satan. The devil planned and God planned, but we know God is the Best Planner!
--Marvin X
4/17/11
www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com

The Return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti

Press Conference and Emergency Rally

Friday, March 18

4:30 PM

United Nations Plaza, Hyde at Fulton, San Francisco


Haiti Action Committee welcomes and celebrates the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his homeland, after almost 7 years of forced exile in South Africa, following a coup against his government on Feb. 29, 2004, orchestrated by Haitian elites, France, Canada, and the United States. “The return of Aristide is a tribute to the love the Haitian people have for the president they elected twice with overwhelming majorities, and their persistent demand for his return, in spite of adamant opposition from the coup supporters, and a continuing United Nations occupation force of almost 12,000 personnel,” said committee member Ayana Labossiere.


We condemn the threatening language of the State Department, and its ongoing and blatant efforts to disrupt true democracy in Haiti. On March 14, U.S. State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner said, “We would urge former President Aristide to delay his return until after the electoral process has concluded, to permit the Haitian people to cast their ballots in a peaceful atmosphere. A return prior to the election may potentially be destabilizing to the political process.

These so-called “elections” excluded the participation of Haiti’s largest party, President Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas, in the first place, and have forced a fraudulent “run-off” on Sunday, March 20, with two supporters of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, completely rejected by most Haitians. It is the United States that, since President Aristide was first elected in 1990, has refused to send funds directly to the Aristide government, blocked it from receiving signed international loans, economically destabilized it, and orchestrated his overthrow twice in 1991 and 2004 coups. Washington has also prevented the Fanmi Lavalas Party from participating in post-2004 coup elections.

If allowed to do so in peace, the Haitian people are perfectly capable of governing themselves wisely and democratically. They love President Aristide because his governments built more schools in their few short years in power than had been built previously in Haiti’s entire history, built clinics and a medical school, built parks in neighborhoods with no open space, raised the minimum wage, and tried to get the wealthy to pay taxes, making powerful enemies in the process.

We want people to understand that the enthusiasm with which President Aristide will be welcomed in Haiti reflects not only the affection of Haitians for this individual and respect for the office to which he was elected, but also their cry for a legitimate democratic process. This means recognition of their favored political party, non-interference by foreign elements in Haiti's internal affairs, and a respect for the political and structural changes brought about during President Aristide’s administrations.

Dear Bay Area Friends of Haiti,

We urge you to join Haiti Action Committee for an emergency rally Friday afternoon to support the historic return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti. As many know, President Aristide and his family departed South Africa for Haiti today, to banner headlines that read "Jean-Bertrand Aristide defies US by heading back to Haiti."

While this marks a great occasion, still the next 24 hours are critical as the US relentlessly pursues efforts to block the return of Haiti's most popular leader. Dozens of prominent lawyers and law professors sent a statement today to Cheryl Mills, US Dept of State Chief of Staff, criticizing US government interference with Aristide's constitutional and human right to return from forced exile. There are rallies planned across the country in NY, Boston, Florida, and the Bay Area to coincide with the anticipated popular celebrations that will - if all goes well - be held Friday in Haiti upon the arrival of President Aristide and his family.


We hope you will join us Friday, March 18th at 4:30PM at UN Plaza in San Francisco, Hyde at Fulton. Meanwhile follow the journey as Amy Goodman blogs from the plane that is bringing President Aristide and his family back to Haiti. Continue to demand the US annul Haiti's phony elections slated to be held this Sunday, March 20th - between two right wing Duvalierist candidates who together won 10% [6% and 4% respectively] of the vote in widely discredited November elections.


In solidarity,


Haiti Action Committee
www.haitisolidarity.net and on FACEBOOK

For the Women, an Afternoon of Poetry, Drama and Dialogue






Aries Jordan,
poet, actress,
Assistant Minister,
First Poet's Church


photo Gene Hazzard























Hunia Bradley,

Minister of Ceremony




For the Women, A Womanhood Rites of Passage

On Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Bay Area Black Authors present For the Women, A Womanhood Rites of Passage. Through poetry, drama and dialogue, we will experience a ritual of healing from the ravages of White Supremacy patriarchal domination that has repressed and oppressed women, along with men and children.





Aries Jordan


Sexual repression is the dominant theme in White Supremacy culture, the dehumanization of the woman as chattel or personal property. The scene from Vagina Monologues, enacted by Aries Jordan, attempts to break the woman from hatred and rejection of her body, to appreciate and love herself.













Phavia Kujichagulia, Griot, Minister,
First Poet's Church

Yo, Yo, Yo by Phavia Kujichagulia says it all regarding the true social status of the woman, "If you think I am just a physical thing, wait til you see the spiritual power I bring." The poem returns women to their divine status, transcending the physical.




Jasmin Conner, Assistant Minister,
First Poet's Church

photo Gene Hazzard

Jasmin Conner's scene from For Colored Girls comments on men and the ritual of being sorry, Mr. Pitiful, attempting to wake them up to stop being sorry and up their game by doing the right thing. Being sorry becomes meaningless after a repetition of negative behavior. One atones by stop doing reprehensible acts.



Mechelle LaChaux
,
actress, Minister of
Song, First Poet's
Church

Woman on the Cell Phone considers the last rite or death. We see Woman, Mechelle LaChaux, in her casket talking on the cell phone to a girlfriend, commenting on those present at her funeral and what she might expect as she transcends to heaven or hell.




Opal Palmer Adisa, poet, playwright

Bathroom Graffiti Queen is Opal Palmer Adisa's classic womanhood rite of passage, the counterpart to Amiri Baraka's The Toilet. Queen, a shaman woman, is seer of the woman's room, deciphering female graffiti of pain and suffering, offering wisdom to women in search of their true selves. Ayodele's performance is masterful. She is without equal among Bay Area women actors, or men for that matter.



Ayodele Nzinga, Minister of
Poetry and Theatre,
First Poet's Church








Jerri Lange, Minister of Woman's Affairs, Media,
First Poet's Church

The afternoon concludes with Jerri Lange facilitating a discussion on womanhood rites of passage, based on the above presentations. After opening remarks, the panelist do Q and A.

We hope you will plan to attend but come early as seating is limited. The Joyce Gordon Gallery is located at 406 14th Street at Franklin, downtown Oakland. jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Sponsors: Bay Area Black Authors, Post Newspaper Group, Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre, San Francisco Recovery Theatre, Lower Bottom Playaz, Center of Hope Church, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists, Black Chauncey Bailey Project, National Prisoner Book Day, Joyce Gordon Gallery.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Black History with Bobby Seale



On February 19, 2011

Bay Area Black Authors, and
Post Newspaper Group
presented
Journal of Pan African Studies
Poetry Festival and Chauncey
Bailey Book Fair at
Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland


photos Gene Hazzard




















Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale
and Marvin X. Before founding the BPP, Bobby performed in Marvin's Black Arts West theatre, 1966.

















Ministers of Poetry
Phavia Kujichagulia and Marvin X


















Bobby Seale gagged
and chained
in court after charged
with disturbing the peace
of the 1968 Democratic
Convention in Chicago









Poet Charles Blackwell









Bobby Seale stole the show at yesterday's poetry festival and book fair, sponsored by Bay Area Black Authors and the Post Newspaper Group at the Joyce Gordon Gallery. The main purpose of the event was to purchase books from local authors for donation to the incarcerated at juvenile hall, country jail and prisons. The PNG purchased ten books from selected authors.

A woman commented to organizer Marvin X, "This is so beautiful and peaceful." We think she reflected the consensus of opinion on the event that had a full house in spite of the rain.

Black Panther Party co-founder, Bobby Seale was called to speak by his friend from Merritt College, 1962-64, Marvin X. Bobby was to told to speak for five minutes, but once he began reciting Bay Area and Black Panther history, the MC, Brother Ptah told Marvin X later, "He was not about to interrupt the Chairman and co-founder of the BPP. "Marvin X, you were the only one with enough stature to tell Bobby give up the mike." Bobby talked about a half hour.

But we didn't want to stop Bobby from giving his narrative on how he and Huey came together to found the organization that became one of the biggest threats to the national security of the United States during the 60s, according to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

After Marvin X recited the list of books that Huey Newton, Bobby and he studied outside of class at Merritte College while they unknowingly became the new black intelligentsia of the 60s, he called out for Bobby to help him remember such books as:

Huey P. Newton, BPP co-founder

Myth of the Negro Past, Melville J. Herskivits
Negro Slave Revolts, Herbert Aptheker
Neo-Colonialism, the last stage of imperialism, Kwame Nkrumah
History Will Absolve Me, Fidel Castro
Black Bourgeoisie, E. Franklin Frazier
Black Reconstruction, W.E.B. DuBois
Wretched of the Earth, Franz Fanon
Facing Mt. Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta

Bobby told how he came into black consciousness while working as an engineer and a Merritt College student. It is quite astounding to her black history from the horse's mouth, not filtered by revisionism. And Bobby's memory is precise, down to names, dates and times covering fifty years of history.

The audience was in a trance at his presence and presentation. He recalled his relationship with Marvin X, even recited Burn, Baby, Burn, a poem by Marvin X on the Watt's Rebellion in 1965. There are those who say this is Marvin X's greatest poem. Marvin X has never told Bobby he was in the audience when Bobby recited Burn, Baby, Burn in Harlem, 1968, in front of the Theresa Hotel, New York's Academy of da Corner at 7th Avenue and `125th Street. By this time there was a rift between the Black Arts Movement and the Black Panthers, so they were not speaking. It was an ideological issue over the use of whether or not to use arms in the black liberation movement.

The BPP denounced so-called cultural nationalists and intellectuals for not picking up arms. The BPP did not come to an understanding of the role of culture and art in the liberation of a people until they attended the Pan African Cultural Festival in Algiers, Algeria, then they softened their attack on artists and cultural activists.


Marvin X introduced Eldridge Cleaver to his friends Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. EC immediately joined the BPP. Bobby Seale has said Marvin kept Eldridge from the BPP, then in another breath blames Marvin for bringing the Minister of Information to the BPP. Marvin did indeed take Eldridge to the the BPP to get him out of the Black House, the political cultural center they had founded, along with playwright Ed Bullins and Marvin's mate, Ethna X (Hurriyah). But when EC joined the BPP, they immediately kicked out the artists and established the Black House as the San Francisco headquarters of the Black Panther Party.


Ironically, Huey Newton said, "Marvin X was our teacher, many of our comrades came through his Black theatre, including Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver (Black House), Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier, George Murray."

This art work by Elizabeth Catlett Mora demonstrates the necessary unity between art and political liberation, as well as the necessity of male/female unity. During his second exile, Marvin X came to Mexico City seeking refuge from refusing to fight in Vietnam. Elizabeth and her husband gave him refuge. When he walked in their casa, Elizabeth was working on this piece.

Bobby told how he used to recite the poem as a prologue in X's second play Come Next Summer. Bobby played the lead role. He told of his arrest for reciting Burn, Baby, Burn on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, at the height of the socalled Free Speech Movement.

On the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Bobby started a one man riot, breaking windows and kicking in doors. His talk ended with a recitation of the preamble to the US Constitution. The audience was ecstatic.

Another highlight was Phavia Kujichagulia's reading of her poem about the Human Race and her classic Yo,Yo, Yo, with the classic refrain on the feminine gender, "If you think I'm just a physical thing, wait til you see the spiritual power I bring." Marvin X used the line as the leit motif in his controversial pamphlet on male/female sexuality that Oakland youth and adults claim it empowers them.



San Francisco's first North American African poet laureate, devorah major, also read her entry in the JPAS. Her father, Reginald Major, was a BPP supporter who authored a book on the Panthers.


Ed Howard was introduced as a member of the West Oakland Renaissance Committee, a group of elders who grew up in West Oakland. Also acknowledged was Leonard Gardner, another member of the group that includes Maxine Ussery, Paul Cobb, Larry Moore, Joe Johnson,
Marvin X, et al. Ed Howard tried to redefine language usage with his call to utilize the term "slave system" rather than refer to us as slaves, since impossible for slaves to build the American civilization. How could slaves design and build the White House? How could slaves fight and die in the American revolution? How could slaves publish a newspaper in 1827, Freedom's Journal?

Queen Mother Jerri Lange read from her book Jerri: A Black Woman's Life in the Media, a narrative of her life as one of the first black women to have a television show in the Bay Area.

Fritz Pointer, professor emeritus of English at Contra Costa College (brother of the Pointer Sisters), read his entry in the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry issue, guest edited by Marvin X. JPAS Senior Editor, Itibari M. Zulu read his poem about wanting to be like Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Fritz's poem claimed that Oakland residents experienced an "obscene pride" when Mixon shot four OPD officers. Sadly, Fritz claimed, many citizens rejoiced after suffering years of abuse from police under the color of law, down to the present moment with the BART police murder of Oscar Grant, the OPD killing brother Jones and others. Indeed, the Black Panther Party was formed in response to the Richmond police killing of Denzil Dowell. The first issue of the Black Panther Newspaper headlined the Denzil Dowell murder.

Dr. Fritz Pointer

Music was provided by DJ Jah D, drummer Kwic Time and Blues living legend, Augusta Collins.
Ptah Allah El, author of two book under the mentoring of Marvin X, read his controversial poem Black Studies Went to College But Never Came Home. Another author being mentored by Plato Negro, Ishmael Reed's title for Marvin X, is Aries Jordon, who released her first book of poetry at the event. Her entry also appears in the Journal of Pan African Studies that Ptah calls the New Bible because it comes as we enter the new millennium and is an expression of Pan African Consciousness as we end this 25,000 year cycle of history. The JPAS thus presents advance history in accordance with African culture and civilization. Aries Jordon read a poem addressed to the elders and said she still awaits a response.

Members of Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre read from the JPAS: Geoffrey Grier
read an entry from Michael Simanga of Atlanta, Eugene Allen read Letter to the Governor of Mississippi by New York Poet Shaggy Flores, Jermaine Marsh read Dr. Nigger, by Dr. Neal Hall
of Philadelphia. Paradise Jah Love read his classic They Love Everything About Me but Me!"


Poet Marvin X did not read poetry but grabbed his famous grandson Jah Amiel and had the three year old recite the Arabic prayer Surah Al Fatihah after him, then told him, "Now go to you mama!" who was seated nearby. Amira, one of his three daughters, is a an attorney, a Yale University and Stanford Law School grad. Grandfather X told the audience at two years old, Jah Amiel told him, "Grandpa you can't save the world but I can."

Singer, actress Mechelle LaChaux closed out the Reader's Theatre segment performaning Parable of the Cell Phone by Marvin X, about a woman talking on the cell phone in her casket.
The audience went wild with applause.

Of course the event was also a tribute to slain Oakland Post Editor, Chauncey Bailey. Marvin X addressed Chauncey in his opening remarks, quoting what James Baldwin said on the assassination of Malcolm X, "The hand that pulled the trigger didn't buy the bullet." Marvin maintained those accused of killing Chauncey should be expanded beyond the Black Muslim Bakery Brothers to include the Oakland Police Department, since one of their officers mentored the Bakery brothers. Why would the sons of Dr. Yusef Bey kill the man who worked with their father for years at Soulbeat Television?

Marvin alleged it was because the brothers were inspired by their OPD mentor who was supposedly a member of the OPD group of black officers shaking down drug dealers, money laundering, planting false evidence, false arrests, and possible homicide (including the murder of Chauncey Bailey) under the color of law.

The mentor of the BMBB was in charge of the crime scene, no doubt a conflict of interest. This officer refused to interrogate an eye witness at the crime scene. A security guard at the scene recognized the officer as one of the police who used to shake him down back in his hustling days.

Bay Area Black Authors, in cooperation with the Post Newspaper Group, is planning an anthology of essays called The Black Bailey Project, in contrast to the Chauncey Bailey Project that has served as the establishment's version of events in the Chauncey Bailey matter.

Author Ishmael Reed uses the term Jim Crow Media to describe racism in the press. Marvin X says the establishment press represents and defends the state, not the people. The Chauncey Bailey Project has made millions of dollars spreading the state, (including the OPD and City Hall's version) of why Chauncey Bailey was killed: because he was investigating the Black Muslim Bakery bankruptcy proceedings--that was public information, along with the sexual allegations of the founder, Dr. Yusef Bey, though he was deceased.

Ironically, a woman at Saturday's event confronted Marvin X about the Black Bailey Project version. She reminded him that Chauncey had written an article in defense of Dr. Bey when he was indicted for sexual improprieties. If Chauncey defended Dr. Bey, this is more reason why his sons would not rush to kill him, unless they were motivated by their mentor, OPD officer Longmire.

In his remarks, Marvin X drew from Shakespeare's Othello. Chauncey Bailey's case is similar to how Iago planted seeds in the mind of Othello to make him kill his beloved Desdemona when she in fact, had been a faithful wife. Iago was motivated by pure racism, jealousy and envy. The OPD was motivated by fear that Chauncey's investigative journalism would reveal corruption at the OPD and City Hall. Indeed, then Mayor, now Governor Jerry Brown, is alleged to have said, "I'm going to stop that nigger from snooping around the OPD and City Hall." When Jerry Brown departed City Hall his internet records disappeared. Then comes Mayor Ron Dellums who calls upon Jerry Brown, in his persona of Attorney General, to investigate the Chauncey Bailey OPD investigation, when the AG, himself, needed to be investigated! By the way, we never learned the results of AG Jerry Brown's investigation. Don't hold your breath!

Bay Area Black Authors return to the Joyce Gordon Gallery during Women's History Month when the women poets in the Journal of Pan African Studies will read, along with a performance of Opal Palmer Adisa's drama Bathroom Graffiti Queen, a one-woman play directed and performed by Ayodele Nzingha. This Women's History event will be on Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street at Franklin, downtown Oakland.
For more information: jmarvinx@yahoo.com, www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Bay Area Black Authors take Books to Juvenile Hall


Bay Area Black Authors, Post Newspaper Group, Center of Hope Church, Hug A Thug Book Club, First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists are sponsors of a prison book project. The group is calling for a National Prisoner Book Day, May 20, a day after Malcolm X's birthday, in honor of the man best known for transforming his life through reading while in prison. All authors should send books to at least one of the 2.4 million incarcerated Americans, who comprise the largest prison population in the world.

The Post Newspaper group purchased books from twelve local authors: Ayodele Nzinga, Phavia Kujichagulia, Aries Jordan, Ptah Allah El, Charles Blackwell, devorah major, Renaldo Manuel Ricketts, Paradise Jah Love, Jerri Lange, Tureadah Mikell, Itibari M. Zulu, and Marvin X. "We thank Paul Cobb of the PNG for suggesting this project," says BABA organizer Marvin X. Paul says, "Crack a book before ya booked for Crack!"

Ptah Allah El, organizer of the Hug A Thug Book Club, authored of two books, says, "Our best minds are behind bars. But if they elevate their minds while locked down, their world is full of infinite possibilities."

Rev. Reems regularly visits Juvenile Hall and was joyful he can take in authors and their books for our incarcerated children.

The group will present For the Women, a womanhood rites of passage, Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Oakland. The Journal of Pan African Studies Women Poets will read, plus drama: monologue from Vagina Monologues, performed by Aries Jordan, scene from For Colored Girls, Jasmin Conner actress; Woman on the Cell Phone, Mechelle LaChaux, and Bathroom Grafitti Queen, performed by Ayodele Nzinga. A panel discussion follows the dramatic pieces, facilitated by journalist emeritus, author, Jerri Lange. Questions and Answers follow. Refreshments. The event is free but donations accepted. Please attend to purchase books from local authors. Send a book basket to the incarcerated. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
Photo from left to right
Rev. Brandon Reams, Marvin X, Ptah Mitchell
photo by Gene Hazard, Post Newspaper Group

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Marvin X to receive Award


Marvin X to receive Full Vision Arts Foundation's
2011 Inspired Artist Award


MARVIN X!!!

Congratulations! ... you have been selected to receive the Full Vision Arts Foundation's 2011 Inspired Artist Award for your sincere passion for the sustainability of the arts and entertainment industry and as a supporter of the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition and Festival. This year is the BABCCF's 25th Anniversary and it is our honor to recognize you - our dear BABCCF friend.

Please mark your calendar for Saturday, May 14th to attend the Inspired Artist Awards Gala Awards Reception which will be held at the Paramount Theatre on the beautiful Mezzanine Level. You and your guest will be our special guests for the evening. Special individual tickets will be on sale soon online for both the VIP Reception and Final Competition. The VIP reception will begin at 5pm and we ask that upon arrival to use the Broadway entrance. Following the VIP reception, you and your guest will also be recognized on stage during the Final Competition.

Over the past eight (8) years, since the inception of the Inspired Artist Awards, we have honored over 60 friends of the BABCCF, FVAF and of our beloved Bay Area community. We invite you to join the roster of honorees, from business and community leaders, industry professionals to artists and entertainers to include: D'Wayne Wiggins, Tony Toni Tone, Geoffrey Pete, Geoffrey's Inner Circle/Oakland Black Caucus; Aaron Goodwin, Goodwin Sports Management; Daryle Whyte, 100 Black Men of the Bay Area/First Fridays; Barbara Becnel, Neighborhood House of North Richmond House/leading advocate for Stanley Tookie Williams; Pastor Raymond Lankford of Healthy Oakland, actor William L. Johnson; Michael Wilson, Basquiat Vineyards; Bob Sumner, Def Comedy Jam, Hip Hop spoken word artist artist Ise Lyfe, Comedian/actor Don Reed and others who have all demonstrated their commitment and support of urban comedy, performing arts and entertainment.

Upon confirmation, please register online you and your one (1) guest to be our guests for the evening, at http://isahonorees2011.eventbrite.com.

More details will be forthcoming along with information for your guests to purchase tickets to attend the VIP reception and main event FINAL COMPETITION.
In the interim, please send your abbreviated bio and a high resolution photo in a jpeg format by March 30th to aid in our promotional announcements. We are so excited to have you as a partner. Questions, please please please feel free to email me.

As always we appreciate you our a BABCCF friend and excited to celebrate this pivotal year
with you!
Thanks a million and will talk to you soon.
LaNiece Jones
Awards Gala Producer
Inspired Artist Awards 2011



Marvin X on Award

Friends, the award is nice but Baraka told me to only accept "rewards" as that is the money! lol

Seriously, we are thankful for this recognition. It contradicts the thinking of my friends who have told me, "Marvin you will be rich and famous the day you die!"

Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm, please bring ten of your friends to Bay Area Black Authors event honoring Woman's History Month at the Joyce Gordon Gallery. It will be an afternoon of poetry, drama and dialogue by the most powerful women artists in the Bay Area and the world. Ayodele Nzinga, Phavia Kujichagulia, Tureada Mikell, Mechelle LaChaux, Jerri Lange are simply the very best the Bay Area has produced. Aries Jordan and Jasmin Conner are the next generation of conscious artists. The event is free but donations accepted. Refreshments served. Support local artists, especially authors. The Post Newspaper Group purchased books from 13 local writers for donation to Juvenile Hall. On Thursday, authors will accompany Center of Hope's Rev. Brondon Reems on a visit to Juvenile Hall and deliver books to the youth.

Please attend Saturday's event and purchase your book basket. BABA and PNG are calling for a National Prisoner Book Day to bring awareness to literacy and the need for literature among the 2.4 million incarcerated Americans, especially North American African inmates. We would like May 20 declared NPBD since it is a day after Malcolm X's birthday, the man most known for transforming his life by reading in prison.

On Friday at Academy of da Corner, while we were rehearsing on the street for the March 19th event, a brother came by who told poet/actresses Aries Jordon (performing a scene from Vagina Monologues) and Jasmin Conner (performing a scene from For Colored Girls) and myself that he read one of my books while serving time at Santa Rita Jail. He said the Bookmobile only comes by once a month, so he wanted to read something relevant, not trash. He was very honored to meet me and tell me he'd read one of my books in jail.

Hope to see you on Saturday. Our February 19th event was packed, some come early, seating is limited.

Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th Street
Downtown Oakland





Thursday, March 10, 2011

Bay Area Black Authors to Visit Juvenile Hall


Bay Area Black Authors to Visit Juvenile Hall


At the request of Center of Hope's Rev. Brondon Reems, Bay Area Black Authors will visit Oakland's Juvenile Hall to speak with and donate books made available by the Post Newspaper Group. The PNG obtained books from 13 local authors at the recent Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Festival and the Chauncey Bailey Book Fair held at the Joyce Gordon Gallery on February 19.

Rev. Reems is ecstatic Bay Area Black Authors will accompany him to share with the juveniles. For BABA organizer, Marvin X, the trip is reminiscent of the trip he and editors of Black Dialogue Magazine made to Soledad Prison in 1966, where they addressed the Black Culture Club chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and Alprentis Bunchy Carter. "We are happy to work with the Center of Hope to help improve literacy and appreciation of literature among the population at Juvenile Hall."

Rev. Reems also asked BABA to conduct a workshop at his church for members who are budding writers. Along with members of his church, Rev. Reems will attend the March 19, Women's History event produced by BABA, Academy of da Corner and the Post Newspaper Group. The event will be held at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, 3-6 pm. It features the Bay Area women poets published in the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue. Poets include Ayodele Nzingha, Phavia Kujichagulia, devorah major, Toreadah Mikell, Aries Jordan and Jasmin Conner. The women have asked BABA male authors to perform Marvin X's classic poem For the Women. It will be read by Paradise, Geoffrey Grier, Eugene Allen, Ptah Allah El, Jermaine, Michael Lange and Marvin X.

The afternoon event will showcase scenes from For Colored Girls, performed by Jasmin Conner,Vagina Monologue, performed by Aries Jordan, Woman on the Cell Phone, enacted by Mechelle LaChaux, and Opal Palmer Adisa's Bathroom Graffiti Queen, performed by Ayodele Nzinga.

There will be a panel discussion of Womanhood Rites of Passage, facilitated by media living legend and author Jerri Lange. Author Timothy Reed will also read from her novel. The event is free, but the public is encouraged to purchase books from local authors and donations will be accepted.

Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm
Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th Street
Oakland

Male Rape in the Hood


Male Rape in the Hood

Male rape appears to be a growing concern in the hood coast to coast. Several months ago a friend in Philadelphia called saying men were being gang raped on the street in the City of Brotherly Love. Apparently the love between brothers has turned to wrath. My friend said gangs of men were assaulting men and raping them at will.

Of course this is a not too infrequent occurrence among the jail and prison population. Men are often raped by prison gangs and those men with the physical power to subdue the weaker brothers, or those not affiliated with a gang, or those in a rival gang. Apparently this ritual of violence has spilled over to the wider society.

Yesterday, a young brother in downtown Oakland told of male rape cases he was familiar with. He swore if he was raped the rapist would be a homicide victim. He said the rapists were difficult to recognize since they did not look gay but often had the demeanor of brothers on the down low or men who look straight but prefer the booty call of other men. The young man said his father called such men booty bandits!

But we are aware there is a significant degree of male rape in the workforce and in the US military, along with female rate estimated at 30% for women in the military. This matter reminds us of the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, wherein the men came to Lot's house and demanded the angels inside. Lot offered his daughters but they insisted the prophet give up "the angels." They had no desire for his daughters. Shortly thereafter the town was destroyed by earthquake apparently for its iniquities.

We know rape in pandemic these days, most especially in war torn African nations such as the Congo, but also in the newly liberated South Africa where women are raped almost at will.
In the Congo women, girls, men and boys are victims of this act of violence.

Rape has always been a facet of war, usually the victors rape the vanquished. Most often in war, the men are killed and the women seized as the spoils or booty. Of course rape is about power and domination rather than any sexual craving. The rape of men or women is thus a power play to totally humiliate and destroy the dignity and humanity of the victim.

In the hood, male rape may also be tied to gang initiation, along with homicide. Not only can strangers fall victim to the initiate but he may be ordered to rape and/or kill his best friend to prove loyalty to the gang.

Is it not possible the hip hop fad of sagging pants may be a contributing factor to male rape in the hood since men walking about with their behinds showing is inviting to those predators seeking the male booty?

Rape seems a sign of the times, these days the world is not a pretty place but rather a war zone. Ray Charles called it the Danger Zone and said it was everywhere. I've said before, we must practice eternal vigilance, stay ever on the alert and aware of ones surroundings.
--Marvin X
4/10/11

Monday, March 7, 2011

For the Women

For the women
Who bear children and nurture them with truth
Who cook and clean behind thankless men
For the women
Who love so hard so true so pure
For the women
With faith in God and men
For the women
Alone with beer and rum
Searching for a man
At the club college church party
For the women
Independent of men
Searching their souls
Who smoke crack and freak
Who love only women
Who play and run and never show
Who rise in revolt in hand with men
Who say never never, never again
For the women who suffer abuse and cry for justice
For the women happy and free of maternal madness
For the women who study and write
For the women who sell their love to starving men
For the women who love to make love and be loved by men
For the women of Afrika who work so hard
For the women of American who suffer the master
For the women who turn to God in prayer and patience
For the women who are mothers of children and mothers of men
For the women who suffer inflation recession abortion recession
For the women who understand the rituals of men and women
For the women who share
For the women who are greedy
For the women with power
For the women with nothing
For the women locked down
For the women down town
For the women who break horses
For the women in the fields
For the women who rob banks
For the women who kill
For the women of history
For the women of now
I salute you. A MAN.
--Marvin X
Circa 1981

In honor of Women's History Month, Bay Area Black Authors present
a Celebration of Healing with the Journal of Pan African Studies Women Poets, plus dramatic performances from Colored Girls, Vagina Monologues, Bathroom Graffiti Queen and Parable of Woman on the Cell Phone. There will be a panel on Womanhood Rites of Passage, facilitated by author, media living legend Jerri Lange. Poets, actors, authors, singers include Ayodele Nzinga, Toreadah Mikell, Jasmin Conner, Aries Jordan, Phavia Kujichagulia and devorah major. Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., downtown Oakland. jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Reply to Marvin X from Rudolph Lewis on the American White Revolution

Rudy:

Dream on dreamer. If you wake up, you're hear the voice of the ancestors, "The worse is yet to come . . . we ain't nowhere near daylight."


Toppling a dictator and replacing it with an exceedingly wealthy military elite does not a revolution make.

Loving you madly, Rudy

Marvin X:

Rudy, you must look into the deep structure of things, far beyond the surface. When the husband beats a pregnant wife, this doesn't mean the baby won't be born. There may be some damage to the fetus but that baby is coming out for we know how much violence the woman is able to withstand, including the act of delivery itself. So we only know we are seeing things people predicted around 2012, a universal phenomenon that is beyond the imagination, and yes, we ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until the boys and girls rise up in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere on the oil lands and lanes. Wait til gas is ten dollars a gallon and a lemon five dollars. Just wait til the midnight hour.

Rudy:

Marvin, you're right: I do not know about the "deep structure of things." I do have my failings. But I suppose if I am expert at anything it is the nature of white people in America. I do wonder whether the same God who made my people made them. And if he did, what was he thinking: they have been a pestilence on the face of the earth. We need to have serious talk with His divine ways.

Let me be a prophet for a moment. As soon as the working class whites settle this matter with the Wisconsin governor, however it ends, they will be back talking about the intrusion of "niggers" in Milwaukee and Madison. Tell me, how do you think Walker got into office. I'll tell you: on a racist tip. These whites falling back into the pack of the poor thought the governor was going to take the war only to the Negroes. And what did they discover belatedly, it's gonna be class warfare and the poor whites and the marginal middle class whites, they too will be a sacrifice to the Koch brothers and other such wealthy bullies.

But this lesson will be short-lived as I suggested. As soo as these working class whites can they will betray the blacks for a farthing. That's a centuries old pattern. let us learn our history.

Hold out no hope for the struggle of black and white together, at least not in this decade.

Loving you madly, Rudy

Marvin X:

We can see from the Middle East that Arab zenophobia of Black Africans has tainted their freedom struggle. Yet this has been a long simmering problem in the Arab world just as it has been intractable and pervasive in the White Supremacy world of the West, especially in America. Thus, it must be clearly understood that liberation without recovery from the addiction to white supremacy, including Arab racism and American racism, will be short lived. As DuBois said, the problem in America is the color line, but we can expand this globally. Farakhan once said wherever he went on the planet earth the black man was on the bottom. When Cynthia McKinney was jailed in Israel she found Africans filled the jail, and we know the racial demographics of American gulags.

Without a global detox and recovery from the addiction to white supremacy in all its forms, and it is cunning and vile, surfacing its head in all religions and economic systems, there shall be no real peace in the world. Racism must be attacked in the Masjed, Church, temple, and all social institutions before the New Man and Woman can stand tall in the sun, racism and gender discrimination are pervasive in the global village. The new consciousness shall not function with any residue of racism and sexism.

We must note the Type II White Supremacy Dr. Nathan Hare speaks about that is the Black addiction to white supremacy mythology. Thus all forms of white supremacy must be eradicated before the modern world will be truly and thoroughly liberated.


America's White Revolution




America's White Revolution
Is America in the birth pains of revolution, of joining the struggle of people around the world for social and economic justice? What is the end game of the Tea Party goers and the unions struggling for their definition of social economic democracy? Will there inevitably be a clash between the unionists and workers on the Left and the Tea Party Constitutionalists on the Right? Or will they merge into the American White Revolution? Events are moving fast, from the Middle East to Wisconsin, Ohio, California and elsewhere.

We know dissatisfaction brings change, real change. The unemployed, the wage slave workers and other marginalized people will inevitably reach the breaking point. As the ruling class strengthen their stranglehold on the necks and backs of the middle and lower class, the more possibility for revolution with the great possibility that other ethnic minorities will join the liberation struggle.

As in the Middle East and North Africa, things will hit the fan in America when youth take to the streets, suffering marginalization, high unemployment, homelessness and mental depression. The feeling of nothingness and dread shall propel them into forward motion of the radical kind.

The workers, unemployed, students, artists, intellectuals, and religious communities shall see the need for unity and will merge their agendas for the greater good. When the people refuse to accept wage slavery and the concomitant world of make believe perpetuated by the media magicians and the Center Right Democratic and Republican parties in league with the military/corporate complex, the American White Revolution will begin.

We should expect the reactionaries to mount the counter attack with state police power that may approach events in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere, outright mass murder under the color of law, mass incarcerations utilizing the terrorist laws under Homeland Security.

The Right will attempt to defeat the masses to continue the regime of the American neo-slave system. But a people united cannot be defeated. Fanon taught that all de-colonization is successful. The reactionaries will be forced to put down their butcher knives in the face of people power. They will be forced to share the wealth, to open the coffers of the rich, the financial and corporate bandits and distribute the wealth stolen from the labor of the poor and middle class who have long suffered from the greedy blood suckers of the poor and working class.

With a united people practicing eternal vigilance, the corporate and Wall Street bandits shall be forced to end their hoarding of the wealth they hoodwinked and bamboozled from the workers and poor; the wage slavery, the pyramid scheme loans of the housing industry, the wretched outdated white supremacy curriculum in the schools, the poor devitalized food of the petro-chemical industry and the pharmaceutical directed health care system, dominated by the insurance companies, even under President Obama's health plan that was a capitulation to the bandits.

We smell a fresh breath of air blowing in the winds, yes, the east wind is blowing west. We think white people will be forced to stand from their stunted position, backs broken by the bloodsuckers of the poor, the working poor and middle class. The North American Africans have long suffered a stunted life, full of poverty, ignorance and disease, even the middle class live in the world of make believe, traumatized by the hostile environment and addicted to conspicuous consumption.

So we see the great possibility White America and North American Africans may see their way to Liberation Square, and if necessary, in the manner of the Egyptians, lay their blankets in front of tanks and take a nap, daring the tank driver to run them over, for their best poet told them not long ago: even a tank driver must serve somebody, must answer to somebody.
--Marvin X
4/5/11

Thursday, March 3, 2011

For the Women, an Afternoon of Poetry, Drama and Dialogue


For the Women
an Afternoon of Poetry, Drama and Dialogue
at the Joyce Gordon Gallery
Saturday, March 19, 3-6pm
406 14th Street, Oakland


MC Hunia Bradley

On Saturday afternoon, March 19, 3-6pm, the Bay Area will experience a collection of powerful women authors, poets and actors. Bay Area Black Authors present the women poets featured in the Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry Issue, guest edited by Marvin X, the godfather of the West Coast Black Arts Movement.

Bay Area poets in the JPAS include Phavia Kujichagulia, Ayodele Nzingha, Tureadah Mikell, Aries Jordan, devorah major.


Tureadah Mikell



Phavia Kujichagulia



devorah major








Ayodele Nzingha

The afternoon includes drama, including Opal Palmer Adisa's Bathroom Graffiti Queen, produced, directed and performed by Ayodele Nzinga of West Oakland's Lower Bottom Playaz.
Aside from her own plays, Ayo recently produced August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. A long time associate and former student of Marvin X, she's directed his In the Name of Love, 1981, One Day in the Life, 1997-2002, and a production of his 60s classic Flowers for the Trashman. Ayodele is considered the Bay Area's consummate black actress.

There will be a scene from Vagina Monologues performed by Aries Jordan, actress and poet, For Colored Girls by Jasmin Conner, poet, actress, novelist, and Parable of the Woman on the Cell Phone, enacted by singer, actress Mechelle LaChaux.


Mechelle LaChaux

The event concludes with a dialogue on Womanhood Rites of Passage, facilitated by media living legend and author Jerri Lange. Panelists include Ayodele Nzingha, Aries Jordan, Jasmin Conner, and Phavia Kujichuglia.



Jerri Lange

Sponsors include Bay Area Black Authors, Academy of da Corner Reader's Theatre, Post Newspaper Group, San Francisco Recovery Theatre, Lower Bottom Playaz, Black Bird Press.

This event is part of the Post Newspaper Group and Black Chauncey Bailey Project to donate books from local authors to persons incarcerated at juvenile hall, county jail and prisons.
The public is encouraged to attend and purchase books for donation to the incarcerated.
For more information: www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com, jmarvinx@yahoo.com.


An Afternoon of Poetry, Drama and Dialogue

Program

Welcome
Libations
Journal of Pan African Studies Women Poets
Aries Jordan
Phavia Kujichagulia
Tureada MIkell
Ayodele Nzingha
devorah major
Jasmin Conner

Drama
Parable of Woman on Cell Phone, Mechelle LaChaux
Vagina Monologue, Aries Jordan
For Colored Girls, Jasmin Conner
Bathroom Graffiti Queen, Ayodele Nzingha

Panel Discussion on Womanhood Rites of Passage:
Jerri Lange, Phavia Kujichagulia, Ayodele Nzingha,
Aries Jordan, Jasmin Conner

Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, downtown Oakland.
jmarvinx@yahoo.com


For the Women




For the women

Who bear children and nurture them with truth

Who cook and clean behind thankless men

For the women

Who love so hard so true so pure

For the women

With faith in God and men

For the women

Alone with beer and rum

Searching for a man

At the club college church party

For the women

Independent of men

Searching their souls

Who smoke crack and freak

Who love only women

Who play and run and never show

Who rise in revolt in hand with men

Who say never never, never again

For the women who suffer abuse and cry for justice

For the women happy and free of maternal madness

For the women who study and write

For the women who sell their love to starving men

For the women who love to make love and be loved by men

For the women of Afrika who work so hard

For the women of American who suffer the master

For the women who turn to God in prayer and patience

For the women who are mothers of children and mothers of men

For the women who suffer inflation recession abortion recession

For the women who understand the rituals of men and women

For the women who share

For the women who are greedy

For the women with power

For the women with nothing

For the women locked down

For the women down town

For the women who break horses

For the women in the fields

For the women who rob banks

For the women who kill

For the women of history

For the women of now

I salute you. A MAN.

--Marvin X

Circa 1981