WHITE SUPREMACY-2 BY MARVIN X

Monologue from One Day in the Life by Marvin X, a docudrama of his addiction and recovery from Crack

This is the most powerful drama I've seen!--playwright, poet, essayist, novelist Ishmael Reed

What upset me about this play is the selfishness of the addict, in spite of all the people and family who love him.--Viola Plummer, Sista's Place, Brooklyn New York

I could never bear the truth of my life as Marvin has done.--Rudi Wongozi

Monologue by Marvin X from his play One Day in the Life, a docudrama of his addiction and recovery from Crack

In the Name of Love, a play by Marvin X, Laney College Theatre, 1981

This scene is from Marvin X's 1981 classic In the Name of Love, a Laney College
production. Marvin X taught at Laney in the drama department at this time.

Marvin dealt with male/females relations in a White Supremacy culture, while the
descendants from the Slave System try to transend the box of patriarchal white supremacy culture, no matter that it also appears in African mythology and ritual as practiced by North American Africans.

Several of his students from his theatre class have gone on to greater things.
Ayodele Nzinga co-directed his 1997 production One Day in the Life, as well as co-directing this production at Laney. Ayodele has established her own Lower Bottom Playaz at the Thea Bowman Theatre in West Oakland at the Prescott Joseph Center, 10th and Peralta. Presently she is directing and
producing the works of August Wilson--the Piano Lesson is coming soon.

Marvin X says Ayo is his brightest student. "Ayo is so smart she simply observed my creative activities
and took what she could use and ran with it has been successful. A teacher doesn't want his students to hang around the nest but take the knowledge from him and go for self! Oyo is a prime example.

Please don't make me list my other outstanding students. This is not some ego trip but we want our students to continue the tradition of their teaching, don't corrupt his teachings or water them down with Miller Lite interpretations.

Recently, Ayo revived my first play Flowers for the Trashman, produced by the Drama Department at San Francisco State University while I was an undergrad, circa 1965. The script was written for Professor John Gardner, a novelist teaching in the English/Creative Writing Dept.

Marvin was flunking Professor Gardner's class, so the professor asked him to do what he liked as an assignment. Marvin wrote Flowers and the professor thought is should be produced by the drama department. Terrence Tyrell directed the production.

Another student, J. Vern Cromartie is a sociologist at Contra Costa College. See his research paper on Marvin X teaching at UC Berkeley. FYI, the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley has acquired the Marvin X archives.

Muhammad Speaks Reviews The Wisdom of Plato Negro by Marvin X

Marvin X has provided a reflective  work that explains the condition of Black people in America today. He not only explains how we have arrived at this wretched juncture in our history, but offers wisdom as to how we may regain the love of self and family that was decimated through the drug and cultural wars that were aimed at our people.

It is sad to note that a people who were coming of age and promise in the 1960’s and 1970’s were nearly destroyed by the ‘deliberate’ crack epidemic which robbed us of ourselves, and robbed our children of their parents.

Marvin X candidly admits that his addiction to crack robbed his children of their father and his wife of a husband. 

The reader is indeed lucky that he survived his addiction, and that his talent for writing and storytelling survived so that his work may live as a testament and instruction to future generations.

He rightly describes the current economic crisis Black America sees itself in as our being the ‘donkey’ of the world that every other people ride to economic prosperity.  Black people live with this reality daily, as we patronize others who come to this country sell us food, liquor, do our nails, sell us hair, and the list goes on.  We witness them take our money, and deliberately not live in our community.  We know that they would never think of patronizing us.  Yet, we are willing participants in our own exploitation.

Why do we continue this path to economic destruction? Are we like the parable of the elephant as described by Marvin X? The circus elephant   tied by a simple rope and did as his trainer instructed, until one day, he decided to break free, wreaking havoc on everything in his path?

Are we Samson, who brought the pillars down on the temple and destroyed himself along with his tormentors?

The Wisdom of the Plato Negro is a must read for it explains the contemporary condition of our people. What path we will take to correct this condition is in our hands.

Raushana Karriem

Editor-in-Chief Muhammad Speaks Newspaper, Atlanta GA

8/29/12

Parable of the Poor Righteous Teacher

for Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee)

Sooner or later, they always come for the teacher. After all, the more popular, the more dangerous. The more serious and sincere, the more a threat to the bourgeoisie whose philosophy is do nothing, say nothing, know nothing. Thus, the serious teacher has no seat at the table. Yes, he is tolerated for a time, maybe a long time, but the plot was hatched the first day he arrived to teach, when the contract was signed, his doom was sealed.

No matter what chairs he established, no matter how many institutions he created in the name of God. The bourgeoisie care nothing for God, only as a cover for their filthy behavior in the dark, their winking and blinking at the water hole.

The teacher must know absolutely if he is on his job he won't have a job, for no matter how many years he gives of his soul, his mental genius, he is not wanted. No matter how many students he is able to raise from the box, his services are not wanted.

The bourgeoisie do not want Jack out of the box, this must be understood. They prefer Jack and Jackie stay confined and proscribed in the box of ignorance. They are mere pawns in the game of chance the bourgeoisie play until they are removed from power, after they steal all they can, when the coffers are empty, the institution bankrupt and they are under indictment.

Now they will never put down their butcher knives, never turn into Buddha heads. This is why one must practice eternal vigilance with them. They are planning and plotting the demise of the poor righteous teachers at every turn.

So the teacher must teach his students about power, but when he does, his exit papers are signed. He may not know this. He may believe he has friends on the board of trustees, but he is only fooling himself. He is a starry eyed idealist, a dreamer, who shall be awakened from his dream one day for sure. And on that day he shall find his office door locked. His classroom door secured by a guard. His students transferred to other colleagues he thought were with him. But they will only say to him, "Sorry, brother."
--Marvin X
4/5/10

Catch his reading and book signing on Saturday, Sept. 1, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, downtown Oakland. Call 510-200-4164 for more information. 

Bio of Marvin X

Above: Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X, circa 1978

Bio of Marvin X

Marvin X was born May 29, 1944, Fowler CA, nine miles south of Fresno in the central valley of California. In Fresno his parents published the Fresno Voice, a black newspaper.

Marvin attended Oakland’s Merritt College where he encountered fellow students how became Black Panther Party co-founders Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. They taught him black nationalism.  Marvin’s first play Flowers for the Trashman was produced by the Drama department at San Francisco State University, 1965.  Marvin X dropped out to established his own Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore, 1966, along with playwright Ed Bullins. Months later Marvin would co-found Black House with Eldridge Cleaver, 1967.

Marvin introduced  Eldridge Cleaver to Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.  Eldridge immediately joined the Black Panther Party.  Huey Newton said, “Marvin X was my teacher, many of our comrades came from his Black Arts Theatre: Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver,  Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier.”

One of the movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) Marvin X has published 30 books, including essays, poetry, and his autobiography Somethin’ Proper. Important books include Fly to Allah, poems, Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, essays on consciousness, and How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a manual based on the 12 step Recovery model.

Marvin received his MA in English/Creative writing from San Francisco State University, 1975. He has taught at San Francisco State University, Fresno State University, UC Berkeley and San Diego, Mills College, Merritt and Laney Colleges in Oakland, University of Nevada, Reno.  He lectures coast to coast at such colleges and universities as University of Arkansas, University of Houston, Morehouse and Spelman, Atlanta, University of Virginia, Howard University, Univ. of Penn, Temple Univ., Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, UMASS, Boston.

His latest book is the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. He currently teaches at his Academy of da Corner, 14^th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Ishmael Reed says, “Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."

For speaking, readings and performance, contact Marvin X @ jmarvinx@yahoo.com,
510-200-4164. www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com