Richard Pryor Lives by Cecil Brown

RICHARD PRYOR IN BERKELEY

• PRYOR LIVES!

Fruitvale Station

22JUN

Ryan Coogler, director the film ‘Fruitvale Station’, & Cecil Brown

Yesterday evening, I attended the premier of the Oscar Grant film Fruitvale Station. Years before Oscar Grant was even born, Richard Pryor warned the black community of police brutality. He joked publicly about how the police kill black people and claim it was an “accident.”
The officer who killed Oscar Grant claimed it was an “accident.”

White cops always claimed it was an accident when they kill black people. Richard made us laugh about this cosmic excuse years ago.
“How can you just make a mistake and kill a nigger? Ooops! my gun just went off and killed a few niggers” he exclaimed, causing all of those who were listening to laugh. He made us aware of the inhumane way that white policemen treat black people when they are stopped. Richard told us how to react when the police ask us our identification. We know that before we can reach for our driver licenses, we must yell loud so that everybody can hear us, I AM REACHING FOR MY DRIVER’S LICENSE!

The movie about Oscar Grant’s tragic life, however, was not funny. Even as you sat in the audience, you hear the tears of people crying in the darkened theater. The film was gripping and emotionally draining.

Cecil Brown & Cephus Johnson, Oscar Grant’s uncle.

I asked Cephus, Oscar’s uncle, if he thought white Americans would embrace the film. Yes, he said, because it is a story that all people can relate to. He said that the audience in Cannes loved it, including the white audience.
In my book, Pryor Lives!, I tie Richard’s theme of police brutality to Oscar Grant, and other murders of black men in this country.

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Richard Pryor Documentary Screening in LA – May 28

31MAY

Here is Rashaan, Cecil, Marie Zenovich, the director of the new Richard Pryor documentary Omit the Logic, and Stan Shaw.

Thom Mount was Richard’s favorite producer. Here he is in between Cecil, Rashaan, and Stan Shaw. He produced the movies, Bill Durham, a romantic comedy about baseball, Which Way Is Up?, and 10 other films that Richard starred in.

Here is Cecil, with Sara Hutchison, the producer of  Omit the Logic.

This is Stan Shaw, one of Richard’s best friends who also starred with him in several movies.

Tags: Bay Area, California, Cecil Brown, Oakland, Richard Pryor

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FRONT COVER

BACK COVER

RICHARD PRYOR

Uncle Clarence Thomas Wooly Head on test of North American African Citizenship in USA

(Twitter via City Pages)

As a poet, I declare poetic license to call Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas an Uncle Tom nigguh who  is obsessed with his lips and tongue in the white man's ass, or shall we say white woman, or shall we quote Dr. Nathan Hare, "The white woman is the white man in drag!"

On the more serious level, isn't it amazing those North American Africans who claim American citizenship are yet a matter for debate and judgment by whom, the Slave Masters of old and their sycophants as in Judge Clarence Thomas. But what is shameful is not the demented actions of a traumatized descendent of slaves, but the actions of the descendent of the slave master himself, his children, who languish in the pig pen of white privilege and thus white supremacy, whether knowingly or unknowingly. 

A Minnesota state representative has apologized for a tweet in which he referred to black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "Uncle Thomas."

Shortly after the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act was announced on Tuesday, Ryan Winkler, a Democratic lawmaker from Minnesota's 46th District, tweeted:

#SCOTUS VRA majority is four accomplices to race discrimination and one Uncle Thomas.

The tweet was subsequently deleted, and Winkler issued several apologies on Twitter, claiming he wasn't aware he had used a racial epithet.

"I did not understand 'Uncle Tom' as a racist term, and there seems to be some debate about it," Winkler wrote in response to a tweet linking to a blog post about his offensive message.

But there does not appear to be much debate. "Uncle Tom" refers to the faithful slave in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a black who is overeager to win the approval of whites." Winkler's tweet suggested Thomas voted to gain the approval of his Caucasian counterparts.

"I didn't think it was offensive to suggest that Justice Thomas should be even more concerned about racial discrimination than colleagues," Winkler wrote on Twitter. "But if such a suggestion is offensive, I apologize."

According to Winkler's biography on the state House website, he earned a bachelor's degree in history at Harvard. He was elected in 2006.

In a statement posted to the site, Winkler added:

I was very disappointed today in the Supreme Court decision to roll back key provisions of the Voting Rights Act because I believe the Voting Rights Act is one of the most important steps our nation has taken to eliminate racial discrimination.

In expressing that disappointment on twitter, I hastily used a loaded term that is offensive to many. My words were inappropriate and I apologize. The implications of this Supreme Court decision are serious for our state and country and I regret that my comments have distracted from the serious dialogue we must have going forward to ensure racial discrimination has no place in our election system.

Winkler told Minnesota's Star Tribune he simply thought the epithet meant "turncoat."

"I intended to point out the fact that Justice Thomas had turned his back on African-American civil rights," Winkler said. "I did not intend it as a racially derogatory term and I probably reacted too hastily in using a word that is very loaded."

[Hat tip: Daily Intelligencer/City Pages]

Khalifa Speaks on the New Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, Attorney Chokwe Lumumba, Black Power!

Chokwe Lumumba

Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi--Black Power!

Tuesday (Red) 6/25/2013=GEB/Ausar = Divine Balance…The Law of GEB
predominates the ability to Balance entities in life. Specically
Balancing our Spirituality and Physicality is the key to being in tune
to the Divine Order of The Creation. The Law of Ausar speaks for
itself

——————————————————

The thought now is, if you understand the difference, and you acquire
the power to make a difference rather than maintain the status quo,
power will be use to make that difference. This is in our own best
interest.

——————————————————————————————–

MAYOR-ELECT CHOKWE LUMUMBA

INAUGARATION IN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI BIG EVENT

The election of City Councilman Chokwe Lumumba Mayor of Jackson,
Mississippi is more important, and has more significance than the
election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States of
America.

Sure, the sheer power of being president of the United States of
America is a tremendous personal accomplishment. And contrary to what
many choose to believe, the mass majority of Black people who voted
for him understood his election did not mean he would be their
liberator.

Some Black people in the Black Liberation Struggle accepted and acted
on what our premier historian, Prof. John H. Clarke told us, “we
have no permanent friends and we have not permanent enemies.”
Fortunately there appear be a groundswell of others who are coming to
accept this statement and act accordingly.

Applied to the “Acquisition and Proper Use of Power
<http://www.black-e-books.com/home/2-the-acquisition-and-proper-use-of-power.html>
,” this means using whatever power available that can be used
correctly in the Liberation Struggle of African people. This also
means using power in our own best interest rather than in the best
interest of our oppressors.

HOW WILL CHOKWE LUMUMBA USE POWER

HOW HAS BARACK OBAMA USED POWER

It means using the available power that Black people in the Liberation
Struggle once shunned, for the most part in the past. Please don’t
confuse the struggle of those who want to LIBERATE Black people with
those who want to INTEGRATE Black people into White Supremacy based
systems.

For the most part, “back in the day,” we who struggled to Liberate
Black people felt we could best use our power outside of “the
system” rather than being a part of the government. i.e. holding
political office.

Clearly this feeling is changing. Hopefully, the thought now is, if
you understand the difference, and you acquire the power to make a
difference rather than maintain the status quo, power will be used to
make that difference. This is in our own best interest.

However, if you don’t understand the difference, for whatever
reason, and you acquire the power to be part of the status quo, it
means you must sell out the best interest of Black people in favor of
what is in the best interest of white people. Therefore, you will be
unable to discern what is the common interest of the two people from
what is in the best interest of your own people.

In the cases of President Barack Obama and Chokwe Lumumba, Black
people didn’t expect Barack Obama to be our liberator, he never said
he would be; and he has not tried in any way to be. There is
absolutely nothing about Barack Obama’s College life
experience/college prof., his writings or tremendous ability to make
inspiring speeches that indicate he UNDERSTANDS what The Liberation
Struggle of African people is.

Meanwhile, Mayor-Elect Chokwe Lumumba life experience as a Trial
Lawyer, writer, and the ability to make tremendous, inspiring speeches
lets us know on no uncertain terms that he absolutely DOES UNDERSTAND
what the Liberation Struggle of Black people is. His past life
experience/Defense Trial Lawyer is the best indication of how he will
govern as the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.

As a defense lawyer in courtrooms throughout America, Chokwe Lumumba
had the ability to see clearly what was in the best interest of his
clients. When he saw what was in the best interest of the man or woman
he was defending, he invariably found a way to reach the goal. That
was for the jury to find his client “Not Guilty.”

How will he govern Jackson, Mississippi remains to be seen. But there
are some things that his pass success in whatever Chokwe Lumumba have
fought for tells us: 1) There will be no confusion about what is in
the COMMON interest of people he swears to serve 2) He will see
clearly what is in the best interest of Black people.

END PART ONE

B.B. King- The Thrill is Gone

Academy of da Corner at Berkeley Juneteenth

Poet/teacher Marvin X in front of his Academy of da Corner booth, with librarian Ayiba (Linda) Jolivet and UC professor emeritus/novelist Cecil Brown, who will release his latest work PRYOR LIVES (How Richard Pryor became Richard Pryor), a study, memoir and biography rolled into one.

photo Princess O. Davis

Academy of da Corner booth, Berkeley Juneteenth 2013

photo Princess O. Davis


Academy of da Corner is a multipurpose educational project of the Marvin X Ministry.
Aside from spreading literacy and literature, Academy of da Corner serves as a crisis counseling center, a mentoring center and a micro loan bank. Two of Marvin X's students, Aries Jordan and her sister Toya recently published their first collections of poems.

We also operate the Community Archives Project to educate common people to stop trashing their archives upon the transition of elders to ancestor hood. "Don't throw away shit!" says Marvin X.
"I am guilty of trashing my archives from the 60s. My guilty is part of the reason I formed the Community Archives Project so that we stop throwing out our history, the family records containing letters, notebooks, diaries, manuscripts, photos, videos, audio tapes of what happened to us in the wilderness of North America. This history will shock the world--it will make the Jewish Holocaust a story for kindergarten children. Read The New Jim Crow, Post-traumatic Slave Syndrome, Medical Apartheid, The Black Anglo-Saxons, How to Recover from White Supremacy, et al.

Academy of da Corner through Black Bird Press, publishes the works of Marvin X, including the books, pamphlets, DVDs and CDs of X's plays, readings, conferences, festivals and other events.
"Marvin X's events are High Culture!" says a patron. A list of books, audio and video works is available.

We are presently agent for the archives of  Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare. We would like to see their archives  acquired by an institution that will insure their archives will be accessible to the community as well as academics. If you know of such an institution, please contact me at the earliest. The price is negotiable. FYI, Dr. Nathan Hare is the Father of Black Studies and founding publisher of The Black Scholar Magazine. Dr. Julia Hare was called the female Malcolm X!
--Marvin X,
Academy of da Corner,
Community Archives Project
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
510-200-4164

Ayo's Poem

1. • 
     

     the fig tree is still

     no birdsong silent

     Sitting Bull & I know

     
     

     it knows I am leaving
     landless me in conversation
     with Oya who tells me
     change is on the wind
     so I have packed my bags
     I am once again on the
     path rocks and all traveling
     forward, sword at my side,
     wind at my back
     searching for light
     looking for ink cups
     on the sills of windows
     to write down my
     dreams in indigo

      

     —Ayodele Nzinga
     
     Ayodele, now Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, PhD, is Marvin X's top student, since she enrolled in his drama class at Laney College, 1981. She has directed several of his play, including In the Name of Love, Laney College Theatre, 1981, One Day in the Life, Malonga Center, 1996, Flowers for the Trashman, 2009. Dr. Nzinga is founder and director of the Lower Bottom Playaz in West Oakland. There she has produced the works of August Wilson (working on the complete cycle), Opal Palmer Adisa and her own. She has turned her six children into thespians.

Marvin X and Queen Rahmana Ali at Berkeley Juneteenth

The USA's Rumi, Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland, Black Arts Movement co-founder, Marvin X with the Divine Black Queen, Mother of the Universe, Rahmana Ali.

BB King and Bobby Blue Bland, Live On Soul Train 1975

Bobby "Blue" Bland - I Pity The Fool

Bobby "Blue" Bland-Cry Cry Cry

Marvin X sings the Blues for Bobby Blue Bland (RIP)

Book Signing tonight in NYC: Evolution of a Black Nationalist Revolutionary

We met Herman Ferguson during his exile from America in Guyana, SA, 1972. He was among a group of North American Africans who'd taken refuge from American racism at the invitation of the Forbes Burnham Black Power government. Also there were Tom Feelings, Julian Mayfield, Mamadou Lumumba, et al. Long live the Revolutionary Black Nationalist, Herman Ferguson!--Marvin X

 June 24th, 2013 7:30 PM

BOOK SIGNING & DISCUSSION

An Unlikely Warrior- Evolution of a Black Nationalist Revolutionary

Iyaluua Ferguson & Herman Ferguson

An Unlikely Warrior tells the amazing biographic story of Herman Ferguson. The book chronicles his evolution from an “ all- american “ boy growing up in the Jim Crow South to a Pan Africanist/ Black Nationalist activist who has been involved in the Political Prisoner Movement, Reparations Movement, and a myriad of other social justice movements. A former NYC Public School Assistant Principal, Ferguson, now 92 years young, was a founding member of Malcolm X’s Organization Of Afro American Unity. A target of the infamous COINTELPRO campaign by the United States government and NYPD against the Black Liberation movement, Ferguson was charged with conspiracy to kill two prominent civil rights and , upon conviction, went into exile for nearly twenty years. When he returned to the US, he was incarcerated. Although close to 70 years of age upon his release from prison, Ferguson rejoined the movement for Black equality and human rights, forming the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee , co- founding the Jericho Movement, and other organizations.

Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15

Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers

Brecht Forum

451 West Street

(WESTSIDE HIWAY AND BANK STREET)

New York, NY 10014

Eyes on the Sparrow: J. Herman Blake, PhD

We first met Dr. Blake when we worked as a researcher at UC Berkeley, 1964,
writing case histories of the "culturally deprived." Dr. Blake helped bring Malcolm X
to UCB where he spoke before seven thousand students in front of Sproul Hall. Years later, Dr. Blake assisted Huey Newton in the writing of his autobiography Revolutionary Suicide and his PhD dissertation. The last time we talked was when he was appointed Chair of the Gullah Studies Department, University of South Carolina. Blake is a Gullah from Johns Island, along with Amiri Baraka whose original family name was Johns but changed it to Jones when they left the island.

Dr. Blake was given a spacious building but we heard the racists had no intention to have a nigger in such an elaborate facility. He was soon gone. Not long ago he delivered a lecture in the Bay Area at a sociology conference. He told how he visited Huey P. Newton almost daily while he was in prison.

Dr. Blake is one of those persons who shuns the center stage but is critical in the background.
--Marvin X