Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Kiss My Black Arts

The Black Arts Movement Conference will gather at the University of California, Merced, Feb. 28, March 1-2, 2014.

Special invited guests include Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Ishmael Reed, Askia Toure, John Bracey, James Smethurst, Mike Sell, Juan Felipe Herrera, Genny Lim, Jerry Varnado, Terry Collins, James (Jimmy) P. Garrett, Belva Davis, Marvin X, Adilah Barnes, Nathan Hare, Tarika Lewis, Destiny Muhammad, Tacuma King, Earl Davis and others.
--A Kim Macmillan/Marvin X production

Sonia Sanchez, Queen Mother of BAM

Askia Toure, Rolland Snellings, one of the BAM Godfathers

Amina and Amiri Baraka, Queen and King of BAM

Marvin X, West Coast Godfather of BAM

In less than five years, America will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. Sonia Sanchez, one of the leading voices of the Black Arts Movement believes that “The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the “Negro’s” reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” These positive images of blackness were celebrated on August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. At the 1963 gathering, Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech represented the pinnacle of hope of freedom for all Americans. The question that must be asked fifty years later is “have we achieved that dream?” We must all ask, with the upcoming 50^th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, have the images of blackness in America changed? Is blackness still seen as inferior? In Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art,” first published in the liberator in 1966, he writes:

Clean out the world for virtue and love,

Let there be no love poems written

until love can exist freely and

cleanly….We want a black poem. And a

Black World.

Let the world be a Black Poem

And Let All Black People Speak This Poem

Silently or LOUD

Are black people speaking their poems, their truth about blackness? Has the Black Arts Movement created the hoped for change in how black people view themselves?

These questions and more will be explored at the International Conference on the Black Arts Movement and its influences at UC Merced, March 1-2, 2014. The call for papers on a worldwide level is asking the larger questions beyond race, and culture as we examine what happened during the Black Arts Movement, and how that changed us as a nation, and as a world. The Black Arts Movement, the spiritual twin of the Black Power Movement is noted for having changed how African Americans viewed themselves as a race. African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s created a new vision of blackness, one that celebrated the uniqueness of black culture. This call for papers invites scholars of all cultural and racial backgrounds to submit work that illustrates the influence of the Black Arts Movement, both past and present. The Chicano, Asian, Women’s, Disability Rights, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movements were all influenced by the Black Arts and Black Power Movements, establishing new academic fields of study, and empowering those that society had marginalized.
--Kim McMillan

Contact Kim McMillan at kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014

1^ST Floor Lantern (Kolligian Library)

8:00 – 8:30 AM Registration, Coffee/Tea and Light Refreshments

8:30 – 9:00 AM Welcoming Remarks (9:00 am – 5:00 pm

9:15 – 10:15 AM Multicultural Panel (Lakireddy Auditorium)

Belva Davis, Panel Moderator

Juan Felipe Herrera, California Poet Laureate

Genny Lim, Poet & Activist

Al Young, California Poet Laureate Emeritus

Avotcja, Poet

10:30 – 11:30 AM Black Power and Black Arts Roundtable (Lakireddy Auditorium)

Nigel Hatton, Moderator

Sonia Sanchez, Poet, Playwright, Teacher

John Bracey, UMass Amherst

James Smethurst, UMass Amherst

Amiri Baraka, Producer, Writer, Activist (still waiting for confirmation)

Marvin X, Playwright, Activist

11:30 – 1:00 PM Luncheon

1:15 – 2:00 PM Marvin X, Keynote Speaker

2:15 – 3:15 PM Theatre of the Black Arts Movement (speakers TBA)

4:00 – 5:30 PM Northern and Central California Voices of the Black Arts Movement Installation

Merced Multicultural Arts Center

S.O.S. – Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader

Discussion with editors: John H. Bracey Jr., Sonia Sanchez, and James Smethurst

Dinner

7:00 – 9:00 PM Theatre of the Black Arts Movement

(Excerpts from the plays of Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed, Lorraine Hansberry, and George Wolfe) Performed by Michael Lange, Adilah Barnes, and UC Merced Students

(Must have purchased ticket for this event)

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014

Lantern, 1^st Floor Kolligian Library

8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration, Coffee/Tea and Refreshments

9:15 – 10:15 AM New Scholarship on the Black Arts and Black Power Movement(Lakireddy Auditorium)

Mike Sell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

James Smethurst, University of Mass, Amherst

Marvin X, Playwright

Sean Malloy, University of Merced

10:30 – 11:30 AM Black Studies & the Black Arts Movement

Dr. Nathan Hare

Sonia Sanchez

Dr. John Bracey

Judy Juanita

Lunch

1:15 – 2:00 PM Ishmael Reed, Keynote Speaker

2:15 – 3:00 PM Central Valley Voices of the Black Arts Movement

Nigel Hatton, Moderator

(Student Papers)

Give Birth to Brightness: A Thematic Study of Neo-Black Literature by Sherley Anne Williams & Somethin' Proper, the Autobiography of Marvin X

Hotel: Hampton Inn in Merced, CA will offer room discounts to conference attendees.

Call for Papers

A call for papers for an international conference on the Black Arts Movement and Its Influences, University of California, Merced, March 1-2, 2014

In less than five years, America will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. Sonia Sanchez, one of the leading voices of the Black Arts Movement believes that “The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the “Negro’s” reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” These positive images of blackness were celebrated on August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. At the 1963 gathering, Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech represented the pinnacle of hope of freedom for all Americans. The question that must be asked fifty years later is “have we achieved that dream?” We must all ask, with the upcoming 50^thanniversary of the Black Arts Movement, have the images of blackness in America changed? Is blackness still seen as inferior? In Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art,” first published in the liberator in 1966, he writes:

Clean out the world for virtue and love,

Let there be no love poems written

until love can exist freely and

cleanly….We want a black poem. And a

Black World.

Let the world be a Black Poem

And Let All Black People Speak This Poem

Silently or LOUD

Are black people speaking their poems, their truth about blackness? Has the Black Arts Movement created the hoped for change in how black people view themselves?

This conference, sponsored by the University of Merced’s African Diaspora Graduate Student Association, seeks papers that offer new scholarship on the Black Arts and Black Power Movements as well as new insights into the following areas of study:

◦ Regional examinations of the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Black Arts Movement -- national and international

◦ Women authors of The Black Arts Movement

◦ Male domination and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Politics and Art of the Black Power and Black Arts Movements

◦ Symbology and the Black Arts and Black Power Movements

◦ Cultural Legacies of the Black Arts Movement

◦ Community Theatre and the Black Arts Movement

◦ Clothing, Music, and Art of the Black Arts Movement

◦ Race and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The use of Poetry and Drama in the Black Arts Movement

◦ The media and the Black Arts and Black Power Movements

◦ The historical context of the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Black Panthers and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The influence of the Black Arts Movement on other cultures

◦ The use of language as Art in the Black Arts Movement

◦ The creation of the Black Arts and Black Power Movement

◦ Film and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Intersection between the Civil Rights and the Black Power, and Black Arts Movements

Special invited guests include: Sonia Sanchez, Ishmael Reed, John Bracey, James Smethurst, Mike Sell, Juan Felipe Herrera, Genny Lim, Al Young, Belva Davis, Marvin X, Adilah Barnes, Dr. Nathan Hare, and others.

Please send your one-page abstract and brief bio to Kim McMillon at kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu by December 18, 2013.

Call for Papers, Reports, and Studies:

The Black Arts Movement Conference invites the following types of submissions:

Research Papers - Completed research papers in any of the topic areas listed above or related areas.

Student Papers - Research done by students in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.

Case Studies - Case studies in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.

Work-in-Progress Reports for Future Research - Incomplete research in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.

Presentations:

Paper sessions will consist of no more than four presentations in a 80-minute session. The session will be divided equally between the presenters.

Workshop presentations will be given a full 60-minute session.

Panel sessions will provide an opportunity for three or more presenters to speak in a more open session where ideas can be exchanged. These sessions are 80 minutes.

Poster sessions will last 90 minutes and consist of a large number of presenters. The following supplies will be provided for poster sessions:

• Easel

• Tri-fold display board (48 x 36 inches)

• Markers

• Push pins

• Tape

• Round table

• Chairs

Submitting a Proposal/Paper:

Make your submission by

following these directions:

Create a title page for your submission. The title page must include:

a. Title of the submission

b. Topic area of the submission (choose a topic area from the list at the top of this page)

c. Presentation format (choose one: Paper Session, Workshop, Panel Session, or Poster Session)

d. A description of your presentation, which should not exceed 150 words in total. Please note that you are still required to send in an abstract/paper in addition to this description.

e. paper author(s):

f. EACH author, should list the following:

• Full Name

• Department/Division

• University/Company/Organization

• Email Address (all acceptance/rejection letters are sent via email, so it is very important to have a correct email address for each author.)

g. Email your abstract and/or paper, along with the above-described title page, to kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu. Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged via email within one week.

NOTE: Conference papers, proposal, panels, workshops, and poster sessions will take place on the University of California, Merced campus concurrently from 9-4 pm on Saturday, and 10 am – 2:00 pm on Sunday, March 1-2, 2014.

Parable of the Madpoet

Parable of the Madpoet

And I'm the great would-be poet. Yes. That's right! Poet. Some kind of bastard literature...all it needs is a simple knife thrust. Just let me bleed you, you loud whore, and one poem vanished. A whole people of neurotics, struggling to keep from being sane. And the only thing that would cure the neurosis would be your murder...
--Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman
He was a man who lived on the razor's edge, like a tight walker about to fall into the chasm, a false step, a slight loss of balance and he would surely fly headlong into the precipice.

He wrote to keep from killing, from slaughtering the guilty and innocent. In his warped mind, the choice was society's, not his. For in his selfishness, either let his pen flow or blood shall flow upon the land because he felt wronged, the constant victim of theft, even by his friends or so called friends.

He had taught at the greatest universities in the land, but was often escorted off campus by police for violating the law of political correctness. He was deported from countries for the same reason, marched onto the plane at gunpoint, the hatch door slammed behind him. If madpoet returned, the prime minister said he would leave.

His writings were so outrageous people threw them on the ground in the north and dirty south. He told a man who threw his writings on the ground that he was dumber than the dumbest mule in Georgia. The man went away but came back to ask him if that was a line from a movie. Madpoet told him, "You the movie, nigguh!"

Even though he hadn't sought employment in decades, he believed he was banned from employment for life because of his deranged thoughts, that he was not invited to events to celebrate life or art, even events his peers organized, though he invited them to his productions without fail.

People wanted him to be rich by saying the right things so the public could accept his writings. But his doctor told him to remain poor so he could be truthful and free. Another friend told him not to worry about money because on the day he died he would surely be rich and famous. He was praised by word of mouth because nobody was going to talk about his writings out loud, but they hush hushed about it. It was very straight and plain. Youth told him he was very blunt!

Some people thought he liked to whine, snibble and was ungrateful because whenever he put on events they were unique and classical extravaganzas, though sometimes long, drawn out affairs without thought of intermission or length of time. Another mad friend named Sun Ra had taught him about infinity.

He had been confined to the mental hospital four times, but each time he had taken himself. He enjoyed the mental ward, especially since it was full of artists like himself who had crossed the line from creativity to insanity. Other than drugs, the doctors found nothing wrong with him so when he refused to leave, they threw him out onto the street. The police jabbed him in the ribs with their night sticks as they escorted him off the grounds of the mental hospital.

So please let his pen flow and do not disturb him for any reason, especially some menial chore, a mundane exercise, just leave him alone in the silence of his room. Let him ponder thoughts beyond the box, beyond the pale of tradition. Let him consider the finer things of life, what words to configure, what metaphors, psycholinguistic turns of the mind, the sociology and historiography of a people, or else there shall be chaos in the land and blood shall flow like a river, for his spirit shall be suppressed and shall seek an outlet in blood from the misery of his mind.

Yes, he is a killer in disguise, who appears in the persona of a poet for the good of society, but continue to oppress him, suppress him, and he shall strike out in a moment of black madness and those who have wronged him shall see your guts spilled, your head smashed against the concrete sidewalk.

Believe it, it is only a matter of time before the madpoet shall seek revenge and come upon those who have wronged him. He shall strike like a panther in the night, and you shall cry in horror as his knife enters your throat and from thence to the spilling of your guts upon the ground.

He shall walk away with a laughter and joy only the devil himself shall understand and appreciate.
--Marvin X
4/17/09
Gullahland, South Carolina
Revised 4/3/10

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Farewell Soldier Mandela

So long soldier
warrior man strong
move history forward
confound the wicked
the job is still ahead
free the land
share the wealth
can we eat tonight
do we read in the dark
what about revolutionary millionaires
overnight billionaires
revolution was for money
for a few
twenty years have gone
for some the dream is dead
is this the New Africa
why do the boys rape
think they own the pussy
some apartheid notion
male supremacy
women are human beings
not rag dolls for the joy of men
how would you feel if your daughter was raped
your sister?

We want the New Africa
Yes, the Mandela Africa
Africa rising to freedom
beyond corruption
religious tribal madness
narrow minded

he paid the price
in the dungeon of the wicked
transcended the prison of the mind
opened the vail for the world
look at the people wailing
dancing
yet fighting
to be free.
We salute you soldier
Peace be with you.
As-Salaam-Alaikum
--Marvin X
12/11/13

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Marvin X poem for Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time

If you fall I will catch you
time after time
a song of trust
devotion and love
time after time
who knows the end of love
some dramas go on forever
time after time
we say a friend is a friend to the end
time after time. --Marvin X

Monday, December 9, 2013

So you a Black Greek Society? Why don't you invite Plato Negro, aka Marvin X, to speak on your campus?










"Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."--Ishmael Reed

"We doubted a Marvin X
existed. We double doubt
there is a Plato Negro."
--Amiri Baraka 













Introduction
by
Ptah Allah El

TTo all seekers of truth living in the post modern world, this volume of
literature is your pragmatic hustler’s guide and intellectual syllabus
for success. Some people found it strange when scholar Ishmael Reed
first compared Marvin X, the son of Owendell and Marian Jackmon to the
classical Greek Philosopher Plato (427 B.C.), son of Ariston and
Perictione. 




No one can argue that both Plato and Marvin X have proven in
their dialogues/writings to be great thinkers and critics of their
respective eras. Although separated by over two thousand years of
history and clearly two distinct worldviews, research proves that these
poet/philosophers strangely share similar souls. Recently while reading
about the Dialogues of Plato, I came across a quote by William Chase
Greene, former Professor of Greek and Latin at Harvard University.
Greene describes Plato’s works by profoundly stating, “In yet another
field the Platonic Philosophy seeks to find an escape from the flux.



Those poets and artist who are content to record the fleeting
impressions of the senses, or to tickle the fancies and indulge the
passions of an ignorant people by specious emotional and rhetorical
appeals, Plato invites to use their art in service of truth.”


These are timeless words describing Plato’s classic works, yet if you simply
replace Plato’s name with Marvin X in the above quote, and review
Marvin’s work over the past 40 years, you won’t be surprised why he has
adopted the title “Plato Negro”. 


In this classic volume Marvin X truly becomes Plato personified, as we see him transcend from master poet to philosopher. Plato was once a master poet until the death of his teacher Socrates in (399 B.C.). This marked a turning point in Plato’s life
causing him to fully convert to philosophy. The same can be said now
with Marvin X who recently lost his master teacher John Douimbia and has
since elevated beyond poetry, reincarnating as the philosopher “Plato
Negro”. 




These “New Dialogues” of The Wisdom of Plato Negro provide a
post modern Gorgias, Sophist, Symposium of Laws, on how to hustle and
survive in the new Obamian American Republic. It is clear that Marvin X
has become the true Platonist of the day by demonstrating his Platonic
love for the people, taking us on a symbolic trip through the parable of
the Cave, where all true analysis takes place, inside the true self. 




As an African Philosopher, as ironic as it sounds, the works of “Plato
Negro” prove to be a major contribution to the field of African
Philosophy. These works provide a model for a standard approach toward
reflective thinking and critical analysis for African people, still
trying to define their own philosophical worldview. What Plato’s works
did to inspire classical Greece and the European generations to follow,
we hope this brilliant piece of literature from “Plato Negro” will shed
light on Africans today and future generations to come. Write on “Plato
Negro”. 


 
Ptahotep A. El (Trace 101)
Minister of Education, Academy of da Corner,
14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

Kanye West on Institutional White Supremacy

Over the past several weeks, Kanye West has given fans and critics alike an earful of his philosophical musings. Less than nine years removed from his declaration that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” at a charity event for Hurricane Katrina survivors, and four years following his infamous Taylor Swift speech interruption, “I’ma let you finish but…,” at the MTV Music Awards, West is back at it with much more to say.

The Chi-town rapper admirably tries to tackle the behemoth that is white supremacy, a system organized to maintain global power and influence in the hands of Western European people and their institutions. Check out these six statements by West about white supremacy that we believe are justified.

The good ol’ boys club is alive and well = “Man, let me tell you something about George Bush and oil money and Obama and no money. People want to say Obama can’t make these moves or he’s not executing. That’s because he ain’t got those connections…Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black people don’t have the same connection as oil people.”

The glass ceiling is high for Black entrepreneurs = “For you to have done something to the level of the Yeezys and not be able to create more and you cannot – you cannot create that on your own, with no support, with no backing. So when I say, ‘Clean water was only served to the fairer skinned,’ what I’m saying is we’re making products with chitterlings. T-shirts! That’s the most we can make! T-shirts. We could have our best perspective on T-shirts. But if it’s anything else, your ‘Truman Show’ boat is hitting the wall.”

Institutions, primarily controlled by white males, guarantee personal security =“You know we don’t know nobody that got a nice house. You know we don’t know nobody with paper like that we can go to when we down. You know they can just put us back or put us in a corporation. You know we ain’t in situation. Can you guarantee that your daughter can get a job at this radio station? But if you own this radio station, you could guarantee that. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Barriers to entry limits long-term wealth = “We don’t got it like that. When I tell you [there are] only seven Black billionaires, look at marginalization; and we feel like we happy because me and [rap artist] Rick Ross got it made, or I got a spread outside, a couple of us, or they put a Black president [in the White House].”

Racial stereotypes are fully embedded in the media to fight against a new image = “When someone comes up and says something like, ‘I am a god,’ everybody says, ‘Who does he think he is?’ I just told you who I thought I was, a god! I just told you! That’s who I think I am! Would have been better if I had a song that said, ‘I am a nigga?’ or if I had song that said ‘I am a gangsta?’ or if I had song that said ‘I am a pimp?’ All those colors and patinas fit better on a person like me, right? But to say you are a god… Especially, when you got shipped over to the country that you’re in, and your last name is a slave owner’s. How could you say that? How could you have that mentality?”

Anti-establishment propaganda is thwarted to maintain the existing power structure = “Pause that, pause that. That song (“New Slaves”) is a hit record minus, ‘F**k you and your corporation/ Ya’ll n**s can’t control me.’ Because if you can’t control me, then you can’t control him, then you can’t control him, then you can’t control him, and then the information age starts.”

Afghan Leader for Closer Iran Ties

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

KABUL, Afghanistan — Amid highly public tensions with the United States over a long-term security deal, Afghanistan’s president looked to forge closer ties with neighboring Iran, agreeing in principle to start negotiating an economic and security “pact of friendship,” Afghan officials said.

During a one-day trip to meet with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, President Hamid Karzai not only got a chance to reach out to a neighbor, but also to tweak the Western allies he has been at loggerheads with in recent weeks.

While Mr. Karzai and his staff have repeatedly said the intent is eventually to sign the bilateral security pact with the United States, allowing an American troop presence beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline, Mr. Karzai has also added conditions before he signs it. Both American and Afghan officials see the chances of a completed deal by year’s end as basically dead, despite a recent vote by an assembly of Afghan leadership figures instructing Mr. Karzai to sign it.

Now, with the deadlock continuing, Mr. Karzai has publicly focused on bolstering regional ties. In addition to the Iran trip, he recently met with Prime Minister Nawaz Shari of Pakistan, and in coming days is to travel to India.

And while he has not explicitly been seeking an endorsement of refusal to sign the American security deal, he still received one on Sunday. President Rouhani, who is in the midst of delicate nuclear negotiations with Western nations, explicitly said he viewed the continuing presence of foreign forces in the region as a danger.

“We are concerned about the tensions arising from the presence of foreign forces in the region and believe that all foreign forces should exit the region and Afghanistan’s security should be ceded to the people of that country,” Mr. Rouhani said.

Mr. Rouhani’s statement was a bit of a departure from the official Iranian line on Afghan deals with the United States. In general, Iranian officials, while expressing discomfort with the American troop presence next door, have stated publicly and repeatedly that Afghanistan is a sovereign country able to sign pacts with any other nation.

In describing the mutual deal that Iran and Afghanistan will now explore, Mr. Karzai’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi, described it as a “pact of friendship and cooperation,” much like understandings that Afghanistan has signed with India, France and Italy.

While such pacts are to some extent symbolic, they provide the basis for more extensive involvement. For instance, India is providing intensive training for Afghan military personnel in counterinsurgency techniques, is training members of the Afghan civil service, and has made room for several thousand Afghan students in its universities.

“This pact will include political, security cooperation and economic development,” Mr. Faizi said.

Since trade with Iran is still constrained by international sanctions because of the country’s nuclear program, it is unclear what kind of economic cooperation would be possible. And, while the United States gave limited short-term sanction relief to Iran as part of the deal reached last month in Geneva, there was no overall lifting of the sanctions.

The two presidents, as well as the Iranian foreign minister, also discussed problems faced by Afghans in Iran, including peremptory deportations, limits on visas and difficulties obtaining residence permits. Officials said the Iranian leadership agreed to work closely with the Afghan Foreign Ministry to improve the situation.

According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, there at least two million undocumented Afghans in Iran, beyond the 800,000 officially registered. Most are there seeking better economic circumstances, though they often face arbitrary abuse.

With such issues in common, Mr. Karzai’s outreach to Mr. Rouhani seemed at least in part a recognition that the United States and European countries are far away and that Afghanistan, for better or worse, has to deal its powerful neighbors.

“Our relations with Iran will not effect our relations with the United States,” Mr. Faizi said. “We need to enhance our relationships with our neighbors because these are the countries we have our future with.”

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Marvin X poem for Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

I am Othello
loving Desdemona
so in love
Iago will take me out for sure
but for now
Desdemona is my queen
I am the Moor
who came to Spain 711
crossing the Strait of Gibraltar
the Rock of the African Warrior Tarik
who cross into Spain
staying a thousand years
there is no Spain except for the Moors
Granada Seville Toledo
the Moors were there
guiding savages from darkness of the Middle Ages
our scholars enabled the European Renaissance
and yet you never heard of Timbuktu?

Even now you come to my Academy of da Corner
downtown Oakland
you marvel at the tables of consciousness
confess ignorance asking mercy
ignorance is no sin
it is the desire to remain ignorant
this is sinful.
--Marvin X
12/8/13

Marvin X poem for John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Pt. 1 Acknowledgement

A love supreme a love supreme a love supreme
Love is always forever all
nothing else exists love
no matter
all freedom is love
let the people dance to love
live and die for love
a love supreme
a love supreme
freedom was for love
no hate freedom to love
self love first
look at the man in the mirror
Michael said
did he ever find that man?
no matter we love him
in the name of love
supreme
a love supreme
a love supreme
a love supreme
Elijah said we can be in heaven over night
a love supreme
good homes
friends in all walks of life
heaven while you live
not after you die
a love supreme a love supreme

I often ask why are you on your knees praying
when God has already answered?
--Marvin X
12/8/13

Marvin X poem for My Favorite Things - John Coltrane

Dear John
St. John of the Negro Crucifixion
John of the resurrection
John of the ascension
Dear John
Thank you for salvation music
resurrection music
healing our wretched souls
you saved us
we were almost gone
at the precipice
you sang to us
keep the faith til we win the race
Yes, St. John of the Negro Cross
Negro is Jesus
who else claim no cross no crown?
Our buddy Sun Ra taught us
dance beyond the cross
Sunny said he didn't come here to play Jesus
Sunny slipped away to outter space
Sing to us St. John
wail and moan and praise
dance sing laugh
even with loss of memory
we remember
somewhere beyond physics
we live in holiness
yes, beyond wretchedness
ignorance squalor in ignorance
we stand to your music
touching us in the jugular vein
St. John
sing to us those warrior songs
marching us to war Sonny said
armies march to music Maavin
Sonny said
Come St. John of the cross
St. John of the Crucifixion
resurrection
ascension
save us from the devil
whispering into the hearts of men and women.

Lizz Wright - Nature Boy

Marvin X poem for Hamza el Din - Ud

I have gone beyond memory
to walk home again
free of fear
in my village
there is no fear of lions here
only the village fire
the ritual dance into the early dawn
I whirl and whirl into my world
beyond all the years of history
I am in peace now
no fear of lions
in my children
they walk and talk with lions.
--Marvin X
12/8/13

A Marvin X poem for Miles Davis in Montreal - Time After Time

And time is all we have
together
a moment or two
do not waste time
you will look back to wonder
what happened to time
who ate time
some big ugly monster
illusions filling the night air
something we missed in conversation
"That is not what I meant
That is not what I meant at all" (TSE)
and before you know it
time has slipped away
lovers have gone
children grown
you sit alone
no matter
life is wonderful
live like Sade said
every day is xmas
every night New Year's eve.
--Marvin X
12/8/13