An invitation from Angela Davis to join the Celebration of Mumia Abu Jamal's Life.

Marvin X on Mumia Abu Jamal

Never before in history has a man done so much from death row to liberate his people. Mumia shows what can be done while shackled and deep down in the dungeon of the devil. What is our excuse for not  being politically involved out here in the big yard of the prison house called Amerikkka! Thank you Pam Africa, Ramona Africa, Angela Davis, Cornel West and all those around the world who have fought to keep Mumia alive and work to bring him home!--Marvin X

Marvin X in St. Louis MO with Akbar Muhammad of the NOI

Marvin X will be in Philly for Mumia's 60th B day Celebration

C U There! In sha Allah!

The Black Arts Movement and the Cultural Revolution

Do not play with the Black Arts Movement and the cultural revolution. BAM is needed and so must be injected into the culture of North American Africans.

I wish I could be gentle with you, Miller Lite, but I cannot, I must come full strength, Old English 800, no Miller Lite up in here. Your problem is severe, not moderate or mild, so let us not play around.


Manhood and womanhood training is the priority, so let us go there. The African woman knows she is entering womanhood on her first cycle, but when do you know you are entering manhood? She knows she has entered womanhood when she sees blood,  but when do you know you have entered manhood?

We must take you into the manhood ritual training, into the jungle so you can slay the lion, spend the night in the forest, build a house for your wife, no, you don't buy her a house, you build her a house. It is not  about your money but your skills as a man. Please do miss the concept.

After learning all the herbs in the forest, you must walk to town and back, thus is your manhood training. And your woman has a similar task.  She must know the duties of womanhood, wifehood, motherhood.

Her most difficult task is mother of the next generation. Mother spreads culture. She is the one who gives values to the next generation.

Amina Baraka is the Shaman Woman, seek her out to see if she is not the Shaman Woman,
she will tell you all because she knows all and tells  no lies but only gives up truth. No amount of money can divert Amina from telling the truth. Truth is in her face!

Marvin X with poet Nancy Mercado

 I am trying to deal with the transition of my very dear friend, AB. If you can help, reach out and touch me. Truly, AB was a friend like no other friend, beyond the beyond!

 Oh, we await the narrative of North American African warrior woman, Amina Baraka--we should not expect to hear from Amina until after the election of her son as Mayor of Newark, NJ Please, do not say anything that the enemies of Ras can use against him.

 Sonia, my favorite poet of all times. Sonia asks a simple question, will your book free us?

Living legend Henry Grimes will perform with Marvin X while he is on the East Coast. Henry is a living legend of the Black Arts Movement. 

We must know Marvin X is a disciple of Amiri Baraka and Sun Ra. So let us flow with the flow of Amiri and Sun Ra, there is no other way to appreciate Amiri, Sun Ra and Marvin X, they are one and the same in the BAM tradition. Marvin X says, "Only when I appreciated Amiri and Sun Ra could I understand the BAM tradition. Amiri provided some of the linguistics but Sun Ra gave us the mythology, ritual and philosophy, lights, sound, costume, make up, dance, music, poetry--yes, Sun Ra gave us the whole enchilada. Sun Ra gave us the narrative for the myth/ritual drama of the Black Arts Movement. Marvin, armies march to music! he told Marvin X. Marvin, he said, stop teaching that freedom to your actors and dancers, they are already free so teach them discipline, that's what I teach to my musicians!

Marvin listened to his Master Teacher Sun Ra, "You so right you wrong! Yes, Marvin, so right ya wrong! Teach discipline, put them in your jail, yes, the Marvin X prison--and they will love you because they know you love them and want only the best of them."

BAM tour update: National support grows for BAM 27 city tour to advance the cultural revolution with the United Front of cultural workers

ASE, Baba Marvin !! Your daughter is the tru business

In white attire: Alase Oba Adefunmi Adejiuyigbe, King of Yoruba African Village, Sheldon, SC

Photo from Black Power Babies, produced by Muhammida el Muhammida,-- Black Power Babies intergenerational discussion, Brooklyn, NY, later Philadelphia PA

Marvin X replies to Alase Oba Adefunmi Adejuyigbe, King of Yoruba African Village

Nefertiti is in Houston, you met my other daughter, Muhammida, producer of the Black Power Babies Conference in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. We must all come together for the cultural revolution. Amiri talked about the United Front. Let us finish our work that your father ignited along with Amiri and so many others. But you, Alase, must step to the front of the line, especially as per manhood and womanhood training, along with the mighty Yoruba mythology and rituals.

Comment from Maurice Henderson, Philadelphia

I just wanted to know if we are going to be working together for Marvin X's  27 city tour for BAM.  I am asking because i want to use my influence and personal contacts for Black Colleges, African-American Studies Programs, Black Librarians and the Association of Black Culture Centers to book engagements of the BAM tour and also develop a Curriculum, Reading List and Outcome Asset Based Measurements for Historical purposes.

Marvin X replies to Maurice Henderson, Philadelphia

We worked with Maurice in Philly when we produced the concert at Warm Daddies: we performed with members of Sun Ra's Arkestra (Marshall Allen, Danny Thompson, Elo, along with Rufus Harley on Bagpipes, Alexander El on drums, Ancestor Goldsky on djembe, Elliot Bey on keyboards. 37 Minutes of Jazz History, album title.

We welcome the support of Maurice Henderson, a Philadelphia cultural worker in the BAM tradition, along with Oakland's Eastside Arts workers Elena Serano and Greg Murozumi, Greg Bridges, Berkeley, Mwalimu of Los Angeles, Geoffery Grier of San Francisco, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga of Oakland, Nefertiti Jackmon, Houston, TX, Bernard Stringer, Atlanta GA, Muhammida El Muhajir, Philly, Eugene Redman, East St. Louis, Umar Bin Hassan, Baltimore. We want to hear from cultural workers in other cities. Send us your thoughts and comments, planning and promotional ideas, possible funding sources, especially from independent North American African persons and institutions.--Marvin X, Planner

The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra, after a performance at the BAM Conference, University of California, Merced, Feb 20 thru March 2, 2014

The BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra is now booking nationwide. Call 510-200-4164 for fees and dates available

Marvin X gets drivers license--according to DMV, 1964 was last time he had a license

Marvin X renewed his driver's license today. Yes, this so called Negro has been driving without a license since 1964. Now let's see if he can regain his US citizenship he renounced in 1967 while exiled in Toronto, Canada, protesting the Vietnam war, along with other brothers from the US, including Toronto journalist Norman Richmond.

 Marvin X organized Bay Area Black Writers to celebrate the life of slain journalist Chauncey Bailey
photo Adam Turner/Gene Hazzard

 Marvin X will be in Philadelphia to celebrate the 60th birthday of Mumia Abu Jamal

 Syrian poet/activist Dr. Mohja Kahf and Marvin X when he visited the University of Arkansas

on a speaking tour

 Jah Amiel, Marvin X's grandson, said, "Grandpa, you can't save the world, but I can!"

The Next Mayor of Newark, NJ: Ras Baraka, vote May 13, 2014

Ras Baraka Speaks:

I thank God with everything I have that I was raised by Amina and Amiri Baraka. Im even more grateful that my mother introduced me to the life of Paul Robeson, as we share a common birthday. I began to understand at an early age what it meant to be on the right side of history.

I knew that our culture, our art, our ideas, our institutions, our politics, our voice must be designed to push us forward and to stand in the gap! To create beauty and expose ugly to protect our communities and defend our families. I understood that no matter what they said about you, did to you, or organize against you you had to stay steadfast. Right will always be triumphant. Most importantly I am so grateful that I got to see what a free man looked like! How he wrote and sung and spoke..what he read and listened to...and by the grace of God I dont have to do things against my will. I don't bow to money or position. I can support who I want and vote the way I want. I can speak the way I want and believe in what gives me life and not death....

East 14th drama is back!

$5 Off Opening Weekend  March 21st & 22nd Use Special Promo Code:  LAJONES

US Foreign Policy Blowback: How US disregard for Intl Law set stage for Crimean Crisis

Did Putin invade Iraq and destroy that society?

Did Putin lie to the American people about the reasons for that invasion?

Did Putin kill one million Iraqis?

Did Putin spend $1 trillion of the American public’s money on the Iraq invasion?

Did Putin invade Afghanistan?

Did he spend $700 billion on the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan?

Does Putin have a “kill list” to murder suspected terrorists without due process and outside any field of battle?

Published on Thursday, March 20, 2014 by Common Dreams

'US Foreign Policy Blowback': How US Disregard for Intl Law Set Stage for Crimean Crisis

Critics charge that US history of cherry-picking international rules gives license for other powers to do the same

- Jon Queally, staff writer

In his speech earlier this weak, Russian President Vladimir Putin defended his actions by explicitly citing the US disregard for international in recent decades. "They have come to believe in their exclusivity and exceptionalism, that they can decide the destinies of the world, that only they can ever be right," he said. "They act as they please: here and there, they use force against sovereign states, building coalitions based on the principle ‘If you are not with us, you are against us.’” (Photo: the Presidential Press and Information Office/ Kremlin)Eleven years ago this week, the U.S. decided to sidestep international law in its rush to invade the sovereign nation of Iraq. In doing so, charge critics, it has helped open a pandora's box of imperial lawlessness that is now rearing its head in Ukraine.

Amid warnings that what's taking place as Russia battles the U.S. and European nations over a new government in Kiev and Crimea's vote to officially secede from Ukraine is the beginning of a new 'Cold War,' many observers have called out western hypocrisy when it comes to the White House and Downing Street pointing fingers at the Kremlin.

"In an era in which exceptionalism has become the norm, where the cavalier disregard of domestic and/or global objections is considered politically acceptable, and where powerful nations can exercise a free hand in determining the future of less powerful ones when strategic interests are involved." —Randall Amster, Georgetown University

Taking that point further on Thursday, Randall Amster, director of the Program on Justice and Peace at Georgetown University,  argues in a pieceat Common Dreams that despite all the rhetoric, sanctions, and threats of further "punishment" coming from Washington, the missing analysis about Ukraine is how it represents a kind of "foreign policy blowback" resulting from "the US-led wars and interventions of recent years" in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Amster points out that by ignoring international law when it suited their own interests, the U.S. and U.K. set the stage for others (at least those with the requisite military and political might) to follow suit:

As many pointed out at the time, the invasion of Iraq in particular foretold a world wracked by disregard for international norms and defined by the mercenary pursuits of national self-interest. In setting a template for the policy engagements to follow, this archetype of adventurism ushered in an era in which exceptionalism has become the norm, where the cavalier disregard of domestic and/or global objections is considered politically acceptable, and where powerful nations can exercise a free hand in determining the future of less powerful ones when strategic interests are involved. It would be hard to conceive of a more pointed version of realpolitik, and the term is doubly poignant in light of the outcomes we are seeing today.

Russia’s rhetorical reliance on misguided Western policies does little more than render concrete that which has already been known and deployed by powerful interests for decades, if not longer. But the invocation of recent US-led forays and the specific use of the word “exceptionalism” in Russian discourse add a dimension that is deeply troubling for the future prospects of peace. By making realpolitik more, well, real, the annexation of Crimea is less likely to draw a military response from the West than it is to elicit wider forms of emulation. In abdicating their already-tenuous hold on moral legitimacy in international affairs, the US and its allies have eroded one of the last potential bastions against the imminent realization of a world dominated by strategic resource acquisition as a function of security.

In an editorial by The Nation posted Wednesday, the magazine's editors also invoke US transgressions in the context of Ukraine. "Yes, Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea trespasses on international law," they write, but it's "difficult to bear US officials’ invocation of a principle that Washington itself has often violated (see, most recently, Kosovo and Iraq, the latter now marking the eleventh anniversary of an illegal US invasion and occupation)."

And author and historian Howard Friel, also at Common Dreams, defies the western media's dominant anti-Putin line not to defend Russian motives or actions, but to cast a light on U.S. violations that now make it impossible for Washington to stand as a moral authority on issues of international law. In a string of rhetorical questions, Friel asks:

Did Putin invade Iraq and destroy that society?

Did Putin lie to the American people about the reasons for that invasion?

Did Putin kill one million Iraqis?

Did Putin spend $1 trillion of the American public’s money on the Iraq invasion?

Did Putin invade Afghanistan?

Did he spend $700 billion on the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan?

Does Putin have a “kill list” to murder suspected terrorists without due process and outside any field of battle?

According to The Nation editors, the only thing that can now resolve the crisis in Ukraine and the brewing 'Cold War' redux between Russia and the western powers is a true and meaningful focus on diplomacy. Threats of military escalation must be averted, they say, and the "war parties" on all sides must be pushed aside in the name of a peaceful agreement going forward.

And while Amster agrees that a negotiated settlement should also be the focus, he argues strongly that time should be spent reflecting on how previous examples of cast-off international obligations—now the "modus operandi of powerful interests across the globe"—have brought us to this point.

Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up Live In Dortmund, Germany

Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up Live In Dortmund, Germany

Black Bird Press News & Review: Support the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour: purchase the 13x19 poster of BAM poets choir and arkestra, $19.95 each

Black Bird Press News & Review: Support the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour: purchase the 13x19 poster of BAM poets choir and arkestra, and the DVD of our performance at the BAM Conference, University of California, Merced, Feb 28 thru March 2, 2014. $19.95 each. Send money order to Black Bird Press, 2222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, 94702.



The Black Arts Movement must be economically independent, like the churches, able to sustain ourselves without white supremacy money. The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra is ready to visit your city as part of the 27 cities Amiri Baraka told us to visit and establish BAM venues no matter how big or small. So this is our mission. If you would like to book BAM in your city, contact me ASAP, 510-200-4164. We will be in Philly to celebrate the 60th b day of Mumia Abu Jamal. We will perform in the concert with the Last Poets, Cornel West, Ewuare Osayande and Marvin X, et al.



Sincerely,

Marvin X/Abu El Muhajir

Support the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour: purchase the 13x19 poster of BAM poets choir and arkestra, $19.95 each

You can support the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, in honor and memory of Amiri Baraka, who told us to establish a  United Front to defeat White Supremacy capitalism around the world. All ethnic groups must unite and stand up to defeat white supremacy global exploitation.

How can you support the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour? Order the 13x19 poster of the Black Arts Movment Poet's Choir and Arkestra; also order the DVD of the poets choir and Arkestra performance at the University of California, Merced. $19.95 each. Total $40.00, send cheek and/or money order to Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, 947802. Call 510-200-4164 for more information.

Book us now at your venue in your city ASAP! /Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour.

Part Two: What If?

No one can deny that Marvin X is accessible to the people, common people. Yet there are those who continue to ask him why is he selling his books on the corner, at the flea market and elsewhere. If he has written so many books, why is he down here in the ghetto with us? If truth be told, Marvin X is everywhere, on the street, in the club, at the festival, at the universities and colleges--he recently co-produced with Kim McMillan, The Black Arts Movement at the University of California, Merced. His central valley tour included Fresno City College and the Hinton Center on Fresno's West Side where he grew up with such people as Odell Johnson, President of Oakland's Laney College. 

West Fresno icon Billy Hicks told people at the Hinton Center that Marvin was his neighbor in the projects while growing up. Billy Hicks has a recreation center named after him. But he remembered when Oakland's Merritt College basketball team, including Marvin X, came to Fresno City College. Billy said he was the only black on the team. Of course Merritt College beat FCC.

Bobby Seale, Huey Newton and Marvin X were fellow students at OCC, where they engaged in self study to gain Pan African Consciousness. As independent students, they studied on their own to gain Pan African consciousness; they read  the writings of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Fidel Castro in Cuba and Mao in China.

Gov. Ronald Reagan removed Angela Davis from teaching at UCLA in 1969, the same year he also removed Marvin X from teaching at Fresno State University--Gov. Reagan claimed Angela was a Black Communist and Marvin X was a Black Muslim--which they were!

What If--Part Two

What if God is your liberator
not the crusher
lyncher
slaver for life
what if what if what if
What if your God frees you
no more slave
except to God
no slave to man
God hears you when you praise Him
Sami-allahu liman hamida
Rabbana laka al hamd
no deaf God here
making us weary in the bones in the winds
blues in the night
Where is the Blue Black God
Khrishna, Christ
Hail to the Blue Black God
Hari Christna Hari Christna
Hail to the Blue Black God
you Blues people
True to the Blue Black God.
Your God of Liberation
will lift you up
into the Upper Room
no more dungeon
no more hell
fly to the Upper Room
of your Father's House
no more stranger in strange land
no more
no more prayers to the God of the deaf, dumb and blind
Pray to the all seeing Eye
The eye you can't see
sees you
when you look at the monkey in the zoo
monkey looking back at you.
Pray to the Blue Black God
God of Revolution in the wilderness
God of David Walker
Denmark Vesey
Nat Turner
Grabriel Prosser
God of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells
God of Frederick Douglas, Booker T., W.E.B., Garvey,
Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad, Elijah, Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Study the Cross and the Lynching Tree
Rev. Cone told Bill Moyers
Imagine what they thought about you
Mr. White Christian
Mr. Jew
Mr. Arab
Mr. African
The King sold the farmer to the ghost, Baraka said
The King sold the farmer to the ghost, Baraka said
In the Atlantic ocean is a railroad of human bones,
Baraka said
In the Atlantic ocean is a railroad of human bones,
Baraka said
praise his holy name
Griot of the griots
in the wilderness of North America
Is it difficult faya, he asked Hip Hop
is it difficult faya?
Let us hear conscious hip hop
conscious culture
no pants on behind
let's see the best of the hip hop mind!
don't show me yo behind
show me the best of yo mind!
Is it difficult faya, Baraka asked students
so flow wit da flow
the tide is turning
cause you are turning the tide
Look at the God in your life
the freedom God
God of Revolution
So pray to your Lord!
Fa salli li rabbika
Fa salli li rabbika.
--Marvin X

for Part One of What If, see Dr. M's How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, Berkeley CA.

Actress Doris Knight, performed in Marvin X's In the Name of Love, Laney College Theatre, 1981. A Black Arts Movement Baby 1.0. RIP, Doris Knight!

photo by Marvin X

One of the most enduring couples in the Revolutionary 1960s

Other couples include Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, Amiri and Amina Baraka,

Nathan and Julia Hare

Malcolm X. Those of us in the 1960 are the children of Malcolm X, who was a student of Elijah Muhammad, as was Farrakhan, Warith Din Muhammad, Marvin X, Amiri Baraka and a host of others!

Angela is in the Black radical tradition of the uppity Black Woman, the woman who says kiss my black unruly ass (see Baraka's Dutchman)