Marissa Alexander Released from Prison

Dear Friend, On January 27, Marissa Alexander served her last day behind bars as was agreed to by a plea deal arranged in November 2014. She still has two years of house arrest to serve, but will be able to work and attend her children’s school functions. Please read the press release below that was put out by the national Free Marissa Now mobilizing campaign. Radical Women took up the defense of Marissa because our experience has shown that justice for women who defend themselves is won through grassroots community organizing as much as it is in the courtroom. It is thanks to the collective efforts of many individuals and groups that Marissa is out of prison. Your phone calls, letters, demonstrations and actions pressured the courts to overturn her conviction and 20-year sentence. This was not the ending many of us had hoped for when the case began – full acquittal was the goal. But the state relentlessly persecuted her, and State Prosecutor Angela Corey threatened a 60 year sentence if a jury found Marissa was found guilty at her second trial. So she accepted a plea deal. Justice was not served in this case, as it so frequently isn’t for women of color and those who are physically or mentally abused by their partners. Marissa Alexander was a victim of spousal abuse who attempted to defend herself and found herself portrayed as the attacker by a racist and sexist legal system. Racial stereotypes that depict Black women as aggressive and full of anger helped stack the cards against her in the courtroom. Radical Women joins the call for expunging Marissa Alexander’s record. We also demand the passage of a strengthened Violence Against Women Act, and an end to race and sex discrimination in the criminal justice system, including a stop to mandatory minimum sentencing. In addition, Radical Women calls for massive increases in funding for jobs, aid to families, and shelters and services for everyone fleeing domestic violence regardless of their race, sexual orientation or immigration status. In the end, we need to overturn capitalism, the vicious economic system that so often forces women to stay with abusive partners, and create an egalitarian world that is safe and just for all. Margaret Viggiani Radical Women National Executive Committee   NEWS RELEASE Tuesday, January 27, 2015 From: Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign; FreeMarissaNow@gmail.com    Marissa Alexander Released from Prison; Supporters Celebrate, Demand Full Freedom Supporters of Marissa Alexander in Jacksonville, across the US, and all around the world are overjoyed that Alexander has been released from jail after serving 3 years behind bars for defending her life. In 2010, Alexander, a black mother of three from Jacksonville, Florida, was forced to defend her life from a life-threatening attack by her estranged husband by firing a single warning shot that caused no injuries. State Prosecutor Angela Corey prosecuted Alexander, pursuing a 60 year mandatory minimum sentence. On November 24, 2014, Alexander accepted a plea deal that included time served of nearly 3 years in prison, 65 additional days in the Duval County jail, and 2 years of probation while under home detention. Today marks the end of her time behind bars.   “We are thrilled that Marissa will finally be reunited with her children, her family, and her community,” said Sumayya Coleman, co-lead of the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign. “Today’s hearing revealed that Marissa intends to attend school to become a paralegal and she is a wonderful mother to her children who urgently need her. Amazingly, the State continued their campaign of punishment by trying to add two more years of probation. Fortunately, they failed, and Marissa will be released today! Marissa and her family will need time to begin recovering from this arduous and traumatic experience. It’s been a long and painful journey and, though her release from jail is definitely a win - no 60 years, the journey of seeking ultimate freedom is not over. Marissa will be forced to be on strict home detention while being under surveillance for two years. This is by no means freedom in the sense we feel she deserves. Our next agenda is to seek full restoration for Marissa and her family, including the expunging of her so-called criminal record, and a systemic transformation that prevents black women and all survivors of domestic violence from experiencing the hostile and brutal treatment from policing, prosecution, and prison systems that Marissa has endured. We will push for improved legislation and monitoring of systems that penalize victims of domestic violence who choose to save their lives by force. This is by no means a conclusion.”   Alexander will be forced to wear and pay for a surveillance ankle monitor, and forbidden from leaving her home with the exception of attending work, church, her children’s school, and appointments with doctors or the court. This will effectively “prisonize” her home, as noted by journalist, Maya Schenwar. This practice of extending a prison culture of surveillance, punishment, and confinement into people’s homes and communities has significantly increased in the U.S., creating what Prof. Beth Richie has described as a “prison nation,” especially for black women. Coercing probationers to pay for surveillance monitors is also part of the increasing privatization of punishment in the U.S.   Since 2012, the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign has organized to free Alexander from the punishing experience of being prosecuted for self-defense. Supporters have organized in Jacksonville, across the United States in dozens of cities, and around the world to demand Alexander’s freedom. Aleta Alston Toure’, co-lead of Free Marissa Now said, “For almost three years, this campaign has raised critical awareness about Alexander’s case, raised much needed donations for her legal defense fund, and raised a movement that takes a stand against mass incarceration and domestic violence. If this targeting of Marissa had unfolded behind closed doors and without powerful pushback from people who believe in justice, we believe she would still be in prison today. Organizing matters.”   Organizers are hosting a number of direct actions in support of Alexander’s freedom. In Jacksonville, organizers will hold a press conference today at 12pm on the Duval County Courthouse steps. They will also welcome a display of The Monument Quilt, 350 quilt squares containing stories from survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in solidarity with Marissa Alexander. The quilt will blanket the Duval County Courthouse lawn on January 27th, 8 am – 2pm.   Local organizers will convene a televised People’s Movement Assembly to be held on January 28th, 1pm at WJCT/ PBS, 100 Festival Park Ave. The assembly discussion will focus on state violence against women and will include Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw, Columbia University, UCLA, & the African American Policy Forum; Kerry McLean, National Lawyers Guild, Dr. Faye Williams, National Congress of Black Women; Dr. Rose Brewer, University of Minnesota; and Dr. Beth Richie, University of Illinois, Chicago and INCITE!. The assembly will be hosted by local Free Marissa Now member, Denyce Gartrell.   The Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander led a recent major fundraising push that raised $11,000 to help Alexander cover the cost of her ankle monitor for the two year period of home detention. They are organizing a January 27th discussion about how to talk to children with imprisoned family members about incarceration, which will occur at 6pm at 637 Dearborn St. in Chicago.   The Free Marissa Now Bay Area collective also organized a caravan that traveled from Oakland, CA to Jacksonville, FL, raising awareness about Alexander’s case in cities along the way. Details about all of these events can be found at freemarissanow.org.   “It’s hard to summarize the incredible outpouring of rage, love, and commitment to freedom that has arrived from all around the world in solidarity with Marissa Alexander,” said Alisa Bierria, also from Free Marissa Now. “Hundreds of people have donated, created art and media, and organized direct actions, letter writing sessions, and teach-ins in Jacksonville, Chicago, Berkeley, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, DC, New Orleans, St. Louis, Seattle, Denver, Miami, Canada, Australia, and many other locations. The dozens of projects that Marissa’s supporters have organized have been creative, brilliant, and impactful. Together, we have not only helped to ensure Marissa’s release from prison, we have hopefully shown why we must keep addressing the connections between domestic violence, reproductive violence, and state violence. We warmly thank and honor every person who has contributed to this historic freedom movement."   Free Marissa Now notes that Alexander has asked supporters to use her case to bring more attention to women in similar circumstances, such as Tondalo Hall and Charmaine Pfender.   Organizers will publish a report about the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign on their website, freemarissanow.org, in the coming weeks.   The Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign is an international grassroots campaign led by a core of organizers representing the African American/Black Women's Cultural Alliance, New Jim Crow Movement - Jacksonville, and INCITE! Women of Color and Trans People of Color Against Violence. For more information, see www.FreeMarissaNow.org.

Black History is World History by Marvin X

 

Marvin X, the USA's Rumi, Plato, Saadi, Hafiz

Black History Is World History

By

Marvin X


Before the Earth was
I was
Before time was
I was
you found me not long ago
and called me Lucy
I was four million years old
I had my tools beside me
I am the first man
call me Adam
I walked the Nile from Congo to Delta
a 4,000 mile jog
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I lived in the land of Canaan
before Abraham, before Hebrew was born
I am Canaan, son of Ham
I laugh at Arabs and Jews
fighting over my land
I lived in Saba, Southern Arabia
I played in the Red Sea
dwelled on the Persian Gulf
I left my mark from Babylon to Timbuktu
When Babylon acted a fool, that was me
I was the fool
When Babylon fell, that was me
I fell
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I was the first European
call me Negrito and Grimaldi
I walked along the Mediterranean from Spain to Greece
Oh, Greece!Why did you kill Socrates?
Why did you give him the poison hemlock?
Who were the gods he introduced
corrupting the youth of Athens?
They were my gods, black gods from Africa
Oh, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
Whose philosophy did you teach
that was Greek to the Greeks?
Pythagoras, where did you learn geometry?
Democritus, where did you study astronomy?
Solon and Lycurgus, where did you study law?
In Egypt, and Egypt is Africa
and Africa is me
I am the burnt face, the blameless Ethiopian
Homer told you about in the Iliad
Homer told you about Ulysses, too,
a story he got from me.
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I am the first Chinese
China has my eyes
I am the Aboriginal Asian
Look for me in Vietnam, Cambodia & Thailand
I am there, even today, black and beautiful
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY
I used to travel to America
long before Columbus
came to me asking for directions
Americo Vespucci
on his voyage to America
saw me in the Atlantic
returning to Africa
America was my home
Before Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Inca & Olmec
I was hereI came to Peru 20,000 years ago
I founded Mexico City
See my pyramids, see my cabeza colosal
in Vera Cruz and Yucatan
that's me
I am the Mexican
for I am mixed with all men
and all men are mixed with me
I am the most just of men
I am the most peaceful
who loves peace day and night
Sometimes I let tyrants devour me
sometimes people falsely accuse me
sometimes people crucify me
but I am ever returning I am eternal, I am universal
Africa is my home
Asia is my home
Americas is my home
BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY

This poem was written circa 1982 while Marvin X taught English at Kings River College, his last teaching gig.

Suggested reading list

The complete works of J.A. Rogers
The World and Africa, W.E.B. DuBois
Stolen Legacy, George M. James
The African Origin of the Major Religions, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Message to the Black Man, Elijah Muhammad
They Came before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima
"African Explorers in the New World, " Harold Lawrence,
Crisis, June-July, 1962. Heritage Program Reprint, p. 10
The Destruction of African Civilization, Chancellor Williams.
The Cultural Unity of Africa, Cheikh Anta Diop.
Man, God and Civilization, John G. Jackson

Video: Cornel West on The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

Cornel, Samantha Akwei, poet/organizer, assistant to  Marvin X, Marvin X

photo Adam Turner

Cornel West supports Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement's 27 City Tour. He called on all cities with populations of North American Africans to invite the BAM 27 City Tour, especially his hometown of Sacramento CA. "If they will bring BAM to Sacramento, I will participate."

The Black Arts Movement 50th Anniversary celebration will be at Oakland's Laney College on Saturday, February 7, all day, from 10am thru 8pm. The event is free/donations accepted. For more information: 510-200-4164.

See Adam Turner's photo essay:  Cornel West First Congregataional Church Oakland 2015

Marvin X: Notes on Cornel West at First Congregational Church, Oakland, a benefit for KPFA, conversation with Davey D

Dr. Cornel West appeared at Oakland's First Congregational Church to promote his book The Radical King, an examination of the unsanitized Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. West described Dr. King as a socialist with an international perspective, especially after his Riverside Church speech against the Viet Nam war, but he noted how Coretta Scott King approached Wes after a speech to tell him the first thing Dr. King told her was that he was a socialist. West noted that King was mentored by a professor at Morehouse who lectured on Marxism. His international perspective was evident when he attended the 1957 celebration of Ghana's independence from British colonialism. 

Black preachers were no friends of Dr. King. They were especially against him after the Riverside speech. We recall Dr. King was thrown out of the National Baptist Convention for being a hoodlum and thug. Dr. West labeled Rev. Al Sharpton as one of Pharaoh's magicians, along with Rev. Jesse Jackson. They do not question Pharaoh, but protect him and support him even while he walks around with a kill list, even while he takes out American citizens without charges or trial. Cornel said he supports Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement's 27 City Tour. He called on all cities with populations of North American Africans to invite the BAM 27 City Tour, especially his hometown of Sacramento CA. "If they will bring BAM to Sacramento, I will participate."

The Black Arts Movement 50th Anniversary celebration will be at Oakland's Laney College on Saturday, February 7, all day, from 10am thru 8pm. The event is free/donations accepted. For more information: 510-200-4164.

Marvin X in Stanley Nelson's documentary film on the Black Panther Party

Note: Marvin X received a phone call from producer, Laurens Grant, letting him know he survived the cutting and is indeed part of the people interviewed by director Stanley Nelson. There will be a private showing in the Bay soon, followed by a public screening. The film was recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Next weekend it will be in Los Angeles at the Pan African Film Festival.

"Marvin X was my teacher. Many of our comrades came through his Black Arts Theatre: Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Emory Douglas and Samuel Napier."--Dr. Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party

 

MARVIN X INTERVIEWED FOR  DOCUMENTARY ON BLACK PANTHERS AND THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT

Marvin X concluded his Revolution on the Rocks Book Tour 2012 with a lunch interview with producer Laurens Grant who is working on a documentary on the Black Panther Party, directed by Stanley Nelson. Marvin X has urged her to include how the Black Panther Party in particular and the liberation movement in general was influenced by the Black Arts Movement. According to Marvin X, there was cross fertilization between the Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, Black Arts Movement and the Black Student Movement that led to Black Studies.

Bobby Seale and Marvin X at the Joyce
Gordon Gallery Black History Celebration, 2012

No aspect of the Black Consciousness Movement sprang up in isolation. We cannot discuss the Black Panthers without discussing the African American Association, led by Donald Warden, aka Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour. From the AAA's influence came the Panthers and the establishment of Black Studies at Oakland's Merritt College, even before the violent strike for Black Studies at San Francisco State College, now university.

And would the students at Merritt and San Francisco State have been motivated without the West Coast Black Arts Movement, e.g., Bobby Seale performed in Marvin X's second play Come Next Summer before joining the BPP. Bobby played the role of a young black man in search of revolutionary consciousness.

At San Francisco State College, LeRoi Jones, aka Amiri Baraka's Communications Project enrolled student actors and playwrights such as Jimmy Garrett, Benny Stewart, George Murray, Jo Ann Mitchell, Elleadar Barnes, et al., who went on to participate in the Black Panther Party after BAM consciousness.

At San Francisco State College, now University, Marvin X's first play, Flowers for the Trashman, produced by the Drama Department, 1965, ushered in Black Arts West Theatre, 1966, with X and playwright Ed Bullins. Danny Glover performed in BAW. BAW came under the influence of the Nation of Islam will key players joining the NOI, i.e., Marvin X, Duncan X, Hillary X and Ethna X.




Upon his release from prison, 1967, Eldridge Cleaver hooked up with Marvin X and they established the Black House, a political/cultural center, along with Ethna X, Ed Bullins and Willie Dale. Again the Muslim influence: Marvin X an d BAW guru and former inmate with Eldridge, Alonzo Batin, forced Eldridge Cleaver out of his white woman's house (Beverly Axelrod, the attorney who took his manuscript Soul on Ice out of Soledad Prison and whom Eldridge promised to marry, who also contracted a portion of royalties from Soul on Ice and won by default while Eldridge was exiled in Algeria). Eldridge died poor while his book is still an international bestseller as we write! You Marvin X eventually introduced Eldridge Cleaver to Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, Marvin's companions from Merritt College.

But just as the Nation of Islam recruited members of the Black Arts West Theatre, Marvin X would later recruit for the NOI. His biggest fish was no doubt Nadar Ali or Bobby Jones who Elijah Muhammad put over the fish import business.

Islam had a significant role on the East Coast Black Panther Party and the genre Muslim American literature begins with Marvin X and the BAM writers, e.g., Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Askia Muhammad Toure, et al.

Marvin X and his mentor and associate, Master Sun Ra,outside Marvin's Black Educational Theatre on O'farrel Street, between Fillmore and Webster, 1972. Sun Ra and Marvin X were both teaching Black Studies at UC Berkeley. They produced a five hour concert without intermission and a cast of fifty at San Francisco's Harding theatre on Divisadero St.

 Eldridge and Alprentice Bunchy Carter, his prison buddy and later leader of the Los Angeles Black Panther Party, murdered on the campus of UCLA, along with John Huggins by members of the US organization, headed by Ron Karenga.

 Huey P. Newton in wicker chair, rug, shield, spear; these items came from Eldridge Cleaver's room at Beverly Axelrod's house. Marvin X and Alonzo Batin (BAM guru) moved Eldridge from Axelrod's  White House to the Black House on Broderick St., San Francisco.

 Marvin X at Fresno State College/now University. He was removed as lecturer on orders of
Governor Ronald Reagan who also removed Angela Davis from UCLA the same year, 1969.

 My Friend the Devil, Marvin's memoir of Eldridge Cleaver.

 Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X outside the house where the Panthers had a shoot out with the OPD. Little Bobby Hutton was murdered by OPD, Cleaver wounded and later fled to exile. When he returned as a Born Again Christian, Marvin X organized his ministry. photo Muhammad Al Kareem

See My Friend the Devil, a memoir of Eldridge Cleaver by Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2009. Also, Somethin' Proper, the autobiography of a North American African Poet, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 1998. Somethin' Proper came off the press the day Eldridge Cleaver made his transition to the ancestors, May 1, 1998. Marvin X performed the memorial rites in Oakland. Kathleen and daughter Joju attended the memorial. Kathleen said, "Marvin, the memorial was great, but there were just too many Muslims!" Alas, their son is Ahmed Maceo Eldridge Cleaver, a Sunni Muslim!

MARVIN X SPEAKS ON WANDA'S PICKS RADIO SHOW

LINK TO MARVIN X INTERVIEW WITH WANDA SABIR:  http://tobtr.com/s/7233251

Marvin X is a playwright in the true spirit of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). His most well-known BAM play, entitled Flowers for the Trashman, deals with generational difficulties and the crisis of the Black intellectual as he deals with education in a white-controlled culture. 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.

His latest book is the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. He currently teaches at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, Lakeshore on Saturdays, Sundays at the Berkeley Flea Market: www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com.

ON SATURDAY, FEB 7, MARVIN X PRESENTS THE 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement at Laney College, of which he is a co-founder, having worked in BAM from coast to coast. In San Francisco, he co-founded Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore District, 1966. In 1967 he co-founded The Black House with Eldridge Cleaver, playwright Ed Bullins and Ethna X. Wyatt. In Harlem, New York he worked at the New Lafayette Theatre, 1968: Associate Editor of Black Theatre Magazine.  

In Harlem he worked with BAM artists: Ed Bullins, Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, The Last Poets, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Sun Ra, Haki Madhubuti, Milford Graves, Barbara Ann Teer, Mae Jackson, et al.

Marvin X in Harlem, NY, 1968

photo Doug Harris

Dr. Wade Nobles, Elaine Brown and Marvin X at Year of the African American Male, hosted by Alameda County SupervisorKeith Carson

Left to Right, Dr. Wade Nobles, Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University; Elaine Brown, former Chairwoman of the Black Panther Party and Marvin X, co-founder of the Black Arts Movement.

Photo essay by Adam Turner: Laney College President, Faculty, Staff meet with Marvin X to plan Black Arts Movement 50th Anniversary Celebration at Laney College, Feb. 7

Black Arts Movement co-founder Marvin X, aka The Chancellor

 Dr. Leslee Stradford, curator of the BAM/Post News Group Visual Art Exhibit from San Quentin Prison. Next to her is  Brandi Howard, Staff Assistant to President Dr. Elnora T. Webb

Dr. Elnora T. Webb, President, Laney College. Laney formed a special relationship with the Black Arts Movement to make the event happen. "We love you, Dr. Elnora Tina Webb!"says Marvin X.

L to R: Jim Cave, Odell Johnson Theatre technical director; Eric Smith, Staff Assistant in Laney Business Office (sitting in for Kinetta Barnett, Laney Facilities Services Specialist) and Randolph Belle, Communications Director for President Webb.

 

Tamika Brown and Alicia Christenson, Co-chairs of the Ethnic Studies Department.

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will honor The Black Arts Movement with a commendation for fifty years work. In the words of ancestor Paul Robeson, Marvin X and the  BAM workers describe themselves as Artistic Freedom Fighters.