Saturday, April 18, 2015

Oh, Marvin, you never cease to amaze me!--Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

 "Oh, Marvin, you never cease to amaze me, " Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf told Marvin X when she walked up on him at his Academy of Da Corner, 14th and Broadway, renamed Black Arts Movement District.

Ishmael Reed says, "If you want motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland." FYI, above pic is from the Feb. 7, 2015, BAM 50th Anniversary Celebration at Oakland's Laney College. photo by South Park Kenny Johnson

 
Master Teacher Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, a multipurpose center, i.g., micro loan bank, literacy, mental health, (layman's grief and trauma counseling),  mentoring, economic independence or entrepreneurship training, event organizing, presently working on the Black Arts Movement's 27 City Tour in honor of Amiri Baraka. photo Adam Turner

 Academy of da Corner on Oakland's Lakeshore District, Saturday's only

Academy of da Corner, Berkeley (ASHBY BART STATION), Sunday's only

 Marvin X in heaven, i.e., in the presence of beautiful, intelligent, revolutionary women: L to R: Elaine Brown, former Chair of the Black Panther Party, Halifu Osumare, San Francisco State University radical student, member of the Black Students Union, founder of the Malonga Cultural Center, downtown Oakland, part of the Black Arts Movement District; Judy Juanita, member of the Black Panther Party and member of BAM, attended Merritt College along with Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Marvin X; wrote articles in the student paper on Marvin X as a budding Black Nationalist; editor of the Black Panther Party newspaper; Portia Anderson, author, a BAM baby; Kujichagulia, BAM baby; Aries Jordan, BAM baby, being mentored by Marvin X, whenever he comes in from outta space with his comrade Sun Ra. FYI, Marvin X is scheduled to be at the University of Chicago, May 22, 2015, in honor of Sun Ra, organized by Chicago musician/scholar David Boykin. Marvin X says, "When I get to Chicago, I'm going to the hood, 63rd and Cottage Grove! photo South Park Kenny Johnson

 Two Gemini madmen genius: Marvin X, May 29; Sun Ra, May 22

During 1972, both madmen lectured at the University of California, Berkeley in Black Studies.
Sun Ra joined Marvin X at his off campus theatre, Black Educational Theatre on O'farrel Street, between Fillmore and Webster, an old abandoned Greek Orthodox church. They produced a five hour production of Marvin's BAM classic one act play Flowers for the Trashman, musical version named Take Care of Business or TCB, music by Sun Ra. Production was at the Harding Theatre on Divisadero Street. The Sun Reporter reviewed the five hour concert without intermission. Production included the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Black Educational Theatre actors; the Raymond Sawyer dancers and the Ellendar Barnes Dancers; a cast of fifty.  Again, the concert was five hours without intermission, such is the nature of the Sun Ra/Marvin X experience. Somebody better say Ase'!

Chicago's David Boykin, organizer of the Sun Ra Conference at the University of Chicago
Mrs. Gay Plair Cobb, Director of Private Industry Council or PIC;MX, Mayor Schaaf, Dr. Elnora  T. Webb, President of Laney College, Dr. Nathan Hare, father of Black Studies, founder of the Black Scholar Magazine, clinical psychologist; Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Post News Group Newspapers
Left to Right: Paul Cobb, Publisher Post News Group; Dr. Leslee Stradford, Professor of Art, Rt. Col. Conway Jones, Jr., Marvin X, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf holding Marvin's grandchild Naima Joy, next to her is her  brother Jah Amiel; Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb, Dr. Nathan Hare, father of Black Studies (that never gave him a job, nowhere in America with the plethora of Black Studies Programs, Africana Studies, Pan African Studies, et al. Not one of them has offered Dr. Hare a position. Black intellectuals pimped Dr. Ben the same. My daughter gave me the term Pseudo conscious! She said, "Dad, we need to uneducate our people!"
 BAM Poet's Choir and Arkestra members, Zena Allen, Kora player, MX, violinist Tarika Lewis and choreographer/dancer Linda Johnson.

 The BAM Poet's Choir and Arkestra, featuring MX, David Murray and Earle Davis at the Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland CA, 2014

 BAM POET'S CHOIR AND ARKESTRA,
MALCOLM X JAZZ/ART FEST., OAKLAND 2014

 My friend the devil, Marvin X's memoir of Eldridge Cleaver. He finished the first draft in three weeks while on a national book tour, prompted by questions from his daughter Nefertiti at her house in Houston, TX.  He published each chapter daily in Chickenbones.com. It was literally a writing in progress for the world to see on the Internet. See the review by Rudolph Lewis on Chickenbones.com.


 Plato Negro at his Academy of da Corner, beside him is Gregory Fields, Academy of da Corner Professor of Law.
 Esteemed Professor emeritus of Black Studies at San Francisco State University, Dr. Oba T'Shaka. Occasion was the 80th birthday celebration of Dr. Nathan Hare at Geoffery's Inner Circle, a venue in the Black Arts Movement District, located at 14th and Franklin. Please support this Black owned venue. He is author of many books, one of the San Francisco Civil Rights icons.

BAM Divas: Rev. Tureada Mikell, BAM Choir Director Michelle LaChaux, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Tarika Lewis, violinist, activist, first female member of the Black Panther Party

Post News Group Publisher, Paul Cobb, and Marvin X, both grew up in West Oakland. Paul Cobb supports the projects of Marvin X, not only with his mouth but with his money! We appreciate you, Paul Cobb!--Marvin X. Jackmon

Jah Amiel, grandson of Marvin X, when he was three years old, on  the way to Lake Merritt, told his grandfather, "Grandfather, you can't save the world, but I can!" Oh, Jah Amiel, we pass the baton to you!--Marvin X












 Marvin X speaking to a graduate seminar in the Africana Studies Department, University of Houston, TX

 On a recent national book tour, University of Houston students engage Marvin X in the Africana Studies Department

Poet autographing books at University of Houston, TX

Friday, April 17, 2015

San Francisco Film Festival presents: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, directed by Stanley Nelson


 Black Panther Party revolutionary Queens

 Ancestor Dr. Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party

Director Stanley Nelson
 
The Stanley Nelson's documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, will be screened at the San Francisco Film Festival, Saturday, April 25, 2015, 3:00pm. Marvin X was interviewed for the film. He attended Oakland's Merritt College with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. He introduced Eldridge Cleaver to the BPP: "Marvin X was my teacher. Many of our comrades came through his Black Arts Theatre: Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier, Judy Juanita, JoAnn Mitchell, et al," said Dr. Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party.
We are pleased to invite you to a screening of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which will be held next weekend at
​ ​
the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival!  
​Screening times are as follows: 
Saturday April 25, 2015 at 
3:00 p.m. 
​at the 
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
​. Please RSVP as soon as possble to this email address, or call 646-262-7757.  We hope you can attend what promises to be an extraordinary event. 

Presented by the San Francisco Film Society, the Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas. As it celebrates its 58th edition, SFIFF has screened more than 6,000 films, entertained and inspired roughly two million filmgoers and hosted thousands of prominent guests and luminaries. Press coverage of films, guests and events is extensive.

The Festival screening
​ ​
will be a Bay Area premiere
​ ​
and we are very excited
 to
​ be ​
presenting this  at the Festival.

​There will be an additional screening on Tuesday ​
April 28, 2015
​at ​
6:15 p.m. at theSundance Kabuki Cinemas
​.​
Tickets for that screening are available online at festival.sffs.org and at the Festival box office. located at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post Street (at Fillmore), Open daily 3:30-7:30 pm.  General admission tickets are $15, Senior/student/disabled tickets are $14. 

Best regards,
Nicole London

--
Nicole London
Associate Producer| The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Firelight Films
324 Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031

Black Bird Press News & Review: Slave Catchers, Slave Resisters

Black Bird Press News & Review: Video: Slave Catchers, Slave Resisters

This video will help you understand the origin of pigs and their psychopathic behavior toward North American Africans yesterday and today. No police review board can stop pig behavior. The nature of a pig is to oink!



Black Bird Press News & Review: Video: Master Teacher Marvin X returns to Academy of Da Corner in Oakland's Black Arts Movement District, 14th Street



Black Bird Press News & Review: Video: Master Teacher Marvin X returns to Academy of Da Corner in Oakland's Black Arts Movement District, 14th Street

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Bandung Conference at 60 by Norman Richmond, aka Jalali












By Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali



Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrival in Canada is major news.
Modi is  being greeted like he is a musical star like Bob Marley or
Bruce Springsteen. India has a long history of leaning left and not
being a servant of Western interest. It is no surprise that this Asian
nation is a foundation member of BRICS.

The new kid on the economic block is BRICS an association of five
major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa. The grouping was originally known as "BRIC" before the
inclusion of South Africa in 2010.


They are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and
significant influence on regional and global affairs; all five are
G-20 members. Since 2010, the BRICS nations have met annually at
formal summits. Russia currently holds the chair of the BRICS group,
and will host BRICS seventh the summit in July 2015.

BRICS countries represent almost 3 billion people, or approximately
40% of the world population. The five nations have a combined nominal
GDP of US$16.039 trillion, equivalent to approximately 20% of the
gross world product, and an estimated US$4 trillion in combined
foreign reserves.  Many feel that BRICS is a continuation of the
Bandung Conference.

History will record two Bandung conferences. The first took place 60
years ago between April 18-24, 1955 at which 29 African and Asian
nations met in Bandung, Indonesia to promote economic and cultural
cooperation and to oppose colonialism.

The idea of the Bandung Conference came from Ahmed Sukarno of
Indonesia. It was conceived in Colombo, Indonesia, where the Colombo
powers – India, Pakistan, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Burma (now Myanmar)
and Indonesia, the host country – met in April 1954. The Bandung
Conference led to the 1961 creation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

At that moment in history Josip Broz Tito was the president of
Yugoslavia. The Non–Aligned Movement was founded in Belgrade. The idea
for the group was largely conceived by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first
prime minister. Other players were U Nu Burma’s first prime minister,
Sukarno Indonesia’s first president, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Kwame
Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president.

The second Bandung Conference took place in 2005. The first head of
state to arrive at the 2005 conference was South African President
Thabo Mbeki. Ironically, South Africa along with Israel, Taiwan and
North and South Korea were all barred from the 1955 conference. In
light of recent tragic events, Mbeki visited the tsunami stricken
province of Aceh before he proceeded to the conference.

I first heard about the Bandung Conference in the mid-1960s while
listening to a speech by El-Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X) titled
"Message to the Grassroots,” which was first delivered at the King
Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit on November 10, 1963. Malcolm talked
about places and faces I had never heard of, however, he didn't get it
completely correct. There were White people at the Bandung conference.
Marshal Tito represented Yugoslavia, and there were American,
Australian and numerous members of the European press at the
conference. In fact, African American journalist Ethel Payne, who was
at Bandung, pointed out, “The British had sent just hordes of
correspondents, and the Dutch and the Germans and all the European
countries." A new biography “Eye On The Struggle” about Payne  has
been published by Harper Collins.

Africans in North America paid close attention to this historic event.
In Canada, Daniel Braithwaite's organization, which had a relationship
with the U.S.-based Council on African Affairs (CAA), sent a message
of support. Braithwaite was so impressed by CAA co-founder Paul
Robeson that he not only started a CAA chapter in Toronto, he named
his son Paul in tribute to Robeson. Other Africanists like W.E.B.
DuBois, Alphaeus and Dorothy Hunton, along with Robeson, were members
of the Council on African Affairs.

At the time of the first Bandung Conference, the North American left,
in general, and the African liberation movement inside the United
States, in particular were under attack. Senator Joseph McCarthy was
looking for a "red under every bed.” Robeson, "the Tallest Tree in the
Forest," wanted to attend the conference but couldn't because the
U.S.government had taken his passport. Ditto for DuBois. However,
several African American politicians and journalists found themselves
in Indonesia from April 18-25, 1955. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Carl T.
Rowan, Dr. Marguerite Cartwright, journalist Payne and Richard Wright
all were there.

Powell, the Congressman from Harlem, went to the Conference on a dare.
He wanted to attend the event to represent the interests of
U.S.imperialism by talking about the progress the Negro in America was
making. "It will mark the first time in history that the world's
non-White people have held such a gathering," he told reporters in
Washington, D.C., "and it could be the most important of this
century." Powell, no matter what we think of him, knew what time it
was. His appeals to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and others in the
State Department fell on deaf ears. The flamboyant Powell was told the
U.S. government saw no need to send an official observer to Bandung.
However, he got there compliment of the African American weekly
newspaper, New York Age-Defender. Karl Evanzz pointed out in his
brilliant book, 'The Judas Factor', "There was at least one unofficial
observer: at the request of John Foster Dulles' brother, CIA Director
Allen Dulles, a young African American journalist named Carl T. Rowan
covered the conference."

Rowan went on to become the Director of the United States Information
Agency. He also went on to alienate a generation of Africans in
America after the February 21, 1965 assassination of Malcolm X.
Rowan's statement after Malcolm's death was: "All this about an
ex-convict, ex-dope peddler who became a racial fanatic."

Of the two female African American journalists at the conference, the
well-connected Dr. Cartwright represented a chain of White dailies and
the United Nations. The lesser-known Payne was the new kid on the
block and represented the Chicago Defender, which was part of John
Sengstacke's chain of Black weeklies.



Payne, who went on to be crowned "The First Lady of the Black Press"
said she had little or no contact in Indonesia with Dr. Cartwright. Of
Cartwright, Payne said, "She had a desk at the U.N. and so she had
quite a lot of access that I didn't have." However, Payne did network
with writer Richard Wright, a one-time member of the Communist Party
U.S.A. who went on his own and wrote the book, “The Color Curtain”,
about The Bandung Conference. “The Color Curtain” was first published
by University Press of Mississippi in 1956. Wright wrote about the
faces and places in Indonesia in 1955, and one can feel him learning
about what would come to be called "The Third World.”

The first Bandung Conference was attended by 21 Asian, seven African
and one Eastern European country. The second was attended by 54 Asian
and 52 African nations. The Asian-African Conference has been
transformed into the Asia-Africa Summit. A recent re-reading of
Robeson's “Here I Stand” made me realize how important these two
conferences are to humanity. At both, questions of world peace,
South-South cooperation, nuclear weapons and Palestine were discussed.

The great Paul Robeson wanted to attend the Bandung Conference.
Robeson summed it up in these words. He said, “How I would love to see
my brothers from Africa, India, China, Indonesia and from all the
people represented at Bandung. In your midst are old friends I knew in
London years ago, where I first became part of the movement for
colonial freedom -- the many friends from India and Africa and the
West Indies with whom I shared hopes and dreams of a new day for the
oppressed colored peoples of the world. And I might have come as an
observer had I been granted a passport by the State Department whose
lawyers have argued that "in view of the applicant's frank admission
that he has argued that "in view of the applicant's frank admission
that he has been fighting for the freedom of the colonial people of
Africa . . .the diplomatic embarrassment that could arise from the
presence abroad of such a political meddler (sic!) travelling under
the protection of
an American passport, is easily imaginable!"

So all the best to all of you. Together with all of progressive
mankind, with lovers of peace and freedom everywhere, I salute your
history-making conference.”

Norman (Otis) Richmond, aka Jalali, was born in Arcadia, Louisiana,
and grew up in Los Angeles. He left Los Angles after refusing to fight
in Vietnam because he felt that, like the Vietnamese, Africans in the
United States were colonial subjects.

Richmond is currently working as a producer/host of Diasporic Music on
Uhuru Radio (uhururadio.com)

His column Diasporic Music appears monthly in The Burning Spear newspaper

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

News from the Indigenous Americas: Castro on Obama; the transition of writer Eduardo Galeano of Uruguay

President Obama and Raul Castro shake hands

Raul Castro Goes Off on U.S. Policy Towards Cuba, Then Apologizes to Obama




Cuban President Raul Castro went off on U.S. policy towards Cuba in his Summit of the Americas speech today, before apologizing to President Obama and absolving him of any blame in the matter.
According to reports from the summit, Castro went on and on about grievances Cuba has had with the United States for decades, bringing up military invasions, occupations, the Bay of Pigs, et cetera.
And then, for some reason, Castro ended up apologizing to Obama. He said, “I apologize to Obama for expressing myself so emotionally. President Obama has no responsibility for this. There were 10 presidents before him; all have a debt to us, but not President Obama.”
He even pointed out that Obama was born after the conflict originally began, a point Obama himself made when he spoke.
Castro also took some time to personally praise Obama and call him an honest man.

Eduardo Galeano speaks during the closing march to support a referendum to abolish an amnesty law for those involved in human rights violations during Uruguay"s dictatorship. October, 2009.



Uruguayan author and left-wing intellectual Eduardo Galeano has died at a hospital in Montevideo aged 74 after suffering from lung cancer.

His 1971 book, Open Veins of Latin America, became a classic of leftist political literature in the region.

It chronicles the deep injustices of Latin America and its exploitation by capitalist and imperialist forces.

Mr Galeano's trilogy "Memory of Fire" also received wide praise when it was published in the 1980s.
It is a three-volume narrative of the history of the Americas which starts in the pre-Columbian period and ends in 1980.

He was best known for his book, Open Veins of Latin America, which gained popularity again after the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, gave it as a gift to US President Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas in 2009.

Mr Galeano also wrote fiction, essays and journalism and, before becoming one of Latin America's best known writers, had many other jobs.

He worked at a factory, as a bank clerk, a painter and a political cartoonist. Mr Galeano was also known for his drawings and political cartoons.






Mr Galeano went into exile when the Uruguayan military took power in 1973 - first to Argentina, where he founded the literary review Crisis, and then to Spain. He returned to Uruguay after democracy was restored in 1985. Local media are reporting that Mr Galeano left a new text to be published after his death, according to the BBC's Veronica Smink in Argentina.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Newark, NJ: National Conference on Leadership, Ideas, Action, October 8-10, 2015


Saturday, April 11, 2015

POEM FOR AB AND AMINA BARAKA





I AM MUSIC
DRAMA TOO
LOVE DRAMA
CAN'T HEP IT
DRAMA IS MA LIFE
IMAGINE
IN THE HOUSE OF BARAKA
FULL OF DRAMA
24/7
BUT AIN'T TELLIN' NOTHING
TOO MUCH LOVE FADA BARAKAS
CAN'T PARTY WIT NOBODY ELSE
PARTY PARTY PARTY
TALK REVOLUTION
PARTY PARTY
REVOLUTION REVOLUTON
HEP ME SOMEBODY
DINNER AT THE SPANISH RESTAURANT NEXT TO CITY HALL
BAR HOPING ACROSS NEWARK
AMIRI AND AMINA FRIENDS LIKE NO OTHER
LOVE MY FRIENDS TO THE END
NO MATTER THEIR NEGROCITIES
WHAT ABOUT MY OWN
BARAKA SAY MARVIN DON'T STEAL MY TERM NEGROCITIES
OK AB

BUT CHECK THIS
NEGROCITIES
AN INFLAMMATION OF THE NEGROID GLAND AT THE BASE OF THE BRAIN
CAUSED BY BAD HABITS
WHAT YOU SAY IN BLACK MASS
WHERE THE SOUL'S PRINT SHOULD BE
THERE IS ONLY A CELLULOSE POUCH OF DISGUSTING HABITS!
--MARVIN X
410/15