Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Our Man in Toronto, Norman Richmond, aka Jalali on Malcolm X and Music


           
By Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali

Malcolm X, loved then and now by the people, eulogized by Ossie Davis as our “Black Shining Prince”

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 51   years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the struggle of African people inside the United States. Malcolm was born 91 years ago on May 19, 1925. While U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama has acknowledged Kwanzaa, I doubt very seriously if he will show Malcolm the same love.

The late Manning Marable’s volume, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” sparked a renewed interest and debate about Malcolm. Previous works like Karl Evanzz’ “The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X,” Zak Kondo’s “Conspiracies: Unraveling the Assassination of Malcolm X” and Bill Sales’ “From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity” are all being reopened.

Contrary to popular belief, it was Malcolm, not Martin Luther King, who first opposed the war in Vietnam. Malcolm was the first American-born African leader of national prominence in the 1960s to condemn the war. He was later joined by organizations like the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Junta of Militant Organizations (JOMO) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. This was in the tradition of David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, Martin R. Delaney, Bishop Henry McNeil Turner, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Ella Baker and Paul Robeson.

Malcolm continued to link the struggles of African people worldwide. King came out against the Vietnam War in his famous April 4, 1967, speech at Riverside Church in New York City. Malcolm spoke against this war from the get-go.

Musicians have done their part to keep Malcolm’s legacy alive. Long before Spike Lee’s 1992 bio-pic, “X,” hip hop, house, reggae and R’n’B artists created music for Malcolm, high-life and great Black music (so-called jazz) artists first wrote and sang about Malcolm. The dance of Malcolm’s time was the “lindy hop,” and he was a master of it. “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” which Malcolm wrote with the assistance of Alex Haley, gives a vivid description of his love of dancing.

Years later, on a visit to the West African nation of Ghana, Malcolm spoke of seeing Ghanaians dancing the high-life. He wrote: “The Ghanaians performed the high-life as if possessed. One pretty African girl sang ‘Blue Moon’ like Sarah Vaughan. Sometimes the band sounded like Charlie Parker.” Malcolm’s impact on Ghana was so great that one folk singer created a song in his honor called “Malcolm Man.”

After Malcolm’s death, many jazz artists recorded music in his memory. Among them, Leon Thomas recorded the song, “Malcolm’s Gone” on his “Spirits Known and Unknown” album; saxophonist-poet-playwright Archie Shepp recorded the poem, “Malcolm, Malcolm Semper Malcolm,” on his Fire Music album. Shepp drew parallels between Malcolm’s spoken words and John Coltrane’s music.
Said Shepp: “I equate Coltrane’s music very strongly with Malcolm’s language, because they were just about contemporaries, to tell you the truth. And I believe essentially what Malcolm said is what John played. If Trane had been a speaker, he might have spoken somewhat like Malcolm. If Malcolm had been a saxophone player, he might have played somewhat like Trane.”

Shortly before Malcolm’s death, he visited Toronto and appeared on CBC television with Pierre Berton. During the visit, Malcolm spent time with award-winning author Austin Clarke talking about politics and music. Time was too short to organize a community meeting, but a few lucky people gathered at Clarke’s home on Asquith Street. Clarke had interviewed Malcolm previously, in 1963 in Harlem, when he was working for the CBC. Clarke recalled they “talked shop,” but also discussed the lighter things in life, like the fact that both their wives were named Betty.

It is not surprising that Malcolm made his way to Canada. His mother and father, Earl Little, met and married in MontrĂ©al at a Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) convention. Both were followers of Marcus Garvey. His mother, Louise Langdon Norton, was born in Grenada but immigrated first to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and later to Montreal in 1917. Jan Carew’s book, “Ghosts in Our Blood: With Malcolm X in Africa, England, and the Caribbean,” documents this aspect of the life of the pan-Africanist.

While on a visit to Nigeria, Malcolm was given the name Omowale, which means in the Yoruba language, “the son who has come home.” It was in this period of his life that he visited Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Guinea and Tanzania. It was during this period that he met with Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius K. Nyerere, Nnamoi Azikiwe, Sekou Toure, Jomo Kenyatta, Dr. Milton Obote, Abdul Rahman Muhammad Babu and others. During this visit he also met Ras Makonnen, a legendary pan-Africanist from Guyana, Richard Wright’s daughter Julie Wright, Maya Angelou, Shirley Graham Du Bois, the wife of W.E.B. Du Bois, and Chinese Ambassador Huang Ha.

It must be mentioned that Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, his wife Shirley Graham Du Bois and Robert F. Williams all supported the 1949 Chinese revolution. Malcolm also was a huge supporter of the People’s Republic of China. He was delighted when China tested its first nuclear weapon.

Babu talked about the significance of this event at the Malcolm X: Radical Tradition and a Legacy of Struggle Conference in New York City in 1990.

In Nigeria, Malcolm was given the name Omowale, “the son who has come home.” This photo was taken in 1964.Says Babu: “When Malcolm X came to Tanzania, I took him to meet President (Julius) Nyerere on another historic date. Because that very day, China exploded her first nuclear bomb. And as we went to see Nyerere, Nyerere said, “Malcolm, for the first time today in recorded history, a former colony has been able to develop weapons at par with any colonial power. This is the end of colonialism through and through.”
Malcolm was the chief organizer of the Nation of Islam and the founder of the group’s newspaper Muhammad Speaks. He split with the nation and its leader Elijah Muhammad in 1963. At the time of his death he headed two organizations. The secular group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), was his political arm. He also organized the religious group, Muslim Mosque Inc. (MMI), which practiced Sunni Islam.

Today Islam is the second largest religion in the United States and Canada. Many credit Malcolm with helping spread Sunni Islam as well as revolutionary Black Nationalism and pan-Africanism among African people in the Western Hemisphere.

Like Augusto Cesar Sandino of Nicaragua or Sun Yat-sen of China, Malcolm was embraced by all sectors of the Black Nationalist and pan-Africanist movements. All Nationalists and Pan-Africanists claimed to follow his example. Revolutionary Nationalist groups like the Black Panther Party and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers emerged in the late 1960s, after Malcolm’s death. Even after the BPP and the League embraced Marxism, Malcolm was still their man. The cultural Nationalists who maintained that the Cultural Revolution must precede the political one also embraced Malcolm.

Fidel Castro was demonized when he came to New York City in October 1961 to speak at the United Nations, but he felt safe in Harlem when he and his delegation moved from a hostile hotel to the Hotel Theresa, where he was welcomed by Malcolm.

He was a controversial figure. Actor Ossie Davis eulogized him as our “Black Shining Prince” while the director of the U.S. Information Agency, Carl T. Rowan, referred to him as “an ex-convict, ex-dope peddler who became a racial fanatic.”

He was loved by the oppressed and hated by the oppressors. Malcolm spoke about the MMI and OAAU in these terms: “Its aim is to create an atmosphere and facilities in which people who are interested in Islam can get a better understanding of Islam. The aim of the OAAU is to use whatever means necessary to bring about a society in which the 22 million Afro-Americans are recognized and respected as human beings.”

“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Alex Haley and other books by and about Malcolm continue to sell worldwide. Some of his books have recently been published in Cuba. Rosemari Mealey's volume, Fidel & Malcolm X: Memories of a Meeting.  Malcolm was one of the few Black Nationalist leaders who welcomed Cuban leader Fidel Castro to Harlem in 1960.

Many Nationalists didn’t want to be identified with communism. Carlos Cooks, the leader of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement, absolutely refused to have anything to do with Castro. But African people in the West could easily identify with the slogan, “When Africa called, Cuba answered.” Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) was fond of reminding us that the only place in the United States that Fidel felt safe was in Harlem.


Toronto-based journalist and radio producer Norman (Otis) Richmond can be heard on Diasporic Music the last Thursday of every month at 8-10 p.m., Uhuru Radio every other Sunday 2-4 p.m., Saturday Morning Live on Saturdays 10 a.m.-1 p.m. He can be reached by e-mail at norman.o.richmond@gmail.com.



~ Program ~
(5:30 pm – 7:45 pm)
Welcome/Opening Remarks............................Vanessa Silva
Panel Discussion.........................................Guest Speakers
Dr. Muhammad Ahmad
Malcolm X's former political assistant and co-founder of RAM
Saladin Muhammad
African People’s Party (APP) and Black Workers for Justice (BWFJ)
Askia Toure
SNCC, RAM and leader of the Black Arts Movement
Nino Brown
Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAABP) and ANSWER Coalition
Lanise Frazier
Black Lives Matter Boston (BLM)
Michelle Santana
We Are The Ones (WATO)
Khlaida Smalls
Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI)
Reflections
Please keep comments brief so others may share
Closing Remarks..................................Tony Van Der Meer

Dr. Muhammad Ahmad
https://vimeo.com/19174560
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/stanford.html
Saladin Muhammad
http://theblm.net/saladin/
http://livestream.com/accounts/2710797/events/5302091


~ Resources ~
Malcolm X
http://www.brothermalcolm.net http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/finalmonths.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9AmuYqjRyg
Askia Toure
https://vimeo.com/19921546 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=p8O-dyEEOuE
Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM)
http://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=129
Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_student_nonviolent_coo
rdinating_committee_sncc/
A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI)
http://apri.org/
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/boston
Black Lives Matter Boston (BLM)
https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterBOS http://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/08/20/5-questions-with-the-leader-of-black- lives-matter-boston
Mass Action Against Police Brutality (MAAPB)
https://www.facebook.com/maapb617/
Services Employees International Union (SEIU)
http://www.seiu.org/
We Are The Ones (WATO)
https://www.facebook.com/wearetheonesboston http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adebukola-ajao/the-reeducation-of-we-are_b_6600800.html
“History rewards all those who research it.” Malcolm X

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

A poem by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD: Horse Day

horse day

by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD
thin horsethin horsethin horsethin horse
sun baked day
like all days
just a day
until it is
something more
the horses came
two lean large eyed
looking hungry
horses
two
prosperity after
hunger after want
after white light
so bright blinded
now we can see
what the hard ground
will yield when we
have more muscle
only as good as the tools
we use he used to say
pride in his dark eyes
leading thin horses
up a rocky hill
our horses
our hill
our chance
a extra hot water
cornbread day like
sunday on tuesday
celebration
signs of our right
to be lucky
to continue to struggle
in the storm
to continue performing
the miracle of
pulling
our skinny life from the dirt
god sent horses
we will eat only
beans for a month
to pay for them
say hallelujah and
pass the hot water
corn bread pour the last
of the syrup we fall down
to get up always reaching
we go forward no chance
turned to slim chance
we dance thankful
for the promise
in the horses
we will fatten them
planting hope in them
like the seeds we
will plant
in hopes of harvesting
more than ill will
rolling down like
the rain we pray
up in the heat of
0ur deep hunger
in soul to rise like
the sparse shoots
that defy odds to
keep us just alive
enough to want more
two horses
lead by a slender rope
harnessing our future







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Dirty South greatest HIV risk for Gay, Bisexual Men

New Map Reveals HIV Risk Greatest in Southern Cities for Gay, Bisexual Men

Estimates of MSM (Men who have sex with men) by race are also not available, though the CDC estimated in February that half of black MSM and a quarter of Latino MSM will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. 

“To stop the spread of HIV in the U.S., we have to understand how, where, and among whom the epidemic is striking the hardest,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said during today's news conference. 

 

MICHAEL NEDELMAN,ABC News 32 minutes ago

Cointelpro is alive and well! Big Man Howard and Marvin X on Black Panther Party Minister of Distribution, Sam Napier


Marvin X on Samuel Napier

I remember the day Samuel Napier walked into the Black House, the political/cultural center founded by Eldridge Cleaver and myself in San Francisco, 1967. Sam was working at a co-op supermarket in Hunters Point but wanted more than a job in his life. He was sincere and just wanted to get involved. His attitude was the same as another brother who came to the Black House looking to get involved: Emory Douglas,  who became Black Party Minister of Culture. Emory came into the Black House reciting an original poem Revolutionary Things. 

Cover art by Emory

Amiri Baraka by Emory

As per Sam, we were totally devastated when we learned how he was murdered in the COintellpro inspired battle between the two BPP armies. And the bitterness has continued to this day. When I produced my play One Day in the Life in Brooklyn at Sista's Place, 1996, featuring the scene of my last meeting with Huey P. Newton, the December 12 people sat me down and said, "Marvin X, we love you but we don't give a damn about Huey Newton, this is Eldridge's turf, this is where his army was and is."(See the panel discussion entitled Drugs, Art and Revolution, Sista's Place, 1996, featuring Sam Anderson, Sonia Sanchez, Elombe Brath, Mrs Amina Baraka, Mr. Amiri Baraka (RIP), and Marvin X, hosted by December 12 member Omawale Clay, Youtube.)

As you may know, I introduced Eldridge to Huey and Bobby and it was sad to see how Cointellpro helped divide brother against brother to the point of murder, brutal murder in the case of Sam Napier who was killed and set on fire. As Mao said, "The reactionaries will never put down their butcher knives, they will never turn into Buddha heads!" So the struggle continues.

We must simply practice eternal vigilance until victory. And we must pass the baton to our children, especially the Black Arts/Black Power/Black Panther Babies. Newark, New Jersey's Mayor Ras Baraka is a model of a child who understands his mission is to continue the tradition of Black Liberation, which simply means seizing power for the people.
--Marvin X, Black Arts Movement
5/17/16



https://s.yimg.com/fz/api/res/1.2/ztJaGg_Rjuh42W3VyiTu1g--/YXBwaWQ9c3JjaGRkO2g9Mzg5O3E9OTU7dz00MDA-/http://i2.wp.com/sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BPP-50th-0415-web.jpg?resize=400%2C389  
October, 20-23 Black Panther Party 50th Anniversary at Oakland Museum of California.

Writers: Join the National Writers Union

National Writers Unions
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Visit NWU.org 
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That's why we're reaching out to you, a past member of NWU.
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Black Arts Movement Theatre, West: Dewey Redman - Dewey Time, Happy Birth Day, Dewey!




Saxophonist Walter Dewey Redman
was born on May 17, 1931 in Fort
Worth, Texas.

He received his initial band
training at I.M. Terrell High
School where he performed
with fellow students Ornette
Coleman, Prince Lasha and Charles
Moffett.

Redman played in Ornette Coleman's
groups and with Keith Jarrett
and then formed his own band "Old
and New Dreams" with fellow Ornette
alumni Don Cherry, Charlie Haden,
and Ed Blackwell.

Here's a clip from the 2001 documentary
"Dewey Time" about his life and music
PLUS a performance with friends and
collaborators Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell
and Charlie Haden.


Marvin X on Dewey Redman and Black Arts Movement Theatre, West


When we established Black Arts West Theatre, 1966, in San Francisco's Fillmore District, across the street from Tree's Pool Hall and around the corner from the Sun Reporter Newspaper, Turk and Fillmore, we, actors, playwrights, Ed Bullins, Duncan Barber, Carl Bossiere, Hillary Broadus, Ethna Wyatt, Sandra Williams, Danny Glover and myself, were soon joined by musicians. Among them were Dewey Redman, Rafael Donald Garrett, Earle Davis, BJ, Oliver Jackson, et al. They held concerts but most importantly they accompanied our plays in the style of what we now call "ritual theatre", i.e., they were free to play on stage, or move about in the audience or go out on the street to the accompaniment of car horns and all the sounds on Fillmore Street that was often bumper to bumper cars and sidewalks full of people, Harlem of the West, like 125th Street and Lenox Ave. As we know redevelopment (gentrification) destroyed the cultural and economic vitality of the Fillmore. Former San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto apologized for destroying the Fillmore. And this is why the land trust must be employed in the coming Black Arts Movement Business District in Oakland.

Dewey and his fellow musicians inspired us with their freedom and we began to do improvisation with our scripts, especially while under the influence of marijuana, i.e., we would transcend the script and free-style for a moment of two, then return to the script, call it jazz-drama. 

While we loved the musicians, we had ideological differences with many if not most of them because we considered ourselves Black Nationalists and they had white women, which we found embarrassing, especially in the box office during the jazz concerts, e.g., the Monte Waters Big Band. But we survived our differences and I would sometimes visit them at their homes, in particular Donald Rafael Garrett, Oliver Johnson and Dewey Redman. Surely, today we are happy Dewey's woman gave birth to Joshua Redman. Happy birthday, Dewey!
--Marvin X
5/17/16

Monday, May 16, 2016

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Malcolm X's Daughter Exposes Farrakhan (The Extended Clip)

Farrakhan on Hillary Clinton: 'That's a Wicked Woman"

Donald Trump - Black Muslims support Trump

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