Sister of My Soul
Black Bride of My Passion
My Eternal Love
Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver
I greet you, my Queen, not in the obsequious whine of a cringing Slave
to which you have become accustomed, neither do I greet you in the new
voice, the unctuous supplications of the sleek Black Bourgeoisie, nor
the bullying bellow of the rude Free Slave---but in my own voice do I
greet you, the voice of the Black Man.
And although I greet you anew, my
greeting is not new, but as old as the Sun, Moon, and Stars. And rather
than mark a new beginning, my greetings signifies only my Return.
I have returned from the dead. I speak to you in the Here And Now. I was
dead for four hundred years. For four hundred years you have been a
woman alone, bereft of her man, a manless woman. For four hundred years I
was neither your man nor my own man. The white man stood between us,
over us, around us. The white man was your man and my man. Do not pass
lightly over this truth, my Queen, for even the fact of it has burned
into the marrow of our bones and diluted our Blood, we must bring it to
the surface of the mind, into the realm of knowing, glue our gaze upon
it and stare at it as at a coiled serpent in a baby's playpen or the
fresh flowers on a mother's grave. It is to be pondered and realized in
the heart, for the heel of the white man's boot is our point of
departure, our point of Resolve and Return---the bloodstained pivot of
our future. (but I would ask you to recall, that before we could come up
from slavery, we had to be pulled down from our throne.)
Across the naked abyss of negated masculinity, of four hundred years
minus my Balls, we face each other today, My Queen. I feel a deep,
terrifying hurt, the pain of humiliation of the vanquished warrior. The
shame of the fleet-footed sprinter who stumbles at the start of the
race. I feel unjustified. I can't bear to look into your eyes. Don't you
know (surely you must have noticed by now : four hundred years ) that
for four hundred years I have been unable to look squarely into your
eyes? I tremble inside each time you look at me. I can feel . . . in the
ray of your eye, from a deep hiding place, a long-kept secret you
harbor.
That is the unadorned truth. Not that I would have felt
justified, under the circumstances, in taking such liberties with you,
but I want you to know that I feared to look into your eyes because I
knew I would find reflected there a merciless Indictment of my impotence
and a compelling challenge to redeem my conquered manhood.
My Queen, it is hard for me to tell you what is in my heart for you
today---what is in the heart of all my black brothers for you and all
your black sisters---and I fear I will fail unless you reach out to me,
tune in on me with the antenna of your love, the sacred love in the
ultimate degree which you were unable to give to me because I, being
dead, was unworthy to receive it; that perfect, radical love of black on
which our Fathers thrived. Let me drink from the river of your love as
its source, let the lines of force of your love seize my soul by its
core and heal the wound of my Castration, let my convex exile end its
haunted odyssey in your concave essence which receives that it may give.
Flower of Africa, it is only through the liberating power of your
re-love that my manhood can be redeemed. For it is in your eyes, before
you, that my need is to be justified, Only, only, only you and only you
can condemn or set me free.
Be convinced , sable sister, that the past is no forbidden vista upon
which we dare not look, out of a phantom fear of being, as the wife of
Lot, turned into pillars of salt. Rather the past is an omniscient
mirror: we gaze and see reflected there ourselves and each other---what
we used to be, what we are today, how we got this way, and what we are
becoming. To decline to look into the Mirror of Then, my heart, is to
refuse to view the face of Now.
I have died the ninth death of the cat, have seen Satan face to face
and turned my back on God, have dined in the Swine's Trough, and
descended to the uttermost echelon of the pit, have entered the Den and
seized my Balls from the teeth of a roaring lion
Black Beauty, in impotent silence I listened, as if to a symphony of
sorrows, to your screams for help, anguished pleas of terror that echo
still throughout the Universe and through the mind, a million scattered
screams across the painful years that merged into a single sound of pain
to haunt and bleed the soul, a white-hot sound to char the brain and
blow the fuse of thought, a sound of fangs and teeth sharp to eat the
heart, a sound of moving fire, a sound of frozen heat, a sound of
licking flames, a fiery-fiery sound, a sound of fire to burn the steel
out of my Balls, a sound of Blue fire, a Bluesy sound, the sound of
dying, the sound of my woman in pain, the sound of my woman's pain, THE
SOUND OF MY WOMAN CALLING ME, ME, I HEARD HER CALL FOR HELP, I HEARD
THAT MOURNFUL SOUND BUT HUNG MY HEAD AND FAILED TO HEED IT, I HEARD MY
WOMAN'S CRY, I HEARD MY WOMAN'S SCREAM, I HEARD MY WOMAN BEG THE BEAST
FOR MERCY, I HEARD HER BEG FOR ME, I HEARD MY WOMAN BEG THE BEAST FOR
MERCY FOR ME, I HEARD MY WOMAN DIE, I HEARD THE SOUND OF HER DEATH AS
SHE SCREAMED FOR ME TO COME TO HER AS SHE LAY IN THE CLUTCHES OF THE
BEAST, I CAN STILL HEAR HER, I CAN STILL HEAR HER, THE SOUND OF YOUR
SCREAMS THAT ECHO WITHIN ME, A SNAPPING SOUND, A BREAKING SOUND, A SOUND
THAT SOUNDED FINAL, THE LAST SOUND, THE ULTIMATE SOUND, THE SOUND OF
DEATH, ME, I HEARD, I HEAR IT EVERY DAY, I HEAR HER NOW . . .
I HEAR YOU
NOW . . . I HEAR YOU. . . .I heard you then . . . your scream came like
a searing bolt of lighting that blazed a white streak down my black
back. In a cowardly stupor, with a palpitating heart and quivering
knees, I watched the Slaver's lash of death slash through the opposing
air and bite with teeth of fire into your delicate flesh, the black and
tender flesh of Afrikan Motherhood, forcing the startled Life untimely
from your torn and outraged womb that incubated Ethiopia and populated
Nubia and gave forth Pharaohs unto Egypt, the womb that painted the
Congo black and motherland Zulu, the womb of Mero, the womb of Ghana,
the womb that felt the might of Chaka before he saw the Sun, the Holy
Womb, the womb that knew the future form of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the womb
of Mau Mau, the womb of the blacks, the womb that nurtured Toussaint
L'Ouverture, that warmed Nat Turner, and Gabriel Prosser, and Denmark
Vesey, the black womb that surrendered up in tears that nameless and
endless chain of Africa's Cream, the Black Cream of the Earth, that
nameless and endless black chain they sank in heavy groans into oblivion
in the great abyss, the womb that received and nourished and held firm
the seed and gave back Sojourner Truth, and Sister Tubman, and Rosa
Parks, and Bird, and Richard Wright, and your other works of art who
wore and wear such names as Marcus Garvey and DuBois and Kwame Nkrumah
and Paul Robeson and Malcolm X and Robert Williams, and the one you bore
in pain and called Elijah Muhammad, but most of all that nameless one
they tore out of your womb in a flood of murdered Blood that splashed
upon and seeped into the mud. And Patrice Lumumba, and Emmett Till, and
Mack Parker.
O, My Soul I become a sniveling craven, a funky punk, a vile,
groveling bootlicker, with my will to oppose petrified by a cosmic fear
of the Slavemaster. Instead of inciting the Slaves to rebellion with
eloquent oratory, I soothed their hurt and eloquently sang the Blues
Instead of hurling my life with contempt into the face of my Tormentor, I
shed your precious blood When Nat Turner sought to free me for my
Fear, my Fear delivered him up unto the butcher ---a martyred monument
to my Emasculation. My spirit was unwilling and my flesh was weak.
Ah,
eternal ignominy I, the Black Eunuch, divested of my Balls, walked the earth with my
mind locked in Cold Storage. I would kill a black man or woman quicker
than I'd smash a fly, while for the white man I would pick a thousand
pounds of cotton a day. What profit is there in the blind, frenzied
efforts of the (Guilty) Black Eunuchs (Justifies ) who hide their
wounds and scorn the truth to mitigate their culpability through the
pallid sophistry of postulating a Universal Democracy of Cowards,
pointing out that in history no one can hide, that if not at one time
then surely at another the iron heel of the Conqueror has ground into
the mud the Balls of Everyman? Memories of yesterday will not assuage
the torrents of blood that flow today from my crotch. Yes, History could
pass for a scarlet text, its jot and title graven red in human blood.
More armies than shown in the books have planted flags on foreign soil
leaving Castration in their wake. But no Slave should die a natural
death. There is a point where Caution ends and Cowardice begins. Give me
a bullet through the brain from the gun of the beleaguered oppressor on
the night of siege. Why is there dancing and singing in the Slave
Quarters? A Slave who dies of natural causes cannot balance two dead
flies in the Scales of Eternity. Such a one deserves rather to be pitied
than mourned.
Black woman, without asking how, just say that we survived our forced
march and travail through the Valley of Slavery, Suffering, and
Death---there, that Valley beneath us hidden by that drifting mist.
Ah, what sights and sounds and pain lie beneath that mist And we had
thought that our hard climb out of that cruel valley led to some cool,
greem and peaceful, sunlit place---but it's all jungle here, a wild and
savage wilderness that's overrun with ruins.
But put on your crown, my Queen, and we will build a New City on these ruins.
Ancestor Austin C. Clarke, giant of Canadian African literature
On his way to the San Francisco Library, Marvin X was elated when he checked his mail and found a kind note from
Nikki Giovanni, thanking him for informing her Austin joined the
ancestors.
Left to Right: Justin Desmangles, Jesse Allen-Taylor, Dr. Halifu Osumare, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed
photo Johnnie Burrell
Preface
In Black Hollywood Unchained, Ishmael Reed gathers an impressive group
of scholars, critics, intellectuals, and artists to examine and respond
to the contemporary portrayals of Blacks in films. Using the 2012
release of the film Django Unchained as the focal point of much of the
discussion, these essays and reviews provide a critical perspective on
the challenges facing filmmakers and actors when confronted with issues
on race and the historical portrayal of African American characters.
Reed also addresses the black community's perceptiveness as discerning
and responsible consumers of film, theatre, art, and music.
--Justin Mesmangles
On Sunday, July 3, contributing writers to the anthology Black Hollywood
unChained, held a spirited discussion on the collection of essays
edited by Ishmael Reed, Third World Press, Chicago. The discussion was
facilitated by Justin Desmangles who questioned Ishmael Reed, Jesse
Allen-Taylor,
Dr. Halifiu Osumare and Marvin X. It was sponsored by Before the
Columbus Foundation and the African American Center of the San Francisco
Public Library, and videoed for later broadcast by Johnnie Burrell of
International Media TV.Com. It will air on July 9 and available on
Youtube.
Justin Desmangles, Chair of Before Columbus Foundation, journalist,
poet, posed questions to the authors based on their essays. We must
await the video for an accurate narration of the event but one question
was why must Hollywood continues writing our stories that they can only
tell from the white supremacy mythological viewpoint. Jews would not let
Nazis write their history, although it was noted Jews take the liberty
to narrate North American African history or the white version of it
that is nothing less than pure fantasy or stories from the white world
of make believe. Jesse Allen-Tayor said Black actors are essentially
whores who are pimped by producers and are so desperate for roles they
will perform anything, no matter how demeaning and despicable.
Dr. Halifu Osumare explained when the book project began, it was focused
on the film Django but evolved into a general discussion on the
condition of Blacks in Hollywood. Halifu noted how director Tarantino
used the Yoruba myth of Oshun to depict the Black woman as goddess,
although she wasn't sure the director had knowledge of Yoruba mythology.
She also appreciated how the woman was freed by her man and road to
freedom on her own horse to show a certain level of independence yet in
harmony with her man.
Marvin X said the story of an individual Black man saving his woman is
noble but insufficient because we need stories of communal liberation
rather than individual. Referring to his essay, Justin asked Marvin X
about the traumatic slave syndrome of the oppressed as described in
modern times by Dr. Frantz Fanon. Marvin X said, firstly, Elder Ed
Howard, a founding member of Oakland's Afro-American Association, has
called for us not to use the term slaves but rather say we were/are
Africans caught in the American Slave System. Marvin X said we are still
suffering from the traumatic stress of the American slave system. Upon
emancipation, we had no therapy and still have none. Justin noted how
the nine people were killed in the North Charleston church, South
Carolina and what this says about how religion is used to pacify us to
the degree we immediately ask forgiveness and mercy for the killer.
Marvin replied that their mentality shows the degree of addiction to
white supremacy religion. The Southern Blacks still live in fear, Marvin
said. For example, when he finished writing How to Recover from the
Addiction to White Supremacy in Beaufort, South California and went to
Staples for copies, the clerk asked where he was from? He told the Black
sister, I'm from here, but she said no you're not. When he asked why
she doubted him, she replied because we don't say White Supremacy down
here, we know it but don't say it. This reveals a pervasive level of
fear disguised as manners.
Jesse-Allen-Taylor would have none of putting down of the South. He's
lived in South Carolina and is the author of a novel on South Carolina,
Sugarie Rising, and he noted a unique town north of Charleston that had
no Confederate statues and that there were people still resisting white
supremacy.
Marvin said one of his last book tours through South Carolina his hosts
told him to shut up and don't say nothing while you're here, and
furthermore, we are not going to give you a book party or help you
promote your book, just enjoy yourself and go on up the road. Marvin
said he did as his hosts ordered which gave him time to visit the
African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina. He noted the young Yoruba
King's father was from Harlem and helped spread Yoruba culture
throughout the United States. Halifu Osumare agreed the Yoruba King in
South Carolina is highly respected, including a visit from the Oba of
Ife, Nigeria. It was asked why don't more writers utilize African
mythology in their work. Marvin recalled that in the play A Black Mass,
Amiri Baraka utilized myths from Islam (the myth of Yakub) and Yoruba
mythology. Baraka had studied the Yoruba religion as did many poets and
writers during the Black Arts Movement. The founding Oba of Olatunji
Village married Amiri and Amina Baraka.
Justin probed for more religious influences in North American African
culture. Panelists replied the Catholic church has made ample use of
Yoruba and Vudun in their services and even the Protestant religious
community employ the Holy Ghost ritual similar to riding the god.
Ishmael Reed noted how many writers have researched and studied Yoruba
and Vudun myth-rituals in our culture, especially Katharyn Dunham.
During the Q and A, videographer Ken Johnson stated he wished we would
explain more of this mythology because he'd never heard of Yemanja or
Oshun and would like to know.
Ishmael, whom we graciously acknowledge as one of our Master writers or
griots ,who has overwhelming knowledge of European and African
mythology, yet he admitted ignorance of African revolts against the
slave system. Marvin told Ishmael and the audience to check out the
History Channels documentary Slave Catchers and Resisters, also Negro
Slave Revolts by Herbert Aptheker.
Jesse Allen-Taylor said the truth is that there was almost daily
resistance to the American Slave System. When the Roots and Neo-Roots
films series came into the discussion, Halifu said the original Roots
had the positive because for the first time many Blacks and Whites got
some understanding of the American Holocaust, and this was a good thing.
Marvin X replied, I don't want to see no more films about slavery, only
resistance. "Show me Toussaint, Garbriel Prosser, Nat Turner, Denmark
Vessey. If I go to one more movie about slavery, I might kill some white
people." He quoted Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, in which the character Clay
says, "If Bessie Smith had killed some white people, she wouldn't have
needed to sing the Blues, she could have talked very straignt and plain
about the world."
Ishmael Reed was asked about his review of the Broadway musical
Hamilton. Ishmael said it was a scam, pure and simple. He said his
research revealed Hamilton was a slave owner, not an abolitionist as
the original text claimed. Hamilton had slaves and so did his wife. Thus
Hamilton is a thousand dollar ticket scam and a reverse of the Black
Arts Movement revolution. Hamilton put Black and minority actors in the
costumes of the Slave Masters and it ain't even Halloween. Ishmael
noted in his review that at least during the Black Arts Movement of the
60s, writers took the language of the master and flipped it, but in
Hamilton they took the Hip Hop poetry and rap and put it in the mouth of
the slave masters!
Ishmael mentioned that Malcolm X was less than truthful when he claimed
it was in Mecca that he discovered blue-eyed devil Muslims who exercised
true Islamic brotherhood. He noted Malcolm had met blue-eyed Muslims in
New York at the
United Nations, so his letter from Mecca is a sham and Marvin X agreed.
As per Islamic brotherhood, Marvin X interjected, "My friends, including
members of the Last Poets, made their pilgrimage to Mecca forced to
ride in the back of the bus from Amman, Jordan to Mecca, Saudi Arabia,
forced by white racist Turkish Muslims who were then made to pay a fee
for disrespecting the Black Muslims from America. And just as 11AM
Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in Christian American, 1PM
Friday is the most segregated hour in Muslim America.
--Marvin X
Left to Right: Justin Desmangles, Jesse Allen-Taylor, Dr. Halifu Osumare, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed
photo Johnnie Burrell
Love Letter to Black men from Dominique Villanueva
Black
Men of my life, I know my prayers won't protect you from the insane
social sickness that you survive each day. I feel inadequate and the
right words escape me, but I want you to know that I LOVE YOU DEEPLY and
there are more women like me, confused and imperfect, who know that
there is no combination of words that we can put together to ease your
journey. And I will walk with you, as will so many other women, and be
your strength, and soft place, and light, and sounding board, and your
reflection, and your reminder, and whatever else I can be when you need
me, because I LOVE YOU.
Beyoncé Pens Open Letter on Alton Sterling, Philando Castile Deaths: ‘Stop Killing Us’
Beyoncé has added her voice to the many speaking out against the recent deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, releasing a powerful statement on her website urging others to take a stand.“We are sick and tired of the killings of young men and women in our communities,” begins the statement released Thursday on Beyoncé’s website. “It is up to us to take a stand and demand that they ‘stop killing us.‘”
The deaths of both Sterling and Castile have launched
a series of protests, fueling the fire of the ongoing debate of the
police’s treatment of black men. Cell phone footage saw 37-year-old
Sterling shot and killed by two Baton Rouge, La., police officers after
pinning him to the ground outside of a local convenience store early
Tuesday. The death has spurred a civil rights investigation by the
Justice Department.
Castile, 32, was killed
after a police officer opened fire on him during a traffic stop in
Minnesota on Wednesday night. The aftermath of the death was shown in a
Facebook Live video shot by Castile’s girlfriend, who was a passenger in
the vehicle.
“We’re going to stand up as a community and
fight against anyone who believes that murder or any violent action by
those who are sworn in to protect us should consistently go unpunished,”
reads Beyoncé’s statement. “These robberies of lives make us feel
helpless and hopeless but we have to believe that we are fighting for
the rights of the next generation, for the next young men and women who
believe in good.”
“Fear is not an excuse. Hate will not win,”
she adds. “We all have the power to channel our anger and frustration
into action. We must use our voices to contact the politicians and
legislators in our districts and demand social and judicial changes.”
She follows the statement with a call to
action, urging readers to contact their local congressman or woman and
providing links to voice protests to the deaths of Sterling and Castile.
It’s not the first time Beyoncé has spoken
out on the issue. Her video for “Formation,” which dropped earlier this
year, depicts images such as a submerged police car and the phrase “Stop
shooting us” painted on a wall.
The video ignited controversy, with many
calling the singer anti-police. “I have so much admiration and respect
for officers and the families of the officers who sacrifice themselves
to keeps us safe,” she later told Elle magazine of the controversy. “But let’s be clear: I am against police brutality and injustice. Those are two separate things.”
BAMBD artist Kev Choice reflects on State terror in America
Feeling traumatized. Feeling angry and hopeless. Had to fly to LA, just
for the day, just to check in on my daughter out here pursuing her dream
as a basketball player. Had to do
something real. Something I know can make a difference. Be a father. Be a
good man. Live in the moment, to the fullest. We never know when our
time will come. Yet, I'm not scared of police. I've dealt with them
before. I've been slammed, arrested, pulled over for petty reasons. I'm
cautious, careful, but I'm not scared of them. To walk in on my aunt in
tears as she was watching the news and saying she couldn't sleep and had
been praying for me and all the men in my family all night pains me. To
get text from friends saying they love me and are scared for me as a
black man hurts my heart. We are dealing with severe trauma. Let the
graphic images of these two brothers murders be a catalyst to a
revolution. Change must come. From within and all around. Now. #AltonSterling#PhilandoCastile
Journalist emeritus Fahizah Alim on State Terrorism in America
I've
got four Black sons. May the Creator protect them as they move about in
this violent, overly- armed, society. They don't live in the dangerous
inner city or belong to a gang, but
they drive cars while Black and that in itself places their lives in
danger of state sponsored terrorism inflicted on Black people by racist
cowardly cops. Violence begets violence. Where is it going to stop? Back in the day, when I was a student activist at U.C. Berkeley, I joined
other courageous youth who supported the Black Panthers and we followed
the police and watched them from a far when they stopped black
motorists, hoping to stem the wanton and widespread police brutality on
Black men. As I watched the videos today of these cowardly, inhumane
lowlife cops who killed these innocent young Black men in front of their
babies, I proclaim again that they were pigs then and they're pigs now.
Cowardly racist, PIGS. Fuck the Pigs!!! The Motherfucking Pigs who are
getting away with murder everyday!! It's gotta stop!! By any means
necessary!!--Fahizah Alim
Comment: Fahizah is one of
my students, full of passion and fire for truth and justice, and on rare
occasions will employ the Marvin X linguistics! lol Seriously, we
pray for all Black mothers with sons who fear for them every time they
leave the house because they may not return home. We must tell our sons
to put on the amour of God as they walk through the valley of the shadow
of death called America. They must be aware of pig killers and their
own black brothers who are sick with self hate and want to take them
out.--Marvin X
Marvin X and journalist emeritus Fahizah Alim
Ancestor Poet June Jordan's poem on Police Violence
Tell me something
what you think would happen if
everytime they kill a black boy
then we kill a cop
everytime they kill a black man
then we kill a cop
you think the accident rate would lower subsequently?
sometimes the feeling like amaze me baby
comes back to my mouth and I am quiet
like Olympian pools from the running
mountainous snows under the sun
sometimes thinking about the 12th House of the Cosmos
or the way your ear ensnares the tip
of my tongue or signs that I have never seen
like DANGER WOMEN WORKING
I lose consciousness of ugly bestial rapid
and repetitive affront as when they tell me
18 cops in order to subdue one man
18 strangled him to death in the ensuing scuffle
(don't you idolize the diction of the powerful: subdue
and scuffle my oh my) and that the murder
that the killing of Arthur Miller on a Brooklyn
street was just a "justifiable accident" again
(Again)
People been having accidents all over the globe
so long like that I reckon that the only
suitable insurance is a gun
I'm saying war is not to understand or rerun
war is to be fought and won
sometimes the feeling like amaze me baby
blots it out/the bestial but
not too often tell me something
what you think would happen if
everytime they kill a black boy
then we kill a cop
everytime they kill a black man
then we kill a cop
you think the accident rate would lower subsequently
--June Jordan (RIP)
Fritz Pointer's poem Mixed Love
Dedicated to Lovell Mixon
Lovell Mixon (left) smoked 4 pigs in Oakland shootout a short time after
they killed Oscar Grant. Fritz Pointer (above) said the suffering people of
Oakland enjoyed an obscene pride in his actions after decades of police
abuse, in spite of the Black Panther Party’s valiant resistance during the 60s.
You had an avtomat Kalashnikova of ’47?
Assembled in minutes by children in the old USSR.
Kalashnikov and Heston are beaming with obscene pride:
In the efficiency of the automatic
In the accuracy of your aim
In hitting the Pig’s Eye
Four in a row!
You could have surrendered like Amadou Diallo
Raised your hands
Taken sixteen
And nothing in your “cold dead hands”
Except a wallet!
Or, heard the bells, like Sean Bell
“Made it to church on time”
Your wedding day now a funeral day
And nothing in your “cold dead hands”
Nothing!
Or, lay face down, a boot on your neck like Oscar Grant
And get it in the back
And be blamed
And nothing in your “cold dead hands”
Cuffed in steel.
You had an AK-47!
Easy to use
Easy to transport
Easy to kill
The AK has caused more deaths
Than Hiroshima
Than Nagasaki
Than HIV
Than the bubonic plague
Than malaria
Than all earthquakes
Than anything organic or synthetic, metal or chemical.
Kalashnikov’s automatic:
Won’t jam when dirty or wet
Has a feather trigger a child can pull
“Can turn a monkey into a combatant”
There’s pride in that...obscene pride
In the accuracy of a killer
The rehearsal on man-sized silhouettes
Dark shadows
The outline of a person
The will to kill.
The vulgar pride in:
The ABM
The drone
The nuke.
Hitting the pig’s eye.
All you needed was the will
The will to kill
The will to be free
Simply...Free
Not ideologically
Not intellectually
Not romantically
Not consciously
Not politically
Like Nat Turner
Like Malcolm X
Like Steve Biko
Like Fred Hampton
Not like that...simply
Not behind bars.
The repulsive, indecent respect some pay:
To the monsters created
To vindicate a people’s historical abuse
Surprised that the monsters
Dutifully designed
Consciously created
Meticulously molded
For the cities of Iraq
For the cities of Afghanistan
For the cities of America
Frankensteinesque
Should act other than
Monsteresque.
Is Fanon correct?
Is such violence redemptive?
Is it cleansing?
Is it a rebirth?
For a microsecond
For this generation
The score was evened.
Four pig’s eyes in a row!
Wow! How sick! This obscene pride.
--Fritz Pointer
17 April 2009
from Journal of Pan African Literature Poetry Issue, Guest Editor Marvin X
Burn, Baby, Burn, Marvin X's poem written shortly after the Watts Rebellion, 1965
Burn, Baby, Burn
Tired.
Sick an' tired
Tired of being
sick an' tired.
Lost.
Lost in the wilderness
of white america
are the masses asses?
cool.
said the master to the slave,
"No problem, don't rob an' steal,
I'll be your drivin wheel."
Cool.
And he wheeled us into 350 years
of black madness
to hog guts, conked hair, covadis
bleaching cream and uncle thomas
to Watts.
To the streets.
To the kill.
Boommm...2 honkeys gone.
Motherfuck the police
Parker's sista too.
Black people.
Tired.
sick an' tired.
tired of being
sick an' tired.
Burn, baby burn...
Don't leave dem boss rags
C'mon, child, don't mind da tags.
Git all dat motherfuckin pluck,
Git dem guns too, we 'on't give a fuck!
Burn baby burn
Cook outta sight
Fineburgs
whitefront
wineburgs
blackfront
burn, baby, burn
in time
he
will learn.
--Marvin X
from Soulbook Magazine, Fall, 1965
Poet/activist Marvin X. Burn Baby Burn is a classic of the Black Arts
Movement. Some say it is Marvin X's greatest poem. The Pointer Sister's
brother, Fritz, told Marvin, "Thanks for the
post. By the way, you should hear my sister, Bonnie, recite your poem
"Burn, Baby, Burn" word for word with sincere feeling and passion.
She knows the poem by heart. Just though I'd share that."
Chauncey Bailey, Editor, Oakland Post Newspaper, slain in broad daylight, downtown Oakland, 14th and Alice, BAMBD district
The Cross and the Lynching Tree From
the 12th floor office of the Oakland Post newspaper at 14th and
Franklin, one can look down the block to a tree at 14th and Alice.
Chauncey Bailey was lynched near that tree, although it was not in the
tradition of a white lynching, but in the neo-America, his lynchers were
black. And although the suspect is a young black man, there are
witnesses who say the killer was an older person. Does it really matter,
except for the fact that we are now doing the work of the KKK. We wear
the hoods these days, and the fad is to wear gear with “stupid” designs,
including skull and bones, thus signaling to the world our deathly
intentions. We have become death angels, as sinister as the suicide
bombers in the Middle East, although we have no purpose, no mission,
except to kill another black, for of the nearly 130 killed in Oakland
last year, not one white man was killed by a black. And for the most
part, this is true throughout America. Our youth exhibit an animal
consciousness as opposed to their spiritual consciousness. No, they do
not use the mind God gave them, as my mother told me to do, but they
seem motivated by a demonic spirit of hatred of self and kind, causing
them to perpetuate the internal violence Dr. Franz Fanon wrote about in
Wretched of the Earth.
Bay Area artists/activists celebrate the life of Chauncey Bailey at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland
photo Gene Hazzard/Adam Turner
Mao Zedong told us some deaths are higher
than Mount Tai, some deaths lighter than a feather. At least Chauncey
gave his life for the cause of truth, no matter that we did not always
agree with his abrasive attitude, who can deny the man was dedicated to
seeking the truth? We all have defects of character, but are we
fulfilling our life’s mission as Chauncey was doing? Are we trying to
inform the blind, deaf and dumb, to educate the ignorant? Many of us say
let the blind stay blind, and that the youth are a lost cause, yet we
saw in the film the Great Debaters, youth will do the right things when
guided right by sincere and dedicated adults. The only excuse for youth
behavior is adult behavior!
The tree at 14th and Alice stands
still, a monument to a fallen soldier. From the window, our eyes zoom
down to the tree, eyes full of tears and heart full of sorrow. Bill
Moyers asked Rev. James Cone the meaning of the cross and the lynching
tree. He said they are one and the same, for on the cross Jesus was
crucified and on the tree the black man was done the same. And just as
Jesus transcended the cross, the black man must rise above his self
crucifixion and ascend to spiritual consciousness. The crucifixion ends
when the resurrection and ascension begins. We must rise up from the
grave of ignorance, from the lynching tree of hatred, jealousy and envy.
We must heal from the wretchedness that allows us to kill another
brother at the drop of a hat, yet never approach the real enemy. And
perhaps the real enemy doesn’t exist except inside of our selves. White
supremacy/lunacy has no power over us except when we allow it. As Rev.
Cone explained, the lynching tree has no power over us because in our crucifixion comes resurrection and ascension.
Paul
Cobb observed how white women can jog pass West Oakland’s Campbell
Village housing projects at night without fear. No one dare harm them
because they are white and thus sacred. To speak harshly to them is a
terrorist threat, to harm them is a hate crime that qualifies for the
death penalty. But there is no crime for speaking harshly to another
black, and killing another black does not qualify as a hate crime,
although most surely it is the absolute essence of hate, self hate.
And
so we dig our own grave these days. We put the noose around our necks,
as some rappers have demonstrated. We killed our brother Chauncey
because he was just another nigguh, therefore worthless, in the
imagination of the killers, whoever they are. And then perhaps they
recognized his importance and were instructed to eliminate him, for
writers and journalists are killed around the world, simply for their
dedication to telling the truth.
But we see after the thousands and thousands of words written about him, we see death has no sting, it has no victory.
On
a horrible day last August, the tree at 14th and Alice gave forth a
strange fruit that shall rise from the earth and give blessings from
high heaven. Because Chauncey lived, we shall be a better people, a
people who shall one day fulfill our radical tradition and destiny to
free ourselves and the world. The attempt was made with the Oakland
branch of the Pullman Porters, and it was made with the Black Panthers.
Chauncey extended that tradition into the present era, for he gave his
life in the cause of truth, freedom, justice and equality. Yes, he
transcended the lynching tree. His death was not lighter than a feather
but higher than Mount Tai.
--Marvin X
Marvin X
photo by Spencer Wilkerson, Alice Street film project
We, the Black lost-found of our
people here in America live under the shadow of death by way of cowardly
enemies. Every one of us—the cowardly enemies seek our deaths, one way
or another.
The cowardly enemies will not fight you as a brave man would fight you
if they think that you would fight back. They will steal on you when you
least expect an attack from them.
We live under the shadow of death. We fled from the
cowardly enemy devils of the South, seeking refuge in the same cowardly
enemies’ brother in the North. The enemy devils of the South followed us
to the North to see that his brother of the North does not treat us any
better than they did in the South.
They seek police jobs so that they can beat and kill us
who are trying to escape. They seek to kill us, or get us killed, at any
price. They do not care about our loyalty to them. In their hearts
there is death for us, the Black Man in America.
Today, they hold out promises to you only to deceive
you. They know that Allah (God) is here offering to seat us in heaven at
once. And since hell is their appointed place, they are trying to get
us to go to hell with them on false promises. I have told you. Believe it or let it alone. We live "Under The Shadow of Death."
Earlier this week, the Community Rejuvenation Project (CRP), a
local arts nonprofit, released a trailer and crowdfunding campaign for
its anticipated documentary,Alice Street. The
film recounts the genesis of a mural that has thrust public art into
the forefront of its neighborhood’s gentrification debate.
Nestled at the crossroads of Oakland’s Chinatown district and the
Afro-diasporic community based at the adjacent Malonga Casquelourd
Center for the Performing Arts, the CRP mural aimed to capture the
neighborhood’s historic intersectionality. The art, which celebrates
artists and folk traditions from both cultural enclaves, has been hailed
as a beacon of resilience in the face of heightening community
displacement due to gentrification.
Oakland muralists Pancho Peskador and Desi Mundo were commissioned in
2010 to paint the three blighted walls surrounding a parking lot at 1401
Alice Street. The artists filmed extensive interviews with both
Chinese-American and Black residents to understand their respective
communities’ histories of out-group discrimination and personal
experiences of cultural perseverance.
These oral histories, along with twenty-five days of time-lapse
videography showing the mural’s installation and footage of the Malonga
Center community meetings and performances that fostered the mural’s
conception, were the nascent vision of director Spencer Wilkinson’s
documentary.
But then the tangible reality of Oakland’s gentrification problem
presented itself — directly in front of the Alice Street mural.
As the Express has previously reported,
only three-months after the mural's completion, CRP leaders learned of
plans to develop a 126-unit condominium complex in a privately-owned
parking lot in front of the artwork. The mural, which cost $80,000 in
grant money from the City of Oakland and community crowdfunding, would
be entirely obscured.
The film follows the community polemic launched in response to the
development and the wider dialogue surrounding housing inequity in the
region. The Alice Street mural has become a chief symbol of cultural
resilience in a neighborhood that is being threatened by Oakland’s
displacement crisis.
Alice Street is scheduled to premiere in October 2016. But the
filmmakers are currently fundraising the cost of post-production in
order to complete it. They aim to raise $12,000, the first $8,000 of
which will be matched by the East Bay Community Foundation. Contribute
to the Generosity page here or watch the trailer below.
Johnson and her brother are seen in Facebook photo.
July 8, 2016
The night before Micah X. Johnson ambushed police in Dallas, his
younger sister posted a Facebook message deriding white cops as
murderers and declaring that, “I for one think these cops need to get a
taste of the life we now fear.”
As seen above, Nicole Johnson’s post noted that, “White ppl have and will continue to kill us off.”
Shortly before Johnson posted her message Wednesday evening, she
uploaded a New York Times video that included footage of the struggle
that ended Tuesday night with the death of Alton Sterling, who was shot
to death by Baton Rouge cops.
In a caption accompanying the video, Johnson wrote, “Makes me so mad.” She then asked, “When we decide we had enough n fight back.”
Earlier this afternoon, Johnson wrote that she was “shutting down my
Facebook as the news is stealing my private words, photos and harassing
my friends. When its safe i will hop back on here.” Her page, however, remains online.
The Black Arts Movement Business District of Oakland, CA is established in loving memory
of
ancestor Amiri Baraka, chief architect of the Black Arts Movement, the
most radical literary and artistic movement in American history. Above
art by Emory Douglas, Black Panther Party Minister of Culture.
The Movement
Newsletter of the Black Arts Movement Business District, Oakland, California July/August Edition, 2016 www.themovementnewsletter.blogspot.com
Movement Staff Publisher Marvin X
Managing Editor, Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD
Associate Editor Aries Jordan
Design Editor Adam Turner
Contributing writers Ishmael Reed Alice Walker
Kujichagulia
Douglas Allen Taylor
Kim McMillan
Lynette McElhaney
Kadesh Carter Zahieb Mwongozi Ayodele Nzinga Aries Jordan Marvin X
The Movement print version made possible by the generous contribution of Paul Cobb and the Post News Group.
CONTENTS
1. Young African Leadership Fellowship, City of Oakland
2. Review: The Grace Jones Project by Kadesh Carter
3.Gentrification by Kujichagulia
4. Working on a theory of Orlando by Douglas Allen Taylor
5. Jobs and Justice, the Vote on Coal by Lynette McElhaney
6. Black Arts Movement Theatre, University of California, Merced by Kim McMillan 7. Photo Essay by Kamau Amen Ra (RIP) 8. Dr. Ayodele Nzinga replies to Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney 9. Notes on the BAMBD from Associate Editor, Aries Jordan 10. Poem: Times of Fire by Ayodele Nizinga 11. Speech by Jesse Williams at BET Awards 12. Alice Walker poem to Jesse Williams 13. Ishmael Reed reviews musical Hamilton 14. Marvin X on writers in anthology Black Hollywood unChained rock SF Main Library discussion 15. Zahieb Mwongozi on Lines in the Sand: Rebecca Kaplan and the cowardly council
Black Arts Movement Business District Calendar of Events
June 30 Theatre and Social Responsibility Plays at U.C. Merced
June thru September 18, Grace Jones Project, MOAB, San Francisco
July 1, BAOBAB, Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses, Roof Top, 5-8PM
July 1, Kev Choice CD release party, Yoshi's Oakland, 8PM July 3 thru September Poetry in The Park, Oakland
July
3, Book Discussion of Black Hollywood unChained, San Francisco Public
Library, 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco July 3, Mandela Food Cooperative Festival, West Oakland, 7th Street, across from West Oakland BART July 6 thru 31, Fences by August Wilson, California Shakespeare Theatre July 7 thru 17 The
Black Woman is god Exhibit, SOMA, San Francisco
July 15, Memorial for Kamau Amen Ra, Eastside Arts, 23rd and International, Oakland July 16 Tribe City Festival, San Francisco, Hunters Point July 22, Jill Scott
July 23, 25th Oakland Black Expo, Saturday, Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza
July 24 The Art of Rap Warfield, San Francisco
July 26, City of Oakland BAMBD Cultural Keepers, Tuesday, 6-8pm, Oak Center Cultural Center, 14th and Adeline
August 28 Snoop Dog, Concord Pavilan September 2, Ja Rule, Warfield
August 28-September 4, Black Arts Movement Theatre Festival, Sept, Flight Deck Theatre, Broadway, Oakland
July 30 New Edition, Concord Pavilion September 4, 6th Annual Pan African Family Reunion, Mosswood Park, Oakland
September 9-11, Black Arts Movement South 51st Celebration, Dillard University, New Orleans LA
September 17 Beyonce' Levi's Stadium
Sept 30-October 1, Donald Lacy's play Color Struck, Laney College Theatre
October 22, 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Black Panther Party, Museum of California
July 1, Friday
Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses (aka BAOBOB) together with our hosts Infinity Investments
- Invite BAOBOB members and those interested to be, to come mingle under the stars and above the crowd.
We're
in the time of beautiful sunsets and this spot has a panorama
unparalleled!! If you came out for First Friday June, you already
know...
Please join us for another BAOBOB Business Savvy First Friday on The Roof!!
* Business
* Bites
* Beverages
* Beats
Ease out of your Friday 9-5 fit and into your Friday open wide.
No door cover.
July 1, Friday, Kev Choice CD release party, Yoshi's Oakland, 8PM, 10PM
We
support Kev Choice because he supports the Black Arts Movement Business
District in Oakland. He has attended our meetings to establish the
BAMBD. So we appreciate Kev Choice!
July 3, Sunday, Mandela Foods Cooperative Festival
On
Mandela Cooperative's Interdependence Day, we'll be having all sorts of
interactive booths, games, movement, and performances. Food'll be free,
and the fun don't stop 'til 4-o-clock, so bring family to join in the
festivities!"
July 3, Sunday, 1:30-3:30PM, San Francisco Main Library Discussion of Black Hollywood Unchained
Some of you know that last year, Third World Press published Black Hollywood Unchained. Edited
by Ishmael Reed, the book contains a collection of critical essays by
various authors around the country in reaction to Quentin Tarentino’s
movie Django Unchained.
On
Sunday, July 3, 1:30-3:30 pm, several of the authors will participate
in a panel discussion at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch to
discuss the impact of Django Unchained
as well as other Hollywood movie depictions of African-American life.
Included with author presentations will be a time for questions and
answers.
Along with Ishmael Reed, other participants include Halifu Osumare, Cecil Brown, Marvin X, Justin Desmangles, and myself.
If you’re in the Bay Area that weekend, hope you can make it.
Jesse Allen-Taylor July 3 thru September Poetry in The Park
Writing circle for all ages to fellowship, release and create together. Bring
a blanket, journal, and a snack to share. Poetry in the park will be loosely
guided by poets Aries Jordan and Samantha Akwei. Sundays 3-5 varies, Oakland parks in B.A.M.B.D and surrounding areas
June 29 -- July 20, City of Oakland Young African Leadership Project
Fellows
from UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy will shadow City
Department Heads to learn about leadership, local government processes
and more about Oakland
July 7- 17 The
Black Woman is god Exhibit
Karen Seneferu and Melorra Green curate 60+ intergenerational artists working in
sculpture, painting, and new media hone in on the vital contributions of Black
women as artists and social change-makers, ensuring that the Black woman's
contribution to society is seen and valued.
SOMA Arts Cultural Center, 934
Brannan St. , San Francisco
July 6- 31, California Shakespeare Theatre presents Fences by August Wilson, one of our greatest griots, i.e., story tellers. FYI,
the Bay Area and the world needs to know the only dramatist who has
produced the complete cycle of works by August Wilson in chronological
order is our very own Bay Area diva of BAM theatre, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga,
MFA, PhD.
California Shakespeare Theater's 25th anniversary season
at the Bruns Amphitheater continues with August Wilson 's Pulitzer
Prize-winning story of the American Dream deferred, Fences, directed by
Raelle Myrick-Hodges in her Cal Shakes debut. Fences, which plays from
July 6 through July 31, marks the first time Cal Shakes has presented
August Wilson 's work on its stage.
July 15, Memorial for Kamau Amen-Ra and Photo Exhibition honoring his work.
EASTSIDE CULTURAL CENTER, 2277 International Blvd, 5-9PM.
Bring a dish to share. - Please spread the word!
July 16, Tribe city Festival
Music, art, and
culture festival designed to reflect the theme urban village,
calling for international recognition of the importance of collective efficacy
throughout the African Diaspora.Heron's Head and
India Basin Shoreline ParksBayview Hunters Point, San Francisco
July 23, 25th Oakland Black Expo, Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza
July 26, City of Oakland BAMBD Cultural Keepers, Tuesday, 6-8pm, Oak Center Cultural Center, 14th and Adeline
August 25--September 4, Black Arts Movement Theatre Festival, Flight Deck Theatre, 1540 Broadway, Oakland
The Toilet by Amiri Baraka
September 4, 6th Annual Pan African Family Reunion, Mosswood Park, Oakland
What:
Pan African Family reunion promotes
individual and community rejuvenation, and cultural pride through the
presentation of art, the opportunity for art-making, artisan vending, and the
invocation of cultural tradition.
Where: Mosswood Park, Oakland
June thru September 18, The Grace Jones Project, MOAB, San Francisco (see review below)
September 9-11, Black Arts Movement South 51st Anniversary Celebration, Dillard University, New Orleans, LA
We
are in the midst of what can be seen as a second wave of appreciation
and exploration of the cultural genius of the Black Arts Movement. Amiri
Baraka, Larry Neal, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Kalamu
ya Salaam, Marvin X and countless other voices moved us toward new
understandings of Black identity in the late 60s and early 70s. Now we
find ourselves in a moment in which their art and their thought were
never more relevant.
--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
September 30-October 1, Donald Lacy's play Color Struck, Laney College Theatre
October 22, Black Panther Party 50th Anniversary Celebration, Museum of California
October
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther
Party (for Self Defense). History will surely recognize the Party as
having organized the single greatest effort by Blacks in the United
States for freedom under a radical ideology of national liberation and
self determination.
Contact Information
Email: blackpantherparty50@gmail.com
Address: P.O.Box 23963, Oakland, CA 94623
The Movement Newsletter
Contents
1. City of Oakland to host Young African Leadership Initiative Fellowship Program
Oakland, CA – The
City of Oakland will host six fellows, who have been selected as some
of the most influential and thriving young leaders in Africa, as part of
the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). They all come from
different countries and focus on various interests and ventures such as
Food Security, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Education, Health and
Public Safety. This opportunity to see how a city government works
together to provide service to the community inspires and allows the
fellows to continue to innovate and envision new ideas that will help
their home country. Departments hosting fellows this year are the
Oakland Fire Department, City Auditor’s Office, Building & Planning
Department, City Clerk’s Office, Public Works Department and Human
Resources Management Department.
Courtesy AD Marshawn Lynch's Beast Mode opens in the BAMBD
Seattle
Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch, center, celebrates the opening of his new
"Beast Mode" apparel store on Broadway in Oakland, Calif., on Friday,
Feb. 5, 2016. To the left is his sister Marreesha Lynch and to the right
is is grandmother Shirley Lynch and cousin and Buffalo Bills
quarterback Josh. Beast Mode is in the BAMBD. Buy Black.
The
fellows are scheduled to shadow their mentors as well as listen to
presentations from various city departments. They will explore different
areas of Oakland and be able to meet Oakland leaders, staff and
community members. The fellows will be presenting on their home country,
their experiences and the work they are doing now through the YALI
Speaker Series which is open to City employees and the public.
BACKGROUND
Last
summer, a YALI Fellowship cohort came to City of Oakland on four
Wednesdays during their program to shadow and learn how the City of
Oakland operates. They were mentored by Department Heads from Oakland
Fire Department, City Auditor’s Office, Parks & Recreation
Department, Port of Oakland, Housing & Community Development
Department and Human Resources Management Department. Their experience
had a profound impact on the YALI program as well as the employees of
the City of Oakland. In 2016, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public
Policy wanted the City of Oakland to have a large role in the fellowship
program for a second year.
Dates of the Fellowship and Speaker Series Events
The
YALI Fellows will be placed with mentors at the three City
administrative buildings in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza as well as at the
Municipal Service Center, 7101 Edgewater Drive.
The fellows will visit the City of Oakland sites on:
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
The fellows will be giving presentations to the public and City employees on:
Wednesday, July 13, 2016, 1 to 2 p.m. at Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Wednesday, July 20, 2016, 1 to 2 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, 659 14th Street
About the Mandela Fellowship
The
Goldman School of Public Policy and the University of California,
Berkeley are excited and energized by the Young African Leaders
Initiative’s Mandela Fellowship Program and its focus on civic
leadership. Throughout UC Berkeley’s history civic leadership and
engagement has played a significant role in the campus’ evolution. From
the peace strikes in the 1930s, to the Free Speech Movement of 1964, to
today’s student body that is active in volunteerism and community
service, civic participation and leadership are integral to the Berkeley
experience. In summer 2014, the Goldman School hosted 25 emerging
leaders from sub-Saharan Africa. They are looking forward to welcoming
our second cohort this year.
The
Mandela Fellowship for Young African Leaders was announced on June 29,
2013, in South Africa by President Barrack Obama when he stated, “We’re
launching a new program that’s going to give thousands of promising
young Africans like you the opportunity to come to the United States and
develop your skills at some of our best colleges and universities.” The
new Mandela Fellowship is personally supported by the President of the
United States and the U.S. Department of State. We at the Goldman School
believe strongly that President Obama’s vision and mission for this
Fellowship and the mission of UC Berkeley for its students are exactly
the same – Let there be Light. Our domestic students are grappling with
global issues and hunger for more intimate opportunities to understand
and be change agents. By hosting this program at the Goldman School, our
students will get front row opportunities to interact with these future
African leaders, understand the context of global issues, and take part
in developing global solutions.
The
Goldman School is developing a cohesive civic leadership program that
will focus on the skills that young African leaders need to run better
ministries and serve their communities. The program will include
developing the skills to identify, analyze and solve crucial issues
found within a community and allow these civically engaged leaders to
empower and motivate others to become involved change agents. The
program will also include enrichment activities such as visiting the
California State Capitol in Sacramento to view a legislative session,
taking a trip to Muir Woods to see conservation in action and a host of
cultural and social activities taking advantage of the museums and
sights the San Francisco-Bay Area has to offer.
Black Artists/activists gather at the Joyce Gordan Gallery in honor of
slain journalist Chauncey Bailey. Joyce Gordan far right.
2. Review: The Grace Jones Project by Kadesh Carter
Review: The Grace Jones Project
By Kadesh Carter
Over
the years I have been asked who was my favorite artist, and for many of
those years I did not have an answer. Being a painter, I always told
myself to appreciate the works of others, but for some reason I never
gravitated towards anyone in particular. I never wanted to make works
based on the thought of anyone else, and I never wanted to recreate the
works of another artist. I know for some, this method is a form of
flattery based on inspiration - which is a beautiful thing, but I always
wanted to make my own way. Create from my imagination, no matter how
different it may have seemed to be. Uniqueness is a quality right? So,
it was I was watching "Boomerang" starring Eddie Murphy, and there she
appeared, Strangé, beautiful and boldly herself. Now, I could tell there
was more to this actress than lines from a script, so I dug deeper. Her
name was one that I would be sure to remember.
Who? Grace Jones. Who? Grace Jones.
What better way to create than to create from the depths of your soul. She was Grace Jones. And she created from her soul without limitation. There are many who live in this world, but few who walk their own path without regret.
Grace is definitely one of these humans. The influence of her work
changed the art world in more ways than one. Music, fashion,
performance, culture, and visual arts have all been mediums mastered.
From the start of her public career her one of a kind approach has been
purely amazing to see. Using color, bodily expression, and the freedom
of art has made many attempt to duplicate what Grace originated. I had
found my favorite artist from a great movie and what she represented was
what I wished to someday come close to.
mak·er
ˈmākər/
a person or thing that makes or produces something.
In
today's time I would define her as the Queen of Makers. In past times I
would have called her the future. The weekend had rolled around a
couple of months ago, and the date destination was a trip from Oakland
to San Francisco to the museum to an exhibit featuring Grace Jones and I
was more than delighted. With the many shows that I have experienced at
the Museum Of the African Diaspora, The Grace Jones Project is one that
I will always remember. Curated by Nicole J. Caruth, everything about
the show was astounding. Each art piece individually clearly projected
the impact of Grace on the artist and their views of how she is art herself.
The
Grace Jones Project is on display now - Sept. 18 at the Museum of the
African Diaspora in San Francisco. For more information please visitmoadsf.org.
Gentrification and “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
by Kujichagulia
Kujichagulia
In
1963, former governor of Alabama, George Wallace, delivered his
infamous inauguration speech declaring, “Segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, segregation forever!” Fast forward more than half a century
later. America boasts of being a post-racial society, yet segregation
remains an American epidemic. From colonization to plantations,
reservations, ghettos, border patrols, and gated communities of
insecurity forever whistling Dixie and protecting the Confederacy,
America is determined to go down singing, “Segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, segregation forever!”
Although
the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 prohibited segregation, mere legislation
cannot regulate bigotry, ignorance, hatred, fear, or inhumanity. Instead
of achieving desegregation, thus began half a century of “White flight”
from major cities across the country to newly established suburbs where
housing, education, liberty and justice were denied to all Melanites
(non-Whites). The Kerner Commission Report of 1968
addressed the practice and politics of White flight stating “America’s
social norm of segregation and exclusion leads to one obvious conclusion
– “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white -
separate and unequal.”
In
spite of an exodus from the cities in search of nuevo-segregation
elsewhere, myopic dreams of perpetual privilege gave way to the stark
realization that white-flight did not improve the quality of white life.
Although white-flighters were able to avoid being neighbors to any
Melanites, they couldn’t avoid the two- to five-hour segregated commutes
that dominated their morning and evening routines from white-washed
suburbia to the chocolate/brown cities they abandoned in favor of
sustaining segregation and tolerating racism from the sidelines. Once
antebellum dreams of racially-sanitized suburbs morphed into daily
nightmares of refilling gas tanks for bumper-to-bumper commutes with
intoxicating vehicle exhaust, crowded carpools, expensive toll booths,
and random acts of road rage, white-flight shifted into reverse.
The
solution – gentrification! Based on the rules of segregation,
gentrification displaces Melanite (non-White) families from their homes,
communities, and cities so that the gentry (wealthy White class) can
relocate back into the cities. As a result, foreclosures, redlining,
escalating prices, and exorbitant rents force many Black and Hispanic
people/families out of Oakland, as well as many metropolitan cities
nationally. Rising property taxes are pricing long-established families
out of their homes. Caucasians are consistently awarded with homes and
home loans, while Blacks and Hispanics are routinely denied homes and
home loans. Likewise, Blacks and Hispanics are generally denied home
improvement loans. Moreover, Blacks and Hispanics are often charged
exorbitant interest rates on the home loans eventually attained. The
result … more segregation.
In
February of 2016, the document, ECONOMIC EQUITY: LOCKED OUT OF THE
MARKET / POOR ACCESS TO HOME LOANS FOR CALIFORNIANS OF COLOR, revealed
an unwavering commitment to segregation and racism in the 21st century.
According to journalist, Rob Wile, “The study,
co-produced by the Greenlining Institute and Urban Strategies Council,
found that in 2013, the top-twelve lenders helped African American
borrowers purchase a mere four homes in Oakland, while Hispanic borrowers received just seven home purchase loans.” The Rob Wile article, Another mortgage lender just settled charges that it discriminated against blacks and Hispanics for years(http://fusion.net/story/141197/another-mortgage-lender-just-settled-charges-that-it-discriminated-against-blacks-and-hispanics-for-years/),
documented, “San Bruno, Calif.-based Provident Funding Associates is
accused of charging 14,000 minority borrowers interest rates and broker
fees that were on average hundreds of dollars, and at times thousands,
higher than what white borrowers paid. The practice started as early as
2006 and lasted through at least 2011, according to the Justice
Department’s complaint.” Yet it is what it is; it's business as usual;
life goes on, et cetera. While gentrification guarantees increased
segregation under the guise of urban improvement; it's merely business
as usual. It's the same ole progressive racism that patriotically
fulfills America's prophecy of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever!”
For expert fiction and non-fiction editing consultation, email me at safero@earthlink.net
Among
so many other lessons to be learned from the mid-June mass-murder
shooting at Pulse, the Orlando LGBT club, is a caution against locking
ourselves into assumptions and conclusions before enough information is
gathered and known. Now that a few weeks have passed since the horrific
event, and the initial furor has cooled off a bit, we can more easily
see where some of those early assumptions and conclusions wrong.
Many—including
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump—shut off all further
analysis once they learned that the lone American-born shooter was a
practicing Muslim, had an Arabic name—Omar Mir Seddique Mateen—and
that he had both identified himself as an "Islamic soldier" and pledged
his allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (commonly
known as either ISIS or ISIL) in 911 calls he made in the midst of the
shootings. From that moment on, many declared the Orlando massacre to be
an act of "radical Islamic international terrorism."
In
addition, many of our more conservative friends concluded that the
tragedy might have been averted had there been either "some" or "more"
armed security inside the club itself.
Of
course, there was always an alternate theory that the American-born
Mateen was less motivated by radical Muslim theory than he was by
traditional American-bred homophobia. And within a day or so of the
shooting, evidence emerged—though it has still been not been fully
substantiated—that he may have been a self-hating gay, and that the
public allegiance to ISIL might have merely been a way to paste on a
higher motivation to the shooting and cover up conflicted feelings about
his own sexuality.
In
addition, timelines released by several news outlets showed that an
armed off-duty Orlando police officer was working at the club, and
engaged in a shootout with Mr. Mateen before Mateen entered the
nightclub, and that two on-duty officers entered the club within minutes
and exchanged gunfire with the shooter, forcing him to retreat to a
bathroom.
But
even though some of this information was available within hours of the
first reports of the Orlando gay nightclub shooting, it was ignored in
many minds because it included facts that conflicted with convenient
conclusions already drawn.
Jumping
to conclusions has probably been one of humanity's favorite pastimes
since we first came upon this earth. But that human tendency has
escalated in American life especially—on both the left and the
right—since the rise of social media as our primary news-gathering
medium and national discussion forum. This is in part because if one
doesn't enter into the conversation early, and with a strong opinion one
way or another, the conversation rapidly passes you by. Two weeks, a
provocative tweet Facebook post about the Pulse shootings would have
gotten you scores, and perhaps hundreds, of replies. Post something
about the shootings now and you may get a small discussion, but more
likely you'll generate no more than a reply or two and then silence, as
most people have moved on to new things.
Another
incentive for drawing an early conclusion is that it relieves one of
the responsibility of thinking through what to do about something that
has disturbed you. Pick a pre-determined cause, and along with it comes a
pre-determined set of actions or attitudes to take in response. In the
first few hours following the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal
Building, for example, popular opinion in America had labeled it an act
of foreign-inspired Arab/Islamic terrorism. I recall that after Timothy
McVeigh, a young white American Army veteran, was captured and
identified as the bomber, one of the national news outlets interviewed a
somewhat befuddled older white woman, asking her about her reaction to
the McVeigh arrest. " I don't know what to think, I'm all confused," she
replied. "Now I don't know who I'm supposed to hate."
But such confusionment—if that be a proper word—does not have to be. Some years ago, while I was a reporter for Metro
weekly newspaper in San Jose, I was assigned to a story that
demonstrated to me both the value of waiting before concluding and both a
way to bring it about.
Late
one weekend night in the winter of 1998, the African-American head of
the San Jose State University Black Student Union was discovered lying
unconscious in a deserted open-air hallway in an off-campus housing
complex, having suffered a severe head injury from a possible assault
while talking on a pay telephone. Lakim Washington was a militant and
highly vocal leader for Black student rights on the SJSU campus, and had
clashed with university administration officials and with a number of
white students, including his two white roommates, in the months prior
to the assault.
Within
hours, leaders of the San Jose State BSU charged that Washington had
been the victim of a racially-motivated attack. Although there were no
known witnesses to the attack, and Washington himself could give no
information because he fell immediately into a coma, my editors at Metro believed the charge. I believed the charge, and was assigned the story, essentially, to provide evidence that it was true.
The
problem was, as hard as I tried, I could find no such evidence. No
witnesses came forward. Washington came out of the coma, but reportedly
could not remember anything about the attack, and his family would not
allow reporters to interview him in the hospital where he was
recovering. In addition, representatives of the university police began
spreading the story that there had been no attack at all, but that
Washington had hit his head on the concrete walkway after suffering an
epileptic fit, even though he'd had no prior history of epilepsy.
Eventually
I turned in a story that presented the Washington assault as an
unsolved mystery where a racial attack had been charged but not proved,
and which the university police seemed reluctant to investigate. A few
days after the article was published ("Violent Night" Metro
newspaper, January 22, 1998), a young woman read it, called the police,
and reported she had information that Washington had actually been
assaulted by her boyfriend, an African-American, after the two men had
argued over the use of the telephone. In other words, despite the early
and "obvious" conclusion of a racial component by so many people,
including myself, race had absolutely nothing to do with the assault.
In
other words, despite all the first assumptions by so many
people—myself, my editors, and members of the SJSU BSU—after first
hearing about the Lakim Washington assault, there had been no racial
component to that incident.
It
was during the Lakim Washington investigation and story that I began to
formulate guidelines for guarding against such premature conclusions.
First,
work from a "working theory" rather than a conclusion when you don't
have enough facts in hand about a particular situation. This is more
than just semantics. A conclusion demands defending and is difficult to
change because you have committed yourself to it, even when the actual
facts eventually prove otherwise. A working theory is just that, a
theory. It is presented as a possibility, not as an established truth,
is not necessary to defend, and is more easily modified if need be.
Second, continue to collect facts and modify your theory as necessary as new facts are presented.
Finally,
use any newly-discovered facts to try to disprove your working theory,
rather than trying to prove it. When you try to prove a theory—or a
conclusion—you tend to ignore everything that disproves it. But if you
work to disprove your original theory, it is easier to see the flaws in
it and modify that theory or abandon it altogether, if necessary. On the
other hand, if you honestly try to disprove your working theory and
find you cannot, it makes it more likely that your original theory was
correct.
Using
this formula, one could generally start off with the theory that given
America's history, any situation involving more than one race in this
country is likely to have race as one of its factors, to a greater or
lesser extent. But after that, all other possible factors should be
taken into account to see if their presence might, in fact, disprove the
theory of a racial cause.
Using
this method of theorize-and-attempt-to-disprove, its' entirely possible
to conclude that there are not enough proven facts available about the
Orlando gay nightclub shooting to draw a definite conclusion. It's still
possible that Mr. Mateen's actions were inspired by his fundamentalist
Islamic religious beliefs and the actions of such terrorist
organizations as ISIL. It is also possible that either American-born
homophobia or shame-of-being-closeted-gay were the determining factors.
And it is possible that the ultimate cause was some combination of these
factors or others yet unknown. But it's important to realize that such
uncertainty is okay. One ought to be careful not to jump unless one
knows where the danger is coming from and which location it is traveling
to, lest one ends up jumping directly in its path.
Meanwhile,
there's no magic to this method of working through our original
theories. Much work has to be done to make it work, in almost every
instance. Additional facts have to be ferreted out, sorted and resorted,
and retheorized. We often have to throw out our most treasured
prejudices. Sticking with pre-conceived notions is far, far easier on
the mind, in the short run. In the long run, however, disaster can
easily follow if the myths we have manufactured in our heads do not
agree with the reality we face in the actual world.
Betti Ono is a cultural anchor that has contributed immensely to
the success of our neighborhood in Downtown Oakland. Join us in the
fight to protect Black and people of color owned arts and culture spaces
and businesses from displacement. bit.ly/powerloveresistance
5. Jobs and Justice: The Vote on Coal
Friends,
On
Monday, I presided over a historic special hearing of the Oakland City
Council where my colleagues and I made the unanimous decision (7-0 with
Brooks absent) to protect resident and worker health by imposing a ban
on the transloading, handling and storage of coal and petroleum in a
proposed new terminal at the former Oakland Army Base (OAB).
Making
this decision was no easy matter. The Council weighed the information
provided seriously. We hired an independent firm, Environmental
Services Associates (ESA) to complete a thorough analysis of the of the
testimonies provided by the project sponsor, Terminal Logistic Solutions
(TLS), hundreds of residents and health experts, including the Alameda
County Public Health Department. The ESA analysis concluded that the
proposed coal terminal will further exacerbate air quality concerns in
West Oakland. The Administration’s analysis further concluded that the
proponent’s proposed mitigations (e.g. the use of covered rail cars to
contain fugitive coal dust) were insufficient and that “there are
currently no enforceable provisions from the U.S. Department of
Transportation Surface Transportation Board, the Federal Railroad
Administration, or from railroads themselves to require a coal supplier,
a terminal developer or operator in Oakland to utilize any dust
controls for coal shipped from Utah. Similarly, there are currently no
enforceable provisions for a coke supplier or a terminal developer or
operator in Oakland to utilize any dust controls for coke shipped via
rail from suppliers in northern California.” In the end, we concluded
that there is no viable means for the sponsor to protect residents or
workers from the associated risks.
Our
fight is for both jobs and environmental justice. The neighborhoods
where I live and represent suffer pervasive economic and health
disparities. According to a 2015 Alameda County Public Health report.http://www.acphd.org/media/401560/cumulative-health-impacts-east-west-oakland.pdf
West Oakland’s overall rate of asthma emergency department (ED) visits
is almost two times the rate for Alameda County as a whole. Numerous
scientific reports reveal that asthma and cancer rates here are among
the highest in the state. I reject the notion that our communities need
to suffer additional harm in order to create jobs.
I
believe in good jobs that produce living wages and healthy working
conditions. My concerns about the transport of volatile cargo are not
new. In 2014, I co-authored a resolution that received unanimous support
opposing the transport of coal, oil, petcoke (a byproduct of the oil refining process)
and other hazardous materials by railways and waterways within the
City. We have been joined in this effort to improve public health and
safety by an impressive cadre of scientists and elected leaders
including Senator Loni Hancock, and Assembly members Tony Thurmond and
Rob Bonta. We remain committed to the successful completion of the OAB
development and to the promised opportunity for good jobs as Prologis,
CWS, CASS, and OMSS move forward with plans that will yield thousands of
logistic, transportation, recycling and support jobs without coal.
My
office has received hundreds of emails, phone calls and letters from
Oaklanders (and beyond) expressing strong feelings about the proposed
coal terminal at the former Oakland Army Base. Your voices, your
concerns and your wisdom were at the forefront of this process. We
heard you. Thank you.
With deep Oakland-love,
City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney
Representing the Heart & Soul of the Town
6. The Black Arts Movement Theatre, University of California, Merced, Professor Kim McMillan
Voices of the Revolutionary Theatre Collective
Social
Responsibility is an ideology that states that the individual or group
has an obligation to act in a manner that benefits, and is in the best
interest of society as a whole. “Theatre and Social Responsibility”
refers to theatre artists, playwrights in the case of this class,
operating within the belief system that art is created for social
change, and to inform the public with regards to human rights issues,
and issues of freedom, inequality, and society’s oppression of an
individual or group. The focus of this class is The Black Arts Movement
in that the movement opened doors for those that have been and continue
to be marginalized. The historian and author Dr. James Smethurst states
that “The Black Arts Movement was arguably the most influential U.S.
arts movement ever.” Dr. Smethurst’s words sum up the enormous impact of
the Black Arts Movement. Yet, how does a movement that is responsible
for public funding of the arts and birthing black identity remain, for
the most part, invisible and forgotten?
The explanation is not simple. However, when the history and culture
of
people of color is not taught, unconsciously the dominant culture is
saying, “Your culture is not of value.” By lifting the veil on the
theatre, culture and literature of the marginalized, the richness and
diversity of American culture can be realized. During the 1960s and
1970s, those of African-American, Chicano/Latino, Native-American, and
Asian heritage used theatre and art as a weapon, calling on the dominant
race to open the door so that all might enter in equality. By
showcasing the works and words of those that have been marginalized,
real dialogue on racism in America can take place. We can no longer hide
this issue in dark places, poisoning the minds and hearts of so many.
The
language of these plays is often crude and graphic, but these authors
carried a message of revolution, and through their art demanded social
and economic change. While many of these plays were written in the 60s
and 70s, their message is timely and offers the opportunity for
transformation for ourselves and society through art.
Kim McMillon, Lecturer
Theater and Social Responsibility
Theatre and Social Responsibility Guest Speakers and Performers
Martha
O. Acevedo has been on the board of the Merced County Arts Council off
and on for about 20 years. Retired recently from the California
Department of Education after 30 years of service, she was also a county
school, district level administrator and teacher. She is a pioneer
Administrator and teacher in Bilingual bicultural and Chicano Studies
programs and Migrant Education. Born and raised in East Los Angeles
(Garfield High School and East Los Angeles College), she earned a B.A.
at UC Irvine and an M.A. in Education from Stanford University,
specializing in second language learning and teacher education. She has 2
grown daughters and 6 grandchildren.
Judy
Juanita enrolled at 16 years old at Oakland City College where she
first met Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Transferring to San Francisco
State, she joined students from the Mississippi Bus Rides and Freedom
Summer in creating the country’s first Black Student Union and joined
the Black Panther Party. When Eldridge Cleaver was jailed after the 1968
shootout, Huey appointed her editor-in-chief of the BPP newspaper. She
worked on the newspaper and the BPP Breakfast for Children program while
finishing her BA at SF State. She became the youngest faculty member of
the SFState Black studies program, teaching black journalism from the
freedom journals and abolitionist movement to the present. Her
semi-autobiographical novel, Virgin Soul, was published by Viking in
2013. Set in the sixties in the Bay Area, its main character grows from a
sexually and politically unaware student into an independent woman in
the Black Panther Party.
Marvin
X Born Marvin Jackmon on May 29, 1944, Marvin X is a poet, playwright
and essayist. One of the movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement,
he has published 30 books, including essays, poetry, and his
autobiography Somethin’ Proper. Receiving his MA in English/Creative
Writing from San Francisco State University, he has taught at numerous
colleges and universities. Important books include Fly to Allah, poems,
Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality, essays on consciousness, and How
to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a manual based on the
12 step Recovery model. Ishmael Reed says, “Marvin X is Plato teaching
on the streets of Oakland.” His latest book is the Wisdom of Plato
Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. He currently teaches
at his Academy of da Corner, in Oakland, CA.
Cheryl
Lockett is a vocal entertainer, visual artist and instructor with an
innate ability to manipulate sound using her voice. As a visual artist,
Lockett integrates music and visual art together, giving sight to sound
by creating musical percussion instruments from natural and recyclable
product. The instruments are designed and used to explore rhythm for
musical composition. Lockett runs a private studio teaching individuals
fundamental elements of music and visual art. Cheryl Lockett cultivates,
curates and presents an eclectic vision of sound that appeals to a
diverse listening audience. The roots music that exemplifies her vocal
style is a fusion of modern jazz, vintage blues, classic rock, Afro-
Latin and Native American rhythms, with minor key tonality. Her riveting
voice and warm style promises any listener an aesthetically pleasing
and cohesive composition of music that flows like silk.
Genny
Lim is a native San Franciscan poet and playwright. She is the author
of the award winning play, Paper Angels, performed here in the U.S.,
Canada and China, as well as on the PBS’series, American Playhouse in
1985. Author of two collections of poetry, a book of plays and ISLAND;
Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910- 1940 and
a children’s book, Wings for Lai Ho. She is currently completing an
expanded and revised edition of ISLAND with Judy Yung. Genny has
performed in Poetry Festivals in Italy, Sarajevo and Venezuela as well
as throughout the U.S. and has collaborated with prominent jazz
musicians, including Max Roach, Herbie Lewis, John Santos, Jon Jang,
Francis Wong, Lewis Jordan and Hafez Modirzedeh.
7. Photo essay by Kamau Amen Ra (from the archives of Marvin X)
8. Dr.
Ayodele Nzinga replies to Oakland City Council President Lynette
McElhaney's response to Marvin X and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant
Dear Madam President McElhaney,
Marvin
X, my mentor and elder, found your response quite eloquent and urged me
to respond to you since you referenced my efforts in engaging the
community to help with the implementation of a Black Arts Movement
Business District. I am deeply committed to the creation of a Black Arts
Movement Business District as envisioned by those who dreamed it fifty
years ago. Marvin X and the late Amiri Baraka, both internationally
known founding members of The Black Arts Movement envisioned Black
Cultural Districts nationwide. In his hometown, Newark, New Jersey,
Baraka called his vision The Jazz District. Marvin’s vision for his
hometown, Oakland CA., is an immense one. It is in service to that dream
that I join the conversation.
Your
reply reminds us of the weight of your responsibilities as a council
person and you state your current priorities. Thank you for offering us
your understanding of where BAMBD fits into current City of Oakland
matters as well as the short outline for implementing the stages of
BAMBD.
As
a resident of District 3 who works and lives in the BAMBD footprint, I
appreciate your timely update. There is a great deal of community
interest in the successful implementation of a vibrant cultural district
that will help address some of the issues that are priorities for you.
The
things you are prioritizing should indeed be pressing issues for the
entire council. I note that some of your priorities align the proposed
pillars of BAMBD, which we envision as a comprehensive entity with a
design that addresses pressing needs of Oakland’s disenfranchised and
marginalized North American African communities in a wholistic fashion.
In
my humble opinion the successful implementation of the Black Arts
Movement Business District is the only tangible solution currently
offered to provide relief to a portion of the city’s population feeling
under siege. Neither 90 day moratoriums, nor plans to provide affordable
housing in 2020 will serve those who need solutions to exorbitant rents
now.
Considering
the fact that $2,270.00 a month is the median rent for a one bedroom in
Oakland according to Zumper which places Oakland in a tie for 5th on a
list of the most expensive cities in America for renters, housing is
certainly a pressing issue, which if unaddressed will result in the
continued exodus of low income people from Oakland.
If something is not done there will be no substantial North American
African population in Oakland to enjoy or benefit from a Cultural
District. We look forward to the implementation of BAMBD and its
potential to provide additional economic opportunity in Oakland. The
same population plagued by negative interactions with law enforcement is
by and large the same group that is affected by housing issues and
urgently needs the work you are attempting with police reform. A recent
report cites that much of the cycle of violence in Oakland can be tied
to structural disparity; that cycle of disparity places the
disenfranchised in negative relationship with law enforcement and
hastens gentrification while amplifying displacement.
I
applaud your efforts to speak to the negative relationship with law
enforcement and its deadly effect. I eagerly await the opportunity to
assist in the implementation of BAMBD to offer a space to grow solutions
that speak to your priorities as well as our vision for North American
African survival and meaningful progress in Oakland.
I
am also encouraged by your acknowledgment of our community effort to
meet, our visioning and collaborative research of existing cultural
districts. To that end I request a meeting with you to discuss pending
development in the BAMBD footprint and to formally request the
assistance of your office in the process of drafting community benefit
requests for any and all pending development within the footprint and
the intended use of funds currently earmarked for BAMBD by process of
community negotiation for benefit in the footprint.
I
look forward to reconvening the Culture Keepers to hear your progress
on these matters and to work closely with you to make BAMBD a
comprehensively designed vehicle that offers tangible ways to address
our total needs.
In Service,
Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD
Founding Director,
Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc
BAMBD Servant & Architect
9. BAMBD Notes from Aries Jordan, Associate Editor
Aries Jordan
We are excited to announce The Movement, Newsletter of Black Arts Movement Business District Oakland. The Movement newsletter is a gathering
place to share information on the development and implementation of
the Oakland Black Arts Movement district. As well as, a collective
time capsule of how North American African people are thinking, feeling,
knowing and coming into their power at this time.
Do you or your organization have any cultural events coming up ?
Are you interested in submitting original artwork, poetry and writing?
*At
this point all submissions must be culturally specific to the North
American African community and related to the 5 pillars of Black Arts
Movement Business District
B.A.M.B.D Pillars:
*Housing *Commerce *Equitable public support for artist and cultural workers *Development, proliferation and dissemination of intellectual capital *Increased access to services
All submissions should be sent to bambdistrict@gmail.com. Subject line: Movement Submission.
Helpful links to learn more about B.A.M.B.D
B.A.M.B.Historical sites within B.A.M.B.D corridor 14th street:
Beyonce and her girls saluting the Black Panther Party at the Superbowl, 2016
11. Speech by Jesse Williams at BET Awards
“This
award, this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the
country. The activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling
parents, the families, the teachers, the students, that are realizing
that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand
if we do.
All
right? It’s kind of basic mathematics:, the more we learn about who we
are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize. Now this is also in
particular for the black women, in particular, who have spent their
lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and
will do better for you.
Now,
what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police
somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every
day. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and
justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and
ours.
Now
— I’ve got more, y’all. Yesterday would’ve been young Tamir Rice’s 14th
birthday, so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when
paid public servants can pull a drive-by on a 12-year-old playing alone
in a park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going
home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better to live
in 2012 than 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to
Sandra Bland. Tell that to Darrien Hunt.
Now
the thing is though, all of us in here getting money, that alone isn’t
going to stop this. All right? Now dedicating our lives to get money
just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body, when we
spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies and now we pray to get
paid for brands on our bodies.
There
has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of.
There has been no job we haven’t done, there’s been no tax they haven’t
levied against us, and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow
always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she
would’ve been alive if she hadn’t acted so… “free.”
Now,
freedom is always coming in the hereafter. But, you know what though?
The hereafter is a hustle. We want it now. And let’s get a couple of
things straight, just a little side note: The burden of the brutalized
is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, all right, stop
with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our
resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of
our oppression. If you have no interest in equal rights for black people
then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.
We’ve
been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done
watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and
abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind, while
extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil, black
gold. Ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them,
gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before
discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is, though,
the thing is that just because we’re magic, doesn’t mean we’re not
real.”
12. Alice Walker writes a poem inspired by Jesse Williams' BET Awards speech
Jesse Williams has already moved many with his passionate
speech at the BET Awards on Sunday and now he has inspired Alice Walker,
the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Color Purple," to pen a poem
in response to his message.Walker's new work addresses the "fear of blackness in white culture."
Here it is the beauty that scares you -so you believe- to death. For he is certainly gorgeous and he is certainly where whiteness to your disbelief has not wandered off to die. No. It is there, tawny skin, gray eyes, a Malcolm-esque jaw. His loyal parents may Goddess bless them sitting proud and happy and no doubt amazed at what they have done. For he is black too. And obviously with a soul made of everything. Try to think bigger than you ever have or had courage enough to do: that blackness is not where whiteness wanders off to die: but that it is like the dark matter between stars and galaxies in the Universe that ultimately holds it all together. --Alice Walker
Negro es bello, Black is beautiful, Elizabeth Cattlett Mora
13. Ishmael Reed reviews the musical Hamilton: The Negro in slave master dress and it's not Halloween!
Hamilton and the Negro Whisperers: Miranda’s Consumer Fraud
Among
the types of black writers are the “Negro Whisperers,” whose assignment
is to explain blacks to whites like the guide in the Tarzan movies,
who, in the words of Adolph Reed, Jr. tells them what those drums mean.
Then there’s the native who challenges the lies that come down from the
colonial office. The native that is regarded by the occupiers as
“dangerous.” John A. Williams, whose memorial service will be held in
Teaneck, New Jersey, on May 29, didn’t have as many readers as the
“Negro Whisperers” but he was so dangerous as to be placed on the FBI
list of black writers to be placed in “custodial detention,” * in case
of a National Emergency. (They spelled my name, “Ismael.”) He was part
of a tradition of black writers dating back to the 1800s, and though
these writers could be as hard on blacks as whites, this entire
tradition is being dismissed by the new post race “Negro Whisperers,” as
one of scorn and of “hating whitey.” Williams, and Amiri Baraka would
have a field day with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton.” So would
Gwendolyn Brooks, who could have attended all of the occupier’s dinner
parties, but chose to remain in the forest with her people. (Baraka is
now so beloved by The New York Times, which hated him while he was alive, that they recommended his book of poetry for a Christmas gift.)
Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton,” originated the sales pitch for his musical, which, according to the Times, might earn a billion dollars for its investors. During an interview conducted by Rob Weinert-Kendt, New York Times,Feb. 5, 2015. He said:
“As
for the question of slavery, which is the great original sin of this
country, it’s in the third line of the show. But it’s this thing that
keeps getting kicked down the field. Hamilton and Burr were part of the
[abolitionist] New York Manumission Society, so they were actually very
progressive. But there’s only so much time you can spend on it when
there’s no end result to it.”
In
the show’s last song, his widow, Eliza, sings that Hamilton would have
“done so much more” against slavery had he lived longer. Miranda’s is an
odd assertion since even Ron Chernow, one of these historians who long
for a period when powerful white men were in charge, maybe the country
that Trump followers want “to take back,” says that Hamilton “may”
have owned two household slaves. Miranda says that he based his musical
on Ron Chernow’s book “Hamilton.” Miranda should have consulted other
sources that challenge this high school notion that Hamilton was some
sort of abolitionist. But that would have been a real turn off for the
feel good version of the Founding Fathers, enslavers and what’s often
left out, Indian exterminators, which has drawn largely white audiences,
who can afford tickets that sell for as much as $700. There would be no demand for tickets had it not been for an extraordinary bit of salesmanship from The New York Times,
which had been rooting for “Hamilton” since 2012, culminating in a rave
review from Ben Brantley published when it opened in August, 2015. He
wrote
“I am loath to tell people to mortgage their houses and lease their children to acquire tickets to a hit Broadway show.
But ‘Hamilton,’ directed by Thomas Kail and starring Mr. Miranda, might
just about be worth it — at least to anyone who wants proof that the
American musical is not only surviving but also evolving in ways that
should allow it to thrive and transmogrify in years to come.”
I challenged the enthusiasm for a show that glorifies a man who participated in holding people against their will in my article written for CounterPunch,
August 21, 2015. What was the difference between Hamilton and Ariel
Castro who did the same thing, I asked. Should Castro’s face be on the
ten-dollar bill? Hamilton’s defenders maintain that Hamilton was smart.
So was Castro who was able to accomplish his despicable deed without
being detected. In my article I quoted historians who were not as swept
away by Founding Fathers chic, or Hamilton fever as much as Chernow,
Miranda and writers for The New York Times. Professor Michelle Duross, of the University at Albany, State University of New York, is much more direct and
shows what happens when someone from a class, whose voice has been
neglected, invades the all-white male country club of historians. Unlike
Chernow, her treatment of Hamilton as a slave trader is not couched in
equivocating qualifiers that are favorable to this founding father, I
wrote. She takes to task the Hamilton biographies written by his
awe-struck groupies:
“Alexander
Hamilton’s biographers praise Hamilton for being an abolitionist, but
they have overstated Hamilton’s stance on slavery. “Historian
John C. Miller insisted, ‘He [Hamilton] advocated one of the most
daring invasions of property rights that was ever made– the abolition of
Negro slavery.’
“Biographer Forrest McDonald maintained, ‘Hamilton was an abolitionist, and on that subject he never wavered.’”
She
writes, “Hamilton’s position on slavery is more complex than his
biographers’ suggest.” Some historians maintain that Hamilton’s birth on
the island of Nevis and his subsequent upbringing in St. Croix
instilled in him a hatred for the brutalities of slavery. Historian
James Oliver Horton suggests that Hamilton’s childhood surrounded by the
slave system of the West Indies “would shape Alexander’s attitudes
about race and slavery for the rest of his life.’” She writes,
“No
existing documents of Hamilton’s support this claim. Hamilton never
mentioned anything in his correspondence about the horrors of plantation
slavery in the West Indies. “Hamilton’s
involvement in the selling of slaves suggests that his position against
slavery was not absolute. Besides marrying into a slaveholding family,
Hamilton conducted transactions for the purchase and transfer of slaves
on behalf of his in-laws and as part of his assignment in the
Continental Army.”
I
cited another historian, Allan McLane Hamilton, who writes to counter
the claim that Hamilton never owned slaves: “[Hamilton] never owned a
negro slave… is untrue. In his books, we find that there are entries
showing that he purchased them for himself and for others.” Why isn’t
this entry regarded as a smoking gun? After creating the Hamilton mania,
which the Times began in 2012, and which one letter writer termed the Times
coverage as “Daily Worship,” the newspaper acknowledged that there was
dissent. Finally. It came in Jennifer Schuesslera’s April 10, 2016
article entitled “Hamilton’ and History: Are They in Sync? ” She
described the dissent. Critics, according to her, claim that “Hamilton”:
“over-glorifies
the man, inflating his opposition to slavery while glossing over less
attractive aspects of his politics, which were not necessarily as in
tune with contemporary progressive values as audiences leaving the
theater might assume.”
In
a note to me she acknowledges that she read my August 21st CounterPunch
piece but traced the beginning of “Hamilton” dissent to a September
response by David Waldstreicher’s to remarks made by historian Joseph
Adelman, who claimed that Miranda “got the history right.”
She
wrote that Waldstreicher, a historian at the Graduate Center of the
City University of New York, “sounded an early note of skepticism on The
Junto, a group blog about early American history.” (Apparently
CounterPunch is a name that dare not be mentioned at the Times.)
Waldstreicher wrote, “Nobody’s pointing out the pattern of exaggerating
Hamilton’s (and other Federalists’) antislavery….” Exaggeration is to
put it mildly; nowhere in his comments does Waldstreicher say that
Hamilton actually owned slaves. Nobody pointed out that Hamilton’s
antislavery has been exaggerated? (Hamilton’s mother also owned slaves
and in her will, left the slaves to Hamilton and his brother.)
Professors Michelle Duross and Alan McLane among others have pointed it
out. Maybe he, like Miranda reads only the Good Old Boys and Girls of
the American Historical Establishment. Professor Lyra D. Monteiro’s article in the journal The Public Historian was also cited. She wrote,
“the
show’s multiethnic casting obscures the almost complete lack of
identifiable African-American characters, making the country’s founding
seem like an all-white affair. “It’s an amazing piece of theater, but it concerns me that people are seeing it as a piece of history.”
“The founders,” she added, “really didn’t want to create the country we actually live in today.” Ms. Monteiro also read my Counter Punch article and quoted from it in Salon and the Huffington Post.
“And one of the points Ishmael Reed made that I loved is that for
Elizabeth Schuyler to be a Kim Kardashian of her era involved several
slaves preparing her to be so gorgeous at that ball where Hamilton met
her. “
Historian
Annette Gordon-Reed was quoted in the article as sharing “some of Ms.
Monteiro’s qualms, even as she loved the musical and listened to the
cast album every day.” “Imagine
‘Hamilton’ with white actors,” she wrote. “Would the rosy view of the
founding era grate?” Good question. Would an all white cast portraying
Idi Amin and his cronies in a Broadway musical earn billions for the
investors? One letter writer defended Miranda’s taking liberties with
history. She cited Shakespeare. Well suppose that you had Jewish actors
playing Hitler and his Generals and there appeared a scene in which
Hitler pleaded, without success that the Jews be spared. That he was
some sort of Philo Semitic.
Defending
the show Chernow wrote: “This show is the best advertisement for racial
diversity in Broadway history and it is sad that it is being attacked
on racial grounds.” Chernow, who is reaping huge profits from the show,
is not concerned about the fraudulent representation of Alexander
Hamilton? Mr. Miranda, who began the mania, was not available for
comment. If I’d misrepresented Hamilton as a “progressive,” I’d be
hiding too. Ms. Gordon-Reed further commented that while Hamilton
publicly criticized Jefferson’s views on the biological inferiority of
blacks, his record from the 1790s until his death in 1804 includes
little to no action against slavery. “Hamilton the ardent lifelong
abolitionist,” she said, is “an idea of who we would like Hamilton to
be.” And so the debate among those members of the Historical
Establishment, some of whom are Pulitzer Prize winners, has come down to
an argument as to whether Hamilton was abolitionist or not abolitionist
enough. This tepid response amounts to a cover-up of the kind that John
A. Williams, John O. Killens, Chester Himes and Gwendolyn Brooks and
Amiri Baraka would have challenged.
This
latest attempt to whitewash a founding father for money, is preceded by
a farce called, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” which lionizes Andrew
Jackson, the Eichmann of American extermination policy. Another
Establishment historian, Jon Meacham, cast Jackson as some sort of Rock
and Roll star. This musical was also praised by Ben Brantley. Rihanna
Yazzie, a playwright who helped organize a protest of the Minneapolis
production, said the musical “reinforces stereotypes” and left her
feeling “assaulted.”
“The
truth is that Andrew Jackson was not a rock star and his campaign
against tribal people—known so briefly in American history textbooks as
the Indian Removal Act—is not a farcical backdrop to some emotive,
brooding celebrity,” Yazzie wrote in an open letter.
“Can you imagine a show wherein Hitler was portrayed as a justified,
sexy rock star?” The danger of something like “Hamilton” is that school
children will be seduced into believing that Hamilton was some kind of
“progressive” using Miranda’s words.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of
American History has created a curriculum for 20,000 low-income New York
City public school students who will be able to see the musical, in a
program funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and subsidized by the
show.” I wrote the Rockefeller Foundation on April 12, 2016, proposing
that if they must send these kids black and Latino to see “Hamilton” on
the grounds that he was a “progressive,” and an “abolitionist” that they
might organize a panel during which those who make such a claim defend
it against historians who say that he was a slave trader. They could
have the panel before or after the show.They didn’t answer. It’s
also a disappointment that Miranda persuaded the treasury to keep
Hamilton on the ten-dollar bill, a man who held slaves, instead of
replacing him with Harriet Tubman, who freed slaves. Such
views of Yazzie and mine are smothered by millions of dollars in
publicity of those who want to pamper the white ticket buying audience.
Finally I asked the writer Jennifer Schuessler why there was no mention
of Hamilton as a slave trader in her piece. She said that she didn’t
have enough space to include this fact.
“@jennyschuessler
Apr 11 @ishmaelreed
Thanks. Of course read your earlier [Counterpunch] piece. No room in
story to get into issue of Ham and slave selling, etc., alas.”
Such a revelation would be an embarrassment for the show’s main booster, The New York Times;
would expose Miranda as not being forthcoming about Hamilton’s true
history in order to make money, and also be bad for the box office. To paraphrase the slogan used by these brave young souls, Black Lives Never Mattered, Indian lives even less. Notes.
* F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature: by William J. Maxwell, Jan 4, 2015
-------------------------------
“Hamilton: the Musical:” Black Actors Dress Up like Slave Traders…and It’s Not Halloween
Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) wrote the lyrics, composed the music, and stars as Hamilton.
Establishment
historians write best sellers in which some of the cruel actions of the
Founding Fathers are smudged over if not ignored altogether. They’re
guilty of a cover-up. This
is the case with Alexander Hamilton whose life has been scrubbed with a
kind of historical Ajax until it sparkles. His reputation has been
shored up as an abolitionist and someone who was opposed to slavery. Not
true.
Alexander
Hamilton married into the Schuylers, a slaveholding family, and
participated in the bartering of slaves. One of “Hamilton’s” actors,
Renee Elise Goldsberry (“The Color Purple”), who visited the Schuyler
home, said the Schuyler sisters, “were the Kardashians” of 1780 —
superstars, but with dignity and grace.”[1]
Maybe they were able to maintain “dignity and grace” because they had
27 slaves serve them. Black women whose labor assignments left them
little time to preen. Is this actor disregarding, callously, that the
sisters thrived on the labor of enslaved women? No, she probably
attended the same schools that I attended. A curriculum that endowed
slave traders and Indian exterminators with the status of deities.
Even Ron Chernow, author of Alexander Hamilton, upon which the musical “Hamilton” is based, admits (kinda), reluctantly, that Hamilton and his wife may,
[his italics], have owned two household slaves and may have negotiated
the sale of slaves on behalf of his in-laws, the Schuylers. Chernow says
that Hamilton may have negotiated these sales, “reluctantly?” How does
he know this?
Like
other founding fathers, Hamilton found slavery, an “evil,” yet was a
slave trader. The creepy Thomas Jefferson also appears in “Hamilton.” He
was even a bigger hypocrite in his
blaming King George for the slave trade, a contention that was deleted
from the final version of the Declaration of Independence.
“Jefferson
railed against King George III for creating and sustaining the slave
trade, describing it as ‘a cruel war against human nature.’”[2]
Was Lin-Manuel Miranda, who designed this show, aware that Thomas
Jefferson’s solution to the Native American problem was “extermination?”
He told his Secretary of War, General Henry Dearborn (who was the
primary government official responsible for Indian affairs): “if we are
constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it
down until that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the
Mississippi.”[3]
Similarly,
Andrew Jackson found slavery, “barbaric,” yet owned slaves. He might
have been the founder of the false police report. “He concocted stories
if discipline crippled or killed a slave. Of a beaten woman, he wrote to
a partner in one such cover-up: ‘You may say to Dr. Hogg, that her
lament was occasioned by a stroke from Betty [another slave], or jumping
over a rope, in which her feet became entangled, and she fell.”’ [4]The
same 1 percent establishment critics, who gave Andrew Jackson a pass,
are praising “Hamilton.” One writer even hailed Jackson as a Rock and
Roll star. Professor
Michelle Duross, of the University at Albany, State University of New
York, is much more direct and shows what happens when someone from a
class, whose voice has been neglected, invades the all-white male
country club of historians. Unlike Chernow, her treatment of Hamilton as
a slave trader is not couched in equivocating qualifiers that are
favorable to this founding father. She takes to task the Hamilton
biographies written by his awe-struck groupies:
“Alexander
Hamilton’s biographers praise Hamilton for being an abolitionist, but
they have overstated Hamilton’s stance on slavery. “Historian
John C. Miller insisted, ‘He [Hamilton] advocated one of the most
daring invasions of property rights that was ever made– the abolition of
Negro slavery.’ “Biographer Forest McDonald maintained, ‘Hamilton was an abolitionist, and on that subject he never wavered.’”
She
writes, “Hamilton’s position on slavery is more complex than his
biographers’ suggest.” Some historians maintain that Hamilton’s birth on
the island of Nevis and his subsequent upbringing in St. Croix
instilled in him a hatred for the brutalities of slavery. Historian
James Oliver Horton suggests that Hamilton’s childhood surrounded by the
slave system of the West Indies “would shape Alexander’s attitudes
about race and slavery for the rest of his life.’” She writes,
“No
existing documents of Hamilton’s support this claim. Hamilton never
mentioned anything in his correspondence about the horrors of plantation
slavery in the West Indies. “Hamilton’s
involvement in the selling of slaves suggests that his position against
slavery was not absolute. Besides marrying into a slaveholding family,
Hamilton conducted transactions for the purchase and transfer of slaves
on behalf of his in-laws and as part of his assignment in the
Continental Army.”[5]
Another
historian, Alan McLane Hamilton writes to counter the claim that
Hamilton never owned slaves: “[Hamilton] never owned a negro slave… is
untrue. In his books, we find that there are entries showing that he
purchased them for himself and for others.”[6] In
the musical, black actors play Washington and other founding fathers.
Are they aware that George Washington is known for creating strategies
for returning runaways? That he was into search and destroy when
campaigning against Native American resistance fighters. “By 1779, George Washington had already earned the famous moniker ‘Father of His Country.’ Among the Iroquois he was known as Conotocarious, or ‘Town Destroyer.’” [7] Historians, who serve as lackeys for famous, wealthy white men term him a “merciful slave master.” An oxymoron.
“Washington
authorized the ‘total destruction and devastation’ of the Iroquois
settlements across upstate New York so ‘that country may not merely be
overrun but destroyed.’ Under Washington’s orders forty Iroquois
villages to ashes, and left homeless many of the Indians, hundreds of
whom died of exposure during the following frigid winter. “Chief
Cornplanter, who headed the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois, stressed the
durability of ‘Town Destroyer’ as the commander-in-chief’s nickname.
‘And to this day when that name is heard,’ the chief said, ‘our women
look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the
necks of their mothers. To this day, ‘Town Destroyer’ is still used as
an Iroquois name for the president of the United States.”[8]
Slave trading usually involved sex trafficking, where the planters
turned
their plantations into enforced and involuntary harems, an enterprise
that fugitive slave writer, William Wells Brown, found disgusting.
George Washington’s Sally Hemings, according to black oral tradition,
was a slave named Venus. Fifty percent of the slaves at Arlington, where
Robert E. Lee lived with the granddaughter of Martha Washington, were
“bi-racial.”[9]
So
what’s the difference between Ariel Castro who kept three women against
their will and Alexander Hamilton and other founding fathers? His
groupies argue that despite his flaws–they don’t include the
slavet-rading parts–he was smart. Well so was Ariel Castro. He
was able to evade detection by even members of his family. For years.
Moreover did he work these women from sun up to sun down without paying
them? Maybe Broadway will do a musical about his life.
Already,
the same 1 percent critics who drooled over “Bloody Bloody, Andrew”
about Andrew Jackson, the Eichmann of American Native American policy,
are already embracing “Hamilton.” They must be as ignorant as the black
and Latino actors who have lent their talents to “Hamilton.”
Maybe
that’s why the establishment critics leave out the slave parts. The
idea that Black Lives Matter is an improvement over their slavery
status, where blacks were treated as objects to be bought and sold,
worked, beaten, killed and fucked. Though ignorant hateful people say
that the Civil War was fought to uphold “states rights,” the
slaveholders of the south, who kept Africans against their will, as a
result of their free labor, were the richest white people in the world.[10] Maybe the country clubs of historians and Beltway critics still feel that way about African captives.
And
why would President Obama lend his prestige to this thing? First he
welcomes black pathology pimp, David Simon, to the White House, where he
endorsed “The Wire,” a show in which black children are singled out as
degenerate drug peddlers, when all of the heroin seems to be stashed in
Vermont and other states with few blacks among their population. He
honors this hustler even after Prof. Karl Alexander, who did an actual
study of Simon’s black Baltimore neighborhoods, found Simon’s
presentation to be “one sided” as he put it, politely.
Is
this the president’s view of traditional African Americans? Criminals.
People who sang and danced their way through slavery under the watchful
eye of merciful slave masters? He went to Harvard. Didn’t he take
courses from Martin Kilson? Doesn’t the president know that Thomas
Jefferson’s proposal for the Native American problem was extermination?
Now The New York Times
has appointed Simon the chief interpreter of the black experience. The
honorary Head-Negro-In-Charge. Al Jolson without the black face. He’s
doing a miniseries about Martin Luther King, Jr. He’s already lined up a
couple of black writers to be in on the project, who will be there to
defend the thing if black people become upset. It’s being sponsored by
Oprah Winfrey who gave a green light to Precious, the worst
black movie ever made. I can understand why some young black Americans
are leaving the country. I met some of them in Paris.
Now
I have seen everything. Can you imagine Jewish actors in Berlin’s
theaters taking roles of Goering? Goebbels? Eichmann? Hitler?
When I brought up the subject of Hamilton’s slaveholding in a Times’
comment section, a white man accused me of political correctness. If
Hamilton had negotiated the sale of white people, do you think that
an audience would be paying $400 per ticket to see a musical based upon
his life? No, his reputation would be as tarnished as that of his
assassin Aaron Burr.
Benjamin Franklin wrote a satire, called “Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade,”[11]
in which he dealt with his contemporaries’ justifications for slavery
only he, in order to spotlight the defenders’ hypocrisy, put these same
arguments in the voice of a fictional Muslim, who justified the
enslavement of white Christian slaves.
And
here is the final insult: “The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
History is working with the producers on an effort to make it possible
for large numbers of New York City schoolchildren to see the show.”
This
is the best argument I know for the establishment of more Afro-Centric
schools and Hispanic schools in order to balance the curriculum promoted
by Euro-Centric schools, in which perpetrators of genocide and slave
holders are honored. Was school integration a mistake? Were these the
brainwashing schools attended by the Latino and Black actors who are
performing in this thing?
The
best argument that I know for the advocacy of such schools came from a
Jewish professor who attended Hebrew School before public schools. When a
public school teacher praised the Crusades, she was able to point out
that the Crusaders set up pogroms.
In
the heady times during the slave revolt of the 1960s, the rebels
boasted about how they were using the enemy’s language and how they were
“stealing his language.” Now things have been turned upside down. Now
the masters, the producers of this profit hungry production, which has
already made 30 million dollars, are using the slave’s language: Rock
and Roll, Rap and Hip Hop to romanticize the careers of kidnappers, and
murderers. People, who, like Jefferson, beat and fucked his slaves and
spied on their fucking.
The
very clever salesman for this project is Lin-Manuel Miranda. He
compares Hamilton, a man who engaged in cruel practices against those
who had been kidnapped from their ancestral homes, with that of a slave,
Tupac Shakur. He is making profits for his investors with glib appeals
such as this one. The first week’s box office take was $1,153,386.
Amiri Baraka, the master of irony, your voice is missed. -------------
Notes.
[1] “Actresses in ‘Hamilton’ Take a Trip to a Family Home for a History Lesson” James Barron, New York Times, July 13,2015 [2] “Letter From Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec.6, 1813.” [3]www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h33.html [4]Nixon’s Piano, Presidents And Racial Politics From Washington To Clinton Kenneth O’Reilly, The Free Press, New York, 1995
[10]The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. Kindle Edition by Edward E. Baptist.
[11]“ Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade.” Pow Wow,Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience-Short Fiction from Then to Now, edited by Ishmael Reed with Carla Blank, Da Capo Press, 2009, New York.
Ancestor Austin C. Clarke, giant of Canadian African literature
On his way to the San Francisco Library, Marvin X was elated when he checked his mail and found a kind note from
Nikki Giovanni, thanking him for informing her Austin joined the
ancestors.
Left to Right: Justin Desmangles, Jesse Allen-Taylor, Dr. Halifu Osumare, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed
photo Johnnie Burrell
Preface
In Black Hollywood Unchained, Ishmael Reed gathers an impressive group
of scholars, critics, intellectuals, and artists to examine and respond
to the contemporary portrayals of Blacks in films. Using the 2012
release of the film Django Unchained as the focal point of much of the
discussion, these essays and reviews provide a critical perspective on
the challenges facing filmmakers and actors when confronted with issues
on race and the historical portrayal of African American characters.
Reed also addresses the black community's perceptiveness as discerning
and responsible consumers of film, theatre, art, and music.
--Justin Mesmangles
On Sunday, July 3, contributing writers to the anthology Black Hollywood
unChained, held a spirited discussion on the collection of essays
edited by Ishmael Reed, Third World Press, Chicago. The discussion was
facilitated by Justin Desmangles who questioned Ishmael Reed, Jesse
Allen-Taylor,
Dr. Halifiu Osumare and Marvin X. It was sponsored by Before the
Columbus Foundation and the African American Center of the San Francisco
Public Library, and videoed for later broadcast by Johnnie Burrell of
International Media TV.Com. It will air on July 9 and available on
Youtube.
Justin Desmangles, Chair of Before Columbus Foundation, journalist,
poet, posed questions to the authors based on their essays. We must
await the video for an accurate narration of the event but one question
was why must Hollywood continues writing our stories that they can only
tell from the white supremacy mythological viewpoint. Jews would not let
Nazis write their history, although it was noted Jews take the liberty
to narrate North American African history or the white version of it
that is nothing less than pure fantasy or stories from the white world
of make believe. Jesse Allen-Tayor said Black actors are essentially
whores who are pimped by producers and are so desperate for roles they
will perform anything, no matter how demeaning and despicable.
Dr. Halifu Osumare explained when the book project began, it was focused
on the film Django but evolved into a general discussion on the
condition of Blacks in Hollywood. Halifu noted how director Tarantino
used the Yoruba myth of Oshun to depict the Black woman as goddess,
although she wasn't sure the director had knowledge of Yoruba mythology.
She also appreciated how the woman was freed by her man and road to
freedom on her own horse to show a certain level of independence yet in
harmony with her man.
Marvin X said the story of an individual Black man saving his woman is
noble but insufficient because we need stories of communal liberation
rather than individual. Referring to his essay, Justin asked Marvin X
about the traumatic slave syndrome of the oppressed as described in
modern times by Dr. Frantz Fanon. Marvin X said, firstly, Elder Ed
Howard, a founding member of Oakland's Afro-American Association, has
called for us not to use the term slaves but rather say we were/are
Africans caught in the American Slave System. Marvin X said we are still
suffering from the traumatic stress of the American slave system. Upon
emancipation, we had no therapy and still have none. Justin noted how
the nine people were killed in the North Charleston church, South
Carolina and what this says about how religion is used to pacify us to
the degree we immediately ask forgiveness and mercy for the killer.
Marvin replied that their mentality shows the degree of addiction to
white supremacy religion. The Southern Blacks still live in fear, Marvin
said. For example, when he finished writing How to Recover from the
Addiction to White Supremacy in Beaufort, South California and went to
Staples for copies, the clerk asked where he was from? He told the Black
sister, I'm from here, but she said no you're not. When he asked why
she doubted him, she replied because we don't say White Supremacy down
here, we know it but don't say it. This reveals a pervasive level of
fear disguised as manners.
Jesse-Allen-Taylor would have none of putting down of the South. He's
lived in South Carolina and is the author of a novel on South Carolina,
Sugarie Rising, and he noted a unique town north of Charleston that had
no Confederate statues and that there were people still resisting white
supremacy.
Marvin said one of his last book tours through South Carolina his hosts
told him to shut up and don't say nothing while you're here, and
furthermore, we are not going to give you a book party or help you
promote your book, just enjoy yourself and go on up the road. Marvin
said he did as his hosts ordered which gave him time to visit the
African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina. He noted the young Yoruba
King's father was from Harlem and helped spread Yoruba culture
throughout the United States. Halifu Osumare agreed the Yoruba King in
South Carolina is highly respected, including a visit from the Oba of
Ife, Nigeria. It was asked why don't more writers utilize African
mythology in their work. Marvin recalled that in the play A Black Mass,
Amiri Baraka utilized myths from Islam (the myth of Yakub) and Yoruba
mythology. Baraka had studied the Yoruba religion as did many poets and
writers during the Black Arts Movement. The founding Oba of Olatunji
Village married Amiri and Amina Baraka.
Justin probed for more religious influences in North American African
culture. Panelists replied the Catholic church has made ample use of
Yoruba and Vudun in their services and even the Protestant religious
community employ the Holy Ghost ritual similar to riding the god.
Ishmael Reed noted how many writers have researched and studied Yoruba
and Vudun myth-rituals in our culture, especially Katharyn Dunham.
During the Q and A, videographer Ken Johnson stated he wished we would
explain more of this mythology because he'd never heard of Yemanja or
Oshun and would like to know.
Ishmael, whom we graciously acknowledge as one of our Master writers or
griots ,who has overwhelming knowledge of European and African
mythology, yet he admitted ignorance of African revolts against the
slave system. Marvin told Ishmael and the audience to check out the
History Channels documentary Slave Catchers and Resisters, also Negro
Slave Revolts by Herbert Aptheker.
Jesse Allen-Taylor said the truth is that there was almost daily
resistance to the American Slave System. When the Roots and Neo-Roots
films series came into the discussion, Halifu said the original Roots
had the positive because for the first time many Blacks and Whites got
some understanding of the American Holocaust, and this was a good thing.
Marvin X replied, I don't want to see no more films about slavery, only
resistance. "Show me Toussaint, Garbriel Prosser, Nat Turner, Denmark
Vessey. If I go to one more movie about slavery, I might kill some white
people." He quoted Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, in which the character Clay
says, "If Bessie Smith had killed some white people, she wouldn't have
needed to sing the Blues, she could have talked very straignt and plain
about the world."
Ishmael Reed was asked about his review of the Broadway musical
Hamilton. Ishmael said it was a scam, pure and simple. He said his
research revealed Hamilton was a slave owner, not an abolitionist as
the original text claimed. Hamilton had slaves and so did his wife. Thus
Hamilton is a thousand dollar ticket scam and a reverse of the Black
Arts Movement revolution. Hamilton put Black and minority actors in the
costumes of the Slave Masters and it ain't even Halloween. Ishmael
noted in his review that at least during the Black Arts Movement of the
60s, writers took the language of the master and flipped it, but in
Hamilton they took the Hip Hop poetry and rap and put it in the mouth of
the slave masters!
Ishmael mentioned that Malcolm X was less than truthful when he claimed
it was in Mecca that he discovered blue-eyed devil Muslims who exercised
true Islamic brotherhood. He noted Malcolm had met blue-eyed Muslims in
New York at the
United Nations, so his letter from Mecca is a sham and Marvin X agreed.
As per Islamic brotherhood, Marvin X interjected, "My friends, including
members of the Last Poets, made their pilgrimage to Mecca forced to
ride in the back of the bus from Amman, Jordan to Mecca, Saudi Arabia,
forced by white racist Turkish Muslims who were then made to pay a fee
for disrespecting the Black Muslims from America. And just as 11AM
Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in Christian American, 1PM
Friday is the most segregated hour in Muslim America.
--Marvin X
Left to Right: Justin Desmangles, Jesse Allen-Taylor, Dr. Halifu Osumare, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed
photo Johnnie Burrell
Supreme artistic freedom fighter, ancestor Paul Robeson
15. Zahieb Mwongozi: Lines in the Sand:Rebecca Kaplan Draws Out Cowardly Council
Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan
There's
a Hadith (one of various reports describing the words, actions, or
habits of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad*) that reports him being asked
"Who do you help most, the one who is doing right or the one who is
doing wrong?"
Muhammad reportedly answered "You help them both equally."
"How do you help the one that's doing right?" he was asked. "Guide his hands." "What about the one that's doing wrong?"
He replied "Hold his hands."
This
week's edition of the Oakland Post reported such a dichotomy existing
in the Oakland City Council when reporter Tulio Ospino wrote that the
Oakland community overwhelmingly backs council-member Rebecca Kaplan's
Renter Protection Proposal over a watered down version offered by
council presidentLynette Gibson McElhaney.
Ospino reports thatLynette Gibson McElhaney's
version would delay tenant protections for one or two years whereas
Kaplan's bill has the support of tenant rights activists, labor unions
and the renter protection coalition who submitted the original bill.
So just whose hands are being held by whom? Why wouldLynette Gibson McElhaney,
the council president, ostensibly a step or two away from the Mayor's
office, want to proffer a measure that gives comfort and cushion to
landlords whileRebecca Kaplan
who ran for mayor but lost is obviously on the side of those who need
relief most (namely the renters and displaced people of the Town)?
Who do you help most, the one who is doing right or the one who is doing wrong?
Clearly
two things are at work here, both of which we have an opportunity to
influence come election time. The first thing is that we obviously have
the WRONG mayor.Rebecca Kaplan
should be the mayor and would have been in my opinion were it not for
the shortsighted bigotry and sexism that kept Oaklanders from ratifying
her run for the office. In fact, I'm almost certain that had Kaplan
waited until after the election to get married she would have ruled the
day last election. Oakland is decidedly conservative and fickle when it
comes to the relationship between power, leadership and the LGBTQ
community. I am almost as certain that there is no love lost between
Kaplan and former Mayor Jerry Brown who is the current mayor's mentor.
Which is another part of the same dichotomy.
Jerry
Brown was elected because he was the proverbial "inside-outsider". Town
folks were disheartened after Ron Dellums' tenure as mayor and
mistakenly felt that we needed a change after having a homeboy as mayor
who proved to be too isolated and insulated to be an effective mayor of a
city that was going through the growing pains Oakland was experiencing
at the time. Brown's solution to Oakland's pressing issues was to just
replace and "re-face" Oakland and so we had the fiasco we call the Jean
Quan mayoral experience and that brings us to where we are today with
another inside-outsider as mayor of Oakland.
With
Kaplan's renter protection proposal she delineates who is doing right
from who is doing wrong. The landlords and developers who have their
eyes on Oakland are very simply put, OUTSIDERS who don't give a rat's
whizz about the PEOPLE of Oakland, they just want to strip the carcass
and take all of the the choice bits left that the Town has to offer.
Meanwhile,
Gibson MsElhaney is holding the hands of the gentrifiers and vultures
circling above Oakland, while obviously eying the mayor's seat as she
and her handlers smell the rotting carcass coming from the Mayor's
office.
It's
glaringly obvious to me and many others that many of Oakland's council
members represent those who are not doing right by the city of Oakland
and as we look forward to the next election and at both Kaplan and
Gibson McElhaney it's clear to me that we can help them both equally; by
holding one's hand up in victory as the next mayor of Oakland and
holding the other's hand while leading her to the exit at city hall.