Black Bird Press News & Review

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Friday, December 8, 2017

Navigating the perilous mental landscape in the crazy house called america marvin x

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2016

Navigating the Perilous Mental Landscape in the Crazy House Called America

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

WATCH THE ZOMBIE IN THE CAR AHEAD OF YOU. HE MAY BE SLEEP WALKING, SLEEP TALKING, TEXTING OR SEXING--HIS BLINKER SAYS LEFT TURN OR RIGHT TURN, BUT THE LIGHT CHANGES AND THE CAR DOESN'T MOVE, JUST SITS STILL ON THE GREEN LIGHT, UNTIL YOU FINALLY BLOW YOUR HORN, THEN, SLOWLY, THE CAR TURNS AND HEADS DOWN THE STREET. YOU WONDER WHAT IS GOING ON AND THE ANSWER IS NOTHING, IT IS A ZOMBIE CAR WITH A ZOMBIE DRIVER. WHATEVER YOU DO, BE COURTEOUS, DON'T BE RUDE, DON'T GO INTO ROAD RAGE FOR THE ZOMBIE MAY PULL A WEAPON, AFTER ALL, THE ZOMBIE IS A DANGER TO HIMSELF AND OTHERS, SO BE CAREFUL, DON'T ADD FUEL TO THE FIRE.

This is how we must navigate the perilous mental landscape in the last days of the devil's world. Jesus told you this is only the beginning of sorrows, there shall be pestilence, drought, famine, earthquakes in diverse places, mudslides, tsunamis, planes disappearing from the sky, jails and prisons full of those suffering poverty, drug addiction and mental illness.

The global bandits, the blood suckers of the poor, suffer no jail or prison time. They pay a simple fine then continue in their inordinacy, as the Qur'an says. They are zombies too, so smart they outsmart themselves, thinking their wickedness shall last forever, they have enough guns and a monkey mind media that perpetuates the world of make believe that the deaf, dumb and blind inhabit as they make their daily round in the big yard, suffering their myriad addictions and afflictions and conspicuous consumption.

As we see, there is murder in the hood and murder in the suburbs, murder in the schools, colleges, universities churches, night clubs, sports events, homes and workplaces. So hold onto your hat or hold onto the rope of Allah, whatever is your choice-- hold on Snoopy!--Marvin X

Navigating the perilous Mental Landscape in the crazy house called America

Like the earthquake in Japan, man too is in mental motion, a mind quake of the most devastating degree that is rocking his mental equilibrium to the core!

We must be aware of the times and what must be done. A blind man named Ray Charles told us "the world is in an uproar, the danger zone is everywhere...." And so it is, ancestor Ray, there is turbulence in the land and in man, woman and children. As the earth enters another 25,000 year cycle of history with the coming New Age of high spiritual consciousness, there are many who remain deaf, dumb and blind to present and future events, even though the news is full of rapidly changing events in the global village. One would need to be in worse shape than Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder not to see the earth is in transformation, even Nature itself. The ice is melting, the sea rising, the forests burning, earthquakes and tsunamis , drought, famine, pestilence, in diverse places, just as Jesus predicted.

Apparently, many do not believe what Jesus said even when they see events he predicted before their very eyes, on the news, Twitter, Facebook, Cable TV and elsewhere. He said mother would be against child and child against mother and father. Did he not say brother would be against brother and sister against sister? And do we not see this in our social relations today.

It is crystal clear to me we are in times in which a friend is no longer a friend, a wife and husband no longer wife and husband. There is no love between them. Husbands and wives say the most horrible things to each other. Daughters and sons say the most wretched things to their parents, often when the parents are helping them.

But when the danger zone is everywhere, no one, no relationships are exempt from the turmoil sweeping the old order out and ushering in the New Era. But there is an almost organic relationship between the earth quaking and the minds of men, women and children becoming totally unbalanced.

In this time of radical change of Nature and man, those with no understanding shall become unglued, losing their fragile mental equilibrium or simply tripping out. Ultimately, they become a danger to themselves and others and must be committed, for they are not the person we knew only yesterday. Today they are a total stranger who does not know us, cannot even recognize us, yet we have known them since childhood. They could be a sibling yet they do not act like there is any blood relationship between us. We behave like total strangers.

It could be parent/child relationships that come to such a low point children will sue parents or visa versa. In short the love is gone. Amiri Baraka tells us in his play A Black Mass, "Where the souls print should be there is only a cellulose pouch of disgusting habits...."

So as we walk the streets be very careful what you say to people, for they are on edge, on the precipice, ready to strike out at the slightest perceived negative incident, or wrong word uttered.
Yes, they are ready to kill, so be aware as you make your daily round.

The political/economic atmosphere is charged with venom, but it is misplaced aggression, for no one is going after the bankers, the loan sharks, the Wall Street financiers who were casino gamblers with the wealth of the people, stealing 13 trillion dollars in the sub prime housing scam.
And yet hardly a banker is in jail, meanwhile 2.4 million mostly poor are incarcerated for petty crimes, additionally they suffer drug abuse and mental illness, not to mention lack of proper legal representation at the time of their trials. The only white man doing time is the one who stole from the rich, not the poor. Those who robbed the poor are yet receiving multimillion dollar bonuses while 30 million workers are unemployed and millions are now homeless.

It is this atmosphere that is so unsettling to the mental state of those who were already suffering stress from the general hostile environment,i.e., from toxic food, air, water; the media dispensing
information from the world of make believe and promoting the addiction to white supremacy conspicuous consumption.

How do we move from problem to solution, from addiction to recovery, from sickness to healing?
The Buddhists say wisdom is knowledge plus the right action. We must first understand the time and what must be done. These are perilous times, very dangerous, thus one must tip through the tulips, through the mind fields that lay before us, behind us, to the right and to the left, but most importantly, within us!

We must practice eternal vigilance and stay on guard against being deceived. There are those who wish to deceive us so that we remain victims of the slave system. They will not tell us all the institutions are exhausted, political, economic, educational, religious, marital. None of these shall continue with business as usual. They must and shall undergo radical structural change, if not simply thrown into the dustbin of history where they belonged long ago.

Those not prepared for radical change shall be blown by the wayside where they shall inhabit the lower realms of an animal existence until they die or recover from savagery and come into the era of civility and spirituality beyond religiosity.

Those who are a danger to themselves and others will need to be confined to a program of long term recovery, a rehabilitation of their disgusting habits, namely greed, ego, pride, lust, arrogance, and other deadly sins, and most importantly the inability to practice freedom, justice and equality, constitutionally unable to share the wealth and practice democracy or the consent of the governed.

The end is the beginning and the beginning is the end, or rather what goes around comes around. What we are witnessing and experiencing is not linear time but circular, for we shall continue, but only those who are able to jump out of the box of the old structures into the new.

The fearless ones, they shall be successful. Those not motivated by the illusions of the monkey mind shall be successful. We pray for the others who persist in their inordinancy, blindly wandering on, as the Qur'an says.
--Marvin X
4/7/11

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Marvin X notes on the dedication of the Huey P. Newton wall at 14th and Peralta, West Oakland

On Sunday, December 3, 2017, I was honored to participate in the dedication of a wall painting of Dr. Huey P. Newton and other Black Panther Party members at 14th and Peralta Streets, West Oakland. The Huey P. Newton wall is a project of the Maroon Art Collective, headed by visual artists Refa One, Dwayne Deterville, et al. After overcoming opposition from the domestic colonialists or gentrifiers and the Arab liquor store and no support from Oakland City Hall, though the project is in the Black Arts Movement Business District, approved by the City Council of January 19, 2016. When I asked the crowd if they knew they were standing in the BAMBD liberated space, only a few people raised their hands. 'This is why we called the one year anniversary of the BAMBD as Janteenth, since it has been a year and the City of Oakland has not let you know you have a liberated zone! Your councilwoman, Lynette McElhaney, has not informed you of your space. She has refused to fly the African Universal flag in our district, although in San Francisco, the red, black and green is painted on poles along the 3rd Street corridor in Hunters Point, at the direction of San Francisco Board of Supervisor Malia Cohen, a black woman!"

Before I arrived, BPP Chairwoman Elaine Brown spoke. When I arrived she presented two school children from Tupac Shakur Rose from Concrete independent school who sang a song in honor of the BPP. When I spoke, I first gave honor and respect to Huey P. Newton. There is a video of the event, but I recall saying, "We can talk about the negative Huey may have done, but the question now is what are you going to do to advance the revolution? Huey did all he could do with what he had. And how much can you do with a few pistols and shotguns, especially against the US Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, FBI, CIA, agents provocateurs, snitches and nuts?

"Today, we dedicate this wall to HPN, and establish this as a sacred space. But how many of you know the entire 14th Street, from the socalled Lower Bottom to Lake Merritt is the BAMBD?"

FYI, no original people from West Oakland use the term Lower Bottom--for sure, I grew up in West Oakland on 7th and Campbell and I never heard the term--today a lady referred to the area as West west Oakland, i.e., Willow Street where she grew up, and agreed with me she never used the term Lower Bottom growing up.

Nevertheless, the Black Arts Movement Business District extends from the "lower bottom" or Pine Street to Lake Merritt and four blocks north and south. It is part of the Downtown Oakland Plan for the next 25 to 50 years. "It is up to you young people to take the baton and move forward with this liberated space. I won't be here the next 25 years and don't even want to be!"

So we give thanks and honor to all the Black Panther Party freedom fighters! Power to the People!
--Marvin X
12/6/17

BAMBD writers and artists/activists honor slain journalist Chauncey Bailey at Joyce Gordon Gallery at 14th and Franklin

West Oakland natives, Paul Cobb and Marvin X; in the middle, City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan

Cover art by BPP Minister of Culture, Emory Douglas

BAMBD artists/activists at Oscar Grant Plaza

left to right Black Arts Movement chief architect, Amiri Baraka; BPP co-founder Bobby Seale; BAM baby Dr. Ayodele Nzinga; Ahi Baraka, son of AB; BAM and BAMBD co-founder Marvin X

West Oakland natives at Bobby Hutton Park, aka, Defermery in West Oakland

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, founder of the Lower Bottom Playaz, now in residence at the Flight Deck Theatre, 1540 Broadway, downtown Oakland

Marvin X at West Oakland concert of Fantastic Negrito before he departed on World Tour

West Oakland native, Dr. Fritz Pointer, brother of the Pointer Sisters

West Oakland native Donnie Mouton and Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, BAMBD

Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X, outside the house where Lil Bobby Hutton was murdered by the OPD and Cleaver was wounded, 28th and Magnolia, West Oakland.
photo Muhammad Al Kareeem

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Huey P. Newton wall in West Oakland, 14th and Peralta, BAMBD

Earlier today I was doing work with the Oakland Maroons Art Collective and AeroSoul Arts in West Oakland. We had a celebration and reception for the recently completed mural honoring The Black Panther Party that unified local Black community members, activists and artists alike. Attendees included Elaine Brown, Huey P Newton's brother and nephew, Akinsanya Kambon, Marvin X, Ndugu Jabali, Tur-Ha Ak, Brotha Che and many more. I want to thank sista Ayanna Mashama for providing the delicious home cooked vegan food that we had available. Her efforts are greatly appreciated. Salute to my comrades in the Oakland Maroons Art Collective: Refa Senay, ToReadah Mikell, Wes Hendrix and Chris Herod for putting in work that made this happen. Salute to Race for the Times for live streaming the entire event.