Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Marvin X Notes on BAMFEST 2019: Monday Night Drama at the Flight Deck

Don't miss this rare appearance by West Oakland raised internationally known and honored poet/author Marvin X. He will read and sign his latest book Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X. Growing up in West Oakland, Marvin attended McFeely Elementary and Prescott, also Lowell Jr. High, later Oakland City College (Merritt) with Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, founders of the Black Panther Party. Marvin is a co-founder of the West Coast and National Black Arts Movement.

He obtained his B.A. and M.A. in English/Creative Writing. He's taught at Fresno State University, University of California Berkeley and San Diego, Mills College, San Francisco State University and the University of Nevada, Reno, and elsewhere.

He's received writing awards from Columbia University, National Endowment for Arts and planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Marvin X Notes  
Oakland's BAMFEST 2019
Monday Night Drama 
at the Flight Deck
1540 Broadway
Downtown Oakland
2/18/19
Black Arts Movement Business District
Oakland California




The Black Arts Movement Business District BAMFEST 2019 presented three solo theatre pieces tonight: Thomas Robert Simpson's Courage Under Fire: The Story of Elroy; Glory by Dr. Ayodele Nzinga and Voice of the Voiceless by Nisa De'lovely. The evening at the Flight Deck began with Nisa's poetic monologue on the theme of female sex abuse and exploitation. It is the narrative of many women in this #Metoo Era. Our Black Arts West Theatre presented Papa's Daughter by Dorothy Ahmad on this theme in 1966.

Marvin X and Danny Glover
photo Ken Johnson

Danny was an actor in Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre, Fillmore Street, San Francisco CA, 1966. They were both students at San Francisco State University.


Danny Glover began his career at Black Arts West as Papa who had a sexual relationship with his daughter, a role that undoubtedly prepared Danny for Alice Walker's Color Purple. When we participated in the Crack Cocaine Recovery Program at San Francisco's Glide Church, the majority of the female Crack addicts testified they were sexually abused by fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters before succumbing to drug addiction and prostitution. Voice of the Voiceless was a dramatic narrative on this theme that has been revealed as a pervasive pathology in the North American African sojourn. Nisa De'lovely did a great job telling her story experienced by so many women today, from Color Purple to Vagina Monologues, and even Ayodele Nzinga's Glory touched on the subject. 


Nisa De'lovely is Voice of  the Voiceless

What disturbs me most is the entire history of sexual debauchery during and after North American African enslavement in the American system of dehumanization. Why should we not expect the horror of sexual pathology to permeate our culture as oppressed people, after all, did not the slave master have free rein at all African bodies, women, men and children, including his own? Nisa told her story and exited the stage with good-bye. Her message was clear that human beings are more than sexual organs and we need to rise up from the low information vibration, yes, black women matter, black lives matter and #metoo matters. 


Thomas Simpson recounts radical evolution of his family
from Civil War to Civil Rights

Thomas Simpson's solo piece was a great and wonderful family narrative of how North American African families survived the worst treatment any human beings ever experienced in the history of the world. He told how his family endured our communal suffering but participated in the Civil War and the Civil Rights struggle. His great grandfather's name is on the statute honoring the 200,000 North American warriors who fought and were decisive  in winning the Civil War and his sisters were Freedom Riders in the Civil Rights era. We had no idea Thomas Simpson came from such a grand genealogy. We thought he was a San Francisco Negro doing drama. He is founder of the San Francisco Afro-Solo Theatre Festival--we had no idea of his radical roots until enjoying his story of Elroy, his father. His video effects of family and North American African history  in this wilderness were excellent archival images revealing his family's participation  in the matrix of our 400 year liberation struggle and recorded narrative. We enjoyed his dramatic monologue and the images solidified his narrative. 

The evening ended with Glory by Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, founder of the Lower Bottom Playaz and Producer of BAMFEST. Of course, she is my star student after enrolling in my  Theatre class at Laney College, 1981. All teachers appreciate seeing their student mature and evolve into greatness as Ayodele has done. Glory is a dramatic narrative of her family history, totally dysfunctional as are most of our family histories, alas, we were not kidnapped and sold into the American slave system (Ed Howard term) to have "normal" families, hence we suffer generational psycho-social pathologies--and in the words of ancestor James Baldwin in my 1968 interview at his apartment in NYC, "It's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad."

Glory recounts the roots of Ayodele's family, but most importantly her survival and thrival to be a multi-talented Theatre Grand Diva, Black Diva Warrior Queen, in residence at the Flight Deck Theatre on Oakland's Broadway. She narrates in her inimitable dramatic manner of portraying multiple personalities as she is known to do in her presentations. In Glory, she is simultaneously grandmother, mother and daughter. As producer, director, actor, playwright, Ayo has fulfilled the dreams she told her mother in Glory, a mother who derided her to the most detrimental degree any parent can  do to destroy the dreams of a child.

Thank you Ayodele Nzinga for catching the Black Arts Movement baton. We know Amiri Baraka is smiling on you. For sure, you teacher is proud of you!
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
2/18/19

 Left to Right: Dr. Ayodele Nzinga and her Master Teacher Marvin X
Flight Deck Theatre
1540 Broadway
Downtown Oakland

In Residence 
The Lower Bottom Playaz
founder and director
Dr. Ayodele Nzinga

Dr. Nzinga's Lower Bottom Playaz is the only theatre company in the world to perform August Wilson's ten play cycle in chronological order. 


Wilson by Gayle
August Wilson
by James Gayles
Please Note
Iconic artist James Gayles of Oakland CA has generously donated this portrait of America’s Shakespeare, August Wilson, to Oakland’s premiere North American African Theater Troupe, The Lower Bottom Playaz, to help fund their historic production of his seminal work The American Century Cycle. The work is for sale by auction with an opening bid of $1800.00. Please send all inquires to wordslanger@gmail.com


Master Teacher Marvin X and his star student Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, founder of the Lower Bottom Playaz and Producer of the Black Arts Movement District Festival BAMFEST 2019. 


Cover art by Black Arts Movement Master Artist and Playwright Ben Caldwell
On Wednesday, February 20, 6PM 
You are cordially invited
to the 
Blue Dream
West Oakland honors
West Oakland raised international poet/author/activist
Marvin X (Jackmon)

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga will honor 
Her Master Teacher 
Marvin X 
Co-founder of the West Coast, National Black Arts Movement 
and Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District 
along the 14th Street Corridor 
approved by the Oakland City Council
January 19, 2016

The Blue Dream
1300 7th Street, West Oakland 
presents 
An Evening With Marvin X
reading and signing 
his latest book 
Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X




Poet/Playwright Marvin X
photo Kamau Amen Ra (RIP)

Poet/playwright/director/producer/educator/organizer/planner/historian/philosopher
grew up on the streets of West Oakland, attended McFeely, Prescott and Lowell Jr. High,
attended Oakland City College (Merritt) with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Huey Newton said, "Marvin X was my teacher, many of our comrades came from his black arts movement theatre, e.g., Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Emory Douglas, George Murray, Samuel Napier, et al." Bobby Seale says, "After Marvin X performed his play Flowers for the Trashman at the invitation of the Soul Students Advisory Council (BSU), the black liberation struggle ignited at OCC or Merritt. His play showed us the powerful role of art in the liberation struggle."


Sunday, February 17, 2019

Parable of the man who didn't want to leave prison



"Sir, your time is up and you must leave prison now, without delay!" "Please, the man cried, "I don't want to leave prison, my family is here, I have no family outside these walls. There is nothing for me outside. Even my friends who've passed on are over there in the prison cemetery."
"Sir, for the last time, pack your belongings and depart now. Your presence is not wanted. You cause disturbance even when in solitary confinement. Your words get out to the others in the general population so we want you to go now. What part don't you understand?"
"What if I bust you upside the head, would you return me to my cell?"
"No, sir, by no means. We want you outta here now. Let's go! Pack your shit, roll it up!"
"I'm not going nowhere!"
"Yes you are. Security, come git dis nigger outta here. I'm the warden but if dis nigger don't leave I'm leavin'."

So the man who didn't want to leave prison departed. He wanted to stay but the authorities demanded he depart. They told him they knew who he was and did not want him infecting the prison population with his radical ideas. Actually, the guards threw him out the prison gates, punching him in the ribs with their nightsticks, making him break down into tears, but once they had him outside the prison gates they slammed the gates shut in relief he was gone, no matter where.
--Marvin X
2/19/19




Coming soon, revised Son of Man, 1969 Book of Proverbs by Marvin X

h

Son of Man, Proverbs by Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 1969, Harlem, NY. For the first time since 1969, Marvin X is revising his Book of Proverbs. "He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland," says Ishmael Reed. He adds, "Marvin X's play One Day in the Life is the most powerful drama I've seen!" Bob Holman says, "He's the USA's Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz...the politics of Baraka, the humor of Pietri...." "At his best, Marvin X is clarity of perception!," wrote Gerald Ali of the United Kingdom

Photo Doug Harris, Harlem, NY, 1968

New Proverbs by Marvin X, 2019

You are smarter than God, after all, God did not create you, you created God!
++++++++++++++++
Are you not the father and mother of God? There was no God before you. You are not created in God's image, you created God in your image!
+_++++++++++++++++++++++
In your wanton desire, you shall marry a tree, horse, dog, child, anything but the natural order of things for you are smarter than Nature and Nature's God. 
======================
My buddy Sun Ra said, "You so evil the devil don't even want you in hell!" Imagine, you are worse than the devil himself. 

"What kind of people are these, 
they really make you wonder. 
Hurry Allah with the fire and water.... 
(Marvin X lyrics from Resurrection of the Dead, a myth/ritual dance drama, Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco Ca., 1972
=========================

You are mighty, supreme. God cannot save you and you will not save God!

===============================
Listen to God for surely God listens to you! If you listen, God will tell you everything to do of righteousness. When God speaks clearly and loudly, you pretend not to hear, then the hour of judgment arrives and you are terrified, shocked at the work of your hands that deceived you when you denied the voice of God speaking in your ears so loudly a deaf man could hear, yet you pretended not to hear and went headlong over the precipice.
==================================
You have heard what a difference a day makes, but the difference is you. The tide is turning because you are turning the tide. Better ax somebody as they say in Houston, Texas.
=======================
God is Good. You must be good to God!
++++++++++++++++++++==
No mystery God can save you. The mystery God couldn't save Himself. Will the mystery God pay your rent, house note, telephone bill. Why do you pray when God has already answered? And how can you receive your blessings from God with your fist balled up, mad at God when He has already blessed you. You believe it is raining because you are too deaf, dumb and blind to go outside to see and know the sun is shining. You believe because it rained yesterday it shall rain tomorrow. 
====================

After the nut, then what? Make the ho' your wife or pay the ho' to go!
====================

Children are joy and children are pain, no matter what age.
=====================
Sons are great but daughters are more loyal.
=================
Pure ignorance,  hubris and ageism prevents us from enjoying the wisdom of elders in our midst. And when elders join ancestors, we are depressed at the level of your ignorance and stupidity, for you missed your chance to enjoy the wisdom of an elder, instead you listened to a foolishness of a youth, your peer in your state of being deaf, dumb and blind, yes, the low information vibration mentality. Like you, in my youth I thought I was so smart I outsmarted myself, my father said RIP.
==========================
If you don't sit at the feet of your elders, your children shall not sit at your feet. They will sense you are a fool. I truly regret I was in the presence of Harry Hayward and Howard Thurman but dismissed them as old men, yet they had the wisdom of ages. Harry knew about Black Nationalism, Communism, Socialism. Howard Thurman was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mentor. Even though I was in their presence in the Bay Area, I did not take full advantage of their wisdom, my deepest regret and I pray they shall forgive me for without a doubt I am standing on their shoulders. And I am confident that if I fall, my ancestors shall catch me, time after time, in the words of Cyndi Lauper. See Miles Davis, Time After Time.
===========================================

You believe the sun is shining. But if you go outside you will know it is raining.
=================================

Why are you worried it is the end of the world when you have never lived, so what does it matter?
All you do is talk loudly on the cell phone; yes, talking loud, saying nothing; yes, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, in the words of Shakespeare and the Holy Bible, if I am correct!
==================================
--Marvin X
2/19/19
Oaktown

Continued



Thursday, February 14, 2019

Train in da Water/How We Got Ovah 2/14/19

Graphic design Adam Turner


Train in da Water

"In the Atlantic ocean is a railroad of human bones...."--Amiri Baraka


Train came to ocean
riding water
bout to go under
sweet da waves
train under
Passing sharks sardines
How pleasant da train
Going down slow
space for peace
Let da ocean wash us with love
love bones of Baraka's railroad
August Wilson's Gem of Ocean
City of Bones
train down in darkness
no light needed.we  black
ocean same.
--Marvin X

--1/13/19
from the forthcoming poetic myth/ritual dance drama, written and directed by El Muhajir/Marvin X
Produced by Six Square, Austin, TX, September 2019

Friday, February 8, 2019

Can You Sing the Song of Paul Robeson?

Sing
song of Paul Robeson
sing
mighty world choir sing
hundred languages sing
Paul's song to global masses
sing
like Paul sang
strong baritone
old man river
keeps on rollin' along
sing like Paul Emperor Jones
Fuck you white man fuck you
sing fuck you white man nigga sing
weak ass nigga sing
scared of Paul's shadow
sing nigga sing
weak ass pitiful rap shit sing
nursery rhymes sing
beats rhymes
no bata drum beats
no war drums
pimp ho beats
no kill white man Paul Robeson beats
bass baritone beats
miller lite pasteurized homogenized beats
freedom to nothing beats
Sun Ra said
Marvin X
Stop teaching yr actors dat freedom bullshit
see how free day are
wild crazy ugly freedom
teach discipline I teach
no freedom
day born free
picked cotton free
lynching tree free
civil rites free
cemetery last rites free
Sunny say
you get rites last rites cemetery rites
civil rites
nigga please
Space is the place Sunny Say
Space is the place
if you find earth boring
Space is the place
Sing Paul sing
Othello sing
Iago devil sing
Desdemona white bitch lover sing
Othello duped by devil Iago
sing Paul sing
freedom songs
hundred languages sing
sing.
break nigga down sing
give nigga shock treatment
nigga survive sing
take nigga passport sing
take Muhammad Ali passport sing
deport Marcus Garvey sing
WEB go to Ghana sing
sing black african chorus sing
ancestors sing
African gods sing
--Marvin X
2/7/19

Door of No Return winner of Black Caucus of American Library Association Poetry Award

door-of-no-return
Door of No Return by Neal Hall, M.D. is the
Black Caucus of the American Library Association 2019 Best Poetry Award Winner !

BCALA Mission: To serves as an advocate for the development, promotion and improvement of library services and resources to the nation’s African American community and provides leadership for the recruitment and professional development of African American librarians



The awards ceremony will take place at the: 

Washington D.C. Marriott, Metro Center
Sunday, June 23, 2019; Time: 8pm – 10pm.


page10image9472

NealHallpoet.com
NealHallpoet.com/ebooks/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDglEARkfFM

door-of-no-return

Door of No Return 

Newly Released

“Absolutely amazing! I have read most of Neal Halls works; have had the privilege of commenting and critiquing many pieces as he wrote them. But with ‘Door of No Return’, Doc Man, as I fondly refer to Neal, has exceeded himself! His perception of the human condition, in particular the plight of the white man’s creation, ‘the Nigger’, as described in these poems, is second to none
I had the privilege of first meeting Neal Hall in Nairobi, Kenya, at the Storymoja Festival in 2013. He read from his book, Nigger For Life, a collection of poems that challenged, in the most explicit and uncompromising of ways all who listened to him to think or re-think their perceptions of race, identity, acceptance and survival. Already there, Neal’s work stood out.
Because his poetry does not make you comfortable, does not reinforce the generically ‘acceptable’ and accepted state of affairs. It instead boldly and candidly questions, in the face of Neal’s real life experiences as a black man, the status quo – raw and painfully blatant. You are forced to open your mind to the fact, not ‘the possibility’, that what seems to be may not be as it seems.
Blatantly blunt, painfully honest and, as always, breathtakingly unapologetic. Neal Hall’s language is simple but intense, not sparing his readers, not compromising his delivery for the sake of a pretentious feel-good factor. Neal Hall is not on a quest for apologies, empathy, sympathy – and least of all, pity. Brutally descriptive, he writes simply to tell it as it is! No holes barred.
‘why is a black man’s greatness greatly measured in how much shit he can peacefully endure, then forgive the white man for it’. NH
To call Neal Hall brave, even courageous, would be to undermine the power of his work. Because he is not out to save, absolve or convert the world. His work simply unashamedly and uncompromisingly calls a spade a spade!
There is nowhere to hide, nowhere to conceal ones guilty adherence to, and acceptance of the status quo of injustices and atrocities committed past and present. There is no no pretending that you have no part in it. Because at every twist and turn Neal Hall gets you, exposes you, and confronts you with countless revelations of the ways in which we fan the flame that burns us alive.
There is no respite, no relief in the reading. It is as it is. Up front and in your face, forcing you to reflect and question. So know that you cannot read Neal Hall’s work and not be affected by it.
To read Neal Hall is – whether you like it or not, to deal with it! And that is how it should be. I feel privileged and am honoured to give testimony to the work of the brilliant poet that is Neal Hall. His work is an invaluable contribution to world contemporary poetry. Asante Neal ! – Dr. Auma Obama, Founder, Director Sauti Kuu Foundation, Nairobi Kenya


Poets Marvin X and Dr. Neal Hall at Sacramento Black Book Fair. The Harvard educated ophthalmologist turned poet advises Marvin X on his eye condition.


Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Marvin X poem: Make Black Great Again

 Cover art by BAM Master Ben Caldwell

make black great again
beyond pyramids king tut
akhenaten's praise hymn
aboriginal monotheism
imperialism religion
negative confession
moses took ten
said thou shall not kill
then killed egyptian
kemit no mystery to us
resurrection theology
osiris isis horus seth
origin of jesus
sixteen crucified saviors
negro seventeen
strange fruit savior
crucified in the now
Travon Tamir Rice Sandra Bland
Oscar Grant Emmett Till Melvin Black
Nia Wilson Denzil Dowell
Lil' Bobby Hutton
Fred Hampton
many thousands gone
crucified on cross lynching tree
jesus in the now
make black great again
primordial hapi river travelers dwellers
beyond time
Sun Ra said
we other side of time
history his time
mystery our story
infinity 
make black great again
simple task teach  children
no matter condition yesterday now
is it difficult faya ancestor amiri baraka say
wanna pick cotton can't see ta can't see
git dat hunid pounds nigger 'fore I pull dis trigger
make black great again
seize tomorrow today
Even in his wretchedness Eldridge demanded me
do all things first class except nothing less
we da best
no shame stand demand
Jimmy Baldwin told me
ain't nothin' else happen here but you
make black great again

no weak kneegrows
shuffle dance imitation jim crow
no inclusion multi-cultural bottom rail
ancestors say bottom rail top
make black great again
no second class
we better'n white man
we the greatest
didn't Muhammad Ali say
equality with devil
what shit is this
chicken shit dog shit cow dung
stretch legs to sun leap run beyond time
no clocks work here no Apple watch
just be see
great black self
didn't michael j say man in mirror
remember da time
remember Sunny Blunt say beyond time
no survival we thrival of the greatest
no fluke
nina put spell on you
better ax somebody
dirty south say
mississippi goddam nina say
strange fruit billie say
make black great again
nothing can defeat you but you
lingering behind the vail
you not equal to nothing
master of all
no equality with evil
what madness is this
there is no test just be
and it is
you the man/woman and beyond
wave your majic wand
earth becomes dust
in black gods we trust.
--Marvin X
2/6/19
 A page from the Journal of Black Poetry, Guest Editor Marvin X, 1968
Marvin X edited this issue while underground in Harlem,
wanted by the FBI for refusing to fight in Vietnam

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Black Arts Movement West at SF Apple Store

Marvin X and filmmaker Cheryl Fabio at SF Apple Store celebrating Black History Month. Cheryl'smother Sarah Webster Fabio (RIP) and Marvin X were co-founders of the West Coast Black Arts Movement. Cheryl produced the film Evolutionary Blues about the musical history of West Oakland.

 Tureada the preacher/poet

 Adimu Madyun

BAM Master Poet Marvin X

Marvin X and Geoffery Grier

Co-founders of Recovery Theatre

 LtoR:Cat Brooks, Marvin X, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Geoffery Grier, Cheryl Fabio, Tom Bowden, Eric Arnold

 Saturu Ned and Marvin X

Moderator Eric Arnold, Black Panther Party member Saturu Ned and BAM/BAMBD co-founder Marvin X discuss the Black Panther Party and the Black Arts Movement


Marvin X, Geoffery Grier, Tom Bowden, Cheryl Fabio


BAMBFEST FEB. 2019 presents Marvin X co-founder Marvin X




Marvin X  Tour  2019

February 16, Sat
Alameda CA
Reading/ book signing
Back 2 Nature Wellness Salon
and Barber Shop
475 Central Avenue
3-6pm
 
February 20,  Wed. 6pm
BAMFEST Oakland 
Blue Dream
1300 7th Street
 Reading/book signing
  Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter


February 22, Friday
Reading book signing
Hunters Point, San Francisco
5:30-7:30
901 Fairfax Avenue


March 2, Saturday
Reading/book signing
Philadelphia PA
Brothers Network
TBA

May
Reading/book signing
Seattle WA
Host Hakeem Trotter
TBA

August 
National Black Theatre Festival
Winston-Saleem, North Carolina
TBA

October
Austin, Texas
How We Got Ovah 1619-2019
A poetic myth/ritual dance drama 
by El Muhajir, aka Marvin X



Marvin X 
Now Available 
Speaking and Reading Engagements 
Coast to Coast
send letter of invitation to
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
510-575-7148




Marvin X reading at Charles Wright Museum, Detroit MI, December 15, 2018
photo Leona McElvene

Monday, January 28, 2019

The Low Information Vibration Mentality; Marvin X speaks today, 4pm, KPFA Hardknock Radio, Davey D interview


Breaking News: Davey D interviews author/historian Marvin X on his latest book Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X. Discussion includes his views on Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement, Hip Hop, Afro-futurism, and growing up in West Oakland. 4PM. 
https://kpfa.org/program/hard-knock-radio/


The Low Information Vibration Mentality

The low information vibration mentality is a mind steeped in abysmal Ignorance, religiosity, dogmatic ideology and other isms and schisms that keep people wandering in darkness, constitutionally unable to see the light even when the sun of truth shines brightly in their eyes. When the sun is shining, they "believe" it is raining, they swear there is thunder and lightning outside. They are like  Walt Whitman's Learned Astronomer who needs to leave the classroom and go outside to view the stars!
The supreme irony of the low information vibration mentality is that the supplicant has a device in hand, literally, to transcend his condition, I.e., the cellphone. He can ask Becky any question on any topic and be enlightened. So there is no excuse for the low information vibration mentality except laziness, sloth and intellectual niggardliness, I.e., too anal to open the brain cells to new information, stingy, chickenshit. Those who persist in the low information vibration mentality should consider the Biblical dictum that the people were destroyed for lack of knowledge, not lack of money, lack of Civil Rites, lack of love, what Tina say,"What love got to do wit it?"
The low information vibration mentality persists because it is perpetrated by politicians who are puppets of lobbyists on the Right and Left for their master's agenda, not the people's agenda. If politicians rule at the consent of the governed, all policies should reflect the interest of the people. For sure, the people need national security. How can the government spend a trillion dollars on the defense budget yet allow every hateful, unclean bird to cross the US border freely? How many globalists have walls around their compounds? Do you leave the door of your domain unlocked so every hateful, unclean bird can enter your house? I recall during the Crack era whenever weak brothers and sisters allowed the Crack gangs to enter their homes, soon after their homes became the headquarters of the Crack gangs. Come on, national security is the first priority of every nation on earth. Security is the priority of every family. No woman'wife wants a man who cannot secure her and her children!
Simultaneously, as per the Left on the political spectrum, if and when the people decide they want a redistribution of wealth from the hands of the 1% who have the 99% in wage slavery, who are one check away from homelessness as we saw with government workers during the government shutdown, again, the government exists at the consent of the governed, not at the consent of the capitalist bloodsuckers of the poor. If the people demand a living wage, free health care for all, e.g., give the people the same level of healthcare the politicians receive, after all, the people's tax money pay for the politicians welfare so how do the politicians become superior to the people? If and when the people's consensus is for free education, this is their right as taxpayers. The politicians serve the people, not the reverse. The capitalist bloodsuckers of the poor with their media of fake news that perpetuates the low information vibration mentality and the concomitant world of make believe and conspicuous consumption (Frazier) must be forced to understand it is the will of the people that must rule, not the rule of bloodsuckers and their political sycophants.
The richest nation in the world should provide housing for all citizens with a life estate title for the least of us, thus eradicating homelessness overnight, immediately ending wasteful billions spent on administering sham and scam programs to end homelessness. Give the homeless the necessary case management to help them recover from the trauma of mental illness, drug abuse, sex abuse and partner violence.
--Marvin X
1/27/19

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Poem for Soledad Brother John Clutchette

Poem for Soledad Brother John Clutchette


Brother John came by my Academy of da Corner today
14th and Broadway
Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza
We honor Frank Ogawa and Oscar Grant
Citizens of Oakland
Made a difference
and you don't even know
Frank Ogawa or Oscar Grant
Fine gentleman
Asian African
Oakland
Along came John
Soledad Brother
like no other
survivor 
John
made it out belly of beast
american gulag
John
Comrade of George Jackson
Slayer of the Dragons
kill or be killed
Soledad Prison mantra
My brother there too
read Flowers for the Trashman
Brother Ollie killer too
he told me
kill or be killed
guard kill honky kill we kill three
Kumasi say
Kumasi master griot of American Prison Movement
Kumasi say you guys had revolution outside
we had revolution inside prison walls
down in dungeon
belly of beast
Kumasi say for every one of us
we take three of you 
devil white boy supremacist honky

John Clutchette came by today
John say can't stay
gotta report in for one year
thank you Marvin X for your literature
shared with brothers
Marvin X I have twenty six dollars
let me donate six
Don't give me nothin' 
let me donate today
John went his way.
Soledad Brother
Warrior Supreme!
--Marvin X
1/23/19

"Soledad Brother" John Clutchette stops by Marvin X's Academy of da Corner, Oakland


John said we must free Ruchell  McGee! And I agree. I suggest when Kanye West meets with your President Trump tomorrow, he suggest giving a general amnesty to all incarcerated in American prisons. John was paroled in July, 2018. He's wearing an ankle monitor and getting adjusted to the cell phone. Marvin told him, "Just stop any five year old and they will tell you how to use it. Just be ready for them to call you stupid and dummy." When John tried to give a donation for a collection of Marvin's books, the poet refused to take the money.
--Marvin X
10/10/18