Monday, June 1, 2020

Marvin X: From Burn Baby Burn to Black Lives Matter





Watts riot, 1965






Burn Baby Burn is a poem by American poet Marvin X,[1] X wrote the poem shortly after the Watts Rebellion in 1965[2][3][4] to convey the oppression black people faced in white America.[5][6]

Is Burn, Baby, Burn, Marvin X's Greatest poem, written shortly after the Watts Rebellion, 1965?




Burn, Baby, Burn

Tired.
Sick an' tired
Tired of being
sick an' tired.


ST-race1408056001.jpg

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

1965 Watts riots photo gallery

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

watts riots, watts riot, 1965 watts riots

Fineburgs
whitefront
wineburgs
blackfront
burn, baby, burn
in time
he
will learn.

--Marvin X (Jackmon)
1965
from Soulbook Magazine, Fall, 1965

Burn Baby Burn appears in the anthologies Black Fire and S.O.S., the Black Arts Movement Reader.
One of the key publications of the black arts era was Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (1968). Edited by LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal, the book included poems, essays, drama, and fiction. by some of the movement's leading figures. In fact, writers' presence in Black Fire helped solidify their status as black arts contributors.








This volume brings together a broad range of key writings from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, among the most significant cultural movements in American history. The aesthetic counterpart of the Black Power movement, it burst onto the scene in the form of artists' circles, writers' workshops, drama groups, dance troupes, new publishing ventures, bookstores, and cultural centers and had a presence in practically every community and college campus with an appreciable African American population. Black Arts activists extended its reach even further through magazines such as Ebony and Jet, on television shows such as Soul and Like It Is, and on radio programs. Many of the movement's leading artists, including Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni, Woodie King, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Tour?, Marvin X and Val Gray Ward remain artistically productive today. Its influence can also be seen in the work of later artists, from the writers Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, and August Wilson to actors Avery Brooks, Danny Glover, and Samuel L. Jackson, to hip hop artists Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Chuck D. SOS -- Calling All Black People includes works of fiction, poetry, and drama in addition to critical writings on issues of politics, aesthetics, and gender. It covers topics ranging from the legacy of Malcolm X and the impact of John Coltrane's jazz to the tenets of the Black Panther Party and the music of Motown. The editors have provided a substantial introduction outlining the nature, history, and legacy of the Black Arts Movement as well as the principles by which the anthology was assembled.


References[edit]

  1. ^ Negro Youth Culture and Identity: The Case of Hunters Point. University of California. 1967.
  2. ^ John F. Szwed (25 July 2012). Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 566–. ISBN 978-0-307-82244-4.
  3. ^ Margaret Ann Reid (2001). Black Protest Poetry: Polemics from the Harlem Renaissance and the Sixties. Peter Lang, New York. ISBN 978-0-8204-2482-8.
  4. ^ Eldridge Cleaver (28 July 2015). Target Zero: A Life in Writing. St. Martin's Press. pp. 102–. ISBN 978-1-250-09153-6.
  5. ^ Waldo E. Martin (30 June 2009). No Coward Soldiers: Black Cultural Politics in Postwar America. Harvard University Press. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-0-674-04068-7.
  6. ^ Bobby Seale (1991). Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Black Classic Press. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-0-933121-30-0.


From Burn Baby Burn to Black Lives Matter

Jim Crow North

Powerful my brother! Your truth-telling keeps us going!
--Dr. Cornel West, Harvard University

The parents of Marvin X: Mrs. Marian M. Jackmon and Mr. Owendell Jackmon I at the 1945 San Francisco Peace Conference that led to the United Nations. 
Marvin X

Dad used to talk about Jim Crow South
Black Belt south cotton curtain
he and mama used to chant n double a cp all night long
all day long n double a cp
n double a cp this n that
as a baby boy i used to think n double a cp was a person
i was three or four
watching my parents publish their black newspaper fresno voice
same office was their real estate business 1948
i thought jim crow was a man too
but he lived down south
not in central valley fresno
not in oakland when we moved there
but mama and daddy still talked about n double a cp in oakland
on sundays we drove to the berkeley hills
see how rich white folks lived
didn't excite me
i wanted to hear dad say we going to the black belt
fillmore fillmore
seemed like it was more exciting than west oakland
seemed like there was more energy on fillmore street
but 7th street was jumping too
but i loved driving down fillmore
bumper to bumper cars
horns blowing neon lights flashing
black people styling n profiling
pimping n simping
my brother ollie wanted to b a pimp
never wanted to b nothin else
never was
except a client in the department of corrections
they never corrected him
cya didnt
san quentin soledad folsom didnt
mcneil island didnt
he said he had to kill jim crow in prison
said if he didnt kill jim crow
jim crow was gonna kill him
no ifs ands r buts.
--marvin x
5/28/20

When Life Gets Back to Normal


when life gets back to normal
will the hip hop negro pants still sag off his ass
will a black bitch still be a bitch  or will she transcend to goddess
queen of universe
mother of civilization
when life gets back to normal
will you hug kiss yr mama daddy real tight
will you make love to yr woman man late into night
will you raise high yr children and teach them right
will you stop trusting the devil and hold God up high
will you walk the lake
dont b lazy like marvin x
when life gets back to normal
will you do 4 self first
self and kind
will you drink wine with buddies who survived covid one nine
will u fight 4 freedom
liberation
reparations
end of patriarchal domination
no wife beating
child sex abuse
clean water to drink
no gmo food
no bill gates global vaccine eugenics
kill nigga african plan
planned parenthood
margaret sanger hillary clinton obama hitler
implant white supremacy dna who china plan
when life gets back to normal
will you kiss yo mama
hug yo daddy real tight
keep home schooling yr children
spare them white edumakation.

--marvin x
5/14/20


Can We Breathe


Can we breathe
ain't no air up in here
grab air squeeze it real tight
don't let it get away
fight
no surrender like cowards
don't let air choke us
lungs with blood
war been here
centuries
welcome sleepy time tea
mask can't save you 
home invasions next
they comin' to inject air
will you open door
HR6666
Black Panther Bobby Rush air
he don't care
Congressman now
flipped his bick
long time ago
go outside for air
stand tall breathe
let sunshine fill lungs
dogs can't stop sun
will try
but can't
let sun move you beyond fear
don't breathe fear air
stand
this is The End!
End is yr beginning
you never lived
enjoyed clean air
toxic fumes consumed yr life
walk the forest woods
talk to trees
just be.
--Marvin X
5/27/20



Tuesday, July 30, 2019



Parable of the man who went to Ignutville



There was a man who traveled to Stupidville on his way to Ignutville. In Stupidville he observed people doing the most stupid shit imaginable. They talked stupid shit, did stupid shit, lived stupid lives, went to the malls to buy stupid shit, came home and made stupid love in the dark without saying a stupid word to each other. Why say shit to a stupid motherfucker?


The man departed Stupidville and traveled on to Ignutville. After observing the people in Ignutville, he went into shock and was taken to the hospital. After a few days he was released and continued his observation of the citizens of ignutville.

They didn't know the time of day, the year. Didn't know they were slaves and/or descendents of slaves. After all they drove bigger cars than the slave master. While the slave master drove Fords and Toyotas, the slaves drove Escalades and Masaraties, yes, even while they lived in the projects.

If the master knew nothing else, he knew he was white, but the slave wasn't sure if he was black African or white European in black face. He loved the white Jesus, worshipped the white woman standard of beauty. His ignut woman loved wearing a blond wig and in the deep structure of her mind, she wanted her man to be a white man. She would be satisfied if he would become a white man dipped in chocolate. She was so ignut she called 911 so the white man, her real man, would rescue her from any abuse her black man inflicted on her, whether verbal, emotional, spiritual and/or physical. 

The white man was her true husband, boyfriend, lover, protector. Such was the level of ignorance in Ignutville.

Parents were so ignut in Ignutville, they sent their children to public schools where the enemy could teach their children the proper white supremacy mis-education. They sent their children to white colleges and universities, then were shocked when their children came home hating them and everything they were about even though the ignut children didn't even know what their parents were about.

The parents didn't understand the children had been taught they were nothing ass black nigga students who were so ignut they couldn't think logically or write coherently. Some of the students suffered mental breakdowns. When the students came home, parents knew their children were not the same. They suspected their children were on drugs.
The ignut parents never imagined their children were in full blown addiction to white supremacy. 

The man fled Ignutville trying to figure out how to get to Saneville. He called upon his GPS device to guide him to Saneville.
--Marvin X
7-28-29












































On Yesterday

On yesterday
they called law and order
no justice no peace
law and order
no justice no peace
no one wants more than justice
no one wants less
how can yesterday be today
but today is yesterday
we dance backwards
moonwalking with Michael
Michael said they don't care about us
Michael said the man in the mirror
Michael said remember the time
remember the time
law and order time
didn't work then
ain't workin' now
not on today.
--Marvin X

6/1/20

Venezuela Unblocked

Venezuela Unblockaded

By Atilio A. Boron on  May 25, 2020
First of the Iranian oil tankers arrives in Venezuela
The arrival of the Iranian tanker Fortune to the great refinery of El Palito in Venezuela has a meaning far, far greater than the quantity of gasoline and other crucial supplies transported in this ship. There are other aspects that are much more important.  I would like to point out three.
First, this has successfully defied the U.S. blockade that impedes the arrival of all sorts of products – from food and medicine to the repair parts for the metro trains of Caracas to fuel – to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, blockaded and under attack.  This represents a major triumph for the government of Nicolás Maduro and a resounding defeat for the White House.  This is all the more true when we consider that the ships of the Fourth Fleet have been patrolling the Caribbean for a couple of months now, and could easily have intercepted this ship, which they did not do.
Second, that it has been precisely the Islamic Republic of Iran that succeeded in overcoming Washington’s prohibition.  This is another country that has been subject to the White House’s cruel sanctions, and even to the U.S. assassination of one of the principal figures of the Iranian government, General Qasem Soleimani, carried out early this year.  The international media, bought accomplices of the United States and accustomed to covering up its crimes, which has boldly ignored the slow assassination of Julian Assange in London, barely noted this and showed no tendency to reveal and analyze it.
Third, it remains to be seen what will happen with the other four tankers that are en route.  It is obvious that the Trump Administration has reversed its initial stance and its threats have remained just threats, typical bragging like a mob-boss personality who regards himself as the messiah, called to utilize his hoodlum techniques to restore the now-lost U.S. supremacy which it has held from the date of the fall of the Soviet Union until the attacks of September 11, 2001.  A sociopath who has been responsible for 100,000 deaths of his own people due to the mixture of arrogance and ignorance he has so clearly demonstrated,  as he plays out his re-election strategies while confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic which in less than 6 months has produced an economic depression worse than that of the 1930s.
But it is obvious that we have not reached the end of this history.  We will have to see what happens with the other four tankers.  It seems unlikely that Trump, battered by serious domestic problems, would order that they be stopped, attacked or sunk because these are serious acts of war loaded with unforeseeable consequences that would damage still more his waning chances of being re-elected next November 3rd. The most reliable electoral surveys show him 5 or 6 points behind a candidate as uninspiring as Joe Biden, and everything indicates that this gap will increase to the same degree as the deterioration of the internal situation of the United States. For another thing, Trump’s menaces were resoundingly responded to by Tehran.  President Hassan Rouhani warned Washington that his country would not remain indifferent if any “problems” occurred on the way to Venezuela.  In an unusually strong declaration, he said, “If the United States creates problems for us in the waters of the Caribbean or anywhere in the world, we will reciprocate and create problems for them.  We have a legitimate right to defend our territorial integrity and our national interests, and we hope the United States does not make a mistake.”
It is evident that the government of the U.S. is continuing to reap failures in its foreign policy.  The arrival of the Fortune is one more proof, and there are others.  Trump did not mince words in insulting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2017, and two years later he ended up crossing half the world in order to meet with him in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
What was this change due to?
Noam Chomsky has said this hundreds of times: the United States only attacks defenseless countries.  North Korea is not only not defenseless, but has also developed a nuclear arsenal that even under U.S. aggression retains a retaliatory capability of reducing major cities to ashes, including Seoul, just 195 km away, and Tokyo, at a distance of 1,291 km. Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran do not fall into the category of defenselessness and for that reason they have been able to resist decades of diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, blockades, and despicable campaigns of demonization undertaken by “self-righteous intellectuals” of the type of Vargas-Llosa and the hundreds of publicists for the empire embedded in the major mass media, the so-called  ( miscalled) “free press” of our continent.  When the then-President of France Nicolas Sarkozy convinced Muammar Gaddafi that it made no sense to renovate his previously powerful air force since Libya and the West were now “friends,” he signed his death warrant.  He accepted the advice of the French leader and of the Mafia chief head of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, and when Washington mobilized NATO to blockade Libyan air space in 2011, Gaddafi was at the mercy of his rivals who overthrew him and not only captured him but also lynched him with savage brutality, as well as killing his three sons.  Gaddafi had disarmed; Venezuela, Cuba and Iran have not done so and for that reason alone, they remain free countries, although they have had to pay an exorbitant price for their daring self-respect, which has unleashed all the fury of the empire.
Not only have they not disarmed, but, learning from the history of all revolutions, they have created powerful people’s militias – in the case of Venezuela this includes all of four million members – whose mere mention sends cold chills down the backs of the U.S. warmongers when they remember the tremendous defeat that the Viet Cong handed them during the Vietnam War.  The definitive conclusion of this analysis will have to wait a few days until we see what happens with the other four tankers.  One of these, the Forest, is already in Venezuelan waters.  We will return to this theme as soon as this episode ends.
Source: Atilio Boron, translation, Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau