Hola Marvin:
Good to hear from you brother. And it was certainly a pleasure to be reading
and sharing the same stage with you. Let's keep in touch. Perhaps some day we could read together again, elsewhere. I'm beginning to read your wonderful book (Land of My Daughters, poems) - Aloud! There's no way that the silence(s) in your poems could remain...quiet. There is a spiritual faucet of images, an outcry (un grito), humming deep and wild. And after I read your poetry, a ring keeps bouncing off my ears. Must be that preacher in you,that poet who has learned to dance with hurricanes!
Un abrazo, Jose Angel
jose angel figueroa
Marvin X 2005 East Coast Tour:
Marvin X read with Jose on September 30, 2005, at the Bowery Poetry Club, NYC, a benefit for Katrina victims, including poet Kalamu Ya Salaam. Poets present included Amiri Baraka, Suheir Hamad, and a hundred others. On October 1 at St. Marks Poetry Project, Marvin X read with Toni Morrison, Baraka and a hundred others.
On Monday, October 10, Marvin X read at New York University, honoring the memory of Black Arts Movement poet Yusef Iman, organized by his daughter Malika. Those present included East co-founder Jitu Weusi, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Ferguson, City Councilman Charles Barron("For his mental health, every black man should slap a white man.") Also present was an associate of Malik Shabazz, Abdullah Razzaq. Accompanied by flutist/poet Atiba Wilson, Marvin rocked the house with his poems "What If" and "You Don't Know Me." Marvin's daughter Muhammida attended the event. She is now her father's agent: Sun in leo, inc./international mareketing/pr events: 718-574-6331/muhammida@suninleo.com.
The poet departed New York for the dirty south, arriving at Atlanta's Morehouse college, but he first stopped at Spellman, reading to the women on partner violence. The women were shocked at his raw language but did not argue with his message. They showed up the next night when he spoke with the Morehouse men. Aside for his anti-violence message, he stressed the need for them to heed the quote on the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King on campus, "...He moved from the classroom to the community."
Friday, September 14, he arrived at the Millions More Movement, Washington DC, to vend his books at the event that was a great festival.
His Washington DC host was Baba Lumumba of the Umoja House Gallery, who gave him a book party on Sunday. Baba is an Oakland native who co-founded the Northern California chapter of the Black Panther Party that existed briefly before the Black Panther Party of Self Defense. (Know your history, black people.)
Marvin X concludes his national book tour on Wednesday at the University of Virginia, Charlettesville.
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