Things People Tell Me

Things People tell me


The things people tell me, you don’t want to know. I share a lot what they tell but some things are just TMI, too much information, over the top. A woman shared with me that her mother died and her father used to get drunk and tried to sexually molest her. He wanted to have sex with her even though he had never kissed or hugged her during childhood. She said maybe she would have had sex with him if he had hugged and held her as a child, but for him to demand sex without ever showing parental love was too much.

A friend has a childcare center. He had to cut our phone conversation short one day because his wife called from the childcare center saying she had to have a parent conference because a two year boy in Pampers was trying to have sex with all the girls, trying to grind on them, and when they changed his Pamper his little penis stood at attention while he grinned as if in anticipation of oral sex.

On another occasion my friend and I were talking and he cut short the phone call because his wife called saying they needed another parent conference because two five year old girls were having sex with each other, licking on each other.

A young negro told me when I tried to give him a leaflet that he didn’t read anything by Marvin X. I guess Marvin X is John Dillinger or Charles Manson. It’s questionable if the young negro can read anything.

A lady with a TV show wanted to interview me but said she didn’t like the title of my book My Friend the Devil. If I could discuss another book I could be on her show. I told her she was ignorant as some black book store owners I know who don’t do Marvin X because they don’t like what he writes or how he writes or the fact he can write and they can hardly write their name.

A young brother of nine years old said he read my books and they were fantastic, especially my poem Land of My Daughters. He said he had books too, so he went home and came back with books he’d written.

He said in the future gold would not be used but another metal much heavier. As he spoke, his friend, my two year old grandson, went outside and found some stones. He brought them to me and said, “G-baw (Grandfather) this is money.” At first I wanted to tell him stones are not money. But then I thought that in the beginning stones, shells, cows and other items were/are money. So I accepted the nine year old and the two year olds ideas as prophecy. What the hell do I know? The nine year old and two year are from a world we shall never see, so how can we question their wisdom. As Gibran taught, they come through us but they are not us. We are the bow, they are the arrow.


Marvin X’s next public appearance is Saturday, August 1, 2009, 3-5 pm, at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street @ Franklin, downtown Oakland. He will sign his latest book Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the devil, a memoir, with introduction by Amiri Baraka. He will have a conversation with James W. Sweeney, connoisseur of Black Art and a former Berkeley City Councilman. Sweeney says Marvin X is the freest non-free black man in America.

The event is a tribute to slain journalist, Chauncey Bailey, who died on his way to work after uncovering the OPD connection with the Mexican drug trade and other political corruption in Oakland. The Muslims are blamed for his death but don’t believe the hype.
As James Baldwin said of those who may have killed Malcolm X, “The hand that pulled the trigger didn’t buy the bullet.”

The book signing/conversation is sponsored by the Post Newspaper Group and Black Dialogue Brothers, San Francisco Recovery Theatre, KPOO radio, Black Wall Street,
Lower Bottom Playaz, and is a benefit for Black Bird Press. Admission with book purchase $20.00. Light refreshments and entertainment. Special guests. Marvin has invited his revolutionary friends Angela Davis and Bobby Seale to stop by to say a few words on Eldridge Cleaver. Call 510-355-6339 for more information. Email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear the words of wisdom of a living legend who grew up in West Oakland and West Fresno. He is variously known as “Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland,” Ishmael Reed. “The USA’s RUMI!,” Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, New York City. “One of America’s great storytellers. Second only to Mark Twain. I’d place Marvin X ahead of him even,” Rudolph Lewis, www.nathanierlturner.com. “His writing is orgasmic,” Fahizah Alim, Sacramento Bee. “Hallelujah! MX is reminiscing, I must say entertainingly, about his historic dalliance w/shaitan…,” Amiri Baraka. “His book is a metaphor for all of us who may have demons in our midst—even Jesus had demons!”—James W. Sweeney.