Mythology of Pussy, Hottest Book in Oakland

Mythology of Pussy, Hottest Book in Oakland!

The hottest book in Oakland is not on the New York Times best seller list. And it will never be, more than likely. Over the last forty years, none of Marvin X’s writings have been reviewed in the major media, but in the black underground he is the most prolific writer. The Last Poets say he writes a book a month. In April he finished the first draft of his memoir of Eldridge Cleaver in three weeks. A few days ago he began writing an essay entitled Mythology of Pussy, a manhood training manual for brothers—and for sisters as well, telling them to look at the opposite sex with the lens of spirituality, rather than viewing each other as sexual objects.

The title alone is causing men, women, youth and children to snatch the pamphlet out of his hand. He was downtown Oakland asking for donations for the pamphlet, getting between $1.00 and $5.00. For those with no money, he gave it away. When Marvin handed the pamphlet to a father, his little daughter tried to snatch it out of his hand. He resisted and told her let him read it first, then she can read it. A teenager grabbed the pamphlet and wouldn’t release it, even though she didn’t have any money. She would have dragged the poet down the street if he didn’t let go of the Mythology of Pussy.

And when he ran out of copies for the day, a mature black woman was very angry he didn’t have any more after seeing him passing them out. He promised her he would return today with a fresh batch hot off the press.
If you want a copy, come down to 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Even Joyce Gordon of the Joyce Gordon Gallery where Marvin will sign his Cleaver book on Saturday, August 1, --3-5pm, took a copy to her gallery and began reading it aloud to customers. She returned to tell Marvin when he wants to know more about pussy, come see her. She has a few things to say. A conscious brother who read the pamphlet said he agreed with Marvin that manhood and womanhood training is the order of the day. The theme is about overcoming domestic and street violence, especially over pussy. Too many brothers must go to court mandated anger management classes because they think they own the pussy. Even the girls think they own the dick--witness NFL quarterback McNair who was shot to death by his girlfriend because she thought he had too many pussies. Marvin says too many brothers are in jail and prison because they tried to pay their pussy bill with ill gotten gain.
Figure out a way to hustle without killing and destroying lives with dope, the pamphlet suggests.


Mythology of Pussy Comments

I admit the title turned me off-no man would ever lay his hands on me with that kind of language, but you have plenty to say and you say it like it is --even if it makes you feel uncomfortable.
--C. Mixon
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-Don't send me anything vulgar like this. My mother didn't talk like this.
--D. Jackmon

--My pussy ain't no myth!
--Anon

--Take me off your mailing list.
--Dr. E. Allen, Umass

I want my son to read this with a man, not with me.
-Rashida M

I wish I'd read this when I was 18. It would have saved me a lot of trouble with women. I would have recognized who they are and who I am as a spiritual being.
--Reginald J.

Marvin, you and I should have read this when we were 17. Would have saved women a lot of hell.
--Lumukanda

Do you have a brown bag? I can't take this back to work, might get fired.
--Anon

I put it in the trunk of my car--can't take it in the house, my wife will kill me.
--Conway J



Is Mythology of Pussy Pornographic? OPD Swoop Down on Marvin X

As Marvin X continued his literacy and educational campaign at the crossroads of Oakland, 14th and Broadway, he was suddenly surrounded by Oakland police who jumped out of three cars to see if he was passing out pornographic literature. At first the officers stopped another street brother for questioning. When he was found not to be on probation or parole and had no warrants, he was free to go, although he was told he looked like the guy who was shooting at them last night and they are watching him. Then the third police car arrived and the officer came to Marvin X, saying he had received a complaint someone was passing out porno. Marvin X's books were on display, including the "best seller" Mythology of Pussy. He asked the officer would he like a copy. The officer said no and didn't bother to peruse it. He turned to join his fellow officers who continued to chat for several minutes before departing.

Other than the visit by Oakland's finest--who now have a new police chief brought in from Long Beach, CA, Marvin had a good day at his outdoor classroom. One mother got Mythology for her daughters. Another woman got two copies, one to send to a cousin in Texas. Another mother told her daughter to see how much money she had. The girl said 75 cents. The mother said, "Give it to him. Do you see that lock on the cover?" She was referring to the cover art with the chastity belt.

When youth claim they have no money, not even a dollar, Marvin has an angel who promptly gives the poet a dollar. The angel tells the person he is willing to give a dollar to possibly save their life. Indeed, if one reads Mythology, it will help them in their male/female relations, making them understand patriarchal domination must be eradicated.

At Oakland Art and Soul festival last weekend, one woman told Marvin X she thoroughly enjoyed reading Mythology and was so happy to see a man saying the things Marvin said, some of which she had not heard before. Many young men are reading Mythology to "get up on their game." If they want more game, wait until they read his soon to be released The Wisdom of Plato Negro, A Hustler's Guide to Game.

Marvin has also released a pamphlet entitled Inside Baraka's The Toilet, A Love Letter to Gay and Lesbian Youth. It is a attempt to reach out to touch the growing population of gay and lesbian youth who hang out in the downtown area.

Oakland Man Jacked in Sacramento For Mythology

An Oakland man made the mistake of showing his copy of Mythology of Pussy to a group of young black males. He said they read parts of the pamphlet and refused to give it back to him. They said he could leave the apartment where they were gathered, but they were not giving him back the controversial manual on manhood and womanhood training. Young black males claim they can "up their game" by reading the pamphlet.

In Oakland, psychologist Dr. Lige Dailey, drove his Cadillac convertible to Marvin X's outdoor classroom at 14th and Broadway to obtain his copy. Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco got his on the way to court.

At Rite Aid Drug Store, a young clerk had three copies of Mythology stolen by co-workers. Marvin gave her another copy and told her to take it home and don't show it to anyone on the way home or when she gets home. Several people reported to Marvin how their friends stole their copy or took it from their house and refuse to return it.

The poet's micro-credit plan is still working. Persons without money get the pamphlet on credit. Every day people return with the five dollar donation. He received a $20.00 donation from some.

Is Mythology of Pussy for Whites Only?

The white man who read Mythology was indeed an arrogant, upper class capitalist swine. He also told me he would not help me publish How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy because he and his brothers/friends are not trying to recover from white supremacy--they love it and will bomb the world to keep it. As the agent for my archives, he says he's done more for me than anybody else, so don't say he's not helpful. He's also the agent for the archives of Eldridge Cleaver, Ishmael Reed, David Henderson, Joyce Carol Thomas and others. He claims to have helped get the MLK, Jr papers to Stanford. So there appears to be a degree of schizophrenia in this white man, along with his air of white supremacy. The truth is that Mythology of Pussy was written for human beings everywhere, especially men, who suffer the addiction to white supremacy with notions and actions of domination and oppression, especially of women. With respect to black people, I wrote it for them because so many brothers are in jail, and sisters, as a result of partner violence.

Here in the Bay a black man just shot is ex-girl while she worked as a bridge toll taker--shot her in the booth. Then he drove to the parking lot and killed her boyfriend who'd dropped her off to work. Two people are dead and he may qualify for the death penalty--so a total of three people may lose their lives behind pussy. As we know patriarchal notions of domination is a pandemic and I want my brothers, whoever they are, to wake up and smell the pussy of a new day in male/female relations. I just heard a report of Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's trip to Africa. The African woman claim they are treated like shit by their men and pray for a better day, no matter what religion, tribe or ethnic group.


Mythology of Pussy on Tour

Not since the Black Panthers invaded the California State Capitol in 1967, has a group of people rocked the area. On Saturday afternoon four people came into the area for a book party in Elk Grove at the home of James and Renee Sweeney. Sweeney is a political wheeler-dealer with an office across the street from Gov. Swartznegger's headquarters. The Sweeney's agreed to host a book party for Marvin X. Marvin arrived with his colleague, Ptah, one of the brightest students to come out of the San Francisco State University Black Studies department. Also traveling with "Plato Negro" were singer/guitarist Rashidah Mwongozi and choreographer/dancer Raynetta Rayzetta. When they arrived at the Sweeney residence they immediately went to the backyard to sit by the man made lake. Soon people began arriving. Sweeney had told Marvin to expect a mixed crowd--from the suites to the streets. And so it was. The first guest was a black woman administrator of a 100 billion
dollar insurance fund, the second largest in the state of California . She was followed by artists, painters, entrepreneurs, and common people. All came seeking light and love.

After the crowd socialized and enjoyed a pot luck dinner, Sweeney asked Marvin to begin. Unlike his friends who came to the area with guns in 1967, Marvin came with his pen, his books and team of performers in the Black Arts Movement tradition. He signaled for Rashidah to begin with a song. She opened with a tribute to her father as a black man in America . When she concluded three original songs, brother Ptah came forward with two poems, the second was Can You Spare Some Change. As he neared the end of Spare Some Change, Marvin joined him with his poem Can You Change. The audience was ecstatic. It was the best rendition of the two poems together. Too bad the poets didn't put it out during the Obama campaign.

I should mention that Ptah had made opening remarks that this gathering should and must happen at least once a month throughout black America , coast to coast. As Dr. Hare suggested, we must organize these peer group meetings to address our mental health issues as we recover from the addiction to white supremacy. In Marvin's remarks, he said we must first detox then recover, as Ptah wrote in his afterword to How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy. Detox involves stopping the conspicuous consumption of white supremacy goods--all that shopping at the mall for goods we don't need just want, out of boredom and the lack of spiritual harmony with ourselves, our mates, children and friends--out of harmony with nature itself. When a brother asked a question about spirituality, he was answered by a call and response reading of Marvin’s poem What If. This was the climax of the afternoon.

Ptah told his mentor that while he was reading What If, Ptah looked at a woman who was reciting with her eyes closed but smiling in a state of total joy. Ptah said he heard someone say the event was better than church. Sweeney, who knew the audience, told Marvin later that he had touched some nerves, especially with his remarks on white supremacy—there was several people who are suffering white supremacy on the job and were very sensitive to his remarks and found them refreshing.

When “Plato Negro” had mentioned the Harvard professor, Gates, who failed the tone test recently, a brother said he was happy to know the tone test: when stopped by the police, one of three things can happen: the police can arrest you, kill you or release you, based on your tone of voice.

The book party was to celebrate the release of his memoir Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil, but little of the discussion was about the Cleaver book. Marvin only read a few pages from his memoir, even though Jimmy Garrett calls it the funniest book of the year. Mythology of Pussy was the best seller. The evening ended with introductions from all present. Again, people present came from a variety of backgrounds, expressing the diversity of black life. We encourage such gatherings at least once a month from coast to coast so we can begin the healing from the ravages of white supremacy--but the focus is our spirituality. We must find the safe space wherein we can gather to share, to release the pain and trauma so often held inside until diseases result. There is much trauma and unresolved grief in our community and we must have such communal gatherings to heal and transcend to higher ground.

Mythology and Revolution

The real mission of the Marvin X Literary Revolution is to spread literacy. After all, with half high school students dropping out of school in the urban cities, how many of them can read his or any books? Educators must first get Johnny's attention somehow, then take Johnny up the road to literacy by holding his attention with relevant information in a language he can at least partly identify with. For sure, once Johnny gets into Mythology of Pussy, he will quickly discover my language is beyond the vernacular and reflects my education, even though I flunked English grammar, but I know enough to teach it on the university level. So the reader will find himself/herself with the need to grab the dictionary because I do know more words than motherfucker and bitch.

But let's be real, how many men in the hood have asked a woman for some vagina? White people or white black people may say, "Give me some vagina," but where I come from it's, "Baby, give me some pussy, please," although I advocate not asking for the pussy. Let the woman give it to you, since it's hers to give. Furthermore, I advocate silence and ESP in black communication since "the devil" is in the language. Look how stupid and silly some of us are reacting to the term pussy.

So the objective is literacy and I found out long ago when I taught English in secondary schools that the first order of business is to get the student's attention. Once you have their attention, learning can begin. In my case, students got so inspired they asked me to read my poetry during lunch and after school. Yes, students surrounded me during lunch and demanded I read my poetry because it was in a language they could understand and identify with. They came into my class after school and demanded I again read to them.
When I told them to read my poetry, they said, "No, Teach, you read it. We like the way you read."

When this happened to me, it made we reflect on post-slavery education when it is said they had to beat the students out of the classroom because they didn't want to go home, the thirst for learning was so great, in contrast to today when we must beat them into the classroom, unless we can get their attention and inspire them to learn with the thirst of their ancestors.

My colleague (Brother Ptah) and I have been working on the Hug A Thug Book Club to inspire literacy. "Hug A Thug Before the Thug Hugs You!" Paul Cobb added, "Crack a book before you're booked for crack!" Brothers write me from prison and jail to send them my books, but I am honored when these so-called thugs buy my books before they go to jail as Paul Cobb suggests. Although I understand jail and prison is the first time some black men get "time" to read, so I don't mind sending them books.

In these tight economic times, many brothers and sisters don't have money for books. When a young father told me the other day he didn't have money for Mythology of Pussy because he had to get his two sons haircuts, I started to give him the pamphlet. But I did not, instead I reflected to myself that the father better get them information to save their lives rather than a haircut. And when a mother said she was going to read the pamphlet herself rather than give it to her 15 year old son, I told her, "OK, but when Dante goes to juvenile hall for assaulting his girlfriend, don't call me." Another mother was simply embarrassed to have her son read it, especially in her presence. She said, "I don't want him to read this with me. He can read this by himself." Many parents have so much sex guilt and shame they cannot discuss sex with their children. This is why I call for manhood and womanhood training rites.

At the Berkeley Flea Market, an African man came by with a group of young African American males I suspected were in a group home or foster home. The African let me know he had received his manhood training in Africa, so I told him to give it to the boys with him. He said, "Yes, yes, yes."
As Brother Lumukanda, noted, if he and I had received Mythology of Pussy when we were 17, it would have guided us on the right path regarding gender roles or sexual identity confirmation. We would have had better manners and morals. So many of our youth are suffering a sexual identity crisis, they can't decide whether they are straight or gay. But this was/is the purpose of manhood and womanhood training, to help them decide. See Jomo Kenyatta's classic Facing Mount Kenya, his ethnography of the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya--their life and death, work and play, sex and family. President Obama, himself a product of Kenya, said notable things in his speech to the NAACP but perhaps because he lacked manhood training did not suggest it as a solution to African American youth. He said they must stop trying to get into the NBA and instead get MBAs and science degrees, and aspire to be scientists rather than rappers. I agree totally, unless they are going to rap freedom songs/poems.
Sonia Sanchez asks, "Will your book free us?"

I was so happy shortly after Obama was elected when I heard a young man on the bus in Oakland say, "Man, I'm so happy he is president. Now I got somebody else to look up to beside rappers." Yes, I was proud to hear this young man say this, even with a grill in his mouth--the grill made his remarks more profound!