Bob Holman on Marvin X as Poet
Last year Marvin X released his magnum opus, Land of My Daughters: Poems 1995-2005 (Black Bird Press), poems that put me in mind of Mawlânâ Jalâl ad-Dîn Muhammad Rûmî. He just published Beyond Religion Towards Spirituality, Essays on Consciousness (Black Bird Press, 2006), and all I can say, folks, is this is the Bible of the Hood and is bound to stir up plenty of opposition -- and maybe even cut through the BS to move towards Good. “Imagine we are the generation of Parker, Coltrane, Dolphy, Monk, Duke, Bessie, Lady Day, Ella, Sarah, what on earth can follow us but the earth shaking children of tomorrow... who will smash the atmosphere with sounds...” “If the mate leaves, we should be happy. Why would you want to keep someone who wants to go? If she wants to be with Joe, let her go -- you don’t own her. If she wants, she has the human right to give Joe some p****. I know you don’t like it but get over it. Don’t kill her and Joe behind the funk. The world is full of infinite possibilities. God will provide wou with the perfect mate... Let go and Let God.” Last year Marvin X released his magnum opus, Land of My Daughters: Poems 1995-2005 (Black Bird Press), poems that put me in mind of Mawlânâ Jalâl ad-Dîn Muhammad Rûmî. He just published Beyond Religion Towards Spirituality, Essays on Consciousness (Black Bird Press, 2006), and all I can say, folks, is this is the Bible of the Hood and is bound to stir up plenty of opposition -- and maybe even cut through the BS to move towards Good. “Imagine we are the generation of Parker, Coltrane, Dolphy, Monk, Duke, Bessie, Lady Day, Ella, Sarah, what on earth can follow us but the earth shaking children of tomorrow... who will smash the atmosphere with sounds...” “If the mate leaves, we should be happy. Why would you want to keep someone who wants to go? If she wants to be with Joe, let her go -- you don’t own her. If she wants, she has the human right to give Joe some p****. I know you don’t like it but get over it. Don’t kill her and Joe behind the funk. The world is full of infinite possibilities. God will provide wou with the perfect mate... Let go and Let God.”
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Black Arts/Black Studies 27 City Tour
At the recent Black Studies 40 Yeas Later Conference at Temple University, May 1-3, 2009, one of the resolutions that passed unanimously and with applause, came out of Culture Workshop, directed by Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure and Marvin X. The resolution proposed a 27 city tour of the the founders of the Black Arts Movement and Radical Black Studies that revolutionized the academic curriculum in America. The tour would be a teach-in to help heal the forty years of reaction and backwardness that has occurred in the arts and black studies coast of coast. It would be an intergenerational tour with a manhood and womanhood rites of passage that would pass the baton from the elders to the next generation of arts/scholars/activitists. Elder scholars, artists and activists would be paired in workshops and panels to enlighten the new generation of youth seeking conscous knowledge. Artists and scholars would pass knowlege in free discussions with youth and conscious-knowledge seeking adults. We recognize we have scholars in the community who lack degreess from the white man but are wise men and women who must be heard and will be heard. Furthermore, we want this tour to be about the people, let the people speak and be heard, not just the wise eldrers and special youth who have been blessed. Let the people speak who have never had an opportunity. This must be stressed.Partial list of artists/scholars/activists: Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Marvin X, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Mahdubuti, Sister Souljah, Kevin Powell, Greg Carr, Ptah Allah El, Davey D, Muhammida El Muhajir, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare, Ras Baraka,Ayodele Nzingha, Danna Randall, Nisa Ra, Pam Africa, Dr. John Bracey, Muhammad Ahmed, Jimmy Garrett, Last Poets, Mos Def,Common, India Iree, Dead Prez, Snoop Dog, Fillmore Slim, Mabel Williams. Contact: Marvin X for more information or sponsorship. Budget for 27 City Tour, $3 million dollars at $100,000 per city plus misc. costs.510-355-6339, jmarvinx@yahoo.com.
At the recent Black Studies 40 Yeas Later Conference at Temple University, May 1-3, 2009, one of the resolutions that passed unanimously and with applause, came out of Culture Workshop, directed by Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure and Marvin X. The resolution proposed a 27 city tour of the the founders of the Black Arts Movement and Radical Black Studies that revolutionized the academic curriculum in America. The tour would be a teach-in to help heal the forty years of reaction and backwardness that has occurred in the arts and black studies coast of coast. It would be an intergenerational tour with a manhood and womanhood rites of passage that would pass the baton from the elders to the next generation of arts/scholars/activitists. Elder scholars, artists and activists would be paired in workshops and panels to enlighten the new generation of youth seeking conscous knowledge. Artists and scholars would pass knowlege in free discussions with youth and conscious-knowledge seeking adults. We recognize we have scholars in the community who lack degreess from the white man but are wise men and women who must be heard and will be heard. Furthermore, we want this tour to be about the people, let the people speak and be heard, not just the wise eldrers and special youth who have been blessed. Let the people speak who have never had an opportunity. This must be stressed.Partial list of artists/scholars/activists: Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Marvin X, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Mahdubuti, Sister Souljah, Kevin Powell, Greg Carr, Ptah Allah El, Davey D, Muhammida El Muhajir, Dr. Julia Hare, Dr. Nathan Hare, Ras Baraka,Ayodele Nzingha, Danna Randall, Nisa Ra, Pam Africa, Dr. John Bracey, Muhammad Ahmed, Jimmy Garrett, Last Poets, Mos Def,Common, India Iree, Dead Prez, Snoop Dog, Fillmore Slim, Mabel Williams. Contact: Marvin X for more information or sponsorship. Budget for 27 City Tour, $3 million dollars at $100,000 per city plus misc. costs.510-355-6339, jmarvinx@yahoo.com.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil,
A Memoir
by
Marvin X
Introduction by Amiri Baraka
Marvin X‘s newest book, “Eldridge Cleaver: My Friend, The Devil” is an important Expose!, notonly of whom his good friend really was… (I confess I thought something like that, in less metaphysical terms, from the day we met, at San Francisco State, 1967) But also of whom Marvin was/is. Now, Marvin has confessed to being Yacub, whom Elijah Muhammad taught us was the “evil big head scientist” who created the devil. (Marvin’s head is very large for his age.)
What is good about this book is Marvin’s telling us something about who Eldridge became as the Black Panther years receded in the rear view mirror. I remember during this period, when I learned that Marvin was hanging around Cleaver even after he’d made his televised switch from anti-capitalist revolutionary to Christian minister, denouncing the 3rd World revolutionaries and the little Marxism he thought he knew, while openly acknowledging beating his wife as a God given male prerogative, I said to Marvin, “I thought you was a Muslim” . His retort, “Jesus pay more money than Allah, Bro”, should be a classic statement of vituperative recidivism.
But this is one of the charms of this memoir. It makes the bizarre fathomable. Especially the tales of fraternization with arguably the most racist & whitest of the Xtian born agains with Marvin as agent, road manager, co-conspirator-confessor, for the post-Panther – very shot- out Cleaver. It also partially explains some of Cleaver’s moves to get back in this country, he had onetime denounced, and what he did after the big cop out. Plus, some of the time, these goings on seem straight out hilarious. Though frequently, that mirth is laced with a sting of regret. Likewise, I want everyone to know that I am writing this against my will, as a favor to Yacub.
Amiri Baraka
Newark, 5/13/09
One of America's great storytellers. Maybe second only to Mark Twain. Of course, I'd place Marvin X ahead of him even. More and more I am convinced this work will be a best-seller. Though I have never read a Cleaver biography, a lot of this material seems to be new andif not factually new, it is from a novel perspective.--Rudolph Lewis, editor, Chickenbones. A Journal, www.nathanielturner.com
You are doing a tremendous service telling our history inour own words. I am proud to be one of your students.- Ramal Lamar (storyteller in training)
Wonderful appreciation of both Elijah and Clara. Rare perception nowadays,what with the Malcolm cult. The pendulum is swinging.--John Woodford, former Editor, Muhammad SpeaksEditor, Michigan Today, Univ. of Mich.
Hallelujah! MX is reminiscing, I must say, entertainingly, about his historic dalliance w/ shaitan....rat on...--Amiri Baraka, Newark, NJ
Excellent!--Eric Rhodes, Houston, TX
Great stuff, man, priceless….--Rudi Mwongozi, Pianist, Oakland CA
Thank you Marvin...get it all out...write it out...sweat it out...dance itout...cry it out, swear it out, walk it out...work it out....thank you forsharing ...respect.--Joan Tarika Lewis, Violinist, OaklandFirst female member of the Black Panther Party
Enjoyed your post about Cleaver. Very interesting. Contained vivid imagery.
--Martin Reynolds, Editor, Oakland Tribune
A Memoir
by
Marvin X
Introduction by Amiri Baraka
Marvin X‘s newest book, “Eldridge Cleaver: My Friend, The Devil” is an important Expose!, notonly of whom his good friend really was… (I confess I thought something like that, in less metaphysical terms, from the day we met, at San Francisco State, 1967) But also of whom Marvin was/is. Now, Marvin has confessed to being Yacub, whom Elijah Muhammad taught us was the “evil big head scientist” who created the devil. (Marvin’s head is very large for his age.)
What is good about this book is Marvin’s telling us something about who Eldridge became as the Black Panther years receded in the rear view mirror. I remember during this period, when I learned that Marvin was hanging around Cleaver even after he’d made his televised switch from anti-capitalist revolutionary to Christian minister, denouncing the 3rd World revolutionaries and the little Marxism he thought he knew, while openly acknowledging beating his wife as a God given male prerogative, I said to Marvin, “I thought you was a Muslim” . His retort, “Jesus pay more money than Allah, Bro”, should be a classic statement of vituperative recidivism.
But this is one of the charms of this memoir. It makes the bizarre fathomable. Especially the tales of fraternization with arguably the most racist & whitest of the Xtian born agains with Marvin as agent, road manager, co-conspirator-confessor, for the post-Panther – very shot- out Cleaver. It also partially explains some of Cleaver’s moves to get back in this country, he had onetime denounced, and what he did after the big cop out. Plus, some of the time, these goings on seem straight out hilarious. Though frequently, that mirth is laced with a sting of regret. Likewise, I want everyone to know that I am writing this against my will, as a favor to Yacub.
Amiri Baraka
Newark, 5/13/09
One of America's great storytellers. Maybe second only to Mark Twain. Of course, I'd place Marvin X ahead of him even. More and more I am convinced this work will be a best-seller. Though I have never read a Cleaver biography, a lot of this material seems to be new andif not factually new, it is from a novel perspective.--Rudolph Lewis, editor, Chickenbones. A Journal, www.nathanielturner.com
You are doing a tremendous service telling our history inour own words. I am proud to be one of your students.- Ramal Lamar (storyteller in training)
Wonderful appreciation of both Elijah and Clara. Rare perception nowadays,what with the Malcolm cult. The pendulum is swinging.--John Woodford, former Editor, Muhammad SpeaksEditor, Michigan Today, Univ. of Mich.
Hallelujah! MX is reminiscing, I must say, entertainingly, about his historic dalliance w/ shaitan....rat on...--Amiri Baraka, Newark, NJ
Excellent!--Eric Rhodes, Houston, TX
Great stuff, man, priceless….--Rudi Mwongozi, Pianist, Oakland CA
Thank you Marvin...get it all out...write it out...sweat it out...dance itout...cry it out, swear it out, walk it out...work it out....thank you forsharing ...respect.--Joan Tarika Lewis, Violinist, OaklandFirst female member of the Black Panther Party
Enjoyed your post about Cleaver. Very interesting. Contained vivid imagery.
--Martin Reynolds, Editor, Oakland Tribune
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Marvin X Book Party at Sonia’s House
Sonia Sanchez had long promised Marvin X a book party at her house in Philly. On Sunday, May 3, 2009, it happened. Ironically, Marvin X had only two copies of the book he read from at the party, which was a sacred gathering of the most powerful revolutionary scholars, artists and activists in the history of America: in the living room surrounded by African statues, masks and the paintings of revolutionary artist Elizabeth Catlett Mora. Marvin X read from his just completed memoir of Eldridge Cleaver: My Friend the Devil, written on the road from Houston, Texas to Beaufort, South Carolina in the short span of twenty days, initiated by a conversation with his oldest daughter Nefertiti in Houston. Seated in the living room were Mother Mabel Williams, widow of the great revolutionary Robert F. Williams of Negroes With Guns fame. Mother Mabel had addressed the Temple University conference the previous night Black Studies Forty Years Later, presented by the African Studies Department and organized by Muhammad Ahmed, better known as Max Stanford of the infamous RAM organization of the 60s, RAM stands for Revolutionary Action Movement, whose provisional president was Robert F. Williams. Muhammad's wife Khadijah was seated next to Muhammad. There was Amina and Amiri Baraka, the architect of the Black Arts Movement and social activist. Askia Muhammad Toure, another co-founder of the Black Arts Movement was present. Also a Sonia student Dr. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, along with one of her gifted students, Ariana, an up and coming playwright who will have a play at Philly’s Freedom Theatre later in the year. The air was so charged with revolutionary energy it’s a wonder the house didn’t explode. Marvin X chose to read the Afterword to his book on Cleaver, one of the most controversial men in American history. As his keyboard player, Elliott Bey said, the crowd sat attentively as if Marvin X was God Almighty, listening intently to every word, although some had read parts of the manuscript online. Amiri Baraka had said immediately upon seeing the printed copy of the manuscript that his agent could sell it to a publisher within thirty days. He bet Marvin X one hundred dollars—for a commission as well. Also in the room was legendary historian John Bracey of University of Mass, Amherst, who told Marvin later that he was certain Baraka’s agent would be able to sell the book. Baraka had told Marvin to look for a movie contract to follow.
Now who might play the role of Eldridge Cleaver? Marvin said Terrence Howard, although he’s a little short. And of course Sonia was in the room, the hostess with the mostess, who provided organic food, not much of the tofu Baraka abhors in favor of steak, Marvin as well. Do these men have a white supremacy diet? There was little liquor present as well, except for a bottle of Merlo Sonia found somewhere in her house to accommodate Amina Baraka.
At the end of his reading the erudite and critical audience of my esteemed comrades had few comments, except to question my statement that Cleaver came from exile fleeing dictatorial regimes in Communist and Socialist countries. They told the poet freedom is a relative term. Marvin noted that his esteemed mentor/ancestor Sun Ra had taught him to stop teaching his actors freedom because they were born free, they needed discipline! Maybe with a little more discipline the freedom movement would be free by now!
The party had come at the conclusion of a weekend conference at Temple University to critique forty years of Black Studies and the first one hundred days of the Obama administration. But this was not the typical gathering of black studies scholars and students. This was the gathering of the radical scholars and activists, in contrast to the National Association of Black Studies that had met earlier this year in Atlanta, headed by the Afro-centric division of black scholars, under the de facto leadership of Maulana Ron Karenga, founder of Kwanza. No, these were the radical scholars, many of whom had been run out of academia to placate capitalism and imperialism in academia, since it was some of these men and women who had shaken academia to the core when they founded the black student unions that lead to black studies on campuses throughout America.
In the words of Dr. Cornell West, they were the maladjusted against injustice, not the typical careerists who bowed down to Western academia for a lifetime job, dismissing the original mission of black studies to connect with the community and become an integral part of it with little distinction between the two, in the tradition of the original black scholar, W.E.B. DuBois (The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, Black Reconstruction, Souls of Black Folk, the World and Africa, The Philadelphia Negro, et al.).
Sonia Sanchez had long promised Marvin X a book party at her house in Philly. On Sunday, May 3, 2009, it happened. Ironically, Marvin X had only two copies of the book he read from at the party, which was a sacred gathering of the most powerful revolutionary scholars, artists and activists in the history of America: in the living room surrounded by African statues, masks and the paintings of revolutionary artist Elizabeth Catlett Mora. Marvin X read from his just completed memoir of Eldridge Cleaver: My Friend the Devil, written on the road from Houston, Texas to Beaufort, South Carolina in the short span of twenty days, initiated by a conversation with his oldest daughter Nefertiti in Houston. Seated in the living room were Mother Mabel Williams, widow of the great revolutionary Robert F. Williams of Negroes With Guns fame. Mother Mabel had addressed the Temple University conference the previous night Black Studies Forty Years Later, presented by the African Studies Department and organized by Muhammad Ahmed, better known as Max Stanford of the infamous RAM organization of the 60s, RAM stands for Revolutionary Action Movement, whose provisional president was Robert F. Williams. Muhammad's wife Khadijah was seated next to Muhammad. There was Amina and Amiri Baraka, the architect of the Black Arts Movement and social activist. Askia Muhammad Toure, another co-founder of the Black Arts Movement was present. Also a Sonia student Dr. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, along with one of her gifted students, Ariana, an up and coming playwright who will have a play at Philly’s Freedom Theatre later in the year. The air was so charged with revolutionary energy it’s a wonder the house didn’t explode. Marvin X chose to read the Afterword to his book on Cleaver, one of the most controversial men in American history. As his keyboard player, Elliott Bey said, the crowd sat attentively as if Marvin X was God Almighty, listening intently to every word, although some had read parts of the manuscript online. Amiri Baraka had said immediately upon seeing the printed copy of the manuscript that his agent could sell it to a publisher within thirty days. He bet Marvin X one hundred dollars—for a commission as well. Also in the room was legendary historian John Bracey of University of Mass, Amherst, who told Marvin later that he was certain Baraka’s agent would be able to sell the book. Baraka had told Marvin to look for a movie contract to follow.
Now who might play the role of Eldridge Cleaver? Marvin said Terrence Howard, although he’s a little short. And of course Sonia was in the room, the hostess with the mostess, who provided organic food, not much of the tofu Baraka abhors in favor of steak, Marvin as well. Do these men have a white supremacy diet? There was little liquor present as well, except for a bottle of Merlo Sonia found somewhere in her house to accommodate Amina Baraka.
At the end of his reading the erudite and critical audience of my esteemed comrades had few comments, except to question my statement that Cleaver came from exile fleeing dictatorial regimes in Communist and Socialist countries. They told the poet freedom is a relative term. Marvin noted that his esteemed mentor/ancestor Sun Ra had taught him to stop teaching his actors freedom because they were born free, they needed discipline! Maybe with a little more discipline the freedom movement would be free by now!
The party had come at the conclusion of a weekend conference at Temple University to critique forty years of Black Studies and the first one hundred days of the Obama administration. But this was not the typical gathering of black studies scholars and students. This was the gathering of the radical scholars and activists, in contrast to the National Association of Black Studies that had met earlier this year in Atlanta, headed by the Afro-centric division of black scholars, under the de facto leadership of Maulana Ron Karenga, founder of Kwanza. No, these were the radical scholars, many of whom had been run out of academia to placate capitalism and imperialism in academia, since it was some of these men and women who had shaken academia to the core when they founded the black student unions that lead to black studies on campuses throughout America.
In the words of Dr. Cornell West, they were the maladjusted against injustice, not the typical careerists who bowed down to Western academia for a lifetime job, dismissing the original mission of black studies to connect with the community and become an integral part of it with little distinction between the two, in the tradition of the original black scholar, W.E.B. DuBois (The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, Black Reconstruction, Souls of Black Folk, the World and Africa, The Philadelphia Negro, et al.).
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Now Available from Black Bird Press
Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil, A Memoir
by
Marvin X
180 pages, with photos
Introduction by Amiri Baraka
$19.95
Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702
Add $5.00 for priority mailing and handling
One of America's great storytellers. Maybe second only to Mark Twain.
Of course, I'd place Marvin X ahead of him even. More and more I am convinced this work will be a best-seller. Though I have never read a Cleaver biography, a lot of this material seems to be new and if not factually new, it is from a novel perspective.
--Rudolph Lewis, editor, Chickenbones. A Journal, www.nathanielturner.com
You are doing a tremendous service telling our history in
our own words. I am proud to be one of your students.
- Ramal Lamar (storyteller in training)
Wonderful appreciation of both Elijah and Clara. Rare perception nowadays,
what with the Malcolm cult. The pendulum is swinging.
--John Woodford, former Editor, Muhammad Speaks
Editor, Michigan Today, Univ. of Mich.
Hallelujah! MX is reminiscing, I must say, entertainingly, about
his historic dalliance w/ shaitan rat on...
--Amiri Baraka, Newark, NJ
Excellent!--Eric Rhodes, Houston, TX
Great stuff, man, priceless….
--Rudi Mwongozi, Pianist, Oakland CA
Thank you Marvin...get it all out...write it out...sweat it out...dance it
out...cry it out, swear it out, walk it out...work it out....thank you for
sharing ...respect.
--Joan Tarika Lewis, Violinist, first female member of the Black Panther Party,
Oakland
Enjoyed your post about Cleaver. Very interesting. Contained vivid imagery.
--Martin Reynolds, Editor, Oakland Tribune
Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil, A Memoir
by
Marvin X
180 pages, with photos
Introduction by Amiri Baraka
$19.95
Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702
Add $5.00 for priority mailing and handling
One of America's great storytellers. Maybe second only to Mark Twain.
Of course, I'd place Marvin X ahead of him even. More and more I am convinced this work will be a best-seller. Though I have never read a Cleaver biography, a lot of this material seems to be new and if not factually new, it is from a novel perspective.
--Rudolph Lewis, editor, Chickenbones. A Journal, www.nathanielturner.com
You are doing a tremendous service telling our history in
our own words. I am proud to be one of your students.
- Ramal Lamar (storyteller in training)
Wonderful appreciation of both Elijah and Clara. Rare perception nowadays,
what with the Malcolm cult. The pendulum is swinging.
--John Woodford, former Editor, Muhammad Speaks
Editor, Michigan Today, Univ. of Mich.
Hallelujah! MX is reminiscing, I must say, entertainingly, about
his historic dalliance w/ shaitan rat on...
--Amiri Baraka, Newark, NJ
Excellent!--Eric Rhodes, Houston, TX
Great stuff, man, priceless….
--Rudi Mwongozi, Pianist, Oakland CA
Thank you Marvin...get it all out...write it out...sweat it out...dance it
out...cry it out, swear it out, walk it out...work it out....thank you for
sharing ...respect.
--Joan Tarika Lewis, Violinist, first female member of the Black Panther Party,
Oakland
Enjoyed your post about Cleaver. Very interesting. Contained vivid imagery.
--Martin Reynolds, Editor, Oakland Tribune
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