Michael Jackson and His Good Works
After spending the day at San Francisco's Gay Pride Celebration, it was disappointing to hear gays and lesbians say they didn't like Michael because he was a pedophile. I found their attitude shocking since when did they gain the moral ground above Michael?
If we consider gay and lesbian behavior based on the moral standard of the Bible, they stand condemned along with Michael. And who is to say Michael's behavior should not come to be recognized as "legal," or even consummated with marriage? If you believe in freedom for all, how can you deny Michael? If he or anyone else wants to marry a tree, who can object, especially gays and lesbians. I love prostitutes and feel prostitution should be legal. Freedom for everyone or freedom for nobody. Let's continue this moral hypocrisy in everyone, gays, lesbians, Christians, Muslims, Communists, and Atheists. The governor of South Carolina is about to lose his head because he had a lover outside of marriage. Should such behavior be allowed even though the Bible condemns adultery? If he thinks he needs another woman, why should he be denied--especially when the biblical prophets had all the wives they wanted whenever they wanted.
With respect to gays and lesbians, we saw today the high numbers of young people attracted to that lifestyle. Whatever we think about that lifestyle, do we not owe our children unconditional love as human beings in search of their sexual identity? In most cases, we have not provided them with manhood and womanhood training so they could advance into manhood and womanhood without gender confusion. We let them go through trial and tribulation without saying a word except words of condemnation. We show them no love and understanding, when clearly many of they have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of family members and friends, turning them out to the gay or lesbian lifestyle.
And I am convinced the water and food is turning many children gay and lesbian due to the steroids and growth hormones recycled in the water and injected into the food by the petrochemical industry. I can accept that some children may be born than way, and we know they can become persons of great genius, especially in the arts and literature, but other fields as well.
Are we going to show unconditional love to everyone or be selective and hypocritical? And are we going to condemn the evil in another's eyes yet deny the evil in our own?
Betty Shabazz (may she rest in peace) said, "Find the good and praise it." Sometimes I can be hypercritical, but I try to check myself.
I say Michael Jackson was indeed the King of Music in his era and beyond as we shall see. His personal behavior on the sexual level did not bother me as much as his addiction to white supremacy, evident by his desire to be white. But as my colleague, Ptah Allah El noted in his analysis of the Thriller album, perhaps Michael was trying to tell us of his unfortunate transformation into a werewolf as the result of being a man in this society, a black man. Every black man who has tried to rise up has been destroyed, from slavery resisters such as David Walker, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Gabriel Prosser to Jack Johnson, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey,
Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. Shall we not await the coming destruction of President Obama?
And so America has a way of making us all sick, especially the most talented. Baldwin said it's a wonder we all haven't gone stark raving mad. So it is not surprising we all suffer some degree of moral degeneration and sexual pathologies, from rape, incest, physical abuse, and murder. Consider the roots of this society; consider the founding fathers who were themselves kidnappers, rapists and sexual abusersand most of all, terrorists , and such behavior went on throughout slavery into post-slavery with lynching done in the name of Jesus Christ. And today the jails and prisons, encluding the juvenile jails, are hell holes where inmates are traumatized and terrorized, including slave labor and forced feeding, not to mention the unjust application of the death penalty for blacks and other minorities, including poor whites.
The contributions of Michael Jackson should help put him in perspective of a soul who did all he could do with what he had to work with. We must now ask ourselves what contribution will we make, especially considering what we have to work with and what negative things have occurred in our lives to destroy our mental, physical and spiritual health.
--Marvin X
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Michael Jackson and the End of White Supremacy
With the passing of Michael Jackson we see the coming end of white supremacy. Michael was not only the greatest entertainer of all time, far surpassing Sinatra, Elvis,
Luther and James Brown, although he was a James Brown student. But in his persona we saw a person trapped in the world of white supremacy, a very African wide-nosed brother who came to hate himself and did all in his power to become white, and so God granted his wish. Michael thus symbolizes a Pan African tragedy sweeping the world from South African to Jamaica: the long cherished fad of bleaching cream made popular in black America. In their hatred of blackness resulting from the addiction to white supremacy and cultural imperialism, millions of Michaels, boys and girls, try to alter their appearance for the white standard of beauty. In their self hatred is the suicidal desire to self destruct their God given African beauty for the European esthetic. Of course the desire for white skin only symbolizes their mental condition, or the absorption of the Eurocentric paradigm, a direct result of colonialism and sadly Michael and many of this present generation believe the hype that white is right, yellow is mellow, black get back, brown stick around. E. Franklin Frazier called it the world of make believe. He cited Ebony magazine for perpetuating this false world. And we wonder has the time come for Ebony to make its demise along with Michael. We hear Ebony is shrinking by the minute, and even Jet, the Negro Bible, may be on the way out as well.
So the world of white supremacy is in meltdown, and with its demise will go the sick esthetic of Eurocentricism that colonized the mentality of billions of people, making them hate themselves and love the master race. We hail the passing of such world hegemony. And we were sad that one of our greatest entertainers was a victim. May he rest in peace.
We pray all those Africans using bleaching cream from South Africa to Jamaica will get a grip on themselves and enter a detoxification program to recover from the addiction to white supremacy. After all, Michael told you about the Man in the Mirror. Take a look—you may discover Black is Beautiful!
--Marvin X
Marvin X is author of the manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, A Pan-African 12 Step Model, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Allah El, Black Bird Press, $19.95, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702.
With the passing of Michael Jackson we see the coming end of white supremacy. Michael was not only the greatest entertainer of all time, far surpassing Sinatra, Elvis,
Luther and James Brown, although he was a James Brown student. But in his persona we saw a person trapped in the world of white supremacy, a very African wide-nosed brother who came to hate himself and did all in his power to become white, and so God granted his wish. Michael thus symbolizes a Pan African tragedy sweeping the world from South African to Jamaica: the long cherished fad of bleaching cream made popular in black America. In their hatred of blackness resulting from the addiction to white supremacy and cultural imperialism, millions of Michaels, boys and girls, try to alter their appearance for the white standard of beauty. In their self hatred is the suicidal desire to self destruct their God given African beauty for the European esthetic. Of course the desire for white skin only symbolizes their mental condition, or the absorption of the Eurocentric paradigm, a direct result of colonialism and sadly Michael and many of this present generation believe the hype that white is right, yellow is mellow, black get back, brown stick around. E. Franklin Frazier called it the world of make believe. He cited Ebony magazine for perpetuating this false world. And we wonder has the time come for Ebony to make its demise along with Michael. We hear Ebony is shrinking by the minute, and even Jet, the Negro Bible, may be on the way out as well.
So the world of white supremacy is in meltdown, and with its demise will go the sick esthetic of Eurocentricism that colonized the mentality of billions of people, making them hate themselves and love the master race. We hail the passing of such world hegemony. And we were sad that one of our greatest entertainers was a victim. May he rest in peace.
We pray all those Africans using bleaching cream from South Africa to Jamaica will get a grip on themselves and enter a detoxification program to recover from the addiction to white supremacy. After all, Michael told you about the Man in the Mirror. Take a look—you may discover Black is Beautiful!
--Marvin X
Marvin X is author of the manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, A Pan-African 12 Step Model, foreword by Dr. Nathan Hare, afterword by Ptah Allah El, Black Bird Press, $19.95, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Beyond Myth
Myth is all there is, like air, without myth we cannot breathe, therefore we die. Myth is the essence of religion. There are no rituals without myth--myth is the story, the word, hence the foundation of ritual. We take the myth and create the drama as in the original Osirian drama of resurrection, first the story then the enactment of the story, followed by the absorption of myth into the social-psychology of a people.
Myth then becomes the foundation of culture, the purpose of existence and the goal of after-life. Yes, culture is all that we do but all that we do is based on the myths we live by.
When we suggest transcending myth it is an awesome challenge to the psyche and thus to the society. What white person wants to give up the myth of white supremacy. It is the essence of their being. Shall they become black? But black is not simply a color, it is a culture that is bound by myth as well. When we suggest giving up myth, we realize the task is daunting, for what shall a person stand upon, what rock, what reality?
We want the schools to change but again it shall involve dismantling the American mythology, all the lies, stories, dreams, holidays, statues, images, symbols that abound the society--in short, a decolonialization must occur—or call it detoxification.
The teachers cannot teach a different way because they are victims of myth as well, trapped in their madness which is the essence of all they have been taught and certified to teach.
The black American psychologists are grappling with the problem of myth as I write. At their last national conference in Oakland they spoke about casting out Eurocentric psychology and returning to the ancient African healing philosophy. They want to transcend European psychotherapy for a more holistic approach that will embrace the entire being of the spiritually ill person, for sure, the mental is related to the physical to the social to the political to the economic.
But as with education, how shall the mental health workers get certified to teach African healing when they have been trained in Eurocentric psychology? And what is the mythological foundation of African healing? Imagine throwing out white education, but the question is can they heal the black mind with white psychology? As much as we applaud the psychotherapeutic peer group approach, prescribed in my manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, even the peer group is not sufficient unless the group bonds together in a holistic manner to overcome the myriad ills due to oppression.
The myth of love is an example of how we are entrapped in mythology. Love becomes an ever changing illusion based on materialism and economic security, thus it is a physical thing that in the end causes us to cry, "What does love have to do with it?" But in reality love is all there is. God is Love! Yet we spend a lifetime seeking that which is our essence. Surely we must be on the wrong path or in the wrong house of love. And after a lifetime with the beloved, we wonder was it in vain, a waste of energy, a pitiful existence with a beloved who hated our guts, was jealous, envious, greedy, yet this was our mate, this was us.
And so detoxification is in order to begin our recovery from sick mythology. We resist and deny anything is amiss but we must summon the strength to make a change, to jump out the box toward a brighter day. We fight leaving the comfort zone for it is all we know, like the slaves upon emancipation: where shall we go, what shall we do without the master? He was our everything, our god, our lover, our enforcer, our rapist even. But deconstructing alien mythology is the only way out, just as the dope fiend must stop using dope upon the pain of death. Now some choose death, the die-hards who claim dope is the best thing that ever happened to them. So they are not satisfied until they fall into the pit.
The society addicted to sick mythology is no better than the common dope fiend. It is determined to commit mass suicide. America is not alone in this manner. It is the same with Israel, North Korea, Iran and elsewhere. Mythology (call it ideology if you wish) will be the final determinant of the political actions in the above nations. Will they transcend their mythology and live or persist in their inordinacy until they die?
The sooner we get beyond myth into a progressive, radical and revolutionary state of mind, the better we shall all be. But it would be a step forward if we simply stopped believing in the superiority of myth. This notion of superiority is probably worse than the myth itself. The myth of white supremacy is no better or worse than other myths, but the problem is when whites want to spread their myth and force it upon others who have their own mythology. As far as I am concerned, let the whites in the American south keep their confederate flag, just don’t subject it upon me and my people. Keep that shit in yo house, your church or wherever you dwell and I don’t. And if I fly the Star and Crescent, leave me the hell alone.
But let’s go deeper into the world of myth for a story is composed of words, thus we must consider linguistics or language when attempting to transcend myth, for the devil is in the language. We may therefore find ourselves in need of a new language in order to transcend myth, for we speak a mythical language, and just as we do not understand the mythology, we do not understand the language. To have a common language suggests we have agreed upon definitions, but again, what do you mean by love, and are you prepared to love your enemy? Can you love yourself, and who or what is yourself? Who is the black self, what is it? We grappled with this problem in the 60s in trying to define a black esthetic. What is beauty and truth to us? Suddenly the Negro was ugly and black was beautiful, and for a moment there was a consensus and a people moved forward. And then came the breakdown and the consensus was gone. The natural hair style was no longer en vogue. Ugly became beautiful. Ugly was freedom, although we never got a consensus on what freedom meant, nor do we have one today. What is freedom to you is not freedom to me. You say freedom is a job, and that’s the totality of your freedom. Other people fight for land, natural resources, self determination, but you say just give you a job and you are satisfied.
So how can we unite? You say freedom is having sex between persons of the same sex. Nothing else matters to you in life. But we ask what does sex have to do with it? Were you put aboard the slave ships so you could have sex with the same gender loving persons, is this why your ancestors suffered in the cotton and cane fields, was it for sexual freedom, or what is possibly something that went far beyond pussy and dick, getting a nut in the dark or in some alley, bathroom, park?
Again, we need to define some terms before we can move forward into the new era. Let’s list some terms and define them—and how can we do this when terms are ever shifting, for language is dynamic and fluid, Negro, Colored, black, African, Bilalian, Moorish, et al. We are forever changing our identity because we cannot come to a consensus as a people. At least the white people know they are white, they may not know anything else, but they know they are white.
You don’t know if you are black or white, man or woman—for the sands are constantly shifting under your feet—the result of your insecurity, personal and communal. It is an identity crisis of the most profound degree imaginable.
So myth is composed with language, from myth to ritual, from ritual to reality, but language is the foundation.
The child’s world only becomes real when it takes command of its “mother tongue.” Within the mother tongue is myth which is composed of surface and deep structure terminology and meaning, the said and the unsaid, the seen and the unseen.
We are that child that has yet to master language, hence our world is chaos without solid, safe and secure definitions, leading us not to know what is real and unreal, a confusion of self and kind. We are not certain our brother is a friend or foe. We are not sure if our mate is friend or foe, lover or hater. In a moment of passion we may hear words we never thought was in the heart of our lover, or we may use such words ourselves. Now there is more doubt and insecurity in an already fragile relationship, that more than likely originated in lust rather than anything that can be called love.
And so we see the task before us, a psycho-linguistic mythological conundrum that will take centuries to resolve since in the global village our mythology is bound with other mythological tribes and nations, some of which seek our life blood.
We may be forced out of our slumber to shed the old raggedy clothes of worn out mythology, whether religious or political, sexual or social. Elijah told us the wisdom of this world is exhausted—one need only look around and listen to the language, the babble blowing in the wind, in spite of all the technology, all the human advancement. Surely, in spite of it all, reverse evolution has set in, a kind of atrophy, a freezing of the mental apparatus, a paralysis of thought while the very hour challenges us with the need for grand vision to make that great leap forward into the new millennium.
--Marvin X
Myth is all there is, like air, without myth we cannot breathe, therefore we die. Myth is the essence of religion. There are no rituals without myth--myth is the story, the word, hence the foundation of ritual. We take the myth and create the drama as in the original Osirian drama of resurrection, first the story then the enactment of the story, followed by the absorption of myth into the social-psychology of a people.
Myth then becomes the foundation of culture, the purpose of existence and the goal of after-life. Yes, culture is all that we do but all that we do is based on the myths we live by.
When we suggest transcending myth it is an awesome challenge to the psyche and thus to the society. What white person wants to give up the myth of white supremacy. It is the essence of their being. Shall they become black? But black is not simply a color, it is a culture that is bound by myth as well. When we suggest giving up myth, we realize the task is daunting, for what shall a person stand upon, what rock, what reality?
We want the schools to change but again it shall involve dismantling the American mythology, all the lies, stories, dreams, holidays, statues, images, symbols that abound the society--in short, a decolonialization must occur—or call it detoxification.
The teachers cannot teach a different way because they are victims of myth as well, trapped in their madness which is the essence of all they have been taught and certified to teach.
The black American psychologists are grappling with the problem of myth as I write. At their last national conference in Oakland they spoke about casting out Eurocentric psychology and returning to the ancient African healing philosophy. They want to transcend European psychotherapy for a more holistic approach that will embrace the entire being of the spiritually ill person, for sure, the mental is related to the physical to the social to the political to the economic.
But as with education, how shall the mental health workers get certified to teach African healing when they have been trained in Eurocentric psychology? And what is the mythological foundation of African healing? Imagine throwing out white education, but the question is can they heal the black mind with white psychology? As much as we applaud the psychotherapeutic peer group approach, prescribed in my manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, even the peer group is not sufficient unless the group bonds together in a holistic manner to overcome the myriad ills due to oppression.
The myth of love is an example of how we are entrapped in mythology. Love becomes an ever changing illusion based on materialism and economic security, thus it is a physical thing that in the end causes us to cry, "What does love have to do with it?" But in reality love is all there is. God is Love! Yet we spend a lifetime seeking that which is our essence. Surely we must be on the wrong path or in the wrong house of love. And after a lifetime with the beloved, we wonder was it in vain, a waste of energy, a pitiful existence with a beloved who hated our guts, was jealous, envious, greedy, yet this was our mate, this was us.
And so detoxification is in order to begin our recovery from sick mythology. We resist and deny anything is amiss but we must summon the strength to make a change, to jump out the box toward a brighter day. We fight leaving the comfort zone for it is all we know, like the slaves upon emancipation: where shall we go, what shall we do without the master? He was our everything, our god, our lover, our enforcer, our rapist even. But deconstructing alien mythology is the only way out, just as the dope fiend must stop using dope upon the pain of death. Now some choose death, the die-hards who claim dope is the best thing that ever happened to them. So they are not satisfied until they fall into the pit.
The society addicted to sick mythology is no better than the common dope fiend. It is determined to commit mass suicide. America is not alone in this manner. It is the same with Israel, North Korea, Iran and elsewhere. Mythology (call it ideology if you wish) will be the final determinant of the political actions in the above nations. Will they transcend their mythology and live or persist in their inordinacy until they die?
The sooner we get beyond myth into a progressive, radical and revolutionary state of mind, the better we shall all be. But it would be a step forward if we simply stopped believing in the superiority of myth. This notion of superiority is probably worse than the myth itself. The myth of white supremacy is no better or worse than other myths, but the problem is when whites want to spread their myth and force it upon others who have their own mythology. As far as I am concerned, let the whites in the American south keep their confederate flag, just don’t subject it upon me and my people. Keep that shit in yo house, your church or wherever you dwell and I don’t. And if I fly the Star and Crescent, leave me the hell alone.
But let’s go deeper into the world of myth for a story is composed of words, thus we must consider linguistics or language when attempting to transcend myth, for the devil is in the language. We may therefore find ourselves in need of a new language in order to transcend myth, for we speak a mythical language, and just as we do not understand the mythology, we do not understand the language. To have a common language suggests we have agreed upon definitions, but again, what do you mean by love, and are you prepared to love your enemy? Can you love yourself, and who or what is yourself? Who is the black self, what is it? We grappled with this problem in the 60s in trying to define a black esthetic. What is beauty and truth to us? Suddenly the Negro was ugly and black was beautiful, and for a moment there was a consensus and a people moved forward. And then came the breakdown and the consensus was gone. The natural hair style was no longer en vogue. Ugly became beautiful. Ugly was freedom, although we never got a consensus on what freedom meant, nor do we have one today. What is freedom to you is not freedom to me. You say freedom is a job, and that’s the totality of your freedom. Other people fight for land, natural resources, self determination, but you say just give you a job and you are satisfied.
So how can we unite? You say freedom is having sex between persons of the same sex. Nothing else matters to you in life. But we ask what does sex have to do with it? Were you put aboard the slave ships so you could have sex with the same gender loving persons, is this why your ancestors suffered in the cotton and cane fields, was it for sexual freedom, or what is possibly something that went far beyond pussy and dick, getting a nut in the dark or in some alley, bathroom, park?
Again, we need to define some terms before we can move forward into the new era. Let’s list some terms and define them—and how can we do this when terms are ever shifting, for language is dynamic and fluid, Negro, Colored, black, African, Bilalian, Moorish, et al. We are forever changing our identity because we cannot come to a consensus as a people. At least the white people know they are white, they may not know anything else, but they know they are white.
You don’t know if you are black or white, man or woman—for the sands are constantly shifting under your feet—the result of your insecurity, personal and communal. It is an identity crisis of the most profound degree imaginable.
So myth is composed with language, from myth to ritual, from ritual to reality, but language is the foundation.
The child’s world only becomes real when it takes command of its “mother tongue.” Within the mother tongue is myth which is composed of surface and deep structure terminology and meaning, the said and the unsaid, the seen and the unseen.
We are that child that has yet to master language, hence our world is chaos without solid, safe and secure definitions, leading us not to know what is real and unreal, a confusion of self and kind. We are not certain our brother is a friend or foe. We are not sure if our mate is friend or foe, lover or hater. In a moment of passion we may hear words we never thought was in the heart of our lover, or we may use such words ourselves. Now there is more doubt and insecurity in an already fragile relationship, that more than likely originated in lust rather than anything that can be called love.
And so we see the task before us, a psycho-linguistic mythological conundrum that will take centuries to resolve since in the global village our mythology is bound with other mythological tribes and nations, some of which seek our life blood.
We may be forced out of our slumber to shed the old raggedy clothes of worn out mythology, whether religious or political, sexual or social. Elijah told us the wisdom of this world is exhausted—one need only look around and listen to the language, the babble blowing in the wind, in spite of all the technology, all the human advancement. Surely, in spite of it all, reverse evolution has set in, a kind of atrophy, a freezing of the mental apparatus, a paralysis of thought while the very hour challenges us with the need for grand vision to make that great leap forward into the new millennium.
--Marvin X
Friday, June 19, 2009
Black Dialogue Brothers Tour
They came together at the 65th birthday party of Marvin X, a group of men who ignited black liberation on the West coast during the 60s while students at San Francisco State University, namely Abdul Sabri, Aubry Labrie, Duke Williams, Arthur Sheridan and Marvin X. Also Saddat Ahmed and Joe Goncalves, who went on to publish the bible of 60s poetry, the Journal of Black Poetry.
The group traveled to Soledad prison to present and perform at the black culture club, chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and his lieutenant Alprentice Bunchy Carter. Arthur Sheridan had been contacted by Cleaver's lawyer Beverley Axelrod to make the Soledad prison visit.
Black Dialogue was Art's idea and he became the founding editor.
This culture club was the beginning of the black prison movement in America, and when Black Dialogue met the club, it established a unity between the prison movement and black students who were also members of the budding black arts movement. Black Dialogue and the Journal of Black Poetry were major publications of BAM with influence coast to coast. These journals, along with Soulbook ( a RAM publication) and John H. Johnson's Negro Digest/Black World, the New Lafayette's Black Theatre, were critical publications of the neo-black intellectuals nationwide, spreading radical consciousness into the black liberation movement in general.
It was Art Sheridan who told Marvin X he might consider hooking up with a playwright named Ed Bullins and the two formed Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore, 1966, a West coast version of what LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Larry Neal, Sun Ra and others were doing in Harlem.
On Thursday night, Black Dialogue brothers came together to present at a poetry venue hosted by Arthur Sheridan in Sausalito, a mostly white community near San Francisco, where Arthur is the Black Prince who lives in a houseboat in the Bay. California's Poet Laureate Al Young was the featured poet. Al also contributed poetry to Black Dialogue and acknowledged Art for showcasing his early work, as did Marvin X. Duke Williams also read, although Duke was modest since he is a singer as well. Marvin read from his memoir Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil.
The Brothers agreed to continue their Black Dialogue tour. Al Young agreed to join them. They will co-sponsor and perform at Marvin X's August 1st book signing and conversation ( with James W. Sweeney) at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 14th and Franklin, downtown Oakland.
Ladies watch out! Marvin's sister Debbie said she didn't know her brother had such handsome friends. Call 510-355-6339 for more information. Catch Marvin X classic play Flowers for the Trashman at the San Francisco Theatre Festival in July.
Flowers for the Trashman
The Lower Bottom Playaz invite you to support the San Francisco Theater Festival.
We are proud to offer three selections for your viewing pleasure.
Mama at Twilightby WordSlanger
directed by A. Nzinga
Screening Room, from 12:20 pm to 12:50 pm
Bathroom Graffiti Queen
by Opal Palmer Adisa
directed by A. Nzinga
Screening Room, from 3:50 pm to 4:20 pm
Flowers for the Trashman
by Marvin X Jackmon
directed by A. NzingaScreening Room, from 2:05 pm to 2:35 pm
www.sftheaterfestival.org
www. myspace.com/yardtheater
They came together at the 65th birthday party of Marvin X, a group of men who ignited black liberation on the West coast during the 60s while students at San Francisco State University, namely Abdul Sabri, Aubry Labrie, Duke Williams, Arthur Sheridan and Marvin X. Also Saddat Ahmed and Joe Goncalves, who went on to publish the bible of 60s poetry, the Journal of Black Poetry.
The group traveled to Soledad prison to present and perform at the black culture club, chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and his lieutenant Alprentice Bunchy Carter. Arthur Sheridan had been contacted by Cleaver's lawyer Beverley Axelrod to make the Soledad prison visit.
Black Dialogue was Art's idea and he became the founding editor.
This culture club was the beginning of the black prison movement in America, and when Black Dialogue met the club, it established a unity between the prison movement and black students who were also members of the budding black arts movement. Black Dialogue and the Journal of Black Poetry were major publications of BAM with influence coast to coast. These journals, along with Soulbook ( a RAM publication) and John H. Johnson's Negro Digest/Black World, the New Lafayette's Black Theatre, were critical publications of the neo-black intellectuals nationwide, spreading radical consciousness into the black liberation movement in general.
It was Art Sheridan who told Marvin X he might consider hooking up with a playwright named Ed Bullins and the two formed Black Arts West Theatre in the Fillmore, 1966, a West coast version of what LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Larry Neal, Sun Ra and others were doing in Harlem.
On Thursday night, Black Dialogue brothers came together to present at a poetry venue hosted by Arthur Sheridan in Sausalito, a mostly white community near San Francisco, where Arthur is the Black Prince who lives in a houseboat in the Bay. California's Poet Laureate Al Young was the featured poet. Al also contributed poetry to Black Dialogue and acknowledged Art for showcasing his early work, as did Marvin X. Duke Williams also read, although Duke was modest since he is a singer as well. Marvin read from his memoir Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil.
The Brothers agreed to continue their Black Dialogue tour. Al Young agreed to join them. They will co-sponsor and perform at Marvin X's August 1st book signing and conversation ( with James W. Sweeney) at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 14th and Franklin, downtown Oakland.
Ladies watch out! Marvin's sister Debbie said she didn't know her brother had such handsome friends. Call 510-355-6339 for more information. Catch Marvin X classic play Flowers for the Trashman at the San Francisco Theatre Festival in July.
Flowers for the Trashman
The Lower Bottom Playaz invite you to support the San Francisco Theater Festival.
We are proud to offer three selections for your viewing pleasure.
Mama at Twilightby WordSlanger
directed by A. Nzinga
Screening Room, from 12:20 pm to 12:50 pm
Bathroom Graffiti Queen
by Opal Palmer Adisa
directed by A. Nzinga
Screening Room, from 3:50 pm to 4:20 pm
Flowers for the Trashman
by Marvin X Jackmon
directed by A. NzingaScreening Room, from 2:05 pm to 2:35 pm
www.sftheaterfestival.org
www. myspace.com/yardtheater
The Myth of Abraham
The myth of Abraham reveals that Africans (Canaanites) lived in the land before Abraham arrived from the land of Ur, circa Babylon, or modern Iraq. Diop tells us the Egyptians and Canaanites were brothers, thus the land of Canaan was African land, we can read further the Wonderful Ethiopians of Arabia. But there is no Jew or Arab until Abraham wanders into Canaan. This is the beginning of Jewish mythology. The aboriginal inhabitants of Arabia were the Ethiopians or Egyptians.
Abraham then makes the mistake of marrying his maid, the Egyptian Hagar who gives birth to Ishmael from whom the Arabs descend, the Jews descending from Abraham and Sarah, through Isaac. Never have these half brothers caused more chaos in history than at the present moment with their mythological claims to the socalled Holy Land while the rightful owner is totally ignorant of the fact he is the rightful owner. Even Negroes in their mythical madness and ignorance support the Jewish claim to the land. We have a feeling the entire matter will be solved soon with the destruction of the area by nuclear warfare, urged on by a combination of myths from Jews, Muslims and Christians.
The tragedy of myth is that all reality is myth or a story, real or imagined or a combination of reality and fantasy, of cultural history and political domination at the point of the gun--the gun is politics by other means, as Mao taught. Myths are true only to those who believe them, just as in Vodun, if you don't believe it, it has no effect on you, but once you accept it one is bound to be hexed, vexed, spooked or whatever. The myth of the Negro was only valid as long as he accepted it. Once he declared "I am a man," the Negro vanished in an instant and the black man and woman arrived on the stage of history.
Today the problem is perhaps something akin to reverse evolution with the Negro advancing and retreating simultaneously. He is both the donkey of the world and the stallion, the king and the beggar. It is this confusion of identity that has led to a severe schizophrenia in the Negro, Black man/woman, African, Asiatic, or an infinite combination of names that reveal the seriousness of his mental illness stemming for identity confusion, including his sexual identity which forces him to either don the persona of superman or superbitch.
In Oakland, the death of two young men illustrate the choice. Oscar Grant surrendered to police and was still shot in the back while on the ground, thus he went out like a superbitch, passive and submissive. On the other hand, Louvell Mixon went out like superman, taking four OPD pigs with him. His death instilled an "obscene pride" in the black masses of Oakland, while the death of Oscar Grant only induced pitty and sorry. As Mao said, some deaths are lighter than a feather, some higher than Mount Tai.
On one level the black man has taken the reins of world power, yet still on the bottom in every society, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Socialist, Communist, Capitalist. His lack of an original mythology that will usher him into the modern era may cause him to never liberate himself out the dungeon of putrid ghetto life. While he is original and creative, he is still reactioinary and backward, setting the style in world culture even in his backwardness because initially it is the cool pose, but on closer examination it is the pose of defeat and dread, for he lives an existential drama of insecurity, lack of direction, with no planning or future, except at the whim of the winds. If only he would pull up his pants and go to work doing something for himself. Read any book that will inspire him to fulfill the dreams of his ancestors who suffered so much for him to see this day. Listen to uplifing music that will take his consciousness to a higher level of spirituality, not music that tares apart his central nervous system. Every beat, every rhythm affects our central nervous system. Yet we create beats in total ignorance of their effect except that they sound good, yet they cause us to kill at the drop of a hat, a glance of the eye. It has been revealed that in the first Gulf war the US subjected subliminal codes into the music the Iraqi Army was listening to, and this coded message caused them to throw down their guns and surrender en masse. If this is true, it shows the power of sound, even subliminal sound. So even music is myth, sound is myth, every beat of the drum has mythical power. Ask any Yoruba devotee. It is time to dance to a different drummer.
The myth of Abraham reveals that Africans (Canaanites) lived in the land before Abraham arrived from the land of Ur, circa Babylon, or modern Iraq. Diop tells us the Egyptians and Canaanites were brothers, thus the land of Canaan was African land, we can read further the Wonderful Ethiopians of Arabia. But there is no Jew or Arab until Abraham wanders into Canaan. This is the beginning of Jewish mythology. The aboriginal inhabitants of Arabia were the Ethiopians or Egyptians.
Abraham then makes the mistake of marrying his maid, the Egyptian Hagar who gives birth to Ishmael from whom the Arabs descend, the Jews descending from Abraham and Sarah, through Isaac. Never have these half brothers caused more chaos in history than at the present moment with their mythological claims to the socalled Holy Land while the rightful owner is totally ignorant of the fact he is the rightful owner. Even Negroes in their mythical madness and ignorance support the Jewish claim to the land. We have a feeling the entire matter will be solved soon with the destruction of the area by nuclear warfare, urged on by a combination of myths from Jews, Muslims and Christians.
The tragedy of myth is that all reality is myth or a story, real or imagined or a combination of reality and fantasy, of cultural history and political domination at the point of the gun--the gun is politics by other means, as Mao taught. Myths are true only to those who believe them, just as in Vodun, if you don't believe it, it has no effect on you, but once you accept it one is bound to be hexed, vexed, spooked or whatever. The myth of the Negro was only valid as long as he accepted it. Once he declared "I am a man," the Negro vanished in an instant and the black man and woman arrived on the stage of history.
Today the problem is perhaps something akin to reverse evolution with the Negro advancing and retreating simultaneously. He is both the donkey of the world and the stallion, the king and the beggar. It is this confusion of identity that has led to a severe schizophrenia in the Negro, Black man/woman, African, Asiatic, or an infinite combination of names that reveal the seriousness of his mental illness stemming for identity confusion, including his sexual identity which forces him to either don the persona of superman or superbitch.
In Oakland, the death of two young men illustrate the choice. Oscar Grant surrendered to police and was still shot in the back while on the ground, thus he went out like a superbitch, passive and submissive. On the other hand, Louvell Mixon went out like superman, taking four OPD pigs with him. His death instilled an "obscene pride" in the black masses of Oakland, while the death of Oscar Grant only induced pitty and sorry. As Mao said, some deaths are lighter than a feather, some higher than Mount Tai.
On one level the black man has taken the reins of world power, yet still on the bottom in every society, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Socialist, Communist, Capitalist. His lack of an original mythology that will usher him into the modern era may cause him to never liberate himself out the dungeon of putrid ghetto life. While he is original and creative, he is still reactioinary and backward, setting the style in world culture even in his backwardness because initially it is the cool pose, but on closer examination it is the pose of defeat and dread, for he lives an existential drama of insecurity, lack of direction, with no planning or future, except at the whim of the winds. If only he would pull up his pants and go to work doing something for himself. Read any book that will inspire him to fulfill the dreams of his ancestors who suffered so much for him to see this day. Listen to uplifing music that will take his consciousness to a higher level of spirituality, not music that tares apart his central nervous system. Every beat, every rhythm affects our central nervous system. Yet we create beats in total ignorance of their effect except that they sound good, yet they cause us to kill at the drop of a hat, a glance of the eye. It has been revealed that in the first Gulf war the US subjected subliminal codes into the music the Iraqi Army was listening to, and this coded message caused them to throw down their guns and surrender en masse. If this is true, it shows the power of sound, even subliminal sound. So even music is myth, sound is myth, every beat of the drum has mythical power. Ask any Yoruba devotee. It is time to dance to a different drummer.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Reply to Marvin X's Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality
by
Gerald Ali
Myth, fiction, phantasy, for political reasons, imperialism and exploitation.
The 'god' of Abraham gave him land, the land was actually given by the then Pharaoh to Abraham who had married Hagar, the pharaohs daughter, the land was at Mecca, where the Muslim Kabaa is. So the 'god' of Abraham is an Egyptian, a male raised to the level of a god, a monotheistic god, but not by Abraham, nor his descendants, but their enemies.
Not so much just 'towards' spirituality, but in many ways a 'return' to an older true human way of thought, one common in all old societies, pre Patriarchal.
Not so much a return, but a new freeing of the mind.
The breaking of the shackles of the mind, the bringing about a 'leap' in human consciousness, the moving up a level in the spiral of progress, which itself will break people from the falsity of all religions.
Divine, as in the water diviner, a finder, to divine, as in seeking to find the future prior to it happening, a ''divine supernatural being'' is the phantasy, one that doesn't exist, a supernatural nothingness, an abstraction with no base in factuality.
Science, to divine the correct reality of matter, and its properties, and the application of the findings of science to making life better and easier for the mass of people, through utilising the secular field, society.
Religion takes from the masses, exploitation, always needing money, science gives to the masses, the difference lies entirely with who 'rules society', at present, the religious and the corporation of capitalism and their agents on the temporal field.
So even science is perverted, distorted for their needs, not for the needs of the masses, except when its in the interest of the ruling class.
But change who rules society, cut back the religious and their expression capitalism, and then a new society may/will bloom, and science will 'divine'' in accordance with the new rulers, the masses themselves.
'Divine' is an abstraction for the religious, something that cannot be perceived, exist only in darkness.
'Divine' is not an abstraction for science or the secular, its applied.
Religion equates with temporal field, temporal being the religious term for the social field, the priests being religious and working within the structure of the 'church', and temporal non priests as administrators in government, both group based on the 'religious programme.
Science equates with secular, but is badly distorted, as in modern society where its posed as religious or secular, the two being posed sometimes as equal and sometimes as opposed, but secular is not seen as being what it really is - the practical of science.
Once one see's the correct interpretation, one also see the distortion made by and in favour of the religious, who also say they work in everyday life on the secular field, society, yet make no mention of the temporal field, as it was so commonly called throughout European society, throughout the dark ages.
Religion and science are opposed, the temporal and the secular as extensions of the previous two, are also opposed.
The religious oppose science, but want televisions, vehicles, planes, all the benefits that science brings, they are all hypocritical, to truly persue their religions, they should fully oppose and refuse to use anything brought about by science.
Or shut their mouths.
---
The items below are of interest, as they expose and clarify as to how the Torah, and the old testament, through to the new testament, really called the Greek gospels, were in fact compiled.
(( Marvin --- '' I tried to suggest the time has come to transcend religious myth and ritual.''
SAY it louder, and state it rather than just suggesting. ))
Through the use of stolen works, myths, rituals and concepts from earlier periods, implemented through mass illiteracy of the people, as is still the case in many areas of the 'religious, including [some would say especially ] the USA, where people have a truly perverted meaning of what is meant by 'LITERACY.
Solon the Greek, Socrates also Greek, never put pen to paper, they never bothered to learn how to, but both are fully classed as outstandingly LITERATE men, as well as leading intellectuals, even Homer is looked upon as never using ink, just the spoken word, a master of the LITERATE, so it has been through history.
Making or deciphering symbols on paper, or on a screen doesn't make anyone literate.
---
This doesn't mean I agree with everything below of Marvins, just some of it. Begins very well, last paragraph hmmmm .... and the first and the last are joined by the middle.
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- -
Zeitgeist: The Roots of Christianity May Surprise ------------ --------- ----
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=-n4mKk5Klrw&feature=related
Zeitgeist [Religion] The Greatest Story Ever Sold (2 of 3)
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=qc-mrJf45Hg&feature=related
Zeitgeist [Religion] The Greatest Story Ever Sold (3 of 3)
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=IjAegPhQOUg&feature=related
by
Gerald Ali
Myth, fiction, phantasy, for political reasons, imperialism and exploitation.
The 'god' of Abraham gave him land, the land was actually given by the then Pharaoh to Abraham who had married Hagar, the pharaohs daughter, the land was at Mecca, where the Muslim Kabaa is. So the 'god' of Abraham is an Egyptian, a male raised to the level of a god, a monotheistic god, but not by Abraham, nor his descendants, but their enemies.
Not so much just 'towards' spirituality, but in many ways a 'return' to an older true human way of thought, one common in all old societies, pre Patriarchal.
Not so much a return, but a new freeing of the mind.
The breaking of the shackles of the mind, the bringing about a 'leap' in human consciousness, the moving up a level in the spiral of progress, which itself will break people from the falsity of all religions.
Divine, as in the water diviner, a finder, to divine, as in seeking to find the future prior to it happening, a ''divine supernatural being'' is the phantasy, one that doesn't exist, a supernatural nothingness, an abstraction with no base in factuality.
Science, to divine the correct reality of matter, and its properties, and the application of the findings of science to making life better and easier for the mass of people, through utilising the secular field, society.
Religion takes from the masses, exploitation, always needing money, science gives to the masses, the difference lies entirely with who 'rules society', at present, the religious and the corporation of capitalism and their agents on the temporal field.
So even science is perverted, distorted for their needs, not for the needs of the masses, except when its in the interest of the ruling class.
But change who rules society, cut back the religious and their expression capitalism, and then a new society may/will bloom, and science will 'divine'' in accordance with the new rulers, the masses themselves.
'Divine' is an abstraction for the religious, something that cannot be perceived, exist only in darkness.
'Divine' is not an abstraction for science or the secular, its applied.
Religion equates with temporal field, temporal being the religious term for the social field, the priests being religious and working within the structure of the 'church', and temporal non priests as administrators in government, both group based on the 'religious programme.
Science equates with secular, but is badly distorted, as in modern society where its posed as religious or secular, the two being posed sometimes as equal and sometimes as opposed, but secular is not seen as being what it really is - the practical of science.
Once one see's the correct interpretation, one also see the distortion made by and in favour of the religious, who also say they work in everyday life on the secular field, society, yet make no mention of the temporal field, as it was so commonly called throughout European society, throughout the dark ages.
Religion and science are opposed, the temporal and the secular as extensions of the previous two, are also opposed.
The religious oppose science, but want televisions, vehicles, planes, all the benefits that science brings, they are all hypocritical, to truly persue their religions, they should fully oppose and refuse to use anything brought about by science.
Or shut their mouths.
---
The items below are of interest, as they expose and clarify as to how the Torah, and the old testament, through to the new testament, really called the Greek gospels, were in fact compiled.
(( Marvin --- '' I tried to suggest the time has come to transcend religious myth and ritual.''
SAY it louder, and state it rather than just suggesting. ))
Through the use of stolen works, myths, rituals and concepts from earlier periods, implemented through mass illiteracy of the people, as is still the case in many areas of the 'religious, including [some would say especially ] the USA, where people have a truly perverted meaning of what is meant by 'LITERACY.
Solon the Greek, Socrates also Greek, never put pen to paper, they never bothered to learn how to, but both are fully classed as outstandingly LITERATE men, as well as leading intellectuals, even Homer is looked upon as never using ink, just the spoken word, a master of the LITERATE, so it has been through history.
Making or deciphering symbols on paper, or on a screen doesn't make anyone literate.
---
This doesn't mean I agree with everything below of Marvins, just some of it. Begins very well, last paragraph hmmmm .... and the first and the last are joined by the middle.
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- -
Zeitgeist: The Roots of Christianity May Surprise ------------ --------- ----
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=-n4mKk5Klrw&feature=related
Zeitgeist [Religion] The Greatest Story Ever Sold (2 of 3)
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=qc-mrJf45Hg&feature=related
Zeitgeist [Religion] The Greatest Story Ever Sold (3 of 3)
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=IjAegPhQOUg&feature=related
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality
In my collection of essays under the above title, I tried to suggest the time has come to transcend religious myth and ritual. The myths of all religions have led to wars, large and small, across the planet, some to genocide, especially in the modern era. Religious myth and rituals have spread the most abysmal ignorance across the planet, even led to the killing of scientists who debunked certain myths upheld by the religious leaders. At the present hour we see Jews oppressing Arabs based on Jewish mythology. We see Christians occupying Muslim lands and attempting to destroy them because of Christian belief in white supremacy. The Christians have such a superiority complex they think they can possess nuclear weapons but Muslims and Communists should not, depending on who the Christians determine is friend or foe. Such ignorance and arrogance cannot stand in the present world or the new world coming, the world of high spiritual consciousness. Sectarianism based on myth has turned Iraq into a cauldron of hatred and revenge, inspired by Christian white supremacy, divide and conquer tactics.
Iran, a nation of people with thousands of years of culture and civilization, appears to be on the road to destruction, from within and without, again, based on religious myth, internal and external, whether Shia, Sunni, Christian and/or Jewish. We may be only minutes away from nuclear war in this region, and again, such a war is urged on from those with various mythologies, especially Christian and Shia Muslim. Such a war must happen to bring about the return of saviors, messiahs and Mahdi's. The leaders in Iran claim the 12th Imam will return only if there is war in the Middle East, hence they make pronouncements to bring it about. The Christians are no different in their support of the Jewish state only because they think the final battle or Armageddon will take place to usher in the return of Jesus. The Christians thus fake support of Israel while secretly desiring war and destruction so Jesus can return.
The only way to obtain peace and harmony on this planet is by transcending religious mythology, no matter how painful and unsettling to human psychology, for each religious person will need to give up the essence of his beliefs in order to cross the "river Jordan." As long as persons are determined to remain in their comfort zones, global politics will disintegrate into warfare and the final destruction.
You may ask if one gives up mythology, what remains? The Sufi answered this long ago by proclaiming the religion of the heart. This attitude is not apolitical because Sufis have been involved in decolonialism from Africa to Asia to the Americas--Elijah Muhammad's liberation theology is essential Sufism. Of course you will say Elijah was the master mythologist, especially with his story of Yacoub. But this myth was functional only to restore consciousness to the deaf, dumb and blind so-called Negro or North American African. He told you the black man was supreme as an anti-toxin to the white supremacy of the master race or those who claimed such poppycock.
We see three levels of consciousness: animal, human and divine. There are human beings stuck on the animal plane, such as murderers and rapists, child molesters, the greedy blood sucking capitalists who will kill their mothers for a dollar. And there are those who exist on the human plane, who cling to secularism, though we can see clearly the human plane is not sufficient to satisfy man who is a spiritual being in human form, thus he is beyond human, if he will only go there and stay in his essence. He continues developing technology but none of it is superior to the divine mind. We can read minds if we think we can. We can heal the sick, once we think we can. One is on the animal plane only because he thinks as an animal. Once he thinks divine thoughts, it is a done deal, the world becomes a many splendid thing. He can transcend chaos with simple silence. Don't feed into madness and there will be none, or resist the devil and he will flee from thee.
--Marvin X
Marvin X's next public appearance will be Saturday, August 1, 3-5pm, at the Joyce Gordon Gallery,406 14th Street at Franklin, downtown Oakland. James W. Sweeney will engage the poet in conversation. The event is a memorial tribute to slain journalist Chauncey Bailey. It is sponsored by the Oakland Post Newspaper Group and Black Bird Press. Light refreshments served. Marvin X will sign copies of his latest book, a memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil. Admission with purchase of book, $19.95. Call 510-355-6339.
In my collection of essays under the above title, I tried to suggest the time has come to transcend religious myth and ritual. The myths of all religions have led to wars, large and small, across the planet, some to genocide, especially in the modern era. Religious myth and rituals have spread the most abysmal ignorance across the planet, even led to the killing of scientists who debunked certain myths upheld by the religious leaders. At the present hour we see Jews oppressing Arabs based on Jewish mythology. We see Christians occupying Muslim lands and attempting to destroy them because of Christian belief in white supremacy. The Christians have such a superiority complex they think they can possess nuclear weapons but Muslims and Communists should not, depending on who the Christians determine is friend or foe. Such ignorance and arrogance cannot stand in the present world or the new world coming, the world of high spiritual consciousness. Sectarianism based on myth has turned Iraq into a cauldron of hatred and revenge, inspired by Christian white supremacy, divide and conquer tactics.
Iran, a nation of people with thousands of years of culture and civilization, appears to be on the road to destruction, from within and without, again, based on religious myth, internal and external, whether Shia, Sunni, Christian and/or Jewish. We may be only minutes away from nuclear war in this region, and again, such a war is urged on from those with various mythologies, especially Christian and Shia Muslim. Such a war must happen to bring about the return of saviors, messiahs and Mahdi's. The leaders in Iran claim the 12th Imam will return only if there is war in the Middle East, hence they make pronouncements to bring it about. The Christians are no different in their support of the Jewish state only because they think the final battle or Armageddon will take place to usher in the return of Jesus. The Christians thus fake support of Israel while secretly desiring war and destruction so Jesus can return.
The only way to obtain peace and harmony on this planet is by transcending religious mythology, no matter how painful and unsettling to human psychology, for each religious person will need to give up the essence of his beliefs in order to cross the "river Jordan." As long as persons are determined to remain in their comfort zones, global politics will disintegrate into warfare and the final destruction.
You may ask if one gives up mythology, what remains? The Sufi answered this long ago by proclaiming the religion of the heart. This attitude is not apolitical because Sufis have been involved in decolonialism from Africa to Asia to the Americas--Elijah Muhammad's liberation theology is essential Sufism. Of course you will say Elijah was the master mythologist, especially with his story of Yacoub. But this myth was functional only to restore consciousness to the deaf, dumb and blind so-called Negro or North American African. He told you the black man was supreme as an anti-toxin to the white supremacy of the master race or those who claimed such poppycock.
We see three levels of consciousness: animal, human and divine. There are human beings stuck on the animal plane, such as murderers and rapists, child molesters, the greedy blood sucking capitalists who will kill their mothers for a dollar. And there are those who exist on the human plane, who cling to secularism, though we can see clearly the human plane is not sufficient to satisfy man who is a spiritual being in human form, thus he is beyond human, if he will only go there and stay in his essence. He continues developing technology but none of it is superior to the divine mind. We can read minds if we think we can. We can heal the sick, once we think we can. One is on the animal plane only because he thinks as an animal. Once he thinks divine thoughts, it is a done deal, the world becomes a many splendid thing. He can transcend chaos with simple silence. Don't feed into madness and there will be none, or resist the devil and he will flee from thee.
--Marvin X
Marvin X's next public appearance will be Saturday, August 1, 3-5pm, at the Joyce Gordon Gallery,406 14th Street at Franklin, downtown Oakland. James W. Sweeney will engage the poet in conversation. The event is a memorial tribute to slain journalist Chauncey Bailey. It is sponsored by the Oakland Post Newspaper Group and Black Bird Press. Light refreshments served. Marvin X will sign copies of his latest book, a memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, My Friend the Devil. Admission with purchase of book, $19.95. Call 510-355-6339.
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