Please sign the petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf requesting her support for a concert benefiting The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

April 13, 2016, 10:53 am

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Hotep,

On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.

That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:

"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "

Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/straight-outta-oakland?source=c.fwd&r_by=15569191

Thanks! 

Marvin X,

Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Co-producer/director 

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Abstract for Straight Outta Oakland, the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

While in Philadelphia participating in the 60th Birthday Celebration for imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, Marvin X recruited a Dream Team of artists, activists, educators and promoters for the 27 City Black Arts Movement Tour. The following are a few of the persons who tentatively agreed to join the BAM Tour:

Dr. Cornel West, educator
Dr. Tony Montiero, educator
Dr. Muhammad Ahmed, educator
Fred Hampton, Jr., activist
Preston Muhammad, promoter
Alfie Pollitt, musician, arranger
Elliot Bey, musician
Pam Africa, activist
Maurice Henderson, producer
Abiodun, the Last Poets
Umar Bin Hasan, the Last Poets



The BAM Poet's Choir and Arkestra performed at the Black Arts Movement Conference, University of California, Merced, Feb 28 thru March 2, 2014.

Abstract for the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

 

The mission of the Black Arts Movement’s 27 City Tour is to continue the cultural revolution we initiated during the 1960s.  This cultural revolution is still needed because for a variety of reasons the Black Arts Movement was aborted due to the radical nature of our task which was the liberation of our people in harmony with the political movement.  Today, the need to address the political condition is critical, yes, even with the election of a non-white president, though this president has done little to address non-white issues, especially the high unemployment of youth, the high incarceration rate of 2.4 million  and the deportation rate of two million so called illegal immigrants since President Obama took office.

But more than the political and economic situation is the cultural condition, some of the reactionary values in hip hop culture, especially unconscious rap poetry, and even the socalled conscious poetry is, in the words of my daughter, an expression of the pseudo conscious, for words are not followed by the right action. As we know, talk is cheap! Sonia Sanchez would say the contradictions in hip hop were inherited from the Black Arts Movement contradictions. "Brothers talked Black Power but went home to beat their wives and partners. BAM children, i.e., the Hip Hop generation observed our behavior and emulated it."

But most important is the overall lack of mental health wellness in our community nationwide, to say nothing of physical wellness. The high rate of homicide among young North American African men is symptomatic of a lack of manhood training or the infusion of traditional values that inspire and motivate people to be the best they can be, to give honor and respect to their elders and ancestors. 

The 50%  or more drop out rate of students in our schools is partly the result of our dire mental health condition. Alas, it is said not only is there a critical need for a positive curriculum and teachers with an undying love for our children, but the mental health condition of our children requires mental health counselors with radical  values of wellness  based on a holistic approach to solving our myriad psycho-social and economic issues.   
We are dumbfounded to learn the USA  (Bush and Obama) promised the young men in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere (except in the USA) three items if they stop their violence and pledge allegiance to the constitution of their lands: education, jobs and housing. Why not offer education, jobs and housing for the boyz and girls  in the hood? 
The BAM tour will address some of these issues through the medium of art, i.e. poetry, drama, dance, music, graphics. While art therapy has been used in traditional cultures, and was utilized in the Black Arts Movement, there must be a concerted effort to make use of art in the healing of our people. Throughout the years, we have seen the power of art in changing destructive personalities. We recall the production we did of Amiri Baraka’s play Dutchman in Fresno CA. The local pimp loaned us  a wig for the female character Lula. When he viewed the play and saw her stab the young North American African male, Clay, this rocked the pimp’s world and he threw in his pimping towel, joined the Nation of Islam and eventually became an imam and made his haj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Thus we see the power of art to heal broken, self destructive and economically damaged personalities.

Many times we heard Amiri Baraka speak about the need to reach our people in the 27 major cities we inhabit in large numbers—to reach out and touch them with healing Black Art that can restore our mental and physical wellness.  In honor of ancestor Amiri Baraka, we propose to conduct a 27 city tour with concerts and wellness workshops to aid in the recovery of ourselves. Our special focus shall be on young Black men, although we cannot  and will not ignore young black women, nor will we avoid adult and parental responsibility. Thus, this will be an inter-generational experience. Sly Stone told us, "It's a family affair!" And the O'Jays said it is a Family Reunion. When we come together as family and embrace with the words "I appreciate you!" the revolution is victorious!

We estimate the overall budget for this project will be 2.7 million dollars at $100,000 per city, including  artist fees, promotion, advertisement, rental of venues, insurance, security, lodging, food,transportation and documentation. Since many of the Black Arts Movement workers are elders, the timeline would be at least three years to complete this project,  including planning and production.

BAM workers in each community will be recruited to participate and we would like to establish a BAM House or cultural center in each city, no matter if it is a 50 seat theatre as Amiri Baraka suggested.  A staff of educators,  mental and physical health workers must be a part of this project so that we more effectively deal with our wellness in a holistic manner.

Sincerely,

Marvin X, Project Director

The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

Philadelphia PA

4/23/14

510-200-4164

National Advisory Board Members

Mrs. Amina Baraka

Sonia Sanchez

Askia Toure

Haki Madhubuti

Mae Jackson

Rudolph Lewis

Maurice Henderson

Emory Douglas

Troy Johnson

Kalamu Ya Salaam

Eugene Redman

Kim McMillan

Ayodele Nzinga

Geoffery Grier

Nefertiti Jackmon

Muhammida El Muhajir

Jessica Care Moore

Paul Cobb

Conway Jones

John Burris

James Sweeney

Fahizah Alim

Nisa Ra

Aries JordanBilly X Jennings

Sam Anderson

Marvin X, Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, Black Arts
Movement 27 City Tour
photo Pendarvis Harshaw

For information and/or booking, contact:
Marvin X
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
510-200-4164 

 Marvin X and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
(FYI, that's spilled coffee on MX's shirt, aka Messy Marv)

Mayor Schaaf said she will use her power as Mayor to support the BAM 27 City Tour by contacting mayors in other American cities. We urge her to do so ASAP. Even better, Madam Mayor please give BAM 27 City Tour a benefit concert at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony joining the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. We think Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan is ready to do the BAM Thang!

 

Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra Producer/Director Marvin X and Oakland Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan agreed to join their talents in a concert. Let it be the Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour, benefit concert. We'll invite some of the BAM icons like Danny Glover,  Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Askia Toure, Last Poets. For sure, the Bay Area Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra will do the BAM Thang!

 

photo collage Adam Turner
The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra 
Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival,
2014

Straight Outta Oakland

Straight Outta Oakland, the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, has been invited to perform at Oakland's Flight Deck Theatre on Broadway, downtown Oakland. Executive Director Anna Shneiderman emailed BAM Tour producer Marvin X: Hi Marvin. I'd love to see this concert happen at The Flight Deck.  Please let me know if you think that makes sense and if so, what time of year you're thinking about.

Bests,
Anna

Anna Shneiderman
Executive Director

Ragged Wing Ensemble & The Flight Deck
510-858-7383

www.raggedwing.org

www.theflightdeck.org

CUBA first stop on 27 City Tour?

Members of the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra  informed producer Marvin X they would like to initiate the tour in Cuba rather than end in Cuba as Marvin had planned. BAM artists from coast to coast have suggested Cuba first, so we shall see. Since the BAM icons are elders, their schedules and health will determine how many will be able to do the 27 city tour. Poet Sonia Sanchez, 80 years old, told the producer, "Marvin, the very idea of a 27 city tour makes me tired."

 

 BAM poet Sonia Sanchez

Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour is estimated to cost about 3 million dollars @ $100,000.00 per city, plus the Cuba Concert. We are seeking donations to make this tour a reality. What is the purpose? Ancestor Amiri Baraka would say, "It's about beauty and truth! It's about advancing the cultural revolution. It's about a United Front of all progressive people." For information or booking, email jmarvinx@yahoo.com. 510-200-4164.

 

Amiri Baraka, BAM Chief architect (RIP)

Straight Outta Oakland

The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

 

Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou doing the BAM BAM (RIP)

 

Graphic design by Adam Turner

Now that the Oakland City Council has approved the Black Arts Movement Business District, the time has come for the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road and complete the 27 City Tour envisioned by ancestor Amiri Baraka.  AB told BAM artists to tour the 27 cities with large populations of North American Africans and spread radical cultural consciousness. He said we should at least establish a fifty seat theatre in each city based on the BAM concept of the artistic freedom fighter. Long live the spirit of AB!

 
Amiri Baraka (RIP) and Marvin X enjoyed a 47 year friendship as movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement was/is the most radical artistic and literary movement in American history, sister of the Black Power Movement. Our mission is to spread radical cultural consciousness throughout the land. We thank the citizens of Oakland for establishing the first Black Arts Movement Business District in America.

The defining work of the Black Arts Movement, Black Fire is at once a rich anthology and an extraordinary source document. Nearly 200 selections, including poetry, essays, short stories, and plays, from over 75 cultural critics, writers, and political leaders, capture the social and cultural turmoil of the 1960s. In his new introduction, Amiri Baraka reflects — nearly four decades later — on both the movement and the book.

 

 BAM co-founder Marvin X and Lynette McElhaney, President of the

 Oakland City Council

photo Adam Turner

 Marvin X speaking at Oakland City Hall's Black History Celebration, Feb. 24, 2016
Marvin X referred to Madam President as African Queen!

 

We especially thank Oakland City Council President, Lynette McElhaney, for pushing through legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. Also, thanks to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Laney College President Elnora T. Webb for celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement at Laney College.

Mayor Schaaf said she will use her power as Mayor to support the BAM 27 City Tour by contacting mayors in other American cities. We urge her to do so ASAP. Even better, Madam Mayor please give BAM 27 City Tour a benefit concert at the Paramount with the Oakland Symphony joining the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. 

We think Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan is ready to do the BAM Thang! Let Oakland be the model for other cities. We ain't goin' into no town half stepin', we first class, that's the only way we travel. We represent Oaktown fada git down! You gotta git in town and outta town. We Straight Outta Oaktown!

 

Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra Producer/Director Marvin X and Oakland Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan agreed to join their talents in a concert. Let it be the Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour, benefit concert. We'll invite some of the BAM icons like Danny Glover,  Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Askia Toure, Last Poets, et al.

 

Left to Right: Mrs. Gay Plair Cobb, Marvin X, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb, Dr. Nathan Hare, Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Oakland Post News Group

We would like the BAM 27 City Tour to end in Cuba with a grand concert featuring the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra, Francisco Mora's Afro Horn, Sun Ra Arkestra and David Murray. We need sponsors, promoters, booking agents to make this happen. If you or your city has a venue for the 27 City US tour, please contact Marvin X: 510-200-4164 ASAP.

Sincerely,

Marvin X,
Producer
BAM 27 City Tour
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Straight Outta Oakland

The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

 

Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou doing the BAM BAM (RIP)

 

Graphic design by Adam Turner

Now that the Oakland City Council has approved the Black Arts Movement Business District, the time has come for the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road and complete the 27 City Tour envisioned by ancestor Amiri Baraka.  AB told BAM artists to tour the 27 cities with large populations of North American Africans and spread radical cultural consciousness. He said we should at least establish a fifty seat theatre in each city based on the BAM concept of the artistic freedom fighter. Long live the spirit of AB!

 
Amiri Baraka (RIP) and Marvin X enjoyed a 47 year friendship as movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement was/is the most radical artistic and literary movement in American history, sister of the Black Power Movement. Our mission is to spread radical cultural consciousness throughout the land. We thank the citizens of Oakland for establishing the first Black Arts Movement Business District in America.

 

 BAM co-founder Marvin X and Lynette McElhaney, President of the

 Oakland City Council

photo Adam Turner

 

 Marvin X speaking at Oakland City Hall's Black History Celebration, Feb. 24, 2016
He referred to City Council President Lynette McElhaney as African Queen!

 

We especially thank Oakland City Council President, Lynette McElhaney, for pushing through legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. Also, thanks to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Laney College President Elnora T. Webb for celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement at Laney College. Mayor Schaaf said she will use her power as Mayor to support the BAM 27 City Tour by contacting mayors in other American cities. We urge her to do so ASAP. Even better, Madam Mayor can give BAM 27 City Tour a benefit concert at the Paramount with the Oakland Symphony joining the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. We think Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan is ready to do the BAM Thang!
 

 

Left to Right: Mrs. Gay Plair Cobb, Marvin X, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb, Dr. Nathan Hare, Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Oakland Post News Group

We would like the BAM 27 City Tour to end in Cuba with a grand concert featuring the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra, Francisco Mora's Afro Horn, Sun Ra Arkestra and David Murray. We need sponsors, promoters, booking agents to make this happen. If you or your city has a venue for the 27 City US tour, please contact Marvin X: 510-200-4164 ASAP.

Sincerely,

Marvin X,
Producer
BAM 27 City Tour
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Icons of the Black Arts Movement
invited to join the 
BAM 27 City Tour

Askia Toure

Sonia Sanchez

Marvin X and Danny Glover

 

Nikki Giovanni

l

The Last Poets 

Felipe Luciano, Last Poets

Haki Madhubuti

Mrs. Amina Baraka

Marshall Allen, Sun Ra Arkestra

 

Danny Thompson, Sun Ra Arkestra

Francisco Mora Catlett, Afro Horn

David Murray

FYI, David Murray, Berkeley native,  now living in Paris, France,  invites the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra to a European tour ASAP! Thank you, David! We be dare directly!

The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra 

University of California, Merced

BAM 50th Celebration, 2014

 

Marvin X, David Murray, Earle Davis

Marvin X reading DOPE by Amiri Baraka (RIP)

Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

Malcolm X Jazz/Arts Festival

Oakland, CA.

2014

Featured artists of the Bay Area 

BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra

Tureada Mikell, Michelle LaChaux, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Tarika Lewis

Tacuma King

Kujichagulia

Paradise Jah Love

f

Choreographer Linda Johnson, Val Serrant, Raynetta Rayzetta

Destiny Muhammad 

Earle Davis

Zena Allen 

 

Aries Jordan

Marvin X

TOWARD THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT 27 CITY TOUR

University of Chicago 

presents 

Sun Ra Conference, May 21-22, 2015

l

 

 

Sun Ra

Marshall Allen, 91 years old, now leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra (He said, "Marvin I'm not 91, I'm 19." Marvin X says, "And he plays like he's 19!" Danny Thompson and Marvin X at University of Chicago, Sun Ra Conference, 2015. They performed and discussed the teachings of BAM Master Sun Ra and their relationship with him as fellow artists. All three are dedicated to the teachings of Sun Ra. FYI, all of us BAM artists were/are students of Sun Ra, students and/or associates of Sun Ra, the POPE of BAM, AB the High Priest. David Murray and Francisco Mora Catlett performed and were infected with the Ra doctrine. RA RA RA!

 
The Gemini twins: Marvin X and Sun Ra. These "Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists" (Sun Ra term) worked together coast to coast. Marvin X worked with the Arkestra in New York, Philly and the Bay Area. Both men taught in the Black Studies Department at University of California, Berkeley, 1971-72. The above pic is outside Marvin's Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco, 1972. Sun Ra arranged the music for Marvin's play Take Care of Business, aka Flowers for the Trashman. They produced a five hour concert (without intermission) at San Francisco's Harding Theatre on Divisadero. The production had a cast of fifty, including Marvin's actors, Sun Ra's Arkestra and the dancers of choreographers Ellendar Barnes and Raymond Sawyer, living legends of Bay Area BAM dance. See SF Sun Reporter archives for review. See Youtube for Sun Ra lectures at University of California, Berkeley, 1971-72.

Juan Felipe Herrera, currently, US Poet Laureate, performed with the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra at the University of California, Merced, 50th Anniversary Conference, produced by Kim McMillon and Marvin X.

h

Poet Ginny Lim, member of The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra 

Left to Right: Zena Allen, Kora player, poet Marvin X, Tarika Lewis, violinist

Linda Johnson, choreographer/dancer

Many of the movement’s leading artists, including Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni, Woodie King, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Touré, Marvin X and Val Gray Ward, remain artistically productive today. Its influence can also be seen in the work of later artists, from the writers Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, and August Wilson to actors Avery Brooks, Danny Glover, and Samuel L. Jackson, to hip-hop artists Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Chuck D. SOS—Calling All Black People includes works of fiction, poetry, and drama in addition to critical writings on issues of politics, aesthetics, and gender. It covers topics ranging from the legacy of Malcolm X and the impact of John Coltrane’s jazz to the tenets of the Black Panther Party and the music of Motown. The editors have provided a substantial introduction outlining the nature, history, and legacy of the Black Arts Movement as well as the principles by which the anthology was assembled.

 

Dr. Cornel West and Marvin X

Cornel supports and will participate in the

Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

"Marvelous Marvin X!"--Cornel West

 

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Black Bourgeoise Art and Opportunism

April 14, 2016, 1:05 pm

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The Black Bourgeoisie is known for its opportunism and exploitation of Grass Roots culture or the culture and art of the masses. The Black bourgeoisie have no culture and art except degeneracy and perversion taught to them by their master/massa. They hail white supremacy culture and ape the one million acts of the monkey mind as Guru Bawa taught us.


There is often no mention of Marcus Garvey Movement's critical influence on the Harem Renaissance by spreading Black consciousness, publishing poetry in his newspaper and otherwise influencing North American art and culture during the 1920s. There is no mention that for his role in spreading Black consciousness, he was the first subject of the newly founded FBI, as though we weren't under surveillance for 400 years during slavery down to the present moment, from slave catchers to the loving police who murder us daily under the color of law.


The Honorable Marcus Garvey, "Africa for Africans, those at
home and those abroad. One God, One Aim, One Destiny!"

d
Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X

In the 60s, it was the Nation of Islam via the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that moved us from Negro to so-called Negro to Black to Aboriginal Asiatic Man. Most academic "tenured Negro" scholars focus on Malcolm X as the chief influence on the Black Arts Movement, relegating Elijah Muhammad to a minor role. Alas, who was Malcolm's leader and teacher? This myopia of understanding is partly due to what Harold Cruse called The Crisis of Black Intellectuals (see his book by the same name). This was much more than an intellectual crisis but a spiritual crisis very similar to the grief Shia Muslims suffer over the assassination of their imams, expressed in their ritual of suffering. In short, Black intellectuals and the Black community in general has not recovered from the death of Malcolm X and the role of the Nation of Islam in his murder, although little emphasis is put on the role of the American government in his murder. Malcolm says, "When I was not allowed to enter France, I knew my problem was bigger than the Nation of Islam. The NOI doesn't rule France."



Dr. Mohja Kahf, Syrian poet/professor whose novel the girl in the tangerine scarf mentions
Marvin X as the father of Muslim American literature. The seminal work being Fly to Allah.

 

As a result, in intellectual and academic circles, the Nation of Islam's influence is downplayed as per the Black Arts Movement. Sadly, it took a Near Eastern American Islamic scholar, the Syrian Dr. Mohja Kahf, to delineate the fundamental role of the Nation of Islam in the Black Arts Movement and in the genre she calls Muslim American literature. Of course Super Sunni Muslims dismiss her theory since the NOI are "not real Muslims."

So we move from the Black Arts Movement's fundamental influence by the Nation of Islam--and its progenitor, the Marcus Garvey Movement, to the Black bourgeoisie's interpretation of Black Art, usually a Miller Lite, World of Make Believe (E. Franklin Frazier's Black Bourgeoisie) version of art, devoid of artists as artistic freedom fighters, Paul Robeson term, the man driven to insanity by the American government and the Black bourgeoisie, one and the same.




In the 60s, the government, foundations and corporations, supported their version of Black Art with grants going to such commercial projects as the Negro Ensemble Company. They tolerated the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem (of which I was a member as associate editor of Black Theatre
Magazine).

 
But ultimately the New Lafayette was defunded when it was clear it was only a step above the Black Arts Repertory Theatre founded by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka.

 
Of course, Black Arts Repertory Theatre was defunded when its message of Black liberation was clear. As a result of government defunding and psychopathic artists who shot BAM philosopher/poet  Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka departed Harlem and returned home to Newark, NJ, and founded Spirit House, the resurrection of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and his political movement that elected Kenneth Gibson, first Black mayor of Newark. Every Black mayor since Gibson went to jail for corruption. Baraka's son Ras in now Mayor. We pray for his success and safety, along with that of his Chief of Staff, his brother Amiri Baraka, Jr.


Meanwhile, the aesthetics of the Black Arts Movement were watered down and opportunists from the movement went commercial, including many BAM actors who moved into film and television, i.e., the Blackexploitation genre that basically persists until today, no matter films such as Malcolm X, Selma, 30 Years A Slave, the Butler, et al.

 Sun Ra, the Pope of BAM

There has been no film utilizing the Muslim myth of Yacub, although Amiri Baraka adapted the myth in his drama A Black Mass.

 

The closest we come to a film utilizing original North American African mythology is Sun Ra's Space is the Place. Sun Ra is the Pope of the Black Arts Movement, Amiri Baraka its High Priest. Sun Ra is considered the father of the genre Afro-futurism, Octavia Butler, the mother. We are thankful members of the conscious Hip Hop recognizes Sun Ra but we doubt Hip Hop understands he is the Pope of BAM.

Although BAM provided the literature (see the anthology Black Fire, edited by Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal), for the Black Power Movement and Black Studies, BAM literature was considered too radical for academia, thus BAM literature was suppressed and those initial radical teachers in Black Studies were removed and replaced by more pliant "tenured Negroes" who remain today. Many now recognize the fundamental contribution of the Black Arts Movement to Black Studies, Gender Studies, Chicano Studies, Native American Studies, et al. "Just don't bring them Black Arts Movement nigguhs to campus. We glad most them nigguhs is dead so they can't tell the truth on our punk asses who only wanted a job with no connection to Civil Rites (Sun Ra term) or Black Liberation. See Cecil Brown's Hey, Dude, What Happened to My Black Studies?

Ironically, the schizophrenia of the Black Bourgeoisie is evidenced when one visits their homes filled with Black Arts Movement radical art, especially the art of BAM's queen Mother, Elizabeth Catlett Mora. It's truly amazing how the Black Bourgeoisie try to separate her from the Black Arts Movement. Perhaps, very similar to how the Black Bourgeoisie try to separate Gwen Brooks from BAM, although no one can speak of the Chicago BAM without noting the mentoring role of Gwen Brooks (RIP).

In the modern era, we must note the Atlanta Black Arts Festival is the prime example of the Black Bourgeoisie usurpation of BAM. Initially, the Atlanta Black Arts Festival acknowledged and included
members of BAM in the festival, but not of late, it is a full blown Black Bourgeoisie, world of make believe event.

We suspect Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District is headed to Black Bourgeoisie heaven, i.e., the world of make believe. After many months, we yet see the Black Liberation flag flying along the 14th Street corridor. We yet see North American African vendors along the streets of the corridor as economic self-sufficiency in the Marcus Garvey/Elijah Muhammad tradition of do for self. We yet see the SRO hotels in the district transferred into land trusts for the members of the district, artists, workers and common people, many of whom live on the precipice of homelessness and dual diagnosis, i., mentally ill and suffering drug abuse as victims of pervasive global white supremacy. Let's be clear, global white supremacy is not all white, alas, it can be Asian, African, Arab, Latin, etc.

For those who suffer the low information mentally, be informed, BAM was/is a national movement of liberation and shall remain such. The Black Bourgeoisie puppets of globalists, developers and gentrfiers  need to take a hike for the peoples of the world are moving into the corridor of beauty and truth. Ugliness has no place in the movement of beauty and truth.

We ask you on the 50th anniversary of  the Oakland founded Black Panther Party: are you part of the problem or part of the solution?

Black Arts Movement Dream and Wish List

April 14, 2016, 4:46 pm

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Black Arts Movement Dream and Wishlist

 

I want to see artists and craft persons in the Black Arts Movement Business District along Oakland's 14th St., just as their are vendors on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue and San Francisco's Market Street, and up and down the East coast.  This will inspire entrepreneurship or do-for-self economics in our community, as well as inspire cultural consciousness. If youth can sell drugs, they can sell anything, legal goods, gear, music, educational tapes, books, healthy, juices, food and vegetables. Why  should the dope man be the number one employer of our youth? I don't want to hear problems, I want to hear solutions! Let's teach our youth to be entrepreneurs. --Marvin X

Black Arts Movement chief architect Amiri Baraka (RIP), Black Panther Party Co-founder Bobby Seale, BAM baby (Marvin X's star student), Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, founder of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Ahi Baraka, surviving baby child of Amina and Amiri Baraka, and Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, in the BAM Business District. "My favorite story teller is Shirley Caesar who has a song calling us to the front of the line. She says you been in the back of the line too long, come to the front of the line! Every child in the world needs to hear her story song No Charge."
photo Gene Hazzard

 Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner in the heart of the BAM District, 14th and Broadway.

photo Adam Turner

graphics Adam Turner

The 50th anniversary celebration of the Black Arts Movement was celebrated at Laney College, Oakland, February 7, 2014. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf issued a proclamation recognizing BAM 50. Left to right: Paul Cobb, publisher Oakland Post News Group, Laney College Professor Dr. Leslie Strafford, Rt. Col. Conway Jones, Jr., National co-founder of BAM, Marvin X, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf with Marvin's granddaughter Naimah Joy and grandson Jamiel; Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb, Dr. Nathan Hare, father of Black and Ethnic Studies in America, Lynette McElhaney, President of the Oakland City Council.

The BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra at the University of California, Merced, BAM Conference and Celebration, produced by Kim McMillon and Marvin X

Keith Carson, member of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, issued a commendation honoring the 50th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. Accepting the commendation is Elena Serano of East Side Arts and Marvin X, co-founder of the National Black Arts Movement.

 

The Black Arts Movement originated in Harlem, New York,

1965 with the Harlem Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco, 1966, was co-founded by Marvin X and playwright Ed Bullins, along with Ethna Wyatt, aka Hurriyah Asar, Duncan Barber, Hillary Broadous and Carl Bossiere.

Hotep,

On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.

That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:

"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "

Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/straight-outta-oakland?source=c.fwd&r_by=15569191

Thanks! 

Marvin X,

Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Co-producer/director

Tentative Bay Area Schedule of the Wild Crazy Ride of the Marvin X Experience

April 15, 2016, 5:22 pm

≫ Next: Party of Lincoln sinking

≪ Previous: Black Arts Movement Dream and Wish List

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Original Last Poets, Felipe Luciano, and Marvin X, co-founder of the National Black Arts Movement

"Marvin X is a Motherfucker!"
--Felipe Luciano, Last Poets

"Don't be so right, Marvin X: You so right you wrong!The
people don't want the truth--they want the low down dirty truth."
 --Sun Ra


"Marvin X says some wild things!"--Attorney John Burris

"At his best, Marvin X is clarity of perception."--Gerald Ali, UK

Master writer Ishmael Reed.

"If you want to learn about inspiration and motivation, don't spend
all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at
14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, and watch Marvin X at
work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland." --Ishmael Reed

TENTATIVE BAY AREA SCHEDULE

Saturday, April 23, 2016, Marvin X speaks/reads, Memorial for Yogi, San Quentin Six, Fulton Street Cultural Center,

San Francisco, 1-5pm

 

Kujichagulia, Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra member and long time artistic freedom fighter will participate in memorial event for Hugo "Yogi" Pinell. Queen of Multi-talents, she taught for many years at San Quentin Prison.

Saturday, April 30, Donald Lacy Show, KPOO Radio, 11AM



Sunday, May 29, Marvin X birthday: he travels to outta space


 photo Pendarvis Harshaw


Saturday, June 18, San Francisco Juneteeth Festival 
Marvin X speaks/reads

Sunday, June 19, Berkeley Juneteenth Festival

September 30/October 1, Marvin X opening monologue for Donald Lacy's play Color Struck

Laney College Theatre, Oakland

If you would like to book the Wild Crazy Ride of the Marvin X Experience, send letter of invitation to:

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Hotep,

On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.

That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:

"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "

Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/straight-outta-oakland?source=c.fwd&r_by=15569191

Thanks! 

Marvin X,

Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Co-producer/director

Party of Lincoln sinking

April 15, 2016, 8:18 pm

≫ Next: Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds

≪ Previous: Tentative Bay Area Schedule of the Wild Crazy Ride of the Marvin X Experience

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Party of Lincoln sinking
funky party of Lincoln
stinking
neo dixicrats faking
Nigguhs say I'm woke
I'm woke
ain't blinking
solid ain't bending
old negroes
loyal democrats
don't care what democrats say
vote fa me
set ya free
vote fa me die fa me set ya free
young people say Bernie Bernie Bernie
man fa me
socialist communist
better than capitalist
hang nigguhs fa jesus
prison house full fa jesus negores
some
liberation army africans
ain't fa jesus
pray to Allah
anin't fa Bernie
ain't fa Trump
sho ain't fa hillery
clinton/bush crime family
in bed with house of saud
house of israel
white house
nigguh no house
no land
no plan
space walking
moon sand
won't strand
like man
woman strand
queer stand
he no stand
nuts in sand
stand nigguh stand
git nuts out sand
git a plan
stand
nigguh stand.
--Marvin X

Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds

April 17, 2016, 8:03 am

≫ Next: Bay Area Living legends Marvin X and Fillmore Slim will perform together at SF Juneteenth Festival, June 18

≪ Previous: Party of Lincoln sinking

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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Parable of Broken systems, broken minds

These days nothing works, children are stuck on stupid, killing because they are bored. Mentally ill people don't want to live so they kill. No one can do anything right, no matter how much you pay them to do a job, the mind is just not there, so the system is wacko, but it's really the wacko minds! Maybe it's the water, the genetically altered food, perhaps the electromagnetic field, but something stinks like rotten meat. The political system is dead in the water, no one cares about the consent of the governed, it's all about the lobbyists. The religious institutions are in pitiful shape, focusing on prosperity while the people starve spiritually--the church cares nothing about the Prince of Peace. The educational system has gone private for the money. The public school drop out rate is 60% in the hood. The prison system is about money: the prisoners are a commodity on the stock exchange, while the prisons are full of the mentally ill and drug addicted. What is the solution? Jump out of the box, the box of ignorance, fear, insecurity, into the pool of love and healing. What did James Brown tell us, Money won't save you but time will take you out!

Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds

What we perceive as reality is most often a reflection of imagination, of mythology and ritual, or simply the mind of man is the macrocosm, reality the microcosm. Systems thus reflect the mind of man--did not someone say creations only reflect the mind of the creator. Broken systems, therefore, originate in broken minds. Yet we wonder why systems are broken, e.g., school system, political system, economic system, religious and moral systems.

But systems are not the problem, rather it is the minds of men that are broken irreparably, suffering a mental atrophy, an anorexia, a paralysis of imagination. The causation is simple greed, selfishness and lust for power. It is augmented by the quest for the acquisition of things, the wanton addiction to materialism or the world of make believe, the illusion that the microcosm can satisfy the macrocosm, when the real deal holyfield is the inner rather than the outer. Yet men fear to go there, deep down into the metaphysical realm where the darkest mysteries lie seeking edification and recognition. Thus, we find ourselves at the precipice, about to be consumed by the wonder of life.

Elijah told us, "The wisdom of this world is exhausted." And so it is--spent, obsolete, retarded, and yet we wonder why we are immobile, transfixed--stuck on stupid! Why no systems work.

How is it possible for the great Toyota to need recalling, a consummate machine suddenly dysfunctional. What caused this sudden breakdown-- some internal defect in the machine or in the mind of man?

Look at the educational system, confounded by the ideological foundation of white supremacy capitalism that continues to prepare students for a world of work when there is none, especially with living wages in an economic system that demands cheap labor and resources, a socalled free market system that will transcend the national needs for the

wants and desires of global finance gangs, connected with, supported and defended by the military, i.e., the Christian Crusaders, soon to be supplanted by Communists from China, India and Russia.

The teachers were long ago taught to teach a new way--back in Egypt they were told to teach with compassion and love. Yet what we see today is the pedagogy of hate. It is a system that rewards ignorance and punishes wisdom and creativity, especially of the thinking variety. Any original thought is suppressed or deemed antisocial thought and behavior, often resulting in the student diagnosed to require psycho drugs that turn him into the zombie required by the society of the walking dead.

The religious system is the same. It is in full blown denial about the meaning of the cross and the lynching tree, about the mission of the prince of peace. For the most part, the religious community is Silent Night about the trillion dollar military budget that allows mass murder to take place across the planet. Along with Silent Night, it sings Onward Christian Soldiers as its sons and daughters crisscross the planet to secure labor and natural resources for the pleasure of the walking dead, and most especially the miserable few who enjoy the high life.

It is all about the glorification of Pharaoh and his magicians. God, in the minds of men, is a business, big business. There is no desire for spirituality, only prosperity, minus compassion for the poor, homeless, jobless and broken hearted, crushed to earth like the pot in the hands of Jeremiah at the gates of his city.

In the minds of politicians, there is no compromise, only preparation for the next election, or the assumption or resumption of power at any and all costs, no lie is exempt, "Vote for me, I'll set you free!" All bribes are acceptable--politicians are thus loyal to lobbyists, not the people who are expendable.

The lips of politicians do not say let us reason together for the sake of the people, for the love of the people, for the consent of the governed. These men and women of the political realm only know the language of no, no, no. As the people starve, become homeless, jobless, we yet hear the mantra of no, no, no, late into the night. No compromise, no reconciliation, only recalcitrance and niggardliness. They are fast to reward the robber barons, the blood suckers of the poor. Eventually, a few crumbs, kibble and bits reach the poor, if ever, unless there is revolt. And then Pharaoh sees the light, suddenly, but he will send his magicians to placate the poor with more crumbs, kibbles and bits.

Between good and evil, evil is the choice, with greed the foundation stone in the minds of men. Amazingly, the people see clearly. They feel change in the wind, not the change in the educational system or the political or religious, but in the wind. They smell the rotten hearts of men who lead into nothingness and dread, with their pitiful strut of the peacock, the one legged dance of the flamingo.

Pharaoh magicians gather in dens of iniquity to share blood money. Teachers, preachers, politicians, all there to party on the backs of the poor. The military stand post at the door of the den, ready to club the wretched into submission, even death, if they dare enter the den of thieves, robbers, murderers, and those who perpetuate the world of make believe.

Inside the den we hear a symphony of sick sounds, giggles, wails, grunts emanating from putrid minds exhausted from wickedness. The result is systematic gridlock--it is 5pm and the freeway is jammed with drivers full of road rage, ready to kill in an instant. It is thus a destruction of self by self, internal combustion.

Unlike the car, there is no forward motion or backward, or perhaps it goes both ways simultaneously, if such is possible in the world of physics, but after all, the minds of men defy all laws, except the law of the jungle and the devil.

But there shall be no forward motion with the present mind-set. Jack must jump out the box of his own making. He must take wings and fly away into a world beyond his imagination.

This is the only way out the morass of his mind. All the technology is to no avail, for he talks, but more often says nothing, he listens but hears nothing, deaf, dumb and blind.

--Marvin X

2/17/10

from The Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2012.

Hotep,

On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.

That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:

"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "

Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/straight-outta-oakland?source=c.fwd&r_by=15569191

Thanks! 

Marvin X,

Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Co-producer/director

Bay Area Living legends Marvin X and Fillmore Slim will perform together at SF Juneteenth Festival, June 18

April 17, 2016, 9:24 pm

≫ Next: Black Bird Press News & Review: Please sign the petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf requesting her support for a concert benefiting The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

≪ Previous: Parable of Broken Systems, Broken Minds

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Black Arts Movement poet/organizer Marvin X and Blues guitarist/vocalist Fillmore Slim agreed to
perform together at this year's San Francisco Juneenth Festival. "Sure, we can perform together, Marvin X, Blues and poetry is the same thing!" Fillmore, now 81, stopped by Marvin's Academy of da Corner at the Berkeley Flea Market, Bay Area crossroads for North American Africans.

Clarence Sims, best known by his stage name, Fillmore Slim, is a blues vocalist and guitarist with five albums to his credit. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was also a highly renowned pimp in San Francisco, often referred to as "The West Coast Godfather of the Game" and "The Pope of Pimping".

photo Markel Archie

photo Markel Archie

photo Markel Archie

photo Markel Archie

Been a while!
Aside from some small video/TV gigs over the past several years, we haven't really seen Snoop Dogg in a big movie since Soul Plane.
Those of you who have been going through Snoop withdrawal will be pleased to hear that he's officially been hired to star in The Legend of Fillmore Slim, a biopic about the blue singer/guitarist/former pimp.

v

Hotep,

On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.

That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:

"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "

Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/straight-outta-oakland?source=c.fwd&r_by=15569191

Thanks! 

Marvin X,

Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Co-producer/director 

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Abstract for Straight Outta Oakland, the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

While in Philadelphia participating in the 60th Birthday Celebration for imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu Jamal, Marvin X recruited a Dream Team of artists, activists, educators and promoters for the 27 City Black Arts Movement Tour. The following are a few of the persons who tentatively agreed to join the BAM Tour:

Dr. Cornel West, educator
Dr. Tony Montiero, educator
Dr. Muhammad Ahmed, educator
Fred Hampton, Jr., activist
Preston Muhammad, promoter
Alfie Pollitt, musician, arranger
Elliot Bey, musician
Pam Africa, activist
Maurice Henderson, producer
Abiodun, the Last Poets
Umar Bin Hasan, the Last Poets



The BAM Poet's Choir and Arkestra performed at the Black Arts Movement Conference, University of California, Merced, Feb 28 thru March 2, 2014.

Abstract for the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

The mission of the Black Arts Movement’s 27 City Tour is to continue the cultural revolution we initiated during the 1960s.  This cultural revolution is still needed because for a variety of reasons the Black Arts Movement was aborted due to the radical nature of our task which was the liberation of our people in harmony with the political movement.  Today, the need to address the political condition is critical, yes, even with the election of a non-white president, though this president has done little to address non-white issues, especially the high unemployment of youth, the high incarceration rate of 2.4 million  and the deportation rate of two million so called illegal immigrants since President Obama took office.

But more than the political and economic situation is the cultural condition, some of the reactionary values in hip hop culture, especially unconscious rap poetry, and even the socalled conscious poetry is, in the words of my daughter, an expression of the pseudo conscious, for words are not followed by the right action. As we know, talk is cheap! Sonia Sanchez would say the contradictions in hip hop were inherited from the Black Arts Movement contradictions. "Brothers talked Black Power but went home to beat their wives and partners. BAM children, i.e., the Hip Hop generation observed our behavior and emulated it."

But most important is the overall lack of mental health wellness in our community nationwide, to say nothing of physical wellness. The high rate of homicide among young North American African men is symptomatic of a lack of manhood training or the infusion of traditional values that inspire and motivate people to be the best they can be, to give honor and respect to their elders and ancestors. 

The 50%  or more drop out rate of students in our schools is partly the result of our dire mental health condition. Alas, it is said not only is there a critical need for a positive curriculum and teachers with an undying love for our children, but the mental health condition of our children requires mental health counselors with radical  values of wellness  based on a holistic approach to solving our myriad psycho-social and economic issues.   
We are dumbfounded to learn the USA  (Bush and Obama) promised the young men in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere (except in the USA) three items if they stop their violence and pledge allegiance to the constitution of their lands: education, jobs and housing. Why not offer education, jobs and housing for the boyz and girls  in the hood? 
The BAM tour will address some of these issues through the medium of art, i.e. poetry, drama, dance, music, graphics. While art therapy has been used in traditional cultures, and was utilized in the Black Arts Movement, there must be a concerted effort to make use of art in the healing of our people. Throughout the years, we have seen the power of art in changing destructive personalities. We recall the production we did of Amiri Baraka’s play Dutchman in Fresno CA. The local pimp loaned us  a wig for the female character Lula. When he viewed the play and saw her stab the young North American African male, Clay, this rocked the pimp’s world and he threw in his pimping towel, joined the Nation of Islam and eventually became an imam and made his haj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Thus we see the power of art to heal broken, self destructive and economically damaged personalities.

Many times we heard Amiri Baraka speak about the need to reach our people in the 27 major cities we inhabit in large numbers—to reach out and touch them with healing Black Art that can restore our mental and physical wellness.  In honor of ancestor Amiri Baraka, we propose to conduct a 27 city tour with concerts and wellness workshops to aid in the recovery of ourselves. Our special focus shall be on young Black men, although we cannot  and will not ignore young black women, nor will we avoid adult and parental responsibility. Thus, this will be an inter-generational experience. Sly Stone told us, "It's a family affair!" And the O'Jays said it is a Family Reunion. When we come together as family and embrace with the words "I appreciate you!" the revolution is victorious!

We estimate the overall budget for this project will be 2.7 million dollars at $100,000 per city, including  artist fees, promotion, advertisement, rental of venues, insurance, security, lodging, food,transportation and documentation. Since many of the Black Arts Movement workers are elders, the timeline would be at least three years to complete this project,  including planning and production.

BAM workers in each community will be recruited to participate and we would like to establish a BAM House or cultural center in each city, no matter if it is a 50 seat theatre as Amiri Baraka suggested.  A staff of educators,  mental and physical health workers must be a part of this project so that we more effectively deal with our wellness in a holistic manner.

Sincerely,

Marvin X, Project Director

The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

Philadelphia PA

4/23/14

510-200-4164

National Advisory Board Members

Mrs. Amina Baraka

Sonia Sanchez

Askia Toure

Haki Madhubuti

Mae Jackson

Rudolph Lewis

Maurice Henderson

Emory Douglas

Troy Johnson

Kalamu Ya Salaam

Eugene Redman

Kim McMillan

Ayodele Nzinga

Geoffery Grier

Nefertiti Jackmon

Muhammida El Muhajir

Jessica Care Moore

Paul Cobb

Conway Jones

John Burris

James Sweeney

Fahizah Alim

Nisa Ra

Aries JordanBilly X Jennings

Sam Anderson

Marvin X, Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, Black Arts
Movement 27 City Tour
photo Pendarvis Harshaw

For information and/or booking, contact:
Marvin X
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
510-200-4164

 Marvin X and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
(FYI, that's spilled coffee on MX's shirt, aka Messy Marv)

Mayor Schaaf said she will use her power as Mayor to support the BAM 27 City Tour by contacting mayors in other American cities. We urge her to do so ASAP. Even better, Madam Mayor please give BAM 27 City Tour a benefit concert at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony joining the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. We think Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan is ready to do the BAM Thang!

 

Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra Producer/Director Marvin X and Oakland Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan agreed to join their talents in a concert. Let it be the Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour, benefit concert. We'll invite some of the BAM icons like Danny Glover,  Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Askia Toure, Last Poets. For sure, the Bay Area Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra will do the BAM Thang!

 

photo collage Adam Turner
The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra 
Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival,
2014

Straight Outta Oakland

Straight Outta Oakland, the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, has been invited to perform at Oakland's Flight Deck Theatre on Broadway, downtown Oakland. Executive Director Anna Shneiderman emailed BAM Tour producer Marvin X: Hi Marvin. I'd love to see this concert happen at The Flight Deck.  Please let me know if you think that makes sense and if so, what time of year you're thinking about.

Bests,
Anna

Anna Shneiderman
Executive Director

Ragged Wing Ensemble & The Flight Deck
510-858-7383

www.raggedwing.org

www.theflightdeck.org

CUBA first stop on 27 City Tour?

Members of the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra  informed producer Marvin X they would like to initiate the tour in Cuba rather than end in Cuba as Marvin had planned. BAM artists from coast to coast have suggested Cuba first, so we shall see. Since the BAM icons are elders, their schedules and health will determine how many will be able to do the 27 city tour. Poet Sonia Sanchez, 80 years old, told the producer, "Marvin, the very idea of a 27 city tour makes me tired."

 BAM poet Sonia Sanchez

Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour is estimated to cost about 3 million dollars @ $100,000.00 per city, plus the Cuba Concert. We are seeking donations to make this tour a reality. What is the purpose? Ancestor Amiri Baraka would say, "It's about beauty and truth! It's about advancing the cultural revolution. It's about a United Front of all progressive people." For information or booking, email jmarvinx@yahoo.com. 510-200-4164.

 

Amiri Baraka, BAM Chief architect (RIP)

Straight Outta Oakland

The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou doing the BAM BAM (RIP)

 

Graphic design by Adam Turner

Now that the Oakland City Council has approved the Black Arts Movement Business District, the time has come for the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road and complete the 27 City Tour envisioned by ancestor Amiri Baraka.  AB told BAM artists to tour the 27 cities with large populations of North American Africans and spread radical cultural consciousness. He said we should at least establish a fifty seat theatre in each city based on the BAM concept of the artistic freedom fighter. Long live the spirit of AB!

 
Amiri Baraka (RIP) and Marvin X enjoyed a 47 year friendship as movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement was/is the most radical artistic and literary movement in American history, sister of the Black Power Movement. Our mission is to spread radical cultural consciousness throughout the land. We thank the citizens of Oakland for establishing the first Black Arts Movement Business District in America.

The defining work of the Black Arts Movement, Black Fire is at once a rich anthology and an extraordinary source document. Nearly 200 selections, including poetry, essays, short stories, and plays, from over 75 cultural critics, writers, and political leaders, capture the social and cultural turmoil of the 1960s. In his new introduction, Amiri Baraka reflects — nearly four decades later — on both the movement and the book.

 

 BAM co-founder Marvin X and Lynette McElhaney, President of the

 Oakland City Council

photo Adam Turner

 Marvin X speaking at Oakland City Hall's Black History Celebration, Feb. 24, 2016
Marvin X referred to Madam President as African Queen!

We especially thank Oakland City Council President, Lynette McElhaney, for pushing through legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. Also, thanks to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Laney College President Elnora T. Webb for celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement at Laney College.

Mayor Schaaf said she will use her power as Mayor to support the BAM 27 City Tour by contacting mayors in other American cities. We urge her to do so ASAP. Even better, Madam Mayor please give BAM 27 City Tour a benefit concert at the Paramount with the Oakland Symphony joining the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. 

We think Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan is ready to do the BAM Thang! Let Oakland be the model for other cities. We ain't goin' into no town half stepin', we first class, that's the only way we travel. We represent Oaktown fada git down! You gotta git in town and outta town. We Straight Outta Oaktown!

 

Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra Producer/Director Marvin X and Oakland Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan agreed to join their talents in a concert. Let it be the Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour, benefit concert. We'll invite some of the BAM icons like Danny Glover,  Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Askia Toure, Last Poets, et al.

 

Left to Right: Mrs. Gay Plair Cobb, Marvin X, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb, Dr. Nathan Hare, Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Oakland Post News Group

We would like the BAM 27 City Tour to end in Cuba with a grand concert featuring the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra, Francisco Mora's Afro Horn, Sun Ra Arkestra and David Murray. We need sponsors, promoters, booking agents to make this happen. If you or your city has a venue for the 27 City US tour, please contact Marvin X: 510-200-4164 ASAP.

Sincerely,

Marvin X,
Producer
BAM 27 City Tour
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Straight Outta Oakland

The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou doing the BAM BAM (RIP)

 

Graphic design by Adam Turner

Now that the Oakland City Council has approved the Black Arts Movement Business District, the time has come for the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road and complete the 27 City Tour envisioned by ancestor Amiri Baraka.  AB told BAM artists to tour the 27 cities with large populations of North American Africans and spread radical cultural consciousness. He said we should at least establish a fifty seat theatre in each city based on the BAM concept of the artistic freedom fighter. Long live the spirit of AB!

 
Amiri Baraka (RIP) and Marvin X enjoyed a 47 year friendship as movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement was/is the most radical artistic and literary movement in American history, sister of the Black Power Movement. Our mission is to spread radical cultural consciousness throughout the land. We thank the citizens of Oakland for establishing the first Black Arts Movement Business District in America.

 

 BAM co-founder Marvin X and Lynette McElhaney, President of the

 Oakland City Council

photo Adam Turner

 Marvin X speaking at Oakland City Hall's Black History Celebration, Feb. 24, 2016
He referred to City Council President Lynette McElhaney as African Queen!

We especially thank Oakland City Council President, Lynette McElhaney, for pushing through legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. Also, thanks to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Laney College President Elnora T. Webb for celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement at Laney College. Mayor Schaaf said she will use her power as Mayor to support the BAM 27 City Tour by contacting mayors in other American cities. We urge her to do so ASAP. Even better, Madam Mayor can give BAM 27 City Tour a benefit concert at the Paramount with the Oakland Symphony joining the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. We think Symphony Conductor Michael Morgan is ready to do the BAM Thang!
 

 

Left to Right: Mrs. Gay Plair Cobb, Marvin X, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb, Dr. Nathan Hare, Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Oakland Post News Group

We would like the BAM 27 City Tour to end in Cuba with a grand concert featuring the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra, Francisco Mora's Afro Horn, Sun Ra Arkestra and David Murray. We need sponsors, promoters, booking agents to make this happen. If you or your city has a venue for the 27 City US tour, please contact Marvin X: 510-200-4164 ASAP.

Sincerely,

Marvin X,
Producer
BAM 27 City Tour
jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Icons of the Black Arts Movement
invited to join the 
BAM 27 City Tour

Askia Toure

Sonia Sanchez

Marvin X and Danny Glover

 

Nikki Giovanni

l

The Last Poets 

Felipe Luciano, Last Poets

Haki Madhubuti

Mrs. Amina Baraka

Marshall Allen, Sun Ra Arkestra

 

Danny Thompson, Sun Ra Arkestra

Francisco Mora Catlett, Afro Horn

David Murray

FYI, David Murray, Berkeley native,  now living in Paris, France,  invites the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra to a European tour ASAP! Thank you, David! We be dare directly!

The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra 

University of California, Merced

BAM 50th Celebration, 2014

 

Marvin X, David Murray, Earle Davis

Marvin X reading DOPE by Amiri Baraka (RIP)

Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

Malcolm X Jazz/Arts Festival

Oakland, CA.

2014

Featured artists of the Bay Area 

BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra

Tureada Mikell, Michelle LaChaux, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Tarika Lewis

Tacuma King

Kujichagulia

Paradise Jah Love

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Choreographer Linda Johnson, Val Serrant, Raynetta Rayzetta

Destiny Muhammad 

Earle Davis

Zena Allen 

 

Aries Jordan

Marvin X

TOWARD THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT 27 CITY TOUR

University of Chicago 

presents 

Sun Ra Conference, May 21-22, 2015

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Sun Ra

Marshall Allen, 91 years old, now leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra (He said, "Marvin I'm not 91, I'm 19." Marvin X says, "And he plays like he's 19!" Danny Thompson and Marvin X at University of Chicago, Sun Ra Conference, 2015. They performed and discussed the teachings of BAM Master Sun Ra and their relationship with him as fellow artists. All three are dedicated to the teachings of Sun Ra. FYI, all of us BAM artists were/are students of Sun Ra, students and/or associates of Sun Ra, the POPE of BAM, AB the High Priest. David Murray and Francisco Mora Catlett performed and were infected with the Ra doctrine. RA RA RA!

 
The Gemini twins: Marvin X and Sun Ra. These "Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists" (Sun Ra term) worked together coast to coast. Marvin X worked with the Arkestra in New York, Philly and the Bay Area. Both men taught in the Black Studies Department at University of California, Berkeley, 1971-72. The above pic is outside Marvin's Black Educational Theatre, San Francisco, 1972. Sun Ra arranged the music for Marvin's play Take Care of Business, aka Flowers for the Trashman. They produced a five hour concert (without intermission) at San Francisco's Harding Theatre on Divisadero. The production had a cast of fifty, including Marvin's actors, Sun Ra's Arkestra and the dancers of choreographers Ellendar Barnes and Raymond Sawyer, living legends of Bay Area BAM dance. See SF Sun Reporter archives for review. See Youtube for Sun Ra lectures at University of California, Berkeley, 1971-72.

Juan Felipe Herrera, currently, US Poet Laureate, performed with the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra at the University of California, Merced, 50th Anniversary Conference, produced by Kim McMillon and Marvin X.

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Poet Ginny Lim, member of The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra 

Left to Right: Zena Allen, Kora player, poet Marvin X, Tarika Lewis, violinist

Linda Johnson, choreographer/dancer

Many of the movement’s leading artists, including Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni, Woodie King, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Touré, Marvin X and Val Gray Ward, remain artistically productive today. Its influence can also be seen in the work of later artists, from the writers Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman, and August Wilson to actors Avery Brooks, Danny Glover, and Samuel L. Jackson, to hip-hop artists Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Chuck D. SOS—Calling All Black People includes works of fiction, poetry, and drama in addition to critical writings on issues of politics, aesthetics, and gender. It covers topics ranging from the legacy of Malcolm X and the impact of John Coltrane’s jazz to the tenets of the Black Panther Party and the music of Motown. The editors have provided a substantial introduction outlining the nature, history, and legacy of the Black Arts Movement as well as the principles by which the anthology was assembled.

 

Dr. Cornel West and Marvin X

Cornel supports and will participate in the

Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour

"Marvelous Marvin X!"--Cornel West

 

Black Bird Press News & Review: Please sign the petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf requesting her support for a concert benefiting The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

April 19, 2016, 10:14 am

≫ Next: City of Oakland: Artists--Join in the Celebration of Small Business Week, May 5, 2016

≪ Previous: Bay Area Living legends Marvin X and Fillmore Slim will perform together at SF Juneteenth Festival, June 18

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Black Bird Press News & Review: Please sign the petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf requesting her support for a concert benefiting The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

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City of Oakland: Artists--Join in the Celebration of Small Business Week, May 5, 2016

April 19, 2016, 6:09 pm

≫ Next: Coming soon from Black Bird Press: Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems by Marvin X, 2016

≪ Previous: Black Bird Press News & Review: Please sign the petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf requesting her support for a concert benefiting The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra

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Coming soon from Black Bird Press: Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems by Marvin X, 2016

April 19, 2016, 11:19 pm

≫ Next: Unforgettable at Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theatre, April 21, 22

≪ Previous: City of Oakland: Artists--Join in the Celebration of Small Business Week, May 5, 2016

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Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems  by Marvin X

He has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing.--Amiri Baraka    

The USA's Rumi!"--Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice is raw, beautiful, painful, low-down & funky, uplifting like hearing Nat Turner has risen.--Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Oakland Black Arts Movement

 

Marvin X

photo Kamau Amen Ra

Contents

I Am John Coltrane

Christian Terrorists

The Negro Knows Everything

Little African Woman

I Am American

Party of Lincoln Sinking

To Mexico With Love

Don't Let My Son Look Like This

Talkin Ignut

What is Love

I Will Go into the City

For the Women

I Don't Want to Know Your Name

I Release You

Funny thing I Already Knew

Fly Like a Hawk

Oh, Mighty Kora

Poem for Unresolved Grief

You Don't Know Me

It is Fine to Dream

If Only You Knew How Beautiful You Are

African Blues Ain't Blue

Oh, Mighty Kora

Again the Kora

Empire

Don't ask, don't take

Something is Goin on up in here

Post Black Negro

Remembering Dad

And We Wonder

And then there are Angels

Cyberspace Dead

Memorial Day

Dream Time 2

If I Were A Muslim In Good Standing

Old Warriors

In the Temple of X

There Was an Island

A Street Named Rashidah Muhammad (Dessie X)

Poem for Clara Muhammad

Prayer for Young Mothers

This

Yes, it’s all there

When I think about the women in my life

Letter to dead negroes in cyberspace

We’re in love but you don’t know me

Growing up

In my solitude, for Duke

A Day we never thought

Mama’s bones

Love is for the beloved

Lesbian

Poem for unresolved grief

Song for Reginald Madpoet

Benazir Bhutto

Dis Ma Hair

Ancestors II

Facing Mt. Kenya

O, Kora, Elegy for John D

Who are these Jews?

For Jerri Jackmon

When Lemmie Died

And then the end

How does it feel to be a nigger

No black fight

Praise song for Askia Toure

Bank the Bankers

Don't dream bout ma man

Ah, air so fresh

I Am a Revolutionary

Do you want to see me tomorrow

Can you feel the spirit

My people were never slaves

Poem #3 for R

Poem #2 for R

O, Malcolm X

Fathers sing blues too

To Egypt with Love

Letter to my grandson, Jahmeel

Closure

Kamau

Don't Say Pussy

What If

Publication date: Late May, 2016. $19.95. Pre-publication price: $15.00. To pay by credit card, call 510.200.4164. 

Unforgettable at Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theatre, April 21, 22

April 20, 2016, 7:42 am

≫ Next: Prince

≪ Previous: Coming soon from Black Bird Press: Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems by Marvin X, 2016

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Prince

April 21, 2016, 11:06 am

≫ Next: Marvin X At the Black Caucus of California Community Colleges, Fresno City College

≪ Previous: Unforgettable at Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theatre, April 21, 22

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Prince dead
no screams howls
from river bed
No purple rain
no name
no free slave
no gain
no am I black/white
no mama/daddy songs
prince gone.
--Marvin X
4/21/16

Marvin X At the Black Caucus of California Community Colleges, Fresno City College

April 21, 2016, 10:03 pm

≫ Next: WHITE SUPREMACY-2 BY MARVIN X

≪ Previous: Prince

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WHITE SUPREMACY-2 BY MARVIN X

April 21, 2016, 10:04 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X Reads Poetry at the Brecht Forum with Ras Moshe

≪ Previous: Marvin X At the Black Caucus of California Community Colleges, Fresno City College

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Marvin X Reads Poetry at the Brecht Forum with Ras Moshe

April 21, 2016, 10:05 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X Defremery Park

≪ Previous: WHITE SUPREMACY-2 BY MARVIN X

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Marvin X Defremery Park

April 21, 2016, 10:06 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X- "Black History is World History" (poem written in the 80's)@Fr...

≪ Previous: Marvin X Reads Poetry at the Brecht Forum with Ras Moshe

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Marvin X- "Black History is World History" (poem written in the 80's)@Fr...

April 21, 2016, 10:07 pm

≫ Next: MARVIN X reading In the Name of Love, produced by Ahi Baraka

≪ Previous: Marvin X Defremery Park

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MARVIN X reading In the Name of Love, produced by Ahi Baraka

April 21, 2016, 10:08 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X at Yoshi's San Francisco Part II

≪ Previous: Marvin X- "Black History is World History" (poem written in the 80's)@Fr...

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Hotep,

On January 19, the Oakland City Council passed legislation establishing the Black Arts Movement Business District. We thank them, especially City Council President Lynette McElhaney and Moveon.org. It is time for the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra to hit the road to complete the 27 City BAM Tour ancestor Amiri Baraka suggested to continue our cultural revolution and united front of progressive people.

That's why I created a petition to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, which says:

"We call upon Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to support a benefit concert for Straight Outta Oakland, The Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour, featuring the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra. We suggest the benefit concert happen at the Paramount Theatre with the Oakland Symphony performing with the BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra. "

Will you sign my petition? Click here to add your name:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/straight-outta-oakland?source=c.fwd&r_by=15569191

Thanks! 

Marvin X,

Producer/Director, Straight Outta Oakland, BAM 27 City Tour

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, Co-producer/director

Marvin X at Yoshi's San Francisco Part II

April 21, 2016, 10:20 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X at the Philadelphia International Locks Conference

≪ Previous: MARVIN X reading In the Name of Love, produced by Ahi Baraka

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Marvin X at the Philadelphia International Locks Conference

April 21, 2016, 10:21 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X on Wall Street Part 1 WBAI Interview

≪ Previous: Marvin X at Yoshi's San Francisco Part II

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