Marvin X poem Apology to My Higher Self and Miles Davis - Time After Time (Live 1985)

April 23, 2016, 8:29 am

≫ Next: Cover art by Emory Douglas, Love and War, poems by Marvin X, 1995

≪ Previous: Marvin X video archives: Panel on Black Women Writers, at Laney College BAM 50th Celebration

$

0

0

Apology to My Higher Self



Oh, Higher Self

I apologize to you

Greater Self

Holy Self

Righteous Self

I  seek to harm no one

but to glorify You always and forever

Have mercy on me

have mercy on myself

Oh, Higher Self

pleae forgive me for allowing my lower self to rule

Please have mercy on me Higher Self, Divine Self

If I will only flow in the flow of You

pick me up Higher Self

when my lower self comes to call

the whispering devil whispers into the hearts of men

and women and children



to take us all  down under

to the thrashing floor

the road where wise men fear to tread

down in the dungeon

rat hole

I become the rat

associating with the rats

dwelling in the dungeon

of my mind



Lift me up Highter Power

let me dwell with You forever

in the Upper Room

surely I know truth from lies

surely I know fire from water

yet I walk into the fire

I am burned again again again

easy to lead in the wrong direction

hard to lead in the right direction,

the Elijah lesson teach  us



And why do we love the devil

because he gives us nothing!

Take me Higher Power

into your loving hands

save me from the fire

whose fuel is men and stones,

Qur'an.

let not the weakness of my lower self

ontrol me

let me cast away illusions

a donkey is not a stalion

Oh Higher Power

catch me if I fall

take me forward faster

time after time

time after time.



--Marvin X



9/28/14



from Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems, 2016, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley CA, unpublished.

---

Cover art by Emory Douglas, Love and War, poems by Marvin X, 1995

April 23, 2016, 8:39 am

≫ Next: Miles Davis - So What

≪ Previous: Marvin X poem Apology to My Higher Self and Miles Davis - Time After Time (Live 1985)

$

0

0

Miles Davis - So What

April 23, 2016, 7:28 pm

≫ Next: Ishmael Reed says Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland!

≪ Previous: Cover art by Emory Douglas, Love and War, poems by Marvin X, 1995

$

0

0

Ishmael Reed says Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland!

April 23, 2016, 7:37 pm

≫ Next: John Coltrane - Blue train

≪ Previous: Miles Davis - So What

$

0

0

 

 

photo Kamau Amen Ra

Marvin X as Plato

By Marvin X

After stopping by  Marvin X's outdoor classroom at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, Ishmael Reed told the students gathered around Marvin X, "He's the modern day Plato, teaching his students on the street." Marvin told the people gathered in front on DeLauer's bookstore, "Ishmael Reed is my elder. He's always been supportive of my projects and I deeply appreciate him for this." 

Ishmael had come to the bookstore /24/7 new stand to get a copy of the Sunday Los Angeles Times which carried a review of his latest book. He said the review cut him up as usual. He said people cut him up for his views on Alice Walker and other feminists, but according to Ishmael the most critical review of Walker's Color Purple was by Toni Morrison.

The people who stop at the open air classroom include a cross section of Oakland's humanity, including whites, blacks, youth and elders. David Glover, director of OCCUR, stopped through to advise Marvin to be a part of the cultural committee for the Ron Dellums administration soon to take the reins of Oakland.

A young sister stopped to say she was in pain because her friends are being killed on the streets for no reason. She has vowed not to be a victim but she is traumatized at the loss of some many friends. She is 19.

The police officer who works the beat that includes 14th and Broadway, comes through picking up litter. Seems a waste of time for the officer to pick up litter when there are so many unsolved homicides. The officer is known to post up at 12 o'clock to listen to Plato talk with his variety of students. 

A brother came by to challenge Plato, telling him he didn't know anything, especially since he wasn't from the south, New Orleans in particular. Plato told him New Orleans was as much a killing floor as Oakland, look at the recent deployment of National Guard to stop the murders.

Another brother came through and invited Marvin to speak with youth at a West Oakland school. He agreed, telling the brother, "I recently spoke with children at the Black Repertory Group's summer camp. I was deeply impressed with their intelligence. They asked serious questions, as serious as any I've received from college and university students across the country."

On Sunday, July 30, Plato was given a book party in Richmond, another Bay Area killing floor. But the party, hosted by Sister Shukuru, was probably the most powerful gathering of black consciousness people in Richmond history. The party was attended by movement elders and organizers, including Alona Cliffton, Phil Hutchins of SNCC, Margo Dashiel, Dr. James Garrett, Dr. J. Vern Cromartie, Jim Lacey, Ann Lynch, Suzzette Celeste, Richmond poet President Davis representing conscious hip hop.

Poet Opal Palmer Adisa gave a reading of her work that was as spicy and hot as a two dollar pistol in South Philly.

The audience was enraptured by the musical accompaniment of Elliott Bey Savoy, who backed Marvin's reading and the audience discussion. A brother showed a video of himself reading Marvin X's poem The Origin of Blackness in Venezuela. He read in Spanish, then English. The poem was originally written in English/Arabic. Marvin then read an updated version on the theme of the poem, Black History is World History. Much thanks to Sister Shukuru, a great organizer, formerly with Brooklyn's East.

*   *   *   *   *

photo Pendarvis Harshaw

posted 3 August 2006 /Chickenbones.com

John Coltrane - Blue train

April 23, 2016, 7:55 pm

≫ Next: San Francisco Chronicle: Black Panthers at 50 Years Old

≪ Previous: Ishmael Reed says Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland!

$

0

0

San Francisco Chronicle: Black Panthers at 50 Years Old

April 23, 2016, 9:33 pm

≫ Next: Miles Davis & Chaka Khan: Human Nature (live in Montreux 1989)

≪ Previous: John Coltrane - Blue train

$

0

0

50 years on, Black Panthers honored

 

Steve McCutchen, left, who joined the party in 1968; Timothy Thompson, who joined in 1970; Elaine Brown, former chair; Melvin Dickson, who joined in 1969; 

Bobby McCall, who joined in 1970; and Malik Edwards.

As a high school senior in Sacramento, James Mott cut class to watch the Black Panthers march into the state Capitol in their leather jackets and berets, carrying shotguns.

Mott couldn't resist falling in behind them, and now he is at the front of the line as the Black Panther Party cranks up to mark its 50th anniversary celebration, beginning with an all-day symposium Saturday at Laney College. "

The Black Panthers were the single greatest effort by blacks in the United States for freedom and self-determination," he said, as keynote speaker for a news conference Friday at the Oakland Museum of California. The museum will be the site of a three-day conference on the Panthers that will take over the entire 7.5-acre museum compound for three days, Oct. 20-23. The symposium will coincide with the museum exhibit "All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50," which will include original Panther berets and rarely seen photographs of day-to-day life among the Panthers, taken by party members. The marquee item, borrowed from Stanford, will be the original draft of the Panther "10 Point Platform and Program" written by hand by party co-founder Bobby Seale. Seale noticeably absent

Seale, who has written a screenplay about his life in the Panthers, was noticeably absent from Friday's event. That's because he is putting on his own 50th anniversary events on behalf of the National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party, which he says will draw more than 200 Panthers to the Bay Area in October. Also absent was David Hilliard, founding member and chief of staff of the Panthers. He was on the schedule but called in sick. This left it to several later members, led by Mott, who now goes by the name Saturu Ned, 67, and Elaine Brown, 73-year-old former chairwoman of the Black Panther Party. Brown, an activist and one-time presidential candidate, arrived with her right arm in a sling, the result of a much-publicized dustup with Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks, in an Oakland soul food joint. Brown has filed suit against the city and Brooks for $7 million, claiming injuries that required surgery.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was on hand for the news conference to claim her own link to the Panthers. This is based on the fact that Schaaf is also 50 and is the 50th mayor of Oakland. "Growing up in Oakland with the Black Panther Party gave me a skeptical eye," Schaaf began her remarks, later concluding them by declaring October to be Black Panther History Month in the city of Oakland.

There was no specific event that launched the Black Panther Party, but the generally agreed-upon date is Oct. 15, 1966. The one person who does not agree on that date is Seale, who was reached by phone Friday, as his plane landed after a speech at the University of Oregon. Seale said the founding date was Oct. 22, 1966, which was his 30th birthday and the day he and the late Huey Newton finished the "10 Point Platform and Program" for the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (as it was originally called). 

Miles Davis & Chaka Khan: Human Nature (live in Montreux 1989)

April 23, 2016, 9:40 pm

≫ Next: Video Archives of Marvin X: Marvin X occupies Wall Street

≪ Previous: San Francisco Chronicle: Black Panthers at 50 Years Old

$

0

0

Video Archives of Marvin X: Marvin X occupies Wall Street

April 24, 2016, 7:50 pm

≫ Next: A MAN'S WORLD James Brown

≪ Previous: Miles Davis & Chaka Khan: Human Nature (live in Montreux 1989)

$

0

0

---

A MAN'S WORLD James Brown

April 24, 2016, 7:54 pm

≫ Next: Sade-Pearls

≪ Previous: Video Archives of Marvin X: Marvin X occupies Wall Street

$

0

0

Sade-Pearls

April 24, 2016, 7:56 pm

≫ Next: Agusta Collins, We Love You madly and miss you much!--Marvin X

≪ Previous: A MAN'S WORLD James Brown

$

0

0

Agusta Collins, We Love You madly and miss you much!--Marvin X

April 24, 2016, 7:59 pm

≫ Next: What'd I Say - Ray Charles (rare, original version with intro)

≪ Previous: Sade-Pearls

$

0

0

What'd I Say - Ray Charles (rare, original version with intro)

April 24, 2016, 9:11 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X speaks on theatre and social responsibility at University of California, Merced, May 25, 2016

≪ Previous: Agusta Collins, We Love You madly and miss you much!--Marvin X

$

0

0

Marvin X speaks on theatre and social responsibility at University of California, Merced, May 25, 2016

April 25, 2016, 2:08 pm

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

≪ Previous: What'd I Say - Ray Charles (rare, original version with intro)

$

0

0

A scene from Marvin X's BAM classic Flowers for the Trashman, produced by Kim McMillon's theatre students at University of California, Merced. On May 25, 2016, Marvin X will dialogue with her students on art and social activism.

 

Jose Caballero, 20, far right, a UC Merced management major, leads a group of actors in a call and response Monday for the rehearsal of the Voices of the Revolutionary Theatre Collective. The group will perform two free shows, which feature a number of scenes from plays written during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Thaddeus Millertmiller@mercedsunstar.com

By Thaddeus Miller
Merced Sun Star
June 30, 2015

UC Merced’s Global Arts Studies Program plans a performance Thursday to explore the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which performers say speaks about the troubles of today.
A theater and an arts class at UC Merced have teamed to put on the Voices of the Revolutionary Theatre Collective, which will offer two free shows this week.

The first performance is at 11 a.m. at UC Merced’s Lakireddy Hall, COB Room 102 at the 5200 N. Lake Road campus. The second show is set at 6 p.m. at Merced Multicultural Center, 645 W. Main St.
The play features 18 actors performing in 10 scenes snipped from larger works of black writers and those inspired by black writers, including Marvin X, Amiri Baraka and Sonia Gutierrez, to name a few. A summer art class pitched in to design the sets.

“The whole theme is, what are we doing to better the planet?” said Kim McMillon, a local writer and the show’s director.

The stories are told from the points of view of people of color and feature people of color as the main characters, performers said, but speak to the human condition to which all people can relate.
The show starts with a call and response featuring the whole cast, in which Nathalie Ortega, 21, a psychology major at UC Merced, puts a call out to “black people.”

“We’re following up with calling all humanity, because we want to be inclusive as well,” the Bay Area native said.

Ortega is also featured in Baraka’s “Dutchman,” which explores the main character’s insecurities about his race, social status and masculine prowess.

Another performer, 22-year-old Rodolfo Rojo of Los Angeles, said many of the segments deal with racism and terror that whites carried out upon people of color in the 1960s, but echoes to recent tragedies. “We did not actually deal with this,” the management major said. “We’re seeing it all over again.”

He pointed, as an example, to the killings of nine people on June 19 at a historically black church by the hands of a white man in Charleston, S.C. “It’s like history is repeating itself,” Rojo said.
He is set to perform “Ballad of Birmingham,” a poem by Dudley Randall that tells the story of the 1963 bombing of a black church that killed four girls in Alabama.

The works range in tone and even include satire and comedy. “Git on Board” by George C. Wolfe satirizes the trans-Atlantic slave trade and American culture by calling it “Celebrity Slaveship.”
Rhonda Randle, 20, a psychology major from Oakland, said she wanted a role in “Git on Board” because it’s a satire about such heavy subject matter. “It’s a lighthearted way of letting people know what happened,” she said.

The show culminates in the entire cast singing Marvin Gaye’s classic “What’s Going On?”
The performance is aimed at adults and features adult language, so it may not be suitable for children.
For more on the show, email McMillon at kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/education/uc-merced/article25833373.html#storylink=cpy

l

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

April 25, 2016, 5:48 pm

≫ Next: This Is Why The Saudi's Are So Scared Of Trump And The 28 Pages

≪ Previous: Marvin X speaks on theatre and social responsibility at University of California, Merced, May 25, 2016

$

0

0

Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice

 New and Selected Poems  

Marvin X

 

Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice is raw, beautiful, painful, low-down and funky, uplifting like hearing Nat Turner has risen.--from the introduction, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, BAM Oakland, founder, Lower Bottom Playaz

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   

Marvin X is the USA’s Rumi...X’s poems vibrate, whip, love in the most meta- and physical ways imaginable and un-. He’s got the humor of Pietri, the politics of Baraka, and the spiritual Muslim grounding that is totally new in English –- the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wisdom of Saadi.  

--Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

His love poems will resound as long and as deeply as any love poems ever written by anyone: Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou.

--Fahizah Alim

...This is more than poetry--it is singing/song, it is meditation, it is spirit/flowing/flying, it is blackness celebrated, it is prophecy, it is life, it is all of these things and more, beyond articulation....

--Johari Amini (Jewel C. Lattimore)

With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing about him-I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and graduate school-why is attention not given to his work in the same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his incredibly rich body of work.He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is still kickin, still true to the word!

--Dr. Mohja Kahf, Professor of English and Islamic Literature, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express Black male urban experiences in a lyrical way.

--James G. Spady, Philadelphia New Observer Newspaper

 

 

 

 

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

Wish I could fly like hawk

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
I Am John Coltrane
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 
Too Funky in Here 
Same Lover/Different Name 
Baraka/Blessed 
Beyond Love 
Apology to my higher self 
Let a Million Men March 
Two Poets in the Park 
Rain in the Valley 
Testimony, A Love Song
Moment in Paradise 
How to love a thinking woman
How to love a thinking man or Never Love A Poet
Ancestors III 
Remember Shani Baraka
When Parents Bury Children 
In the Name of Love

This Is Why The Saudi's Are So Scared Of Trump And The 28 Pages

April 25, 2016, 7:59 pm

≫ Next: Time Wise and Sam Anderson on How to Recover from White Supremacy, Type I and II

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

$

0

0

---

Time Wise and Sam Anderson on How to Recover from White Supremacy, Type I and II

April 25, 2016, 8:37 pm

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

≪ Previous: This Is Why The Saudi's Are So Scared Of Trump And The 28 Pages

$

0

0

Unfinished Business: Freeing Ourselves of Racism Forum at All Souls

Tim Wise                                             Sam Anderson

 

Media Contact: Bernadette Evangelist 646-765-3639

Unitarian Church on Tuesday, May 17 –

AN EVENING TO EXPLORE HARD TRUTHS ABOUT OUR ROLE IN PERPETUATING RACIAL INJUSTICE

New York, April 25, 2016 - In these troubled times of mass incarceration, police brutality and
blatant racism, how can we understand our own racism, examine entitlement, and take a larger
role in creating a truly just society?

 

Anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise; and activist, teacher, writer and founding member of the Black Panther Party, Sam Anderson, will help explore these issues.

 

Unfinished Business: Freeing Ourselves of Racism

7 P.M. Tuesday, May 17,

 the All Souls Unitarian Church

Lexington Avenue at 80th Street

New York City

There will be reports by some who have been affected by systemic racism. Lurie Daniel Favors,
Esq., General Counsel, Center for Law & Social Justice, Medgar Evers College, will moderate
the program.

This extraordinary event is presented by Big Apple Coffee Party, a group of New York City
grass roots activists, and All Souls Peace & Justice Task Force. It is co-sponsored by New
York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC), and Occu-Evolve
(OWS).

For more information, email bigapplecoffeeparty.org

or call 212-252-2619.

Admission is free
Refreshments will be served. Donations appreciated.
 

 

 

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

April 26, 2016, 11:15 am

≫ Next: Jitu Sadiki (Black August Los Angeles) Speaks on Hugo Pinell April 23, 2016

≪ Previous: Time Wise and Sam Anderson on How to Recover from White Supremacy, Type I and II

$

0

0

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

Jitu Sadiki (Black August Los Angeles) Speaks on Hugo Pinell April 23, 2016

April 26, 2016, 1:59 pm

≫ Next: Abdul Sabry, Black Dialogue Magazine Editor, Black Student Union founding member, joins ancestors

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

$

0

0

Abdul Sabry, Black Dialogue Magazine Editor, Black Student Union founding member, joins ancestors

April 26, 2016, 6:39 pm

≫ Next: Call for Papers: Black Arts Movement South, Dillard University, New Orleans, September 9-11, 2016

≪ Previous: Jitu Sadiki (Black August Los Angeles) Speaks on Hugo Pinell April 23, 2016

$

0

0

Black Dialogue Magazine editors/contributors, Left to Right: Aubrey LaBrie,
Marvin X, Abdul Sabry (Gerald LaBrie), Al Young, Arthur Sheridan, Duke Williams

Black Dialogue, the second of the California little magazines to materialize, emerged from a rivalry its supporters had with the editors of Soulbook. In the fall of 1964, black students at San Francisco State founded their own campus organization and decided that one of its primary objectives would be the creation of a revolutionary little magazine. Many of the students disagreed with some of Bobb Hamilton's and Kenn Freeman's understandings of black journals. Wanting a periodical which could serve a wide variety of opinions, they labeled their own effort "Black Dialogue" in an attempt to provide a forum for open discussion of literary and political questions. 

They secured the following staff, which released the first issue of Black Dialogue in the spring of 1965: Arthur A. Sheridan as editor; Abdul Karim (Gerald Labrie), as managing editor; Edward S. Spriggs as New York editor; Joseph Seward as African editor; Aubrey Labrie as political editor; Marvin X as fiction editor; and Joe Goncalves as poetry editor.

 Abdul Sabry (Gerald LaBrie), a leader of the Bay Area Black Arts Movement

We received word today that Abdul Sabry (Gerald LaBrie) has joined the ancestors. Surely we are from Allah and to Him we return!

When we graduated from Oakland's Merritt College and transferred to San Francisco State College/University, 1964, Abdul was a member of the Negro Students Association that soon became the Black Student Union. The founding editor of Black Dialogue Magazine was Arthur Sheridan but he was eventually replaced by Abdul Sabry when Black Nationalism became the magazine ideology.


Eldridge Cleaver and Alprintice Bunchy Carter, former
Soledad Prison inmates, co-chairs of the Black Culture
Club at the prison, upon release joined the Black Panther
Party.


Abdul was part of the Black Dialogue staff that visited Soledad Prison's Black Culture Club, chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and Bunchy Carter. According to prison movement historian or griot Kumasi, the club was the beginning of the American Prison Movement.

Abdul was an early follower of Imam Warith Din Muhammad when he turned from the teachings of his father, Elijah Muhammad, and became a Sunni Muslim.

Call for Papers: Black Arts Movement South, Dillard University, New Orleans, September 9-11, 2016

April 27, 2016, 4:53 am

≫ Next: Foreword by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD: Sweet Tea/Dirty Rice, New and Selected Poems by Marvin X

≪ Previous: Abdul Sabry, Black Dialogue Magazine Editor, Black Student Union founding member, joins ancestors

$

0

0