Marvin X poem: I remember Bobby Hutton

October 8, 2016, 8:23 pm

≫ Next: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - 1959 (Complete Album)

≪ Previous: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - 1959 (Complete Album)

$

0

0

Most honorable revolutionary youth
ona mission of his generation
Fanon said youth must fulfill or dishonor generation of elders
Little Bobby
revolution
youth defiance
aggrogance
pride hubris
no card playing
bid whist
checkers
dominoes
revolution
no girls no alcohol
serious to the bone
alone but youth would follow him
revolution
Lil' Bobby
revolution in his eyes
heart
soul
wanna be part of this
revolution
let me fight OGs
gimme that gun Big Man
let me get down Big Man
go attack the pigs
killed MLK
fuck da  pigs
off da pigs
revolution
Lil' Bobby Hutton
16 years old
bold
wanna be free
capitalism
oppression
joined Huey and Bobby
trinity
holy
revolutionary
Lil' Bobby
My sister D
worked at North Oakland Center with Bobby Seale
when Lil' Bobby came through
mother wanted him in school
Lil' Bobby wanted revolution
fuck school
Black Panther Party School was his school for real
Secretary of BPP
confronted me at Black House
message from Huey
close down youth club in basement of Black House
I reject order from Supreme Commander
fuck Huey I say
Saw death for me in Lil' Bobby's eyes
I rejected order from his leader, Huey P. Newton
"We deal with you, later, dude," Lil' Bobby said.
All that night
Panthers clicked weapons at door of my room
I didn't care
I'm crazy too.
I don't take orders  from no nigguhs nigguh!
 madness of military discipline
There must be order in revolution
give orders
take orders
simple.
Long live Lil' Bobby Hutton
Long live revolutionary youth!
--Marvin X
10/8/16

Marvin X was blessed to experience the revolutionary personality known as Little Bobby Hutton. He is eternally grateful to have known Little Bobby, a youth with revolution in his eyes, body and soul; who gave his life for the revolution. Mao said, "Some deaths are lighter than a feather, some deaths higher than Mount Tai!" Bobby Hutton's death was higher than Mount Tai!

BOBBY HUTTON -
The Day My Beloved Brother Comrade was Murdered

---

On April 6, 1968, two days after Martin Luther King had been murdered, I got dressed and prepared to go to Central Headquarters of the Black Panther Party (BPP) along with Panthers Jimmy Charley and Terry Claridy. I read a chapter of the "Red Book - Quotations by Chairman Mao" before I left. We arrived at Central Headquarters at 45th and Grove St. to get assigned to various locations to sell the Party's newspaper "The Black Panther," collect donations and pass out leaflets in the community about the barbecue for the "Free Huey Newton" defense committee to be held at then called - Defremery Park on April 7th.

Later that evening, around 4pm, other Panthers and I, in groups of two and three, were circulating in the community and going to high schools spreading the word that despite the murder of Dr. King, they should stay cool, lay low and refrain from all counterproductive and random violence, because riots would cause nothing but mass genocide. If trouble erupted, it would be open season on blacks and the BPP would be the first attacked.

Around 6pm, some Party members and I met at a Panther's apartment off San Pablo Ave. We decided that we would ride in three vehicles transporting food and supplies for the barbecue picnic and at the same time we would observe and patrol the police activities in the Black community.

Around 7:30pm, after patrolling and picking up supplies for the rally, two policemen turned their cruiser south observing and following us onto 28th street and Union street where we had stopped for a minute for Eldridge Cleaver who had to urinate. Eldridge and L'il Bobby Hutton were riding in a 1961 Ford with several other Panthers. I was riding shotgun, in the center of the back seat, armed with a banana clip 30 caliber carbine. Panther Charles Bursey was to the left of me and Donnell Lankford was to the right. The officers pulled their cruiser to a stop in the middle of the street side by side with these vehicles. (The 1961 Ford with Florida license plates had been observed all week because it was known by the Oakland Police as a Panther vehicle.) Gunfire erupted at once, two wild shots were followed instantly by a deluge of lead that riddled the squad cars and shots were fired by police into the rear window of the 1954 Ford in which I was riding.

More policemen flocked to the shooting scene. Charles Bursey was able to get out of the car and escape the scene. Donnell Lankford, who was to the right of me, attempted to open the door so we could take cover, but the door was jammed. The door finally came open, but as soon as we tried to exit the vehicle, there were about a dozen police with their guns and shotguns drawn and thrust into our faces. They were making racist, insulting remarks while we were lying face down, handcuffed behind our backs, helpless on the pavement. They made statements such as, "you niggers just lost Martin Luther King and if you make one move we will not hesitate to blow your heads off."

We were then put into the police paddy wagon. Donnell, John L. Scott and I were the first to be arrested. The over- reactionary pigs sprayed mace into our eyes after we were already handcuffed and helpless. As the police wagon drove away from the scene, I could barely see out the back, but it appeared to me that there were black people running behind the wagon saying, "Free these brothers, you racist cops." I told my comrades in the police wagon that this was a deliberate ambush, attempting to commit genocide against the BPP.

The booking officer asked me if I wanted to make a statement after being booked. I said no, I was taking the 5th amendment until I consulted with my attorney, Charles Garry. They put Lankford, Scott and me into different holding cells. I could hear racist statements like, "They should kill Eldridge Cleaver. He's like a wild animal running amok." Note: the ambush of other Party members was still going on at this time. Later that night, Harold Rodgers, Charles Garry's assistant attorney, visited me in my cell and told me that one Party member did not survive. That was the Party's first member and treasurer, Bobby James Hutton.

Long Live the Spirit of L'il Bobby Hutton.

Terry M. Cotton, former political prisoner and BPP member

---

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - 1959 (Complete Album)

October 9, 2016, 11:59 pm

≫ Next: MILES DAVIS: TIME AFTER TIME

≪ Previous: Marvin X poem: I remember Bobby Hutton

$

0

0

So what
don't say shit to me
Dear White People
I love you madly
taught your children
no matter no hate teacher
not sick like that
sick with love
sick need love so bad
so what
where is love
show her to me
let me kiss her
embrass her
tongue in mouth
african love
so what
--Marvin X
10/9/16

MILES DAVIS: TIME AFTER TIME

October 10, 2016, 11:44 pm

≫ Next: Life is Living Festival, Bobby Hutton/Deferemry Park, Oakland, pics by Standingrock 10/8/16

≪ Previous: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - 1959 (Complete Album)

$

0

0

Life is Living Festival, Bobby Hutton/Deferemry Park, Oakland, pics by Standingrock 10/8/16

October 11, 2016, 12:23 am

≫ Next: Prince / Miles Davis Full Concert 12-31-87 (Miles From The Park)

≪ Previous: MILES DAVIS: TIME AFTER TIME

$

0

0

Prince / Miles Davis Full Concert 12-31-87 (Miles From The Park)

October 11, 2016, 7:24 pm

≫ Next: The Majic of JuJu, an appreciation of the Black Arts Movement by Kalamu Ya Salaam

≪ Previous: Life is Living Festival, Bobby Hutton/Deferemry Park, Oakland, pics by Standingrock 10/8/16

$

0

0

The Majic of JuJu, an appreciation of the Black Arts Movement by Kalamu Ya Salaam

October 13, 2016, 9:11 am

≫ Next: Zaza Ali tells black women stop blaming everything on black men

≪ Previous: Prince / Miles Davis Full Concert 12-31-87 (Miles From The Park)

$

0

0

An Excerpt—A Dialogue between Kalamu ya Salaam (Deep River) and Margo Natalie Crawford (Afro-Blue)
                                  
Afro-Blue: James Baldwin in his short story “Sonny’s Blues” (1957) depicts the blues as “deep water.” When I hear your name, Deep River, it makes me think about the deep rivers of the black aesthetic experience.
         Langston Hughes says “I’ve Known Rivers” and Baldwin says:  “He wanted Sonny to leave the shoreline and strike out for the deep water. He was Sonny’s witness that deep water and drowning were not the same thing — he had been there, and he knew. And he wanted Sonny to know. He was waiting for Sonny to do the things on the keys which would let Creole know that Sonny was in the water.”
         But let me explain my name.  I call myself “Afro-Blue” as a way of escaping other prisms like “Afro-pessimism” and, also, “Afro-centrism.” When I read The Magic of Juju, I felt the “deep water” of the Black Arts Movement. In the midst of some of the current art of drowning, I sometimes feel nostalgic for this movement that predates me. I think the children of the Black Power movement feel the presence of its absence. Do you feel nostalgic about the Black Arts Movement? Why did you write The Magic of Juju?
Deep River: Why not? Everybody has an autobiography—I mean that literally. Everybody has a story to tell: how I came to be who I am. I happened to have been born during interesting times and, under the influence of Langston Hughes, I decided early on to pursue writing. That was nearly fifty years ago. So that is one reason: self reflection, thinking about how I became who I am, why and what were the ramifications of the choices I made.
Another reason is—and this is in no particular order—I did not see any books on our work, on the Black Arts Movement. Tons of Harlem Renaissance work, bunches of books on the Black Panthers. But where were the books on the Black Arts Movement, a movement that was more far reaching that the Harlem Renaissance, which by the way I think is both mis-named and misunderstood (I’ll come back to that in a minute). Moreover, I’m sure the absence of books on the Black Arts Movement is not an accident but rather part of a systemic effort at erasing our history.
Writing The Magic of Juju is itself an act of defiance. I know—check that, I should say “I believe” because I don’t have hard evidence in hand—I believe that the academy has actively discouraged detailed investigations of the Black Arts Movement primarily because of the politics. Although most critics will not say so outright, the reality is that the Black Arts Movement is characterized as racist because, to use a shorthand, we were perceived as “hating whites.”
Now, who is in charge of the academy? For sure it’s not Blacks, nor is it—Gates and a handful of others notwithstanding—Negroes are not in charge either, not in the overall sense. Sure, a few individuals with considerable influence, and some might even argue with more than a little power, exist but considering the literally thousands of higher-ed institutions, the overwhelming majority of gate keepers are not only racially white, they have a white consciousness, which in order to remain white necessarily means excluding blacks and other people of color.
Look, to put it bluntly, you can not remain “white” and be intimate with “non-whites,” which is why race mixing, i.e. miscegenation, has a pejorative connotation. It seems to me, if one is truly democratic, then one is open to the world. We who are called African American have been open. True, our openness has not been always by choice but we have learned to live with a spectrum of color rather than some dark essential. Look, Elijah Muhammad was obviously of mixed racial heritage—if you catch my meaning.
Black consciousness is not a reflection of biological essentialism. (I know this seems a bit off the path from explaining why I wrote The Magic of Juju, but this is an essential aspect of the real answer.) For me, Black consciousness is a political concept, not a biological concept. I define Blackness as color, culture and consciousness. Moreover, color is the least important element and consciousness the most important element.
Color is raw biology. For African Americans that rawness means, to use that loaded term, “miscegenation.” Indeed, for us in the diaspora, and particularly for those of us in the good old USofA, there is no purity in blackness. We are the original melting pot. We are America at its biological best in that, whether by choice or by circumstance, we embrace all elements.
Culture is collective behavior, views and values. Certainly an individual can manifest a culture but the culture itself is developed at a collective level.
Consciousness is identity both personal and social. This is the crux of blackness precisely because biology is not a choice; you don’t choose your parents, your ancestors. Culture is collective and thus never simply the result of individual action. We are born into cultures and as we humans come to consciousness we have the opportunity to shape the cultures into which we were born or to assimilate into a different culture. Consciousness is dynamic, ever changing even as it has a specific beginning on an individual level. Of course we can go Jungian and talk about the collective consciousness of a specific group of people in a particular time and space. In any case, whether consciously, subconsciously, or unconsciously, we humans make choices.
With whom and with what do we identify? That is the ultimate determinant of our behavior at the level of choice. Of course we don’t control all elements of our lives—but concerning the myriad of matters over which we do have a choice, consciousness becomes the key to determining our behavior and to a large extent determining our destiny.
The big, two-part question is with whom do we identify and how do we actualize our identity? That was a key element of the Black Arts Movement. We identified with working class Black people, which effectively often, but not necessarily, put us at odds with many academics who are petit-bourgeoisie to the max.
I’m defining class in terms of relationship to the means of production and accumulation of wealth. Those who sell their labor to earn a living are working class. Those who manage the labor of others or who offer professional services are the petit-bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie are those who earn their living and accumulate wealth based on earning profits, collecting rent and/or interest accrued from their property, both intellectual and material. That’s a simplistic thumbnail, but it’s important to understand this distinction because most of the people who write books are petit-bourgeoisie in their orientation whether they are actually petit-bourgeoisie in their consciousness. For example, just because you are a licensed professional, a Ph.D. or an M.D. or J.D., your degree doesn’t necessarily tell us with whom you identify and in whose interest you work.
In general, however, the petit-bourgeoisie identifies with the bourgeoisie rather than the working class. One can immediately see the conflict that the Black Arts Movement had with academics. There is a similar dynamic happening with hip hop, except because of the commercial success of hip hop within the capitalist society, there is an acceptance of hip hop in academic circles far greater than the academic acceptance of the Black Arts Movement. In America, money will change you and change how you are viewed and are accepted by mainstream society.
Part of the Magic of Juju, the concept, is the reality that juju transforms. Blackness is not static, unchanging. Baraka called it the changing same. The key though is that we change both ourselves and our environment. Any study of Black culture necessarily has to be a study of change within a give society, a given space and time, whether we are looking locally, regionally, nationally or internationally. We set the parameters of our study—and even those parameters will change over time—then we proceed to study what happens/happened and why. We might even venture a guess about what will happen next.
I’m taking the time to sketch out some of these definitions because other wise we cannot have a real dialogue if we don’t share a common understanding. It’s not about agreement but rather about epistemology, how it is we know whatever it is we think we know. The first step in knowing is having a common language. In Black culture the common tongue is first music and then orature and kinetics, and only at a tertiary level, literacy. That is a big difference between Black culture and what is commonly called White culture. White culture in the USA validates literacy, business, and technology.
You want to peep where a Black person’s consciousness is? Check out the music they listen to—not the books they read or the movies they watch, check out the music they listen to—and if they don’t listen to music, there better be some major extenuating circumstances, otherwise you’re not dealing with a conscious Black person. Notice, I said “music” as a general category rather than a specific genre of music.
I’ve written extensively about music. During my days as a music critic I won two ASCAP Deems Taylor awards for excellence in writing about music. The reason I mention that is to make clear that I choose not to identify with the mainstream even though I have the ability to compete and excel in the mainstream. Black Arts Movement artists chose not to identify with the mainstream even though we were capable of doing so. Blackness consciousness is just that: a conscious choice rather than a biological default.
Moreover, our blackness includes whiteness, redness, brownness, yellowness and any other human “ness” there is. All of that is part of who we are. The expansiveness of Blackness is a major threat to those who want to be White. Our very being threatens White existence. We are tar babies. Touch us and get stuck.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

Zaza Ali tells black women stop blaming everything on black men

October 17, 2016, 9:10 am

≫ Next: Professor Griff | Exposes Afrika Bambaataa & Zaza Ali, Clarifies Birdman...

≪ Previous: The Majic of JuJu, an appreciation of the Black Arts Movement by Kalamu Ya Salaam

$

0

0

Professor Griff | Exposes Afrika Bambaataa & Zaza Ali, Clarifies Birdman...

October 17, 2016, 9:13 am

≫ Next: BAMBD News from our Pan Africa Editor: Black Love Ghana Tour 2017

≪ Previous: Zaza Ali tells black women stop blaming everything on black men

$

0

0

---

BAMBD News from our Pan Africa Editor: Black Love Ghana Tour 2017

October 19, 2016, 8:27 am

≫ Next: Mentally ill Black Woman murdered in NYC by pigs

≪ Previous: Professor Griff | Exposes Afrika Bambaataa & Zaza Ali, Clarifies Birdman...

$

0

0

The Movement's Pan Africa Editor, Muhammida El Muhajir, and Oakland poet Samantha Akwei in Accra. Samantha was on a family visit to Accra. Muhammida is a North American African who has resettled in Accra. She and her mother, Nisa Ra, have organized the Black Love Ghana Tour.

Mentally ill Black Woman murdered in NYC by pigs

October 19, 2016, 10:18 pm

≫ Next: Tom Hayden, Antiwar Activist dead at 76

≪ Previous: BAMBD News from our Pan Africa Editor: Black Love Ghana Tour 2017

$

0

0

This just in from Charles Barron!...
NYPD kills a mentally challenged 66 year old grandmother...called a 'good shooting'!...How can shooting down a 66 year old grandmother in anyway be called 'good'!...
Eleanor Bumphers all over again...
Stay in the streets yg people!...
And o yes, Saturday, Oct 22nd, the 80th birthday of Chairman Bobby Seale is the 15th Nat'l Day Against Police Brutality!
Keep the pressure on the pig!
Her name was Deborah Danner...
Say her name!...
--Baba Zayid 
Newark, NJ

Comment by Marvin X

Elijah told us we live under the shadow of death in America. I'm amazed pigs are not trained to deal with the mentally ill, perhaps, it is because they suffer mental illness themselves!
A low information person told me today America is not Iraq or Syria, and this mental state that we are not in a long protracted low intensity war with America is precisely why we are shot down like dogs. They taught us in Boy Scouts to be prepared. Yet we make our daily round in the mind fields of America totally unprepared for war. How can anyone be prepared for war with pants hanging on their behinds? How can we be prepared for war without a united front that Amiri Baraka talked about?

Fanon said the only way the oppressed can regain their mental equilibrium is by joining the revolution. We must resist the white supremacy global bandits and their slave catchers in blue uniforms.
As per the mentally ill, i.e., those suffering traumatic slave system diseases, either mild, moderate or severe, must attempt the mental health peer group. There are simply not enough mental health workers in our community, so we must heal ourselves. See my manual How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, introduction by Dr. Nathan Hare.---Marvin X

Tom Hayden, Antiwar Activist dead at 76

October 24, 2016, 8:21 pm

≫ Next: State of the Black World Conference IV, Newark, NJ, November 16-20, 2016

≪ Previous: Mentally ill Black Woman murdered in NYC by pigs

$

0

0

JUSTICE INITIATIVE Tom Hayden, Civil Rights and Antiwar Activist Turned Lawmaker, Dies at 76 By ROBERT D. McFADDEN OCT. 24, 2016 New York Times Tom Hayden Tom Hayden, who burst out of the 1960s counterculture as a radical leader of America's civil rights and antiwar movements, but rocked the boat more gently later in life with a progressive political agenda as an author and California state legislator, died on Sunday. He was 76.   His wife, Barbara Williams, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. Mr. Hayden had been suffering from heart problems and fell ill while attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.   During the racial unrest and antiwar protests of the '60s and early '70s, Mr. Hayden was one of the nation's most visible radicals. He was a founder of Students for a Democratic Society, a defendant in the Chicago Seven trial after riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and a peace activist who married Jane Fonda, went to Hanoi and escorted American prisoners of war home from Vietnam.   As a civil rights worker, he was beaten in Mississippi and jailed in Georgia. In his cell he began writing what became the Port Huron Statement, the political manifesto of S.D.S. and the New Left that envisioned an alliance of college students in a peaceful crusade to overcome what it called repressive government, corporate greed and racism. Its aim was to create a multiracial, egalitarian society.   Like his allies the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who were assassinated in 1968, Mr. Hayden opposed violent protests but backed militant demonstrations, like the occupation of Columbia University campus buildings by students and the burning of draft cards. He also helped plan protests that, as it happened, turned into clashes with the Chicago police outside the Democratic convention.   In 1974, with the Vietnam War in its final stages after American military involvement had all but ended, Mr. Hayden and Ms. Fonda, who were by then married, traveled across Vietnam, talking to people about their lives after years of war, and produced a documentary film, "Introduction to the Enemy." Detractors labeled it Communist propaganda, but Nora Sayre, reviewing it for The New York Times, called it a "pensive and moving film."   Later, with the war over and the idealisms of the '60s fading, Mr. Hayden settled into a new life as a family man, writer and mainstream politician. In 1976, he ran for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate from California, declaring, "The radicalism of the 1960s is fast becoming the common sense of the 1970s." He lost to the incumbent, Senator John V. Tunney.   But focusing on state and local issues like solar energy and rent control, he won a seat in the California Legislature in Sacramento in 1982. He was an assemblyman for a decade and a state senator from 1993 to 2000, sponsoring bills on the environment, education, public safety and civil rights. He lost a Democratic primary for California governor in 1994, a race for mayor of Los Angeles in 1997 and a bid for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 2001.   He was often the target of protests by leftists who called him an outlaw hypocrite, and by Vietnamese refugees and American military veterans who called him a traitor. Conservative news media kept alive the memories of his radical days. In a memoir, "Reunion" (1988), he described himself as a "born-again Middle American" and expressed regret for "romanticizing the Vietnamese" and for allowing his antiwar zeal to turn into anti-Americanism. "His soul-searching and explanations make fascinating reading," The Boston Globe said, "but do not, he concedes, pacify critics on the left who accuse him of selling out to personal ambition or on the right 'who tell me to go back to Russia.' He says he doesn't care." Tom Hayden, pictured far left, longtime activist and former California state senator. He was one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society. In 1962 he was the principal author of the Port Huron Statement - the revolutionary SDS document.   (Photo - C. Clark Kissinger)   "I get re-elected," Mr. Hayden told The Globe. "To me, that's the bottom line. The issues persons like myself are working on are modern, workplace, neighborhood issues."   Thomas Emmet Hayden was born in Royal Oak, Mich., on Dec. 11, 1939, the only child of John Hayden, an accountant, and the former Genevieve Garity, both Irish Catholics. His parents divorced, and Tom was raised by his mother, a film librarian.   He attended a parish school. The pastor was the Rev. Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic radio priest of the 1930s and a right-wing foe of the New Deal.   At Dondero High School in Royal Oak, Mr. Hayden was editor of the student newspaper. His final editorial before graduation in 1957 almost cost him his diploma. In his exhortation to old-fashioned patriotism, he encrypted, in the first letter of each paragraph, an acrostic for "Go to hell."   His turn to radical politics began at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he was inspired by student protests against the anti-Communist witch hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee and by lunch counter sit-ins by black students in Greensboro, N.C. In the summer of 1960, he met Dr. King in California, and he soon joined sit-in protests and voter registration drives in the South.   Perceiving a need for a national student organization to coordinate civil rights projects around the country, he joined 35 like-minded activists at Ann Arbor in 1960 and formed Students for a Democratic Society. He also became editor of the campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily. He earned a bachelor's degree in sociology at Michigan in 1961 and did graduate work there in 1962 and 1963.   His 1961 marriage to Sandra Cason, a civil rights worker, ended after two years. He met Ms. Fonda at an antiwar rally. They were married in 1973 and had a son, Troy Garity. Ms. Fonda had a daughter, Vanessa, by her former marriage to the film director Roger Vadim. Mr. Hayden and Ms. Fonda divorced in 1990. He married Ms. Williams, a Canadian actress, in 1993. They adopted a son, Liam. Along with his wife, Mr. Hayden is survived by the three children.   In 1961, Mr. Hayden joined the Freedom Riders on interstate buses in the South, challenging authorities who refused to enforce the Supreme Court's rulings banning segregation on public buses. His jailhouse draft of what became the 25,000-word S.D.S. manifesto was debated, revised and formally adopted at the organization's first convention, in Port Huron, Mich., in 1962.   "We are people of this generation," it began, "bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit." It did not recommend specific programs but attacked the arms race, racial discrimination, bureaucracy and apathy in the face of poverty, and it called for "participatory democracy" and a society based on "fraternity,""honesty" and "brotherhood."   Mr. Hayden was elected president of S.D.S. for 1962-63. In 1965, he made the first of several trips to Vietnam, accompanying Herbert Aptheker, a Communist Party theoretician, and Staughton Lynd, a radical professor at Yale. While the visit was technically illegal, it was apparently ignored by the State Department to allow the American peace movement and Hanoi to establish informal contacts. The group went to Hanoi and toured villages and factories in North Vietnam. Mr. Hayden wrote a book, "The Other Side" (1966), about the experience.   At Hanoi's invitation, Mr. Hayden attended a 1967 conference in Bratislava, in what was then Czechoslovakia, and met North Vietnamese leaders, who agreed to release some captured American prisoners as a gesture of "solidarity" with the American peace movement. Mr. Hayden then made a second journey to Hanoi to discuss the details, and soon afterward picked up three American P.O.W.s at a rendezvous in Cambodia and escorted them home.   Mr. Hayden directed an S.D.S. antipoverty project in Newark from 1964 to 1967, and in his last year witnessed days of rioting, looting and destruction that left 26 people dead and hundreds injured. In "Rebellion in Newark" (1967), he wrote, "Americans have to turn their attention from the lawbreaking violence of the rioters to the original and greater violence of racism."   In 1968, Mr. Hayden helped plan antiwar protests in Chicago to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. Club-swinging police officers clashed with thousands of demonstrators, injuring hundreds in a televised spectacle that a national commission later called a police riot. But Mr. Hayden and others were charged by federal officials with inciting to riot and conspiracy. The Chicago Seven trial became a classic confrontation between radicals and Judge Julius Hoffman, marked by insults, angry judicial outbursts and contempt citations.   In 1970, all seven defendants were acquitted of conspiracy, but Mr. Hayden and four others - Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger and Rennie Davis - were convicted of inciting to riot and sentenced to five years in prison. The verdicts were overturned on appeal, as were various contempt citations, on the basis of judicial bias. Mr. Hayden's book "Trial" (1970) recounted the events.   Although Ms. Fonda was a wealthy movie star and financially supported Mr. Hayden's early political career, she and Mr. Hayden lived for years in a modest home in Santa Monica, near but not on the ocean. They did their own shopping and laundry, cooked meals in a tiny kitchen with an old stove and shared child-care duties for Troy and Vanessa.   Mr. Hayden was Gov. Jerry Brown's appointed chairman of the SolarCal Council, which encourages solar energy development, from 1978 to 1982. He lost a Democratic primary for governor in 1994 to Kathleen Brown, the governor's sister, who lost the general election to the Republican governor, Pete Wilson. In 1997, as the Democratic candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, Mr. Hayden lost to the Republican incumbent, Richard J. Riordan.   After his legislative career, he directed the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver City, Calif., a platform for his opposition to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He taught at California colleges and at Harvard, and wrote articles for The Times, The Washington Post and The Nation.   Mr. Hayden, who lived in Los Angeles, wrote more than 20 books, including several memoirs, re-examinations of the civil rights and antiwar movements, and volumes on street gangs, Vietnam, his own Irish heritage, the environment and America's future. His last book, "Listen Yankee!: Why Cuba Matters," was published in 2015.   His personal papers, 120 boxes covering his life since the 1960s, were given in 2014 to the University of Michigan. Besides troves on civil rights and antiwar activities, they included 22,000 pages of F.B.I. files amassed in a 16-year surveillance of Mr. Hayden.   "One of your prime objectives," J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime F.B.I. director, said in one memo, "should be to neutralize him in the New Left movement." Related articles: The Port Huron Statement at 50      1960s Radicals Predict Rebirth of Social Activism

State of the Black World Conference IV, Newark, NJ, November 16-20, 2016

October 24, 2016, 8:36 pm

≫ Next: Paul Robeson play at Black Rep

≪ Previous: Tom Hayden, Antiwar Activist dead at 76

$

0

0

Paul Robeson play at Black Rep

October 25, 2016, 2:50 pm

≫ Next: Black Love Lives: The Pan African wedding of Aries Jordan and Muhammad Diaw of Senegal

≪ Previous: State of the Black World Conference IV, Newark, NJ, November 16-20, 2016

$

0

0

Fresh from Paradise Island, BahamasTour The Legendary  Berkeley Black Rep  "Keepers of the Culture"  presents: The NAACP Theater Award Winning  "Best One Person Show" "The World is my Home- The Life of Paul Robeson" (CLICK ON PICTURE FOR WEBSITE ) 14th Anniversary Glossy Color 2x3 Commemorative Poster    Berkeley Black Rep. Grp 3201 Adeline Street  Berkeley, California    Friday & Saturday - Oct. 28-29th  Curtain 7:00pm      Tickets:  510/652 2120   Special Guest Appearance by  Bay Area Performer of the Year  Steve Harvey Show winner; "Dee Dee Simon"  The Black Rep Grp. was started in the 1950's by the late Birel & Nora Vaughn; High School teachers in Vicksburg, Miss.  to celebrate the contributions of Black Artists.  Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis named them the "Keepers of the Culture" After three aborted attacks by the KKK one which almost harmed their baby daughter Mona; they were forced to flee Mississippi & settle in Berkeley Calif.  Thru persistence & hard work they continued their mission to preserve our culture & founded what is now the Berkeley Black Rep.    Their revolutionary vision is kept alive today by that three year old baby girl that fled Miss. with them years ago their surviving daughter  Dr. Mona Vaughn Scott.  I am honored to bring my passion peice back to their stage. We hope you can support us.       " In my humble attempt to use Art as a vehicle for social change. This  is more than just a show for me; it's a prayer for the forsaken & forgotten.  A story of heart & hope, of broken promises & broken dreams, a love song for the brave & broken-hearted enslaved Africans, who found enough forgiveness in their tortured souls to live, laugh & love. To remind us as we're sharing this brief moment in time on this third Rock from the Sun; to embrace our common humanity with kindness."     Stogie Kenyatta                FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK     Click on pic for website For Worldwide Bookings Contact Nicholas Anderson at Kingston Rose Mgmt   kingrosemgmt@gmail.com

Black Love Lives: The Pan African wedding of Aries Jordan and Muhammad Diaw of Senegal

November 1, 2016, 7:45 am

≫ Next: BAMBD calls for Town Hall Meeting: Toward Nonviolence in the Black Arts Movement Business District, 14th Street corridor

≪ Previous: Paul Robeson play at Black Rep

$

0

0

 Mrs.  Aries Jordan Diaw, Mr. Muhammad Diaw and son Legend Muhammad

 Mrs. Aries Jordan Diaw and Muhammad Diaw of Senegal

 Showing off their rings

 Ghanaian American poet Samantha Akwei told the couple to call upon the community for support when needed

Aries sister and poet Toya, poet Aries and their mentor poet Marvin X. "The Dream Team" read together Marvin's poem What is Love? Aries is associate editor of The Movement, Toya, copy editor, Marvin X publisher. The bride is a grad student at Mills College.

 The cake

The maids of honor

All photos by Photo Artist Gene Hazzard

BAMBD calls for Town Hall Meeting: Toward Nonviolence in the Black Arts Movement Business District, 14th Street corridor

November 8, 2016, 10:12 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X's Confidential Notes from BAMBD Planning Session and Council President Lynette McElhaney's Response

≪ Previous: Black Love Lives: The Pan African wedding of Aries Jordan and Muhammad Diaw of Senegal

$

0

0

Monday, November 7, 2016

BAMBD Calls for a Town Hall Meeting: Toward Non-Violence in the Black Arts Movement Business District along the 14th Street corridor

For Immediate Release

November 5, 2016

Shooting in the 400 block of 14^th Street

On November 5, 2016, just after 12:00 a.m., Oakland police officers responded to the 400 block of 14^th Street on a report of a shooting. Officers were in the area and heard the shots. When officers arrived on scene, multiple victims were medically transported to local hospitals and some victims self-initialed transport to local hospitals.

Currently, the Oakland Police Department Felony Assault Section investigators are conducting an investigation. At this time, it appears the shooting took place outside.

Comment from The Movement, publication of the BAMBD

Toward Non-violence in the BAMBD

When I taught at Fresno State University, 1969, I thought my life was in danger when Gov. Ronald  Reagan told the State College Board of Trustees, "Get Marvin X off campus by any means necessary!" I had bodyguards everyday I taught at FSU. At 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, I have no bodyguards except the people who watch every thing I do. They watch how I treat the people, how I talk to the mentally ill and others. They listen to the  sound of my voice. "My grandson informed me, 'Grandpa, you really are a nice person. And you're very funny too!" FYI, I am heart broken at the violence in the BAMBD. My classroom has been the center of protests at 14th and Broadway, e.g., Oscar Grant, Occupy Oakland, police violence and other issues. I was not prepared to get tear gassed a few minutes after the Marine was shot in the head by police at 14th and Broadway. I am too old for this, I told myself as I took refuge in Burger King, but the tear gas followed us inside. A child was coughing and puking from the tear gas. And this ain't war?--Marvin X

In our original vision for the Black Arts Movement Business District, we imagined an "...Afro-centric, culturally  and artistically rich, economically sustainable area, a sacred space for people of good will and positive consciousness to gather and express themselves freely as divine beings in human form."

BAMBD Planner-poet Marvin X and Lynette McElhaney, President of the Oakland City Council.

Even before and since January 19, when  the Oakland City Council made official the BAMBD, violence has revealed its ugly head to test our dream of a sacred space for our cultural survival and thrival. We have appealed repeatedly to City Council President Lynette McElhaney to fly the Universal African flag as an expression of cultural consciousness. Even after Madam Mayor Libby Schaaf was made aware of our request to fly the Red, Black and Green throughout the BAMBD and asked Madam President about the delay, banners yet fly to inspire North American Africans in Oakland to be their better selves. In the past, we have talked about Gay Pride in San Francisco and how their flag flies along Market Street to the Castro, their cultural district. People are careful not to be disrespectful in the Castro. Homophobia is not tolerated. Symbols go a long way to letting people know they are in a sacred space. 

Banners in the BAMBD will let ourselves and the world know we are civilized and divine beings in human form. Uncivilized behavior will not be tolerated in the BAMBD. It appears security is a top priority in the BAMBD. If we cannot secure our sacred space, it becomes another space controlled by those who do not believe in peace, persons who do not believe in good will. To enter the BAMBD, such persons must enter recovery programs to address their negative behavior. Membership in the BAMBD shall be based on civilized behavior. No physical violence, no verbal violence. The greeting should be, "Peace, I appreciate you sister, brother!" 

Does BAMBD need our own security force? Perhaps, especially if the OPD cannot secure the BAMBD. There are many cultural and business districts who provide their own security. 

We have also called for vendors as a symbol of economic self-determination. Do for Self! For years we have questioned why there are no vendors on the streets of Oakland, although there are vendors in the downtown area of Berkeley and San Francisco. Vendors can be a symbol of economic vitality, especially since we occupy few properties in the BAMBD. North American African street vendors can inspire economic entrepreneurship. Brothers and sisters seeing such entrepreneurship should be inspired to be positive rather than negative, especially in the BAMBD. City Hall responded that vendors are a policy issue. Well, eleven months have passed and the vendor request has not been addressed. Vendors are now ready to occupy the BAMBD when the word is given.

BAMBD Board Chair, Rt. Col. Conway Jones, Jr. at statue of Tommy Smith and John Carlos, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Wash., D.C.

We think addressing the points above, will help create a positive atmosphere in the BAMBD. As artists, vendors, residents, business persons, perhaps a Town Hall Meeting is in order. We have therefore asked the BAMBD Community Development Corporation Board Chair, Rt. Col. Conway Jones, Jr. to call a Town Hall Meeting to address critical issues in the BAMBD, especially security, vending, business improvement and development, housing, artist space, developers, gentrification, etc. We request the presence of City Officials, including the Council President and the Mayor. City Planners should be present. As per the Planning Commission, we suggest Mayor Libby Schaaf appoint BAMBD Chair Conway Jones, Jr., as a member. We call upon all City and County agencies to keep BAMBD abreast of all issues relating to our district. BAMBD must be informed on all matters relating to and/or occurring in the BAMBD. 

The BAMBD Townhall should be a meeting and greeting of all persons and groups associated with the BAMBD. Stay tuned for date, time and place of BAMBD Town Hall. Call The Post News Group for more information: 510-287-8200.

--Marvin X. Jackmon, M.A.,

BAMBD Co-founder/Planner
mxjackmon@gmail.com
510-200-4164

 

The BAMBD Cultural Keepers at Oakland City Hall

---

Marvin X's Confidential Notes from BAMBD Planning Session and Council President Lynette McElhaney's Response

November 8, 2016, 10:36 pm

≫ Next: Marvin X on the election of Donald Trump as President of the US

≪ Previous: BAMBD calls for Town Hall Meeting: Toward Nonviolence in the Black Arts Movement Business District, 14th Street corridor

$

0

0

BAMBD News Update

confidential message

11/1/16

BAMBD planner Marvin X and Oakland City Council President,  Lynette McElhaney

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, lead planner of the BAMBD, founder and director of the Lower Bottom Playaz, in residence at the Flight Deck Theatre, 1540 Broadway, downtown Oakland.

Maestro Marvin X, a founder of the National Black Arts Movement, chief planner of the BAMBD, Oakland CA. Maestro reads from his play Salaam, Huey, Salaam, about his last meeting with Black Panther co-founder Dr. Huey P. Newton in a West Oakland crack house. The play was performed coast to coast, from Oakland to Brooklyn at Sista's Place, Bed-Sty. It was also performed in Newark, NJ at the home of Amina and Amiri Baraka.

photo Alecia Mason

Oakland Post News Group Publisher, Paul Cobb, and Marvin X have been friends since childhood, growing up in West Oakland. Paul grew up on 7th and Pine, Marvin at 7th and Campbell. Marvin decries and mourns the fact that Paul Cobb knows more about his father than Marvin does. See Marvin's BAM classic Flowers for the Trashman. photo by Walter Riley, Esq.

BAMBD executive planners met this morning to work out the details on a comprehensive benefits package for a joint  meeting with the key developers in the BAMBD.  During the course of the meeting, chief architect, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, attempted to retire from the project, just as her mentor Marvin X tried to do when he passed the baton to her. But BAMBD co-founder Paul Cobb and Marvin X rejected her proposal to step down. Marvin X found  the BAMBD task overwhelming and Dr. Nzinga came to the same conclusion after working with one developer on benefits for BAMBD. The task is immense due to the myriad forces at play, e.g., developers, lawyers, politicians, artists, planning commission, business persons, chamber of commerce and the people in general who are, like those mentioned above,  often opportunistic, greedy and self-serving. On her way to the meeting, Ayodele said a little voice told her to get back to her art which is theatre. As he has done many times after passing the baton to his star student, Marvin informed her this is the theatre of life. War is often called a theatre. And BAM philosopher-mystic Sun Ra said, "The Creator got things fixed: if you don't do the right thing, you can't go backward or forward, you just stuck on stupid." Paul encouraged Ayo to come forward and continue the mission we have started. He congratulated her of the progress she made and asked forgiveness for not being able to attend meetings with developers and other Oakland cultural district planners who are in a united front with severe reservations about those persons in cultural districts who think their plan should be a template for all other cultural districts, especially those representing cultural districts dominated by white supremacy hipsters such as the Uptown District.

We are so thankful to have Paul Cobb's political and activist wisdom to draw upon. Ayo offered to resign her post as the public face of BAMBD after Paul explained the need for a grand vision. "When we forced the City of Oakland to include the word Movement in the name, we were serious that BAMBD must be a social and cultural movement that represents the heart and soul of our people. And w are taking a stand for our equity in the City of Oakland. "

Cobb reminded us in the planning session this morning. "We must stake our claim to this turf and not be punked," he said, using street language he and Marvin X learned from growing up on 7th Street in West Oakland's cultural and economic district. He reminded Marvin that his father, Owendell Jackmon, was in a meeting at Paul's grand- father's house when West Oakland's North American Africans organized to prevent the destruction of our community when the Cypress freeway was planned circa 1954.As we know, the freeway collapsed during the last earthquake and is now Mandela Parkway.

At the Oakland City Council meeting tonight, Paul Cobb will address the Marijuana initiative that he demands must include equity for BAMBD, including a trust fund so we can at least have a 10% share in the economic benefits of the initiative so BAMBD and all Oakland's North American Africans can benefit, including all those persons convicted of drug crimes for selling marijuana. We need a trust fund that does not go into Oakland's General Fund but is reserved for BAMBD and related North American African cultural groups. If it takes $250,000 to open a Cannabis Club, we want a fund so our people can enjoy the economic benefits, rather than suffer jail time for selling cannabis after they buy it from legal clubs operated by white boys and girls. Yes, as we write, our brothers and sisters are still being jailed for buying legal cannibis from the white children at clubs.

Dr. Nzinga has requested letters of understanding from all non-profit groups seeking benefits from developers.We oppose benefits directed to City Hall as President of Oakland City Council, Lynette McElhaney has suggested. We reject the City of Oakland's decision to have benefits submitted as impact fees. We demand a seat on the planning commission so we can keep abreast of all planning requests submitted to the City of Oakland. We are thankful to have City of Oakland watchdog, Gene Hazzard, on our side. And we also list Donald Lacy of the Love Life Foundation as a key supporter. We informed him this afternoon that the BAMBD Newsletter shall include the official City of Oakland's motto: Love Life on the masthead of our newsletter The Movement.

Response from Oakland City Council President, Lynette McElhaney

 

Marvin,

I am saddened by your message and disappointed that you chose to provide misinformation to your readers rather than contact me or my staff directly to address your concerns.  Be that as it may,  here is a reminder of where we are on the process and timeline that I've presented to my Black Culture Keepers work group:

1) Budget. There is no established budget for the District.  Business Improvement Districts are funded by separate assessments that the property owners undertake voluntarily.  Cultural Districts do not yet have an identified source of funding.  My staff is researching concepts from around the country that we will share with the Black Culture Keepers group.  We anticipated coming back to the group in December with a report on what we've identified.  As of now there are no funding sources that are under Council control for any project and there is not one established for the BAMBD.

2) Banners. The banner implementation was directed to the City Administrator.  As you will note the Administration has not been able to advance all of the proposals adopted by the Council including the implementation of the Love Life theme.  The Council will request updates but this has not been prioritized over the time-sensitive work needed to get Renter Protection, Police Oversight and other measures before the voters.  My staff and I have also asked the City Administrator to provide guidance on a process that would allow the City to prioritize the selection of an Oakland artist for the design.  As we shared with the Black Culture Keepers, standard bidding procedures have often resulted in the lowest responsible bidder being someone who may not be from Oakland.  I will resume my efforts on getting this back in cue should I be fortunate to be re-elected.

3) Street Vendors. The street vendor proposal is included in the downtown specific planning process.  

In addition to the issues you cited, the Black Culture Keepers made two specific projects priority; namely the rehabilitation of the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Performing Arts ($5-$10 Million for full restoration and upgrade to the theater + upgrades to the residential units and offices) and the expansion of hours and programming at the African American Museum and Library.  Both of those efforts are underway and we've worked diligently to secure funding commitments from developers that are bringing projects to the corridor.  The Malonga artists are meeting regularly and I am delighted that they have secured technical assistance to fund their on-going participation in the rehabilitation efforts.

Lastly, we have made strong commitments to the businesses in the District to work with them to expand their participation in Visit Oakland and to assess additional supports for building improvements, loans and grants to support their businesses.  We're behind on bringing the businesses together but have had early meetings, particularly with the Black-owned tech businesses that are located in the District.

Be well, Lynette

Monday, November 7, 2016

Town Business: Judge Orders Council President McElhaney to Hand Over Records in Ethics Case

By Darwin BondGraham

 

• Lynette Gibson McElhaney.

Superior Court Judge Kimberly Colwell issued a tentative ruling last Thursday requiring Oakland City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney to comply with a subpoena for records issued by Oakland's Public Ethics Commission.

McElhaney can still object to Colwell's ruling, but Colwell wrote that under the Oakland City Charter the PEC has the authority to compel her to hand over records.

McElhaney is accused of using her council office to interfere with a townhouse project that was going to be built next to her personal home. An investigation by the Express last year uncovered emails showing that McElhaney had her chief of staff draft an appeal against the project, and that she enlisted the help of the city's planning and building director to force the developer and his architect to redesign the project. The developer ultimately gave up and blamed McElhaney for interfering.

The Alameda County Grand Jury carried out its own investigation over the past summer and confirmed that McElhaney violated ethics rules and had a conflict of interest.

In October, members of the public attempted to schedule a censure hearing against McElhaney — several times. But McElhaney cancelled two of the Rules Committee meetings at which the censure items were to be discussed. The council president also skipped council meetings. According to McElhaney, she was sick with bronchitis, but during the October 19 council meeting McElhaney was spotted attending a party held in honor of Barbara Lee. Members of the rules and legislation committee ultimately decided to hold off on censure and wait for the PEC to complete its review of the matter.

But on October 5, the Oakland Public Ethics Commission filed a lawsuit against McElhaney, alleging that she has ignored subpoenas for records and stonewalled their investigation.

Judge Colwell's tentative ruling sides with the PEC. A hearing in the case will be held on today. The ruling gives McElhaney until November 23 to comply with the PEC's subpoena.

McElhaney, a first-term councilmember, is running for reelection this year. She recently formed a “legal defense fund” according to records on file with the Oakland clerk.

Marvin X on the election of Donald Trump as President of the US

November 8, 2016, 11:17 pm

≫ Next: Black Bird Press News & Review: Navigating the Perilous Mental Landscape in the Crazy House Called America

≪ Previous: Marvin X's Confidential Notes from BAMBD Planning Session and Council President Lynette McElhaney's Response

$

0

0

Dear Smart ass white boys and girls who know everything in the world but don't really know shit. Six trillion dollars on useless wars in the Middle East! War, what is it good for?

I repeat what I said not long ago: Don't ask me shit, don't tell me shit and don't sell me shit!

Furthermore, I am not mad at Donald Trump for being a white Nationalist. I am a Black Nationalist so why should I be mad at Donald for loving white people. If he  didn't love his own kind, he would be sick, just as a Chinese would be sick if he didn't love Chinese people, or if a Mexican didn't love Mexicans. Don't Mexicans say La Raza La Raza La Raza (for the Mexicans)?

The best thing Donald has said is use common sense. Only problem is, Dr. Julia Hare said, "Common sense ain't common these days."
--Marvin X

Black Bird Press News & Review: Navigating the Perilous Mental Landscape in the Crazy House Called America

November 12, 2016, 6:03 pm

≫ Next: Save the date: African Diaspora Bazaar and Crafts Fair, December 18, 2016

≪ Previous: Marvin X on the election of Donald Trump as President of the US

$

0

0

Black Bird Press News & Review: Navigating the Perilous Mental Landscape in the Crazy House Called America

Save the date: African Diaspora Bazaar and Crafts Fair, December 18, 2016

November 13, 2016, 10:24 pm

≫ Next: The Wisdom of Plato Negro

≪ Previous: Black Bird Press News & Review: Navigating the Perilous Mental Landscape in the Crazy House Called America

$

0

0

Marvin X will sign books and speak on the Black Arts Movement Business District

photo Alicia Mason

The Wisdom of Plato Negro

November 19, 2016, 7:44 pm

≫ Next: Race in America: The Grand Denial by Marvin X

≪ Previous: Save the date: African Diaspora Bazaar and Crafts Fair, December 18, 2016

$

0

0

Marvin X at Laney College Theatre, Oakland, 10/1/16

photo Alicia Mason

It's not about what Trump will do, it's about what you will do! You said Obama didn't do anything, but what did you do the last eight years? Since you know everything, did you teach the people everything you know?

***

Now that the she-devil is out and the he-devil is in, what difference does it make, the devil is the devil no matter what time or place.

***

You can talk about US immigration, but I dare you to visit Mexico and overstay your visa! The last thing any human being wants is time in a Mexican jail. But those ex-patriot Blacks I met in Mexico City during my 1970 exile, decried North American Africans in the US who remain here despite racist treatment. The Mexico City Blacks had no sympathy for those who wanted to remain as neo-slaves in the US, "They deserve such inhumane treatment."

***

Cry baby, cry baby, suck yo mama's titty! Why you crying about a white devil? You had a black devil, what did he do for you? Out of two plus million in prison, he freed two or three hundred, or is it two or three thousand. That ain't shit! He should have given a general amnesty since most of the incarcerated are doing time for non-violent drug crimes and mental health issues. Most importantly, if they'd had money for proper legal representation, they wouldn't be doing any time at all. How many bankers are doing time for sub-prime loan schemes? The only reason Bernie Madoff is doing time is because he stole from the rich. But the mental prison is far worse than the physical prison. Mumia Abu Jamal is in prison but his mind and spirit are free. You are free but mentally incarcerated, yeah, doing life in the big yard! During my stay in prison and jail, I did what I do out here on the big yard: study, write and teach!

***

It ain't about giving Trump a chance, rather you need to give yourself a chance. You life is not dependent on Trump. Was it dependent on Obama? Don't ask someone to do something for you that you will not do for yourself!

***

When will you stop being reactionary and become proactive? When will you stop being destructive and become constructive? Here in Oakland, the Black Arts Movement Business District is part of Oakland's Downtown Plan for the next 25 to 50 years. We BAMBD planners are developing plans for our future in Oakland. We want to build, not destroy. A few weeks ago there was a big fire on my block which was national news. It destroyed an apartment complex that was nearly complete. I'd watched the construction from the beginning, then I watched the destruction. It was slightly heartbreaking to see the work of the builders turn to ashes and rubble.

--Marvin X/El Muhajir
For speaking and reading engagements
send letter of invitation to:
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
NO PC