Black Bird Press News & Review: Hurriyah Asar at Black Love Lives Conference
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Black Bird Press News & Review: Hurriyah Asar at Black Love Lives Conference
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Black Bird Press News & Review: Parable of Dr. Yacoub's America: 12-year-old boy Murders Marine Vet. Middle School Teacher
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parable of conundrums and quagmires by marvin x
parable of conundrums and quagmires
Not solving a riddle can sometimes lead directly to a quagmire, but when a society is faced with a multiplicity of conundrums, the quagmire can only lead to the precipice, at which we fall headlong in the chasm. The dire situations facing the world today, are, for most people, and especially the so called best minds, overwhelming. This is revealed in the political world that is paralyzed by the left/right paradigm of ideological dogmatism and party loyalty that turns people into sycophants of the worse kind, to the degree common sense makes no sense, especially as per the consent of the governed whose cares and woes are most often irrelevant to the politically engaged.
It is the height of tragedy to see that people must suffer for the political expediency of parties, e.g., Democratic and/or Republican. Surely, it does not matter to people living in tents under overpasses whether they are relieved from their suffering by Democrats or Republicans. This only matters to, yes, Democrats and Republicans!
No matter how dire the situation, Democrats will not seek nor accept funds from the Republicans to assist the homeless simply because it is not politically correct. So there is no help for the man robbed and bleeding on the highway unless a neutral party comes along such as the good Samaritan. Since common sense has been long gone from this situation, is there any wonder the people are overwhelmed at their inability to solve the conundrums of their lives and thus endure the quagmire as they stand at the precipice preparing to leap headlong into the chasm!
Denial is pervasive with those trapped in conundrums, many have no idea how severe their situation is until the concrete wall hits them squarely on the head cracking their skull. Wow, they say, on the way to the emergency room, wow! Maybe they were texing in their car or texing while walking when they hit the wall, but hit it they did and now the doctors must try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Humpty tries to convince the doctors he was awoke when the wall hit him--of course he didn't hit the wall! When the good Samaritan who saw him hit the wall visited him at the hospital and tried to convince him what happened, the poor patient persisted in denial until the Samaritan departed in disgust.
Is there any wonder why we are consumed in the quagmire and stand at the precipice? In our arrogance, we dare not step back but leap forward flying through the air into the chasm until we hit rock bottom, breaking our bones and are no more.
But death itself is no reprieve for the Miller Lite life we lived and the response to freeing ourselves from the conundrums and quagmires, so even from the grave, we must apologize to our children for leaving them steeped in the madness of our making or not liberating ourselves from said madness but passing the toxic baton onto their generation for resolution that is all but impossible without the deep structure knowledge they sorely lack which is our ancestral wisdom, thus forcing them to sadly reinvent the wheel of misfortune.
Even when some are fortunate enough to connect with ancestral wisdom, denial appears and the youth refuse to admit that somewhere down the line our fathers and mothers went blind! Tradition is wonderful except the reactionary elements that persist into the present and linger into the future. This is precisely why we suffer such abominable conundrums and quagmires. We must examine the deep structure of our myth-rituals and delete the excesses that lead us into the world of make believe. The structure of our male/female relations based on domination and steeped in religiosity must be expelled from human consciousness or more precisely, human unconsciousness!
But few are willing to make such revolutionary changes often due to the privileges and perks in these power relationships. As per women, they often linger in abusive situations because they become addicted to the "golden handcuffs"! They will suffer verbal, mental and physical abuse of the worse kind to maintain a life-style of conspicuous consumption, and the children as well. One woman said, "I know I'm just a whore in the disguise of a wife!
Unless and until we are willing to make a great leap forward, not into the chasm but the upper room of human consciousness, things shall remain the same. I say the tide is turning because you are turning the tide! Al Qur'an says, "If you flee in the name of Allah, you shall find many places of escape and abundant resources."
--marvin x
10/21/17
Author of 30 books, internationally known poet, playwright, philosopher, freedom fighter Marvin X is known by many names throughout his half century of writing and activism. He is known as Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland (Ishmael Reed); the USAs Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz (Bob Holman); a master teacher in many fields of thought, one of America's great story tellers, I'd put him ahead of Mark Twain even! (Rudolph Lewis).
One of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and most recently of Oakland's Black Arts Movement Business District, Marvin X is noted in the African American Museum of History at the Smithsonian, Washington, DC. His archives were acquired by the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, where he once lectured and worked as a researcher. He's also taught at San Francisco State University, Fresno State University, University of California, San Diego, Mills College and the University of Nevada, Reno, Laney and Merritt Colleges.
Marvin X has received writings awards from Columbia University, National Endowment for the Arts and planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He speaks and colleges and universities coast to coast.
Maestro Marvin X with the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra, Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland. Left to right, Val Serrant, David Murray, Mechelle LaChaux and Earle Davis, a trumpet player who performed at Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco, 1966.
Marvin X with students at the University of California, Merced, Kim McMillan's class on theatre.
Instructor McMillan says her students love Marvin and his writings, especially his play Flowers for the Trashman, a BAM classic. See Black Fire and the BAM reader SOS.
Marvin X is now available for speaking and performance. See the video Marvin X in Concert: www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com Contact him at mxjackmon@gmail.com
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Rocket Man #1 vs. Rocket Man #2
The Black Panther Newspaper featured articles on North Korea and its founder Kim Ill Sung, grandfather of present leader Kim. aq3
Since must at all times try to stay grounded in reality in this most dangerous of worlds, we must be careful not to misplaces our fears, especially after being told some time ago that the only thing to fear is fear itself. But for the fearful in this nuclear age, should we not ask who might possibly be Rocket Man #1 and #2? Thinking logically, Rocket Man #1 would be the man with the most rockets! And even though we might declare Rocket Man #2 is the man currently testing his rockets, we must yet ask who is the man that has used his rockets (atomic bombs) in the past? Rocket man #1 or Rocket man #2? Of course it is Rocket Man #1, again, the man with the most rockets. Now we must ask why does Rocket Man #2 needs rockets? Perhaps it is for self defense since we know he is still technically at war with Rocket Man #1. Is is not common sense for #2 to secure rockets since #1 has proven in the past that he is quite willing to send rockets to people similar to #2. Now as per the ability of #2 to acquire rockets for his self defense since #1 is known to utilize his rockets, thus the need to have a level playing field, certainly, we would expect #2 to call upon his neighbor who is known as the inventor of rockets and fire crackers, would we not? Furthermore, would it not be logical for the neighbor to assist #2 in order to keep a buffer zone on his border to keep Rocket Man #1 at length, since #1 is constantly encroaching at every turn? Clearly, we should suspect that Rocket Man #2 and his neighbor might just be in a conspiracy, in this world full of conspiracies. Further, how many millions of people did North Korean lose in the Korean War? Shouldn't they by determined to exercise self defense after enduring transgressions and occupation by the Japanese and others? Are not half their population under US occupation at this hour? Wouldn't you be a little paranoid based on history, even though paranoia is when you imagine things, not when things have happened in the past and are likely to occur in the future if one is not prepared to prevent such, as the Boy Scout's teach: be prepared!
As per North American Africans, concerned about Rocket Man #2, we suggest they take a chill pill. If we know the history of the 1960s, North Korea was our friend, not foe. NK gave support and refuge to member of the Black Panther Party. Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver celebrated the #1st birthday party of their son, Maceo Ahmed Eldridge Cleaver at a party given by Rocket Man #2's grandmother, Madam Kim Ill Sung, and the Cleaver's daughter was born in NK and named Joju by Madam Kim, thus we need not fear NK but do as I have suggested, send a peace delegation of progressive black women to talk with Rocket Man #2, for our sake and the sake of the world. We have no need for a nuclear Holocaust, surely you agree this must be prevented by any means necessary.
Peace delegation in North Vietnam meeting with General Giap, who defeated the Americans. North American Africans have friends around the world if you only knew. Stop thinking the USA is your friend when it has never, ever revealed itself to be such. It is not even a friend to itself. Ask the Native Americas is the US their friend. Whom did they say speaks with a forked tongued? Those who worship the devil shall go down with the devil! What book told you this, so called Negro, North American African, Aboriginal Asiatic Black man and woman?
As per Rocket Man #1, I don't know to whom he needs to speak with. He is surrounded by generals that we know abhor war. I don't know who can speak with #1 better than his generals. Are they not already engaged in enough wars around the world, too many to mention?
For myself, born in 1944, I have surely had enough of war: WWII, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, et al. Imagine, in spite of these wars, more people die from drinking toxic war, breathing poison air, eating food contaminated with pesticides, fertilizers and dyes. Can you believe the toxic waste of developed countries is dumped in the underdeveloped nations because they need the funds?
What if the nearly trillion dollar US military budget was redirected to organic food, water and clean air; education devoid of white supremacy mythology and youth given what the US promised youth in Iraq and Afghanistan if they laid down their arms and pledged allegiance to the constitutions of their nations: jobs, education and housing? Maybe our youth in the hoods and those incarcerated, upon release would indeed stand tall, salute the flag and pledge allegiance to the US Constitution.
--Marvin X
10/21/17
Since must at all times try to stay grounded in reality in this most dangerous of worlds, we must be careful not to misplaces our fears, especially after being told some time ago that the only thing to fear is fear itself. But for the fearful in this nuclear age, should we not ask who might possibly be Rocket Man #1 and #2? Thinking logically, Rocket Man #1 would be the man with the most rockets! And even though we might declare Rocket Man #2 is the man currently testing his rockets, we must yet ask who is the man that has used his rockets (atomic bombs) in the past? Rocket man #1 or Rocket man #2? Of course it is Rocket Man #1, again, the man with the most rockets. Now we must ask why does Rocket Man #2 needs rockets? Perhaps it is for self defense since we know he is still technically at war with Rocket Man #1. Is is not common sense for #2 to secure rockets since #1 has proven in the past that he is quite willing to send rockets to people similar to #2. Now as per the ability of #2 to acquire rockets for his self defense since #1 is known to utilize his rockets, thus the need to have a level playing field, certainly, we would expect #2 to call upon his neighbor who is known as the inventor of rockets and fire crackers, would we not? Furthermore, would it not be logical for the neighbor to assist #2 in order to keep a buffer zone on his border to keep Rocket Man #1 at length, since #1 is constantly encroaching at every turn? Clearly, we should suspect that Rocket Man #2 and his neighbor might just be in a conspiracy, in this world full of conspiracies. Further, how many millions of people did North Korean lose in the Korean War? Shouldn't they by determined to exercise self defense after enduring transgressions and occupation by the Japanese and others? Are not half their population under US occupation at this hour? Wouldn't you be a little paranoid based on history, even though paranoia is when you imagine things, not when things have happened in the past and are likely to occur in the future if one is not prepared to prevent such, as the Boy Scout's teach: be prepared!
As per North American Africans, concerned about Rocket Man #2, we suggest they take a chill pill. If we know the history of the 1960s, North Korea was our friend, not foe. NK gave support and refuge to member of the Black Panther Party. Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver celebrated the #1st birthday party of their son, Maceo Ahmed Eldridge Cleaver at a party given by Rocket Man #2's grandmother, Madam Kim Ill Sung, and the Cleaver's daughter was born in NK and named Joju by Madam Kim, thus we need not fear NK but do as I have suggested, send a peace delegation of progressive black women to talk with Rocket Man #2, for our sake and the sake of the world. We have no need for a nuclear Holocaust, surely you agree this must be prevented by any means necessary.
Peace delegation in North Vietnam meeting with General Giap, who defeated the Americans. North American Africans have friends around the world if you only knew. Stop thinking the USA is your friend when it has never, ever revealed itself to be such. It is not even a friend to itself. Ask the Native Americas is the US their friend. Whom did they say speaks with a forked tongued? Those who worship the devil shall go down with the devil! What book told you this, so called Negro, North American African, Aboriginal Asiatic Black man and woman?
As per Rocket Man #1, I don't know to whom he needs to speak with. He is surrounded by generals that we know abhor war. I don't know who can speak with #1 better than his generals. Are they not already engaged in enough wars around the world, too many to mention?
For myself, born in 1944, I have surely had enough of war: WWII, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, et al. Imagine, in spite of these wars, more people die from drinking toxic war, breathing poison air, eating food contaminated with pesticides, fertilizers and dyes. Can you believe the toxic waste of developed countries is dumped in the underdeveloped nations because they need the funds?
What if the nearly trillion dollar US military budget was redirected to organic food, water and clean air; education devoid of white supremacy mythology and youth given what the US promised youth in Iraq and Afghanistan if they laid down their arms and pledged allegiance to the constitutions of their nations: jobs, education and housing? Maybe our youth in the hoods and those incarcerated, upon release would indeed stand tall, salute the flag and pledge allegiance to the US Constitution.
--Marvin X
10/21/17
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Children's Issue of the Movement Newspaper, Nov. 2017
This Children's issue was inspired by my granddaughter, Naeemah, when she asked me, "When you gonna put me on the cover of your newspaper, Grandfather?" Ache, and so it is! We dedicate this issue to Children everywhere. As Marvin Gaye said, "Save the children!"
Grandson Jahmeel, MX and granddaughter Naeemah at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Author Ishmael Reed says, "If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars. Just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."
photo Adam Turner, Movement Newspaper photographer and Design Editor
One day at the Berkeley Flea Market, Naeemah, 5, and Jahmeel, 11, made $60.00 asking for donations for The Movement Newspaper. Naeemah made about $40.00, including a $20.00 donation. When their mother, Attorney Amira Jackmon, came to pick them up, Naeemah said, "Grandfather, are you going to split the pot or what?" We split the pot!
At Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, one day they came to earn money for Jahmeel's tablet and Naeemah's micro kitchen. Jahmeel needed $70.00 but told his grandfather, "I'm not going to make what I need with these dollar donations for your paper." Grandpa told him to shut up because he didn't know what blessing was coming his way.
Soon a customer arrived and spent $100.00 on books. Then he asked Jahmeel what was the name of God? Jahmeel answered immediately, "Jehovah!" The man was shocked but handed Jahmeel a $100.00 bill. He asked the boy how he knew the name of God? Jahmeel replied,"Jah is in my name!" Jahmeel now had money for his tablet and for his sister's micro kitchen! His grandfather told him to never think negative again.
On the positive, when Jahmeel was about three years old and they departed Academy of Da Corner for a walk to Lake Merritt, out of the blue he said, "Grandfather, you can't save the world, but I can!"
Grandson Jahmeel, MX and granddaughter Naeemah at Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Author Ishmael Reed says, "If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars. Just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."
photo Adam Turner, Movement Newspaper photographer and Design Editor
One day at the Berkeley Flea Market, Naeemah, 5, and Jahmeel, 11, made $60.00 asking for donations for The Movement Newspaper. Naeemah made about $40.00, including a $20.00 donation. When their mother, Attorney Amira Jackmon, came to pick them up, Naeemah said, "Grandfather, are you going to split the pot or what?" We split the pot!
At Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, one day they came to earn money for Jahmeel's tablet and Naeemah's micro kitchen. Jahmeel needed $70.00 but told his grandfather, "I'm not going to make what I need with these dollar donations for your paper." Grandpa told him to shut up because he didn't know what blessing was coming his way.
Soon a customer arrived and spent $100.00 on books. Then he asked Jahmeel what was the name of God? Jahmeel answered immediately, "Jehovah!" The man was shocked but handed Jahmeel a $100.00 bill. He asked the boy how he knew the name of God? Jahmeel replied,"Jah is in my name!" Jahmeel now had money for his tablet and for his sister's micro kitchen! His grandfather told him to never think negative again.
On the positive, when Jahmeel was about three years old and they departed Academy of Da Corner for a walk to Lake Merritt, out of the blue he said, "Grandfather, you can't save the world, but I can!"
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The Mythology of Pussy and Dick, Expanded Version, Contents
Harvey Weinstein and the Mythology of Pussy and Dick by Marvin X
The matter of sexual improprieties transcends patriarchal culture, race and gender into pure power relationships between human beings. Yes, sexual improprieties are pervasive in the arts, academia, the corporate workplace, in all religions and every other social institution and/or environment. As per Hollywood and the casting couch, let us be honest, Hollywood is not the only villain, but all the arts: even in the Black Arts Movement, and alas, in the Black Liberation Movement, such sexual improprieties were pervasive, and I repeat, in academia as well, including Black studies, along with all other academic studies.When I taught English at a certain university and a student complained to my dean, and after I denied all charges, the dean made me agree to have sexual encounters with grad students only, leave the freshman girls alone. She noted that I had been under surveillance and was observed in a restaurant having dinner with the freshman student who complained about my sexual behavior as an instructor.
As a writer, director, producer, actor and lecturer and visiting professor in academia, I took full advantage of my position saturated in male privilege. If Harvey Weinstein is guilty, let me be hyperbolic: so is every man. As I examine global patriarchal culture, I conclude men are predators, women are prey. In war, we know men are expendable and disposable but women are booty or spoils of war.
But as I said at the outset, sexual domination transcends gender. We have known gay men in theatre who demanded sexual liberties with young gay actors or said in classical language, demanded the young brothers join them on the casting couch. And don't think for a moment lesbian women in the arts do not take full advantage of their power positions as per young females, demanding sexual improprieties for career advancement. Of course this madness goes on in the corporate workplace.
The American South has a sordid history of black women performing sexual acts to keep their jobs, alas, with full knowledge of their husbands! As they say in Houston, Texas, "You better AX somebody!" And not to put this madness on the "Dirty South," years ago Jet Magazine (the Negro Bible), revealed a great percentage of Black women confessed to having sex with the boss on the job!
This entire matter is about power and privilege, not gender, although in the majority global patriarchal culture, men are the villains, though other genders are on the rise. Again, this is a global pandemic that encompasses all religions, no matter Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Yoruba, Hindu, et al. Certainly, we must note the pedophilia in the Catholic church, Muslim madrassas, Yoruba manhood training rites, etc. It is well known America allows Afghanistan soldiers to have sexual relations with young boys as a cultural rite.
And it well known 30% of USA soldiers are victims of rape, alas, male and female! I asked a former female member of the US Army, why and how was she violated since she was armed when she was raped, she replied, "We are not trained to retaliate!"
So the Mythology of Pussy and Dick continues and no solution is in sight as long as the patriarchal culture dominates, and again, it is quite doubtful the matriarchal culture will deconstruct this abomination. Alas, did not Hillary Clinton, socalled champion of women's rights, defend her husband's sexual improprieties and try to destroy the women he debased? So much for the feminine mystique!
Without the total destruction of mythological religiosity in all spiritual institutions, along with the deconstruction of white supremacy capitalism and its newborn babe globalism that transcends racism, pathological sexual relations shall persist! There is a light at the end of the tunnel: women will soon be able to drive in Saudi Arabia!
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
10/10/17
Mythology of
Pussy and Dick
Collected prose and poetic writings on
the Mythology and Ritual of Sexuality
Marvin X
This book will be a great source by which young people can come to grips with their troubling sexuality. It will help move the internal conflicts from below the solar plexus to above the neck. For many young people, especially black men in their 20s and 30s, there is little more than hot amorphous vapor in that region. So-called urban lit is their bible in coming to grips with the violent urgings of their penis. I used to conceal my own risings with a jock strap. It took me sometime to train myself to sit still: running after a woman, any attractive woman, was an addictive impact on the soul. Your teachings in this matter is a kind of how-to book, much needed within our oppressed communities where inordinate violence is turned within, on our women, on our children, and our reckless unfulfilled manhood.
--Rudolph Lewis, Editor, Chickenbones.com
Comment
Brother and comrade Marvin,
As an artist i.e. truth teller-trail blazer you have always been cutting edge both in what you lived, experienced and the naked truth you bare in "emptying of Spirit out of itself" (as Hegel would put it) as did Trane's Offering. Very rare, and whether we all recognize it now or not we are fortunate to witness such openness and honesty, though it makes the smug uncomfortable in their fake comforts; show is the unessential masquerading as essential and therefore art as truth ripping off masks is often seen as dangerous expose.
I was reading Delores Nochi's Introduction to your new contribution, Mythology of Pussy and Dick: Toward Healthy Psychosocial Sexuality, and thinking of what she observed:
"Mythology of Pussy and Dick is a compilation of everything Marvin X has written on sexuality in America and the world. There are those who will miss this opportunity to receive wisdom from our brother because of the language he uses to describe the male and female anatomy, and his perceived objectification of women and men, and this is a tragedy because this information is crucial for men and women who are suffering from a psycho-linguistic crisis and inflicting actual violence upon lovers in their male/female and same gender loving relationships. These dysfunctional interactions are witnessed by children who are the next generation of couples...."
I agreed with her and at the same time recalled the fate of those who preceded you in this undertaking - for instance the social scientist and psychologist Wilhelm Reich e.g. The Function of the Orgasm, Sexual Revolution and Sex-Pol [he was thrown into an American federal prison and his books burned in 1956, he died in an American prison in 1957 http://en.wikipedia/wiki/Book_burning#Wilhelm_Reich.27s_publications_.28by_U.S._Food_and_Drug_Administration.29
Also I thought of Lenny Bruce: Bruce served in the navy during World War II (1942-45) and began performing stand-up comedy in 1946. As he gained popularity in New York night clubs, his brand of comedy shifted from impersonations to free-wheeling monologues satirizing religion and politics. He released several comedy albums and appeared occasionally on TV, especially as a guest of Steve Allen and Hugh Hefner. In 1961 he was arrested after a performance in San Francisco and charged with obscenity. Bruce was acquitted, but for the next few years he was frequently in trouble with the law for using raw language on stage -- a no-no back then. In 1964 he was convicted of obscenity in New York and jailed for a few months (in 2003 Governor George Pataki posthumously pardoned him). http://www.answers.com/topic/lenny-bruce .
Delores' take on the depth and honest language of your work also made me remember the radical 60s and the writings of early contemporary feminists, such as the analysis of sexual biology by Anne Koedt The Myth of Vaginal Orgasm http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html
But more directly your artistic style and the Avante-Garde revolutionary love and rebellion poetry and music of Archie Shepp - in particular his Blase http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpE9SN81H6E
So! Your latest contribution here is evidence that the struggle continues! Thanks and stay strong!
Lil Joe
Introduction
Delores Nochi
Mythology of Pussy and Dick is a compilation of everything Marvin X has written on psychosocial sexuality in America and the world: domestic and partner violence, rape, honor killings, stoning of women, female genital circumcision, sexual anorexia, verbal and emotional abuse, manhood and womanhood rites of passage. There are those who will miss this opportunity to receive wisdom from our brother because of the language he uses to describe the male and female anatomy, his perceived objectification of women and men, and this is a tragedy because this information is crucial for men and women who are suffering a psycho-linguistic crisis and inflicting actual violence upon lovers in their male/female and same gender loving relationships. These dysfunctional interactions are witnessed by children who are the next generation of couples.They will emulate what they see elders enact.
The same people who dare judge his choice of words, his linguistic dexterity, are guilty of lingering in the comfort of their bedrooms watching shows on big screen TVs that depict graphic details of violence perpetrated against others, especially women, yet they call it entertainment. If children learn more from what they see than what we tell them, how will they process and act upon the continued sexual chaos that is manifested in our families and society?
The author has proven himself to be a leader and a teacher who has the best interest of the community at heart. Not only does he teach almost daily at his Academy of Da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, but often on national book tours, speaking at such colleges and universities as Morehouse, Spelman, Howard, University of Arkansas, University of Virginia, Penn State, Temple University, Medgar Evers College, San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley, Laney and Merritt in Oakland. He speaks truth with language that can be understood by the least of us and the best of us. His credentials includes brief tenure at Fresno State University , 1969, University of California , Berkeley , 1972, Mills College , 1972, San Francisco State University , 1974, University of California , San Diego , 1975, University of Nevada , Reno , 1979.
He embraced the system and defied the system! Oriented in the Muslim tradition of polygamy or plural marriage (see his play In the Name of Love, Laney College Theater production 1981); he has conquered his own demons and held his own with associated intellectuals and psychopaths.See his memoir of Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 1979.
We all have war stories about relationships gone bad. The difference between Marvin X and the rest of us is that Marvin X has lived what he is writing about, survived it and is willing to talk about it, and holds nothing back, narrated in language that will grab your attention and cause an epileptic seizure!.Each story is rich with commentary which speaks to society’s attitudes about male/ female relationships: rape, athletes, toxic love, crack house sex, women without men, language of love, religious persecution of women (a woman stoned); gay and lesbian youth, same sex marriage, and much more…
His parables are ingenious commentary about events in real time. If you are a follower of his blogs, then you know with each daily entry he not only provides us with happenings locally and nationally, but walks us through events from a historical and global perspective.See www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com and www.parablesandfablesofmarvinx.blogspot.com.
Marvin X has chosen to sensitize our society by using words like pussy and dick. Language is fluid and if its primary use is communication, and if through words one fails to hit the target, then what is the point? It may be that the author is before his time, and in future generations, pussy and dick will become words of endearment, not relegated to the present negative connotations. Perhaps it will become a mantra chanted over and over as a pre-sex ritual. Why not? Lord knows we could use some more effective ways to get beyond reckless abandonment.
In his essay, The Maid, the Ho, the Cook, Marvin X demonstrates his tender side. Lil Joe describes this story as “One of the most beautiful pieces about real love I’ve ever read. The image of ‘crack-heads’ as scandalous and without human dignity is destroyed by Marvin’s recollection of this sister with whom he fell in love”. Because the object of MX’s affection is a whore, there are those, and you know who you are, who will lose the essence of this story which addresses real feelings and real interactions between a man and a woman. Perhaps, you have only loved when it was safe to do so. But all of us who have loved surely know that passion and feelings can at times be both spontaneous and unsolicited.
Is Marvin X the only courageous one among us who dares to “tell the truth and shame the devil”?
--Delores Nochi Cooper
Foreword
Sexuality is determined by biology and social psychology. In the socialization of humans, mythology plays a critical role in manhood and womanhood training rites. Mythology lies in the deep structure of the mental process, yet mythical notions, stories, tales, ideas, values are clearly present in the surface structure of human behavior. Ritual behavior is simply the enactment of mythology, the stories of the tribe, the values, mores, manners, morals. Myths prescribe the acceptable and the forbidden , the sacred and the profane.
Of course the Shaman often transcends tribal mythology to extend the narrative, take it to a higher level, much like a Coltrane solo, or a Miles Davis tune, connected to the past but very much into the present and future, the unknown, into the space of fear and dread, and yet it is beautiful, if we go there with Trane, Miles, Dolphy and my mentor and associate, Sun Ra. So mythology must be fluid, dynamic. There comes a time when old myths must be discarded, thrown into the dustbin of history. And so it is with the patriarchy or myth of male domination.
In the patriarchal or male dominated society, men are taught they own women, that women are their personal property or chattel real, as opposed to real estate, i.e., land, buildings. Isn't it ironic that a people who are descendants of chattel slaves would continue in the tradition upon liberation, that they would perpetuate relationship slavery, i.e., marriage, girlfriend, boyfriend.
I don't want to own nobody and surely don't want anyone to own me. Imagine, the other day a brother said, "My pussy is at home!" We tried to tell him, first of all, he doesn't have a pussy, his woman has a pussy, so his pussy ain't at home. And imagine when he arrives home and "his pussy" is gone. When he locates "his pussy" will he be happy, sad, angry, violent, for why wasn't his pussy at home, why did it leave, or does it have the right to leave? Maybe the sister was with her friends, telling them, "Damn, ya'll, I got to go home to give that nigguh some pussy." They reply, "Girl, you ain't gotta do that, that's yo pussy, girl!"
In this atmosphere, women can be verbally, emotionally and physically and sexually abused. They can be beaten and killed for violating the man's so-called ownership of their bodies, minds and souls.
Clearly, there is absolutely no difference in a woman stoned to death in a Muslim society and shot to death in a Christian society because of her supposed adultery and/or infidelity. Of course, these days women are shooting the men to death for their freedom of expression or socalled sexual transgressions.
The man is more often than not afforded hero status in Muslim and Christian society for executing "honor killings" because he was disrespected by "his" woman. These days women are exercising their right to retaliate on the man for his indiscretions since marriage myths and rites suggest ownership by both parties, though man has the ultimate authority in the patriarchal society.
Women are now attending court mandated anger management classes and receiving convictions for assault and/or homicide in the name of love. Tina asked what does love have to do with it? I ask, what kind of love is this--and if this is love I don't want it! I lost an eye in a "loving" relationship.
If we are to move toward healthy psychosocial sexuality, we must examine the myths we live by. We may discover these myths are toxic, reactionary and detrimental to our psychosocial health. We may need to transform and/or radicalize these myths/rituals.
In the present era of spiritual consciousness, we cannot behave as cave men and women. We cannot continue rearing little cave children whose behavior befits the Stone Age, bereft of compassion, willing to kill at the drop of a hat because someone dissed them, especially their girlfriend who gave up "her pussy" to a friend or stranger.
We must jump out of the box of ignorance, jealousy, envy, religiosity, narrow mindedness, insecurity and the world of make believe. We do not own other human beings. This is called slavery by any word. Partners, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, must dispel and discard mythical notions of ownership and domination.
Our bodies are the temple of God, not the property of another. No attachments but to God! We are slaves or servants of God, Abdullah (we are all Abdullah, the servant of God). This is the attitude of radical spiritual consciousness. No one owns us but God. Our life and death are for God. We are thus free to do as we will since we exist in God and God exists in us. We are indivisible from God, thus we are God, we are Divine. Man is divine, woman is divine. We are equal beings in the temple of God and the temple of God is the universe, and all in creation is of God, by God and for God.
If you desire to surrender yourself to your beloved, this is your rite/right. In love, it is indeed all for the beloved, love is the annihilation of self for the beloved. Yes, we lose our "self" in the beloved. In my play One Day in the Life, Karima says, "I sacrificed everything for you, but you blew it buddy, I'm through with you!"
We pray you shall do the will of God in your relationships. If you don't, no one can judge you but God, especially the God in you or the self accusing spirit! Certainly, no one has the right to beat or kill you, stone you to death, shoot you in the head. Nor does anyone have the right to verbally or emotionally abuse you because of your behavior that may, from time to time, cross the line of propriety. And as per sexual transgressions, pussy and dick ain't nothing but a muscle, so why are you tripping over flesh, a muscle?
Your pussy belongs to you, your dick belongs to you and you alone. It is attached to you, not your boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, husband, wife, lover, trick! Human beings are subject to do anything during the course of a day, and you are free to do so. Vows of fidelity must be thrown into the dustbin of history, along with Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the return of a dead man after two thousand years.
If you persist in your wretchedness, ignorance and world of make believe that you own someone's pussy and dick, your mental health shall suffer along with the general condition of society that is rapidly heading to the precipice as we write. The mental hospitals, prisons and jails shall remain full of those partner abusers guilty of assault and/or homicide.
We urge you to free yourself from the prison of your mind based on primitive mythological notions of ownership and domination. Indeed, love the one ya wit, but you don't own them. You can't force them to do anything.
Why can't we just get along, Rodney King asked? Why can't we love and be loved in return? Why must we be ugly to each other, especially in the name of love? Why can't we love without the negativity? Why must we hurt the one we love, and yet, as Dr. Nathan Hare says, there can be no master without one willing to be the slave. Just as I cannot love you unless you allow me to love you, I cannot hurt you unless you allow me to hurt you.
Love begins with self love. If and when you don't love yourself, you cannot love someone else. You can fake the funk for a time. But if you don't know yourself, you cannot know your partner and mate. You can be with them twenty, thirty and forty years, but you don't know them. This is why couples break up after ten, twenty, thirty years together. They never knew each other, they were faking the funk, but the funk caught up with them. Yes, there was abuse because in their ignorance they first abused themselves, then abused their mate or partner simply because they never followed their own bliss or purpose as Joseph Campbell taught us. Nancy Wilson said, "I Never Been To Me!"
Indeed, life is about getting to the real you, your mission and purpose. When you cannot achieve this, in your frustration, you are bound to oppress and dominate your mate and those you love. Sadly, you have been programmed by the American or Western mythology of Christianity and Capitalism. You are thus the man and woman in the box. You may deny you are in the box, yet your very existence , and clearly your behavior with your mate is evidence you are inside the box of Christianity and Capitalism. In short, you are a slave, albeit a free slave, but a slave none the less. In turn, you desire to enslave your mate and children--Capitalism has programmed you to desire cheap trinkets, things and more things, conspicuous consumption, materialism, the world of make believe.
Yet with your materialism, you have not followed your bliss, you are totally devoid of spiritual consciousness. You may be religious, yet your practice of religion is a desire for prosperity that would be alien to Mary's baby! You do not desire to liberate the captives, help the poor, the broken hearted, the hungry, the homeless. You are arrogant and wicked wearing your rocks, animal skins and plastic clothes. Yet you are not happy, nor is your mate. Even your children are little assholes, ungrateful bastards!
You hide the pain by medicating yourself with drugs, sex, video and internet games, religiosity and other escapism from your life of nothingness and dread.
We pray one day you shall awaken and throw off the chains on your brain, throw off the oppressive mythology of Christianity and Capitalism, or any other oppressive religion, including Islam, or any ideology that promotes pie in the sky or other worldism, escapism from facing reality with a radical agenda that is about seizing power from the blood suckers of the poor, the global bandits who promote the world of make believe.
How can you be at peace with yourself and your mate while you enjoy the benefits of a society that spends a trillion dollars per year to commit mass murder around the world to perpetuate a world of make believe, to keep people deaf, dumb and blind, consuming trinkets that send them directly to Yacoub's workers: the doctor, nurse and undertaker.
It is this mythological psychosocial order that has you drunk with thinking you must own and oppress somebody, especially those you supposedly love and cherish. Jump out of the box--free yourself, your mate and your children. Strive toward a radical spirituality that oppresses no one, but frees everyone. Love should not be slavery. Free your mind, free your mate, free humanity.
--Marvin X
9/9/10
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Foreword
Acknowledgment
Myth Defined
What is Love
Part One: Mythology of Pussy and Dick
Tiger Woods
Don’t say Pussy
Insanity of Sex
HIV/AIDS
Dick Slaves
Black Woman’s Tit KOs America
Sex
Sex and Race
The White Woman
In Search of My Soul Sister
Gender Studies at Academy of Da Corner
Part Two: Marriage and Family
You Don’t Know Me
Monogamy
Polygamy
Polyandry
The Other Woman
Men
For the Men
Women
For the Women
Parable of Value
Parable of a Real Woman
Parable of the Pit Bull
Parable of Woman at the Well
Parable of Woman in the Box
Parable of the Bitter Bitch
Children
Youth
Memorial Day (for young brothers)
Poem for Young Mothers
Parable of Family
Parable of the Baby Carriage
Parable of the Old Lovers
Part Three: Rape and Violence
Parable of Rape
VIP Nigguhs and Rape
Woman Stoned to Death
Confession of a Wife Beater
Parable of a Gangsta
Parable of the Dick and Gun
A Pan African Love Story
Toxic Love
Part Four: Prostitution
Same Sex Marriage, Straight Men and Prostitution
Negro Psychosocial Sexuality in the Post-Crack Society
Crack House Sex
The Maid, the Ho, the Cook
Pay the Ho to Go
Fillmore Slim on Pimpin
Part Five: Gay/Lesbian
Same Sex Marriage and Black Liberation
Love Letter to Gay and Lesbian Youth
Parable of Women without Men
Fable of Rooster and Hen
Part Six: Creativity and Sexuality
Poetically Gay
Poetic Sexuality
Poetics of Love
Part Seven: Reviews
Wounded in the House of a Friend, Sonia Sanchez
Political and Sexual Anorexia, Dr. Julia Hare
Mama at Twilight, Ayodele Nzingha
Bathroom Graffitti Queen, Opal Palmer Adisa
How to Find a BMW (Black Man Working), Dr. Julia Hare
Conclusion
Toward the Language of Love
Parable of the Moment
Parable of Letting Go
Reconciliation
Joy and HappinessOrder your copy from Black Bird Press, Call 510-200-4164 mxjackmon@gmail.com
400 pages, $50.00
Original 18 page pamphlet: $5.00
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BAM Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X. Jackmon/El Muhajir: family, associates and friends
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Coming soon: a video documentary on the life and times of Black Arts Movement Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X/El Muhajir--the last revolutionary of an era, the 60s; the man who never came in from the cold.
"...It is gratifying in an era of the sellout, faint hearted and fallen, to see that Marvin X was one black man who met the white man in the center of the ring and walked with him to the corners of psycho-social inequity, grappling with him through the bowels of the earth, yet remained one black man the white man couldn't get!"
--Dr. Nathan Hare, Introduction to Somethin' Proper, the life and times of a North American African Poet, the autobiography of Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 1998.
BAM Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X. Jackmon/El Muhajir: family, associates and friends, a photo essay on the personality called many names: Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland (Ishmael Reed); the USA's Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz (Bob Holman); a master teacher in many fields of thought; one of America's great story tellers, I'd put him ahead of Mark Twain even (Rudloph Lewis); Marvin X is the most important African American Muslim poets to appear in the US during the Civil Rights era (Julius E. Thompson); the starting point for Muslim American literature is Marvin X (Dr. Mohja Kahf)
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Notes on the Education of Jahmeel by Marvin X: Surah Al Fatihah
Marvin X at Laney College Theatre
photo Alicia Mason
Surah Fatiha
Arabic, English Transliteration & Translations
Overview of Surah al-Fatiha
Surah al-Fatiha, “The Opening”, is the first chapter of the Holy Quran. Its seven verses are a prayer for God’s guidance, and stress Its lordship and mercy of God. This chapter has an essential role in daily prayers; being recited at least seventeen times a day, at the start of each unit of prayer (rakah).
The surah is described in various Hadith as “the mother of the Book” (Umm al-Kitab), and said to be the seven verses alluded to in Surah Al-Hijr (15:87); “We have given thee seven of the opt-repeated (verses) and the great Quran.”
Bismillāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm
1:1 In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy!
Al ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-’ālamīn
1:2 Praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds,
Ar raḥmāni r-raḥīm
1:3 the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy,
Māliki yawmi d-dīn
1:4 Master of the Day of Judgement.
Iyyāka na’budu wa iyyāka nasta’īn
1:5 It is You we worship; it is You we ask for help.
Ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm
1:6 Guide us to the straight path:
Ṣirāṭ al-laḏīna an’amta ‘alayhim ġayril maġḍūbi ‘alayhim walāḍ ḍāllīn
1:7 the path of those You have blessed, those who incur no anger and who have not gone astray.
Then, again, perhaps we should delete Surah Al Fatihah, since I am not trying to convert children to Islam, although I know the power of Islamic consciousness in our history, not to mention in West Africa, but the Moorish pre-Columbian presence in the Americas is profound and undeniable. America's first treaty was with the Moors, and the US Marines were established to subdue the Moorish presence in the Barbary coast, Northwest Africa. Except for the music of Muslim Africans, would Blues have originated in the Mississippi Delta?
The Malian kora master Ali Farka said his people have played what is known as the Blues for ten thousand years, and he didn't have any problem playing with the Rolling Stones and BB King. Their music was not Blues to him, rather, it was the sacred music of his people.
I never forced Islam on any of my children but I taught it to them. Of course they may have shied away from it after seeing the contradictions in my behavior, my Negrocities ( Amiri Baraka term he told me not to steal from him, RIP).
My son's, Darrell/Abdul, Islamic consciousness and linguistics took him around the world, Brazil, Japan, Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, Europe. As we know, he graduated from UC Berkeley in Arabic and Near Eastern Studies, won a Fulbright Fellowship to University of Damascus, Syria, also studied at the American University, Cairo, Egypt, with graduate study at Harvard. So Islamic consciousness took a little boy from Fresno, CA around the world, and for the most part, without money, as it did his father who traveled throughout the Americas and Caribbean with hardly a dime, especially while in flight from US imperialism. I bear witness a good name is better than gold and as the Qur'an teaches, "If we flee in the name of Allah, we shall find in the earth many places of escape and abundant resources."
From the Sufi perspective, after a study of such masters as Ghazali, Hazra Inayat Khan, Rumi, Guru Bawa, Ahamadu Bamba and other Sufi Masters, including Saadi and Hafiz, (with whom I have been compared (Bob Holman) and when I briefly perused them, I saw myself in them, and most of all Duse Muhammad, Marcus Garvey, Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad;for sure, I am in harmony with them all as per the religion of the heart, thus I am rarely, if ever, a visitor to mosques, temples, churches, and other establishments for the worship and fellowship of the Supreme One by whatever name, please don't get me in the name game! I am a writer who enjoys solitude, a recluse, hermit, thinker 24/7, thus people are overwhelmed with my anti-social behavior.
Guru Bawa would say we must transcend the one billion ten million illusions of the monkey mind! Hazrat Inayat Khan taught, what does it matter if it is not in the heart? Would the heart allow one to kill anyone, whether believers or non-believers? My heart will not allow me to do such an abomination to believers and/or non-believers! James Baldwin said, "The murder of my child will not make your child safe!" You mean the Crack epidemic would not lead to the opioid pandemic?
So much trouble in the world, ancestor Bob Marley said, so much trouble in the world. When my comrade in the Black Arts Movement, Askia Toure', apologized to young students at University of California, Merced, for leaving their generation in a mess, I initially objected to his comments and followed him to the mike to express my feelings that our generation was simply not able to defeat the US Army, Navy, Air Force, CIA, FBI, local police, National Guard, et al. We challenged an overwhelming force of state power and suffered a military defeat--let's be clear, a military defeat!
But as per those valiant warriors who fought the good fight for freedom, justice and equality, I have long called for a day of recognition for their valor and patriotism, just as we honor veterans of American's imperialist wars. Ironically, when I have befriended such American veterans, they are amazed that we are able to not only converse but seek to redress all the injustices they and we know exist, and they are surprised to discover we are warriors as much as they are. We are patriots as much as they are. Just as they did, when MLK, Jr was assassinated, we and they felt the same level of pain. For example, one US Air Force officer said when he was piloting a plane over Vietnam and he was informed MLK, Jr was just assassinated, he said he sent a message to his crew that nobody should move, if they do, he was blowing up the motherfucking plane!
So let us walk together children, yes, to the promised land. And look at this beautiful land, look out the window as you fly coast to coast, and look again after you land, look at the land, the beauty of it all and tell yourself we can and must all get along, that there is enough for all, so why should we be greedy, selfish and narrow minded. Why can't we share the wealth? Wasn't this the meaning of the first Thanksgiving?
Obviously, many of us didn't get the concept, didn't believe and/or know we could share the wealth, that there was enough for everyone. As a result of our sub-consciousness, we are ignorant of the fact that what goes around comes around in the simple mystical order of things. We conquer land but never pray to those ancestors buried in mounds underneath the land. We don't ask their permission to be on the land. We presume it is sufficient to "buy" the land yet don't understand there are souls on the land beyond payment, beyond any amount of money, gold, diamonds. This is why we cut down sacred trees of ancestors as if no spirits live in them, and then when fires erupt on the land that destroy all we have accumulated, we are in shock, traumatized to no end that all we accumulated is no more.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
11/1/17See the November/December issue of The Movement, journal of BAM writer Marvin X, artistic freedom fighter. The issue is dedicated to Children, especially two of his grandchildren, Naeemah and Jahmeel. Now we know Gibran taught us our children come through us but they are not us, we are the bow, they are the arrow. And as much as we love our grandchildren, they belong to their mothers and fathers who have their visions for them, so we must ultimately step back and let their parents raise them, no matter how much we love them and want to give them our vision.
And so I say of grandparents, let the parents raise them no matter how much you want to instill your vision, you had your chance with your children, now it is your children's turn to raise their children as they see fit. If and when they call upon you, just be ready to serve and don't overwhelm your chldren with your dogmatic ideas of child raising notions infused with ideological and spiritual dogmatism.
Your children are your children and their children are their children. If your children never desire you to see their children, so it is. You had your chance with your children, your grandchildren are just a last chance to scoop your poop and join the ancestors with a clean slate or ma'at, the balance of right and wrong, good and evil. Don't push the issue, after all, you shall be gone soon and so shall your children, then it will your grandchildren's turn to see if they can walk the straight path!
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Comments on Marvin X's essay Of Grandparents, Parents and Children
Comments on Marvin X's essay
Of Grandparents, Parents and Children
Very true and insightful, Marvin.Thanks.
--Dr.Fritz Pointer
Good teachings, Baba Marvin. But grandparents teachings permeate and last an entire lifetime. The unconditional quality of their love is needed to offset the stress of their parents. I think if we were good parents, our children want our input- to a point, as you were outlining.
--Dr. Kweli Tutashinda
Let not our regrets and frets from our past cast a shadow on the possible lessons that our wisdom and the extra time we have for support and babysitting loved ones.However, one should not be overbearing sharing our seeds of knowledge. Let the little ones teach us what we need to learn, In time the tables will turn given the blessing of aging. Let us not squirm from hearing our neglects, overdue frets and debts unpaid.
--Monsa S. Nitoto
I’ve just read this. Fritz Pointer is right, as usual. It’s an important issue.I had an entire chapter in my Ph.D dissertation on a black boy I treated who was caught in the conflict between mother and grandmother (“ everybody’s mother”), though a lot of the conflict comes from the birth mother who had dumped the kids temporarily on the grandmother then got halfway on her feet and wanted them back; but the grandmother had bonded with the children by then, plus she and the mother remained attached to the child dependency check. In other words, both felt, let me have the check and you can have the kids. So it works both ways. But it’s a problem that originates with the parents though driven by social forces and the righteous feeling on the part of the grandmother that she hasn’t done a perfect job of raising the mother and would like to try her hand on her grandchild if not rearising the mother.. But this complex and variegated issue you point to is just one of the projects in black social engineering neglected and lost in the winds of tough talk of black family strengths after the black intellectuals turned away from combat with oppression after the Sixties to patching up black identity and self-esteem image-making largely through denying the very pathology our oppression had wrought.
--Dr. Nathan Hare
Of Grandparents, Parents and Children
by Marvin X
Gibran taught us children come through us but they are not us, we are the bow, they are the arrow. As much as we love our grandchildren, they belong to their mothers and fathers who have their visions for them, so we must ultimately step back and let their parents raise them, no matter how much we love them and want to give them our vision.
So I say to myself and other grandparents, let the parents raise them no matter how much you want to instill your vision, you had your chance with your children, now it is your children's turn to raise their children as they see fit. If and when they call upon you, be ready to serve and don't overwhelm your children with your dogmatic ideas of child raising notions infused with ideological and spiritual dogmatism.
Your children are your children and their children are their children. If your children never desire you to see their children, so it is. You had your chance with your children, your grandchildren are just a last chance to scoop your poop and join the ancestors with a clean slate or ma'at, the balance of right and wrong, good and evil. Don't push the issue, after all, you shall be gone soon and so shall your children, then it will your grandchildren's turn to see if they can walk the straight path!
--marvin x/el muhajir
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Standing on the shoulders of warriors, gangsters, killers
Marvin X
Standing on the shoulders of warriors gangsters, killers
I'm standing on the shoulders of warriors, gangsters, killers
Can't be no punk bitch ass nigguh
weak ass nigguh
prison nigguhs taught me
nigguhs you never heard of
Alonzo Harris Batin
Guru of Black Arts West Theatre
Fillmore Street San Francisco 1966
Batin raised us from the dead
Hillary X
Duncan X
Ethna X
Marvin X
from deaf dumb blind level of life
feed us bean soup
whole wheat bread
butter honey spread
Whitting fish
bean, carrot pies
Islam all night long
marijuana too
science all night long
history of sun moon stars
history of yakub
history of aboriginal Asiatic black man woman
Al Batin
nigguh ain't been to prison
can't tell Al Batin shit
not a motherfuckin thang
you ain't been ta prison nigguh
get yo punk ass up outter here
Al Batin
socalled hypocrite Muslim
NOI couldn't pimp Batin
kill for Elijah Muhammad
ain't goin round corner with
punk bitch ass nigguhs
steeped in prison Islam
solid wouldn't bend
solid
Al Batin
Hidden One
Paper hanger
counterfeit money
counterfeit ID
income tax fraud
Al Batin
stone criminal Muslim
comrade of Eldridge Cleaver
Me and Batin moved Eldridge
Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X outside the house where BPP had shootout with OPD, 1968. Lil'Bobby Hutton murdered in cold blood by OPD.
photo Muhammad Al Kareem
Earl Anthony
yeah Earl the Squirrel
wrote play bout Eldridge and Batin
Woody King produced Off Broadway
Love you Alonzo Batin
put spine in my back
told Batin I confessed to fornication in Chicago
Hurriyah confessed too
before Supreme Captain Raymond Sherriff
Captain Elijah Muhammad, Jr.
National Secretary John Ali
when I came home to San Francico
Batin say why you confess to dogs
they dirtier than you will ever be
Batin put me to shame
upped my game
never the same
Al Batin
Hidden One. Appreciate you
Know you in Gangsta's paradise!
--Marvin X/El Muhajir
11/.2/17
All praise is due to the Guru of Black Arts West Theatre, Alonzo Harris Batin (RIP). He put Black Arts West in Muhammad Speaks Newspaper, Norman Brown took the pic. Ask Norman Brown about Alonzo Harris Batin. Norman still around!
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JFK files on MLK, Jr. and the mythology of pussy and dick
JFK files: FBI documents allege Martin Luther King Jr. had secret lovechild, orgies
www.sacbee.com
The National Archives published more than 600 new records Friday relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- and some addressed civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and his multiple alleged affairs.
The FBI document, titled “Martin Luther King, Jr. A Current Analysis” and dated March 12, 1968, compiled background information on King, includinghis influences, associates, alleged affairs and more. King was assassinated April 4, 1968.
“The course King chooses to follow at this critical time could have momentous impact on the future of race relations in the United States,” the 20 page document’s introduction reads. “And for that reason this paper has been prepared to give some insight into the nature of the man himself as well as the nature of his views, goals, objectives, tactics and the reasons therefor.”
One of the sections in the document in the section titled “King’s Personal Conduct” mentioned alleged affairs, which were alluded to in the 2014 film “Selma” and an infamous letter from the FBI urging King to commit suicide.
The document repeatedly referred to some the alleged sex acts King engaged in as “unnatural” and “abnormal.”
One of the events mentioned in the document are workshops King held in Miami, Florida, in February 1968 with funds from the Ford Foundation to train black ministers in leadership
“One Negro minister in attendance later expressed his disgust with the behind-the-scene drinking, fornication, and homosexuality that went on at the conference,” the document reads. “Several Negro and white prostitutes were brought in from the Miami area. An all night-sex orgy was held with these prostitutes and some of the delegates in attendance.”
“One room had a large table in it which was filled with whiskey. The two Negro prostitutes were paid $50.00 to put on a sex show for the entertainment of the guests. A variety of sex acts deviating from the normal were observed.”
The document continued to say that such occurrences were well known by King’s acquaintances.
“As early as January, 1964, King engaged in another, two-day drunken sex orgy in Washington, D.C. Many of those present engaged in sexual acts, natural as well as unnatural, for the entertainment of onlookers. When one of the females shied away from engaging in an unnatural act, King ... discussed how she was to be taught and initiated in this respect,” the document reads.
“Throughout the ensuing years and until this date King has continued to carry on his sexual aberrations secretly while holding himself out to the public view as a moral leader of religious conviction.”
According to the document, King had a frequent affair with a woman, which may have led to a baby girl being born. The FBI said the sources of the information was “a prominent Negro who is related by law to King’s mistress,” who referred to King repeatedly as a “hypocrite.”
“It was learned in February, 1968, from a very responsible Los Angeles individual in a position to know, that King has been having an illicit love affair with the wife of a prominent Negro dentist in Los Angeles, California, since 1962. He believes King fathered a baby girl born to this woman inasmuch as her husband is allegedly sterile,” the document reads.
“The child resembles King to a great degree and King contributes to the support of this child. He calls this woman every Wednesday and frequently meets her in various cities throughout the country.”
According to the document, the source also said that King had affairs with three other women, including Joan Baez, a folk singer.
“The prominent Negro who furnished the information said he was appalled that a man of King’s low character could cause so much trouble for both Negroes and the Government,” the document reads. “As can be seen from above, it is a fact that King not only regularly indulges in adulterous acts but enjoys the abnormal by engaging in group sexual orgies.”
The document noted an alleged disconnect between King’s actions and messages.
More documents related to JFK’s assassination have yet to be released. Last week, President Donald Trump allowed the release of 2,800 documents but withheld thousands of other documents at the request of U.S. intelligence agencies. The withheld files were placed under a six-month review, and Trump ordered the intelligence agencies to release approved documents throughout the period.
Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.
The FBI document, titled “Martin Luther King, Jr. A Current Analysis” and dated March 12, 1968, compiled background information on King, includinghis influences, associates, alleged affairs and more. King was assassinated April 4, 1968.
“The course King chooses to follow at this critical time could have momentous impact on the future of race relations in the United States,” the 20 page document’s introduction reads. “And for that reason this paper has been prepared to give some insight into the nature of the man himself as well as the nature of his views, goals, objectives, tactics and the reasons therefor.”
One of the sections in the document in the section titled “King’s Personal Conduct” mentioned alleged affairs, which were alluded to in the 2014 film “Selma” and an infamous letter from the FBI urging King to commit suicide.
The document repeatedly referred to some the alleged sex acts King engaged in as “unnatural” and “abnormal.”
One of the events mentioned in the document are workshops King held in Miami, Florida, in February 1968 with funds from the Ford Foundation to train black ministers in leadership
“One Negro minister in attendance later expressed his disgust with the behind-the-scene drinking, fornication, and homosexuality that went on at the conference,” the document reads. “Several Negro and white prostitutes were brought in from the Miami area. An all night-sex orgy was held with these prostitutes and some of the delegates in attendance.”
“One room had a large table in it which was filled with whiskey. The two Negro prostitutes were paid $50.00 to put on a sex show for the entertainment of the guests. A variety of sex acts deviating from the normal were observed.”
The document continued to say that such occurrences were well known by King’s acquaintances.
“As early as January, 1964, King engaged in another, two-day drunken sex orgy in Washington, D.C. Many of those present engaged in sexual acts, natural as well as unnatural, for the entertainment of onlookers. When one of the females shied away from engaging in an unnatural act, King ... discussed how she was to be taught and initiated in this respect,” the document reads.
“Throughout the ensuing years and until this date King has continued to carry on his sexual aberrations secretly while holding himself out to the public view as a moral leader of religious conviction.”
According to the document, King had a frequent affair with a woman, which may have led to a baby girl being born. The FBI said the sources of the information was “a prominent Negro who is related by law to King’s mistress,” who referred to King repeatedly as a “hypocrite.”
“It was learned in February, 1968, from a very responsible Los Angeles individual in a position to know, that King has been having an illicit love affair with the wife of a prominent Negro dentist in Los Angeles, California, since 1962. He believes King fathered a baby girl born to this woman inasmuch as her husband is allegedly sterile,” the document reads.
“The child resembles King to a great degree and King contributes to the support of this child. He calls this woman every Wednesday and frequently meets her in various cities throughout the country.”
According to the document, the source also said that King had affairs with three other women, including Joan Baez, a folk singer.
“The prominent Negro who furnished the information said he was appalled that a man of King’s low character could cause so much trouble for both Negroes and the Government,” the document reads. “As can be seen from above, it is a fact that King not only regularly indulges in adulterous acts but enjoys the abnormal by engaging in group sexual orgies.”
The document noted an alleged disconnect between King’s actions and messages.
More documents related to JFK’s assassination have yet to be released. Last week, President Donald Trump allowed the release of 2,800 documents but withheld thousands of other documents at the request of U.S. intelligence agencies. The withheld files were placed under a six-month review, and Trump ordered the intelligence agencies to release approved documents throughout the period.
Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.
↧
Donna Brazile reveals Gangsta Hillary Clinton's takeover of the DNC
Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC
www.politico.com
Before I called Bernie Sanders, I lit a candle in my living room and put on some gospel music. I wanted to center myself for what I knew would be an emotional phone call.
I had promised Bernie when I took the helm of the Democratic National Committee after the convention that I would get to the bottom of whether Hillary Clinton’s team had rigged the nomination process, as a cache of emails stolen by Russian hackers and posted online had suggested. I’d had my suspicions from the moment I walked in the door of the DNC a month or so earlier, based on the leaked emails. But who knew if some of them might have been forged? I needed to have solid proof, and so did Bernie.
So I followed the money. My predecessor, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had not been the most active chair in fundraising at a time when President Barack Obama’s neglect had left the party in significant debt. As Hillary’s campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party’s debt and put it on a starvation diet. It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations.
Debbie was not a good manager. She hadn’t been very interested in controlling the party—she let Clinton’s headquarters in Brooklyn do as it desired so she didn’t have to inform the party officers how bad the situation was. How much control Brooklyn had and for how long was still something I had been trying to uncover for the last few weeks.
By September 7, the day I called Bernie, I had found my proof and it broke my heart.
***
The Saturday morning after the convention in July, I called Gary Gensler, the chief financial officer of Hillary’s campaign. He wasted no words. He told me the Democratic Party was broke and $2 million in debt.“What?” I screamed. “I am an officer of the party and they’ve been telling us everything is fine and they were raising money with no problems.”
That wasn’t true, he said. Officials from Hillary’s campaign had taken a look at the DNC’s books. Obama left the party $24 million in debt—$15 million in bank debt and more than $8 million owed to vendors after the 2012 campaign—and had been paying that off very slowly. Obama’s campaign was not scheduled to pay it off until 2016. Hillary for America (the campaign) and the Hillary Victory Fund (its joint fundraising vehicle with the DNC) had taken care of 80 percent of the remaining debt in 2016, about $10 million, and had placed the party on an allowance.
If I didn’t know about this, I assumed that none of the other officers knew about it, either. That was just Debbie’s way. In my experience she didn’t come to the officers of the DNC for advice and counsel. She seemed to make decisions on her own and let us know at the last minute what she had decided, as she had done when she told us about the hacking only minutes before the Washington Post broke the news.
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On the phone Gary told me the DNC had needed a $2 million loan, which the campaign had arranged.“No! That can’t be true!” I said. “The party cannot take out a loan without the unanimous agreement of all of the officers.”
“Gary, how did they do this without me knowing?” I asked. “I don’t know how Debbie relates to the officers,” Gary said. He described the party as fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp. The campaign had the DNC on life support, giving it money every month to meet its basic expenses, while the campaign was using the party as a fund-raising clearinghouse. Under FEC law, an individual can contribute a maximum of $2,700 directly to a presidential campaign. But the limits are much higher for contributions to state parties and a party’s national committee.
Individuals who had maxed out their $2,700 contribution limit to the campaign could write an additional check for $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund—that figure represented $10,000 to each of the 32 states’ parties who were part of the Victory Fund agreement—$320,000—and $33,400 to the DNC. The money would be deposited in the states first, and transferred to the DNC shortly after that. Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn.
“Wait,” I said. “That victory fund was supposed to be for whoever was the nominee, and the state party races. You’re telling me that Hillary has been controlling it since before she got the nomination?”
Gary said the campaign had to do it or the party would collapse.
“That was the deal that Robby struck with Debbie,” he explained, referring to campaign manager Robby Mook. “It was to sustain the DNC. We sent the party nearly $20 million from September until the convention, and more to prepare for the election.”
“What’s the burn rate, Gary?” I asked. “How much money do we need every month to fund the party?”
The burn rate was $3.5 million to $4 million a month, he said.
I gasped. I had a pretty good sense of the DNC’s operations after having served as interim chair five years earlier. Back then the monthly expenses were half that. What had happened? The party chair usually shrinks the staff between presidential election campaigns, but Debbie had chosen not to do that. She had stuck lots of consultants on the DNC payroll, and Obama’s consultants were being financed by the DNC, too.
When we hung up, I was livid. Not at Gary, but at this mess I had inherited. I knew that Debbie had outsourced a lot of the management of the party and had not been the greatest at fundraising. I would not be that kind of chair, even if I was only an interim chair. Did they think I would just be a surrogate for them, get on the road and rouse up the crowds? I was going to manage this party the best I could and try to make it better, even if Brooklyn did not like this. It would be weeks before I would fully understand the financial shenanigans that were keeping the party on life support.
***
Hachette Book GroupRight around the time of the convention, the leaked emails revealed Hillary’s campaign was grabbing money from the state parties for its own purposes, leaving the states with very little to support down-ballot races. A Politico story published on May 2, 2016, described the big fund-raising vehicle she had launched through the states the summer before, quoting a vow she had made to rebuild “the party from the ground up … when our state parties are strong, we win. That’s what will happen.”
Yet the states kept less than half of 1 percent of the $82 million they had amassed from the extravagant fund-raisers Hillary’s campaign was holding, just as Gary had described to me when he and I talked in August. When the Politico story described this arrangement as “essentially … money laundering” for the Clinton campaign, Hillary’s people were outraged at being accused of doing something shady. Bernie’s people were angry for their own reasons, saying this was part of a calculated strategy to throw the nomination to Hillary.
I wanted to believe Hillary, who made campaign finance reform part of her platform, but I had made this pledge to Bernie and did not want to disappoint him. I kept asking the party lawyers and the DNC staff to show me the agreements that the party had made for sharing the money they raised, but there was a lot of shuffling of feet and looking the other way.
When I got back from a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, I at last found the document that described it all: the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America.
The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.
I had been wondering why it was that I couldn’t write a press release without passing it by Brooklyn. Well, here was the answer.
When the party chooses the nominee, the custom is that the candidate’s team starts to exercise more control over the party. If the party has an incumbent candidate, as was the case with Clinton in 1996 or Obama in 2012, this kind of arrangement is seamless because the party already is under the control of the president. When you have an open contest without an incumbent and competitive primaries, the party comes under the candidate’s control only after the nominee is certain. When I was manager of Al Gore’s campaign in 2000, we started inserting our people into the DNC in June. This victory fund agreement, however, had been signed in August 2015, just four months after Hillary announced her candidacy and nearly a year before she officially had the nomination.
I had tried to search out any other evidence of internal corruption that would show that the DNC was rigging the system to throw the primary to Hillary, but I could not find any in party affairs or among the staff. I had gone department by department, investigating individual conduct for evidence of skewed decisions, and I was happy to see that I had found none. Then I found this agreement.
The funding arrangement with HFA and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical. If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.
***
I had to keep my promise to Bernie. I was in agony as I dialed him. Keeping this secret was against everything that I stood for, all that I valued as a woman and as a public servant.“Hello, senator. I’ve completed my review of the DNC and I did find the cancer,” I said. “But I will not kill the patient.”
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I discussed the fundraising agreement that each of the candidates had signed. Bernie was familiar with it, but he and his staff ignored it. They had their own way of raising money through small donations. I described how Hillary’s campaign had taken it another step.I told Bernie I had found Hillary’s Joint Fundraising Agreement. I explained that the cancer was that she had exerted this control of the party long before she became its nominee. Had I known this, I never would have accepted the interim chair position, but here we were with only weeks before the election.
Bernie took this stoically. He did not yell or express outrage. Instead he asked me what I thought Hillary’s chances were. The polls were unanimous in her winning but what, he wanted to know, was my own assessment?
I had to be frank with him. I did not trust the polls, I said. I told him I had visited states around the country and I found a lack of enthusiasm for her everywhere. I was concerned about the Obama coalition and about millennials.
I urged Bernie to work as hard as he could to bring his supporters into the fold with Hillary, and to campaign with all the heart and hope he could muster. He might find some of her positions too centrist, and her coziness with the financial elites distasteful, but he knew and I knew that the alternative was a person who would put the very future of the country in peril. I knew he heard me. I knew he agreed with me, but I never in my life had felt so tiny and powerless as I did making that call.
When I hung up the call to Bernie, I started to cry, not out of guilt, but out of anger. We would go forward. We had to.
Donna Brazile is the former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. Excerpted from the book Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House to be published on November 7, 2017 by Hachette Books, a division of Hachette Book Group. Copyright 2017 Donna Brazile.
Published on
by
Calling for Real Reform, Ellison Says DNC 'Rigging' of Primary 'Cannot Be Dismissed'
"The DNC must be an impartial and transparent organization that welcomes all people who share our core values of economic justice and human rights for all."
by
Democratic National Committee (DNC) deputy chairman Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) waded into the growing outrage over the party organ's "rigging" of the 2016 primary in a statement on Friday, arguing that Donna Brazile's explosive account of the committee's moves to stack the deck against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and in favor of Hillary Clinton "cannot simply be dismissed."
Highlighting the necessity of "real reforms," Ellison said it is Democrats'"responsibility to acknowledge that millions of Americans still feel hurt and betrayed by the events of the 2016 presidential primary."
"We can't allow this idea to persist that any candidate has an inside track," Ellison added, "because the DNC must be an impartial and transparent organization that welcomes all people who share our core values of economic justice and human rights for all."
With his public remarks, Ellison joins a chorus of progressive organizations and Democratic lawmakers—including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—calling for a systemic overhaul of the DNC's structure, agenda, and message, particularly as the 2018 congressional elections approach.
↧
↧
islam needs a martin luther by marvin x
ChickenBones: A Journal
for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes
www.nathanielturner.com
So much that goes for Islam is ancient and primitive, really, not worthy of discussion
in the modern world among people of intelligence. Elijah Muhammad used to say
the wisdom of this world is exhausted, and this includes Islam. It must be
revolutionized or thrown into the dustbin of ancient thought.
]]>
Books by Marvin X
Love and War: Poems / In the Crazy House Called America / Woman: Man’s Best Friend / Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
* * * * *
Islam Needs a Martin Luther By Marvin X, project director The University of Poetry
A Project of the Black Arts Movement
The Islamic world needs a Martin Luther, someone to usher in an Age of Reform that will radically alter some of the fundamental values of Islam that are retrograde, archaic, primitive and must be discarded into the dustbin of Muslim history so that Islam can regain its position as a culture of enlightenment rather than darkness. At an Islamic Art Conference I attended this past weekend in Oakland, California, along with Muslims from around the world, there was discussion of how Islam has suppressed artists, calling Muslim art haram (religiously proscribed), shirk (associating partners with God) and other negative terms that essentially condemn Islamic art as evil.
When I addressed the audience, I noted that I am the father of Islamic literature in America by default because other Muslim writers were told to give up the art of writing, creative anyway, but I ignored the ban and thus my work is all that remains, aside from poet Sam Hamad and a few others whove written during the last forty years that may surface with proper research. Not only writers, but painters, musicians, dancers, singers and others were suppressed. Even minister Farrakhan, a musician and singer, was made to give up his art. But we know it is artists who give people visions and prophecy, thus when they are suppressed, the people are likely to walk in darkness as we see at the present moment. In my remarks at the conference, I challenged the Muslim artists to be revolutionary and yes, disobedient to hell with those who desire to suppress Muslim art, they are the backward ones, they are the evil ones and must be opposed by, yes, any means necessary. So much that goes for Islam is ancient and primitive, really, not worthy of discussion in the modern world among people of intelligence. Elijah Muhammad used to say the wisdom of this world is exhausted, and this includes Islam. It must be revolutionized or thrown into the dustbin of ancient thought. The Islamic revolution must, will and shall be led by Muslim artists with vision for a day when Islamic culture will be the vanguard of world culture, projecting the most positive and scientific aspects of the new millennium. Islamic culture must come from behind the veil, or if anything, put the veil on men and let the women march forth as harbingers of the new world order. Contrary to what men think, women have been found to be the most advanced sector of society, intellectually and spiritually, so we would do well to listen to them for answers to the right path.
Clearly, Muslim men are not on sirat al-mustaqim (the straight path). Over a billion people of Islamic faith are currently steeped in poverty, ignorance and disease, wallowing in political oppression of the most backward, Stalinist variety. And when the politicians are not oppressing, the mullahs and Imams do the same work, even to the point of following the Christians in the sexual exploitation of boys and girls. Let a Muslim Martin Luther step to the front of the line and represent the way of truth, freedom, justice and equality. Muslim collaborators with imperialism, colonialism, and all manner of retrograde religiosity and political oppression must be condemned. Islamic scholars whose theology is based on primitive laws, edicts, fatwas must be ostracized because their actions only add to the utter confusion and ignorance pervading the Muslim world. Surely, the destruction the Tsunami brought to South Asia is a sign of Allahs displeasure with the Muslim people, along with Christians, Hindus and others. If we continue down the path of primitive worship of myths and rituals, surely Allah has even greater destruction planned for those without eyes, ears, the deaf, dumb and blind. After Allah has blessed us with light, how can we yet walk in darkness? How can we possess supreme wisdom yet have nothing, behave as spiritual slaves to any storefront imam with a rote memory of Al-Quran? Let a Martin Luther Muslim arise to destroy idols of ignorance and suppression of creativity. Yes, let everything praise Allah, from the flute to the lute, from the dancer to the poet.
* * *
Marvin X is a distinguished poet, playwright and essayist of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). He is the founder and director of Recovery Theatre in San Francisco. He also co-founded the Black Arts/West Theatre and Black House, which served briefly as the headquarters for the Black Panther Party and as a center for performance, theatre, poetry and music in the Bay Area. He works as a lecturer, teacher and producer.
This essay will be published in the forthcoming Wish I Could Tell You The Truth (2005) / © 2003-2005 Muslim WakeUp! Inc. The World’s Most Popular Muslim Online Magazinehttp://muslimwakeup.com info@muslimwakeup.com
* * * * *
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” Napoleon Bonaparte
* * * * *
* * * * *
A Memoir by Marvin X
Books by Marvin X
* * * * *
↧
PBS - Martin Luther – Complete documentary. (Parts 1 & 2)
.
ChickenBones: A Journal
for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes
www.nathanielturner.com
So much that goes for Islam is ancient and primitive, really, not worthy of discussion
in the modern world among people of intelligence. Elijah Muhammad used to say
the wisdom of this world is exhausted, and this includes Islam. It must be
revolutionized or thrown into the dustbin of ancient thought.
]]>
Books by Marvin X
Love and War: Poems / In the Crazy House Called America / Woman: Man’s Best Friend / Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
* * * * *
Islam Needs a Martin Luther By Marvin X, project director The University of Poetry
A Project of the Black Arts Movement
The Islamic world needs a Martin Luther, someone to usher in an Age of Reform that will radically alter some of the fundamental values of Islam that are retrograde, archaic, primitive and must be discarded into the dustbin of Muslim history so that Islam can regain its position as a culture of enlightenment rather than darkness. At an Islamic Art Conference I attended this past weekend in Oakland, California, along with Muslims from around the world, there was discussion of how Islam has suppressed artists, calling Muslim art haram (religiously proscribed), shirk (associating partners with God) and other negative terms that essentially condemn Islamic art as evil.
When I addressed the audience, I noted that I am the father of Islamic literature in America by default because other Muslim writers were told to give up the art of writing, creative anyway, but I ignored the ban and thus my work is all that remains, aside from poet Sam Hamad and a few others whove written during the last forty years that may surface with proper research. Not only writers, but painters, musicians, dancers, singers and others were suppressed. Even minister Farrakhan, a musician and singer, was made to give up his art. But we know it is artists who give people visions and prophecy, thus when they are suppressed, the people are likely to walk in darkness as we see at the present moment. In my remarks at the conference, I challenged the Muslim artists to be revolutionary and yes, disobedient to hell with those who desire to suppress Muslim art, they are the backward ones, they are the evil ones and must be opposed by, yes, any means necessary. So much that goes for Islam is ancient and primitive, really, not worthy of discussion in the modern world among people of intelligence. Elijah Muhammad used to say the wisdom of this world is exhausted, and this includes Islam. It must be revolutionized or thrown into the dustbin of ancient thought. The Islamic revolution must, will and shall be led by Muslim artists with vision for a day when Islamic culture will be the vanguard of world culture, projecting the most positive and scientific aspects of the new millennium. Islamic culture must come from behind the veil, or if anything, put the veil on men and let the women march forth as harbingers of the new world order. Contrary to what men think, women have been found to be the most advanced sector of society, intellectually and spiritually, so we would do well to listen to them for answers to the right path.
Clearly, Muslim men are not on sirat al-mustaqim (the straight path). Over a billion people of Islamic faith are currently steeped in poverty, ignorance and disease, wallowing in political oppression of the most backward, Stalinist variety. And when the politicians are not oppressing, the mullahs and Imams do the same work, even to the point of following the Christians in the sexual exploitation of boys and girls. Let a Muslim Martin Luther step to the front of the line and represent the way of truth, freedom, justice and equality. Muslim collaborators with imperialism, colonialism, and all manner of retrograde religiosity and political oppression must be condemned. Islamic scholars whose theology is based on primitive laws, edicts, fatwas must be ostracized because their actions only add to the utter confusion and ignorance pervading the Muslim world. Surely, the destruction the Tsunami brought to South Asia is a sign of Allahs displeasure with the Muslim people, along with Christians, Hindus and others. If we continue down the path of primitive worship of myths and rituals, surely Allah has even greater destruction planned for those without eyes, ears, the deaf, dumb and blind. After Allah has blessed us with light, how can we yet walk in darkness? How can we possess supreme wisdom yet have nothing, behave as spiritual slaves to any storefront imam with a rote memory of Al-Quran? Let a Martin Luther Muslim arise to destroy idols of ignorance and suppression of creativity. Yes, let everything praise Allah, from the flute to the lute, from the dancer to the poet.
* * *
Marvin X is a distinguished poet, playwright and essayist of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). He is the founder and director of Recovery Theatre in San Francisco. He also co-founded the Black Arts/West Theatre and Black House, which served briefly as the headquarters for the Black Panther Party and as a center for performance, theatre, poetry and music in the Bay Area. He works as a lecturer, teacher and producer.
This essay will be published in the forthcoming Wish I Could Tell You The Truth (2005) / © 2003-2005 Muslim WakeUp! Inc. The World’s Most Popular Muslim Online Magazinehttp://muslimwakeup.com info@muslimwakeup.com
* * * * *
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” Napoleon Bonaparte
* * * * *
* * * * *
A Memoir by Marvin X
Books by Marvin X
↧
RACISM, WHITE SUPREMACY, GENTRIFICATION AND WHOLE FOODS
Call for Rally Against Racism and White Supremacy at Oakland Whole Foods Market
The Movement Newspaper is calling for a Rally Against Racism and White Supremacy at Oakland Whole Foods Market. On July 17, 2017, our Design Editor, Adam Turner was the victim of an unprovoked physical and verbal attack by the WF security guard. While assisting a man with mental disabilities, Adam was pepper sprayed and called a fucking nigger! A few months before the Adam Turner incident, another North American African male was beaten unconscious by a security guard at the same store. Numerous NA Africans have encountered racism and white supremacy. One NAA male employee quit working because he claimed his fellow employees called the NAA customers niggers! It is clear Oakland WF is a toxic environment for NAA. We therefore call for a rally against this racist environment. We invite the community for a speak-out and invite the following activists to dialogue with the community on this matter (date,time and place TBA):Congressional Black Caucus Concerned about Amazon/Whole Foods Deal
Online retailer Amazon.com’s agreement to buy Whole Foods Market, the upscale grocery chain, for $13.4 billion has some members of the Congressional Black Caucus concerned because they fear it could lead to more food deserts in African-American communities.
In a July 20 letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Maureen Ohlhausen, acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Democratic Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio said the CBC is concerned about what the merger could mean for African-American communities across the country that are already suffering from a lack of affordable healthy food choices from grocers. Amazon and Whole Foods announced a merger agreement in June. The deal, however, has to be OKd by he federal government.
“This merger should be scrutinized beyond the normal antitrust review process that only examines the competitive impact. It should also include a careful review of the impact further consolidation will have on communities representing many of the food deserts across the nation. As you know, the USDA defines food deserts as parts of the country void of fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy whole foods that are usually found in impoverished areas. Many of these areas are populations we represent. Therefore, we hope you consider whether this merger will contribute to increasing rather than reducing the number of food deserts, and potentially increasing health disparities for African Americans and the poor,” Fudge wrote.
The congresswoman added that the planned merger may exacerbate the food divide among vulnerable populations, including 41 million SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food stamp) recipients, particularly those in low-income and rural communities.
Fudge said SNAP recipients cannot use their benefits to buy groceries online but they may be able to do so in the very near future.
As part of the 2014 Farm Bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is preparing the roll out of 10 pilots that allow SNAP customers to use their electronic benefit transfer or EBT cards to purchase groceries online from retailers based in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
Fresh, Amazon’s grocery delivery service, charges $14.99 a month and a person must be a member of Amazon prime, which costs $95 per year.
Fudge added the growth of online retailers has led companies to close their brick and mortar stores.
“Many of the communities we represent may feel the impact of these announced closures,” she said. “While Whole Foods may have a limited presence in many of our districts, further consolidation may force grocers who have a stronger brick-and-mortar presence in our communities to respond to this merger. As a result, it is possible these grocers will consolidate further and close stores that offer any, or the only, option to low-income communities,” she said.
Fudge added that CBC members do not oppose the merger now, but they want their concerns addressed.
Whole Foods, which is based in Austin, Texas, reported third-quarter sales of $3.7 billion. Amazon, which is based in Seattle, reported second-quarter sales of $38 billion. Its stock was recently selling at $987.58 per share.
Is Gentrification On Whole Foods’ Shopping List?
That last incongruous pairing became a reality in September, after the pricey food critics call “Whole Paycheck” jumped the broom with a South Chicago community where double-digit unemployment and a $20,500 median income are the norm. The jury’s still out on the marriage, which fueled lofty expectations for both of the betrothed. Whole Foods entered the union looking to generate positive social-equity spin and handsome profits but is playing it close to the vest regarding how things have gone thus far.
“The food desert phenomenon for me has been a Trojan horse into the Black community,” says Davis who has a law degree and runs a social justice organization called Blacks In Green. “I don’t think Whole Foods is here because they have a burning desire to serve low-income Blacks.”
Phones calls and emails sent to Whole Foods Markets, Inc., by atlantablackstar.com were not returned. The company’s focus may have been diverted by a stock price that dipped 15 percent last year, as well as by a recent Amazon deal to purchase Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.
In an effort to offer consumers cheaper goods than those sold at most Whole Foods stores, at Englewood the company lowered the prices of 30 staple items. In July, Congressional Black Caucus member U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) was curious if an approved Amazon/Whole Foods merger might have the potential to generate more food deserts in African-American communities. Fudge wrote to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Maureen Ohlhausen, acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, requesting that the proposed merger be subjected to particularly thorough anti-trust scrutiny.
Studies indicate that people in food deserts are more likely to die from, and suffer prematurely from, diabetes, hypertension and other diet-related conditions. They’re also more likely to be obese.
Ultimately, the Whole Foods/Englewood marriage is a positive thing, according to Chicago community-impact consultant Mari Gallagher. “Whole Foods going into different communities of color is a game changer,” says Gallagher, who operates the Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group. “A Whole Foods coming into Englewood sends a different signal to the community and to the marketplace about what is possible. It might attract other grocery stores, it might attract entrepreneurs growing their own stuff and trying to get it placed in Whole Foods.
“Retail attracts retail and like attracts like, in either a positive or a negative way.”
Whole Foods’ move into Englewood is being closely monitored in Charlotte, North Carolina, by food activist Robin Emmons. In 2008, she quit her Bank of America financial analyst job and started growing vegetables on her quarter-acre backyard to feed to underserved Charlotte families.
“Whole Foods is at the top of the continuum of food options here in America,” observes Emmons, the founder of Sow Much Good. “It’s hard for me to imagine that they would have a pure interest in alleviating disparities that exist in underserved communities. Also, they’re being acquired by Amazon, so we don’t know how all that is going to unfold. They’re [Whole Foods] concerned about profit and they’re accountable to their bottom line and their shareholders, not poor Black people.
At the end of the day, Emmons says the eradication of food deserts in Black neighborhoods is pegged to: “How do we create something that is for us and by us, so we can keep our dollars circulating in our own communities?”
On Whole Foods, Gentrification and the Erasure of Black Harlem
I first moved to Harlem in 1998. I was a young single mother in graduate school with a 2-year-old. Harlem offered me respite, refuge and safety in blackness and an affordable apartment in a doorman building. For me, after working downtown or going to New York University and being picked apart by microaggressions, Harlem was a place where I could blend in and relax. Take off the mask and just be.
Where some people saw violence, I saw community. Where others saw pathology, I glimpsed my reflection in the shiny faces of little girls in cornrows and big teeth. I heard my tongue in snatches of passed conversation, and tasted my culture from the old men who sold collard greens and watermelons on the corner. And there was always music, sweet music, coming from its very pores.
In the beginning, there were many thriving black businesses uptown, like 22 West, where my daughter and I used to feast on oxtails or fried-chicken dinners under postcards from Malcolm X; Pan-Pan, whose biscuits I still dream of; Majester’s fried fish; Odell’s Sugar Bar; Liberation Books; Harlem Lanes. PJs. The St. Nicholas Pub. The legendary Lenox Lounge, where the jukebox played serious soul music, and the art deco zebra prints on the wall made you feel like a fucking superstar. All black-owned. All now gone.
I’m not going to lie, Harlem was no utopia—I have known both friends and family who have died violently on Harlem’s streets—but I was never afraid. Harlem was a truly diverse community made up of all sorts: professionals, gay people, West Africans; bougie, hood, old, young; grown-ass boys with mad spit game; and curvy girls with bright-colored sneakers and even louder attitudes.
It was indeed a food desert back then; my mother used to rail against the supermarket owners for the subpar cuts of meat or shoddy produce with sky-high prices. There was no sushi or Mexican or Asian fusion in those days—more like blocks and blocks of fried-chicken shacks and bulletproof Chinese.
Yet there was always something exhilarating about crossing 110th Street. Harlem was the stuff of legend, and I liked to imagine James Baldwin, Langston Hughes or Zora Neale Hurston—giants in black literature—walking the same streets. Or passing the church where Marcus Garvey had his first meeting. Paying homage to James Brown at the Apollo after his death. Hell, I used to see DMX and Cam’ron on the regular. It was the best house parties and going to see Dave Chappelle’s show over on 106th and Park.
But slowly, surely, things began to change. It first happened with real estate. A Starbucks opened on 125th Street in 1999. Then Bill Clinton moved his office uptown in 2001. Magic Johnson opened a movie theater. A Mormon church took up shop on Lenox Avenue. And in the last five years, the rents started to skyrocket. As Al Sharpton once said, Harlem is perfectly located—20 minutes to midtown, 20 minutes to the airport, 20 minutes to the Bronx, New Jersey or Westchester County. It seems that folks got hip to my little snatch of black paradise.
The rents went up, the whites and tour buses started to come, and black people started to leave, relocating to New Jersey, Connecticut, the Bronx, even “down South,” in search of affordable housing. Many friends and family left. The shops began to close, and houses that were once $300,000 now easily go for well over $1 million. Studios that were once $500 are now $1,800 if you’re lucky.
When I stepped into the Whole Foods on opening day, it was overwhelming, but I had to admit I was impressed. They were giving out samples of this Brazilian cheese bread. (If you think those Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits are crack ... you haven’t yet indulged in these gluten-free puffs of paradise.) There were $5 lobster tails, sleeves of caramel cookies, cherries on sale and $2 potted sunflowers. I was open, and strangely seduced. Surprisingly, I was also kind of emotional.
I choked up seeing native Harlemites—Puerto Rican mamis with two Jesus pieces trying to figure out mochi ice cream bars; African Muslim women in colorful headwraps, with their babies tied to them in vivid cloth; hood chicks tatted up; and granddaddies with canes having access to what many with money take for granted.
We, too, deserve weird-looking, bumpy heirloom tomatoes and organic bok choy and grass-fed beef in our neighborhoods. We also deserve quick access to five types of rice milk for our lactose intolerance, wild-caught fish and organic cereal for our kids. We fucking deserve 17 million types of cheese and rows of probiotics for our guts.
But—and this is a big but—at what cost? I’ve been around the block a few times now, and I know that things that first seem good are not always so. I mean, Magic Johnson was a black man “investing” in Harlem many years ago. But what has that really wrought in this historically black community? Small-store closures. Skyrocketing rents. Displacement. The death of character. I liken it to charter schools. Sure, they fill a gaping void, and may help a few, but their repercussions are far more detrimental to the community as a whole.
Will Whole Foods become just another place in the hood where we will eventually feel unwelcome? Or yet another store or restaurant with offerings that the average Harlemite can’t afford? Our noses literally pressed to the window?
Right before the launch on July 21, Whole Foods was blowing up my Instagram timeline touting the fact that it has brought in “20 local vendors” as well as “jobs for the community.” But can the even 200 people whom Whole Foods employs make up for the impact of rising rent on a whole community? Can it prevent the Whole Foods effect, which is shown to drive up property values by as much as 40 percent (good for the few brownstone owners in the vicinity—not so much for renters)?
I actually spoke to some of the store’s employees, and they say the company pays a good wage with benefits. Most of them, according to store manager Damon Young, live in upper Manhattan or the Bronx and were able to transfer to the new store. All say that they eat better because of their Whole Foods education.
But this story is not really about Whole Foods. It’s really about my sense of place and belonging in a community I have called my home for nearly 20 years. It’s about something you knew and loved intimately being snatched away. It’s about erasure and helplessness. It’s about anger and loss. There are now places in Harlem that seem to be white havens. Some of the new residents have seemingly carved out all-white spaces for themselves in certain restaurants and bars (it’s still very racially segregated in many ways) where they can “be comfortable” and perhaps “feel safe.” Ironic, isn’t it?
Yep, this is about gentrification. In one of the most symbolic black communities in the world. Do I blame Whole Foods? Nah. It is far bigger than that. Gentrification did not begin with Whole Foods, but deep in my heart, I know that this new development does not bode well for those who are not wealthy.
The verdict? Yes, I will be up in Whole Foods more than a little bit. But if I could have saved my beloved Harlem—its swaggy culture, black businesses and vibrant original people —I would give it up in a New York minute, cheese bread and all.
↧
Parable of Marvin X Party
Monday, November 6, 2017
Marvin X party time
Kweli Tutashinda You are so right. Better party- it will be over before you know it. Black communists and radicals of the 20’s, 30’s, and 40's had more balance in their lives than we would expect.... Party party party!
Amiri and Maya
Amiri and Maya
Revolution ain't nothin' but a party! Black Power Party!
]
Marvin X and his revolutionary partners Emory Douglas, Don Lacy and Attorney John Burris, "Marvin X says some wild things!"Party for Amiri Baraka's 75th b day, dancers Rasheedah Sabreen, Linda Johnson,
Raynetta Rayzette, Val Serrant, San Francico Jazz Heritage Center
photo Kamau Amen Ra (RIP)
The party of my life was with the Barakas, party party party, party at the house, party at the bar, party coast to coast, party all night long, party!
Had to call Sonia in the middle of the night to help me party with the Barakas, cool them out. Sonia took Amtrak in the middle of the night to help me party with the Barakas.
Marvin X sporting Borsalino fedora--"I came from classic Black men--you'll never catch me in a baseball cap!-- Nigguh, please!"
photo Kamau Amen Ra (RIP)
Mom and Dad, Owendell Jackmon I and Marian Murrill Jackmon
getting married in Reno, Nevada. Parents published the Fresno Voice, a
Black Newspaper during the 40s. Parents were influenced by Marcus Garvey.
Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb recalls Mr. Jackmon attending meetings at
his grandfather's house, who was a Garveyite.
Mom and Dad at San Francisco Peace Conference establishing the United Nations, 1945
Marvin Ellis Jackmon, aka Marvin X, born writer, May 29, 1944. He didn't know but his siblings knew he was Mom's special child. Mom told him he didn't need a wife but a maid, scretary and mistress. After several failed marriages, Marvin X has concluded his Mom was right!
Father said he was so smart he outsmarted himself, should have been a billionaire! Marvin X entered Oakland's Merritt College as a business major but soon turned to sociology, especially after meeting fellow classmates Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. These days, Marvin X says he's on the other side of time (Sun Ra teachings) and money (a good name is better than gold). He started the Movement Newspaper with no money; produces extravagant events with no budget. People asked him how he produced the Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness Concert at San Francisco State University, 2001, with no money; how did he get such participants as Dr. Cornel West, Mrs and Mr. Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Ishmael Reed, Destiny Muhammad, Tarika Lewis, Rudi Mwongozi, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Rev. Andriette Earle, et al.?
Marvin X replied, "I used a device called telephone!
Father said he was so smart he outsmarted himself, should have been a billionaire! Marvin X entered Oakland's Merritt College as a business major but soon turned to sociology, especially after meeting fellow classmates Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. These days, Marvin X says he's on the other side of time (Sun Ra teachings) and money (a good name is better than gold). He started the Movement Newspaper with no money; produces extravagant events with no budget. People asked him how he produced the Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness Concert at San Francisco State University, 2001, with no money; how did he get such participants as Dr. Cornel West, Mrs and Mr. Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Ishmael Reed, Destiny Muhammad, Tarika Lewis, Rudi Mwongozi, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Drs. Nathan and Julia Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Rev. Andriette Earle, et al.?
Marvin X replied, "I used a device called telephone!
Marvin X's son Darrell/Abdul (RIP), Father Owendell Jackmon I (RIP), son Marvin K and Marvin X.
Marvin K and his son Jordan who has twin sister, Jazmin. Marvin K tried out for the San Francisco 49ers. Became a computer programmer.
Jordan, Marvin K and Jazmin
Wife Maryann and Marvin K. Jackmon
Parable of Marvin X Party
At 73, I party every day and every night. Everything I do is a party: party when I'm writing, party when I teach on the street. The street is a serious party: gotta be aware of your surroundings and don't get caught napping cause the street got banana peelings fa dat ass! But party!
"A party can be part of a nation!"--Huey P. Newton to Marvin X
Even revolution ain't nothin' but a party: one party's over, a new party takes over! Somebody said, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you shall die! Let's go out with a bang (bam bam, one two punch) not a whimper! Party.Can't party wit nobody, party wit ya self. Writing is a party, a labor of love and joy at self expression and sharing with the universe. Attorney John Burris says that boy says some wild things! James Sweeney says he's the most free black man in non-free America. In terms of modernist and innovative, Dennis Leroy Moore says he's centuries ahead of anybody I know!
Party. Mama said I used to play alone for hours and hours and I remember playing alone with those toy soldiers, General Ike was my hero! Imagine this! Born 1944, just before they dropped the bomb on Japan, then the dispossession of Palestinians 1948, I remember them crossing the bridge into Jordan, running for their lives, then Korean War, then Vietnam, then Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, et al., ad infinitum. War, what is it good for, eternal war, for generals, arms merchants, corporations who sell to both sides, war!
I party alone, writing is a solitary affair, can't have nobody lookin ova ma shoulder, censoring me if I write something they don't like. Ain't that kinna party up in here! One partner said I was recalcitrant and incorrigible cause I wouldn't follow her agenda. How I'm gonna follow yo agenda and you don't know where you going? I ain't fishing in the dark. I see clearly now. Ali said at his best, Marvin X is clarity of perception! As they say in Houston, Texas, better AX somebody! Daughter say, how you still alive, Daddy? Cause I can out think my enemies! You got to out think them and out live them, then you have the last word. He who laughs last laughs the longest! Party! I live in the no stress zone. My name is Jess, I ain't in dis mess! Better AX somebody!
Sun Ra said all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and Jack has become very very dull! My work is my play. I'm having the time of my life, in the fourth quarter, ain't nothing left but Hail Mary!
Love God, love family and love your work. If your work ain't a party, you need another job. Whatever you, don't have no boss. The Communists laughed at me when I came into their bookstore asking for the boss. They said boss, we ain't got no boss, we killed the boss, that's what the revolution was about. Excuse the hell outta me!
Praise your Lord and party. Sami Allahu liman hamida, rabbana laka al hamd. fa salli li rabbika! Pray when you go out and pray when you come in. Inna salati wa nusuki wa mah yahya wa ma mahti li lahhi rabbi l alamin.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir11/6/17
↧
↧
Bloom Baby Bloom
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From San Jose, California Jacquelyn Hopkins Howard University alumni, looking to make a
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the children of color. Created Bloom Baby Baby Bloom Llc an educational equity startup
located in the Washington DC metropolitan area, dedicated to encouraging children of color
through self love, cultural pride and acceptance. Bloom Baby Baby Bloom provides cultural
educational supplies, and instructional unit plans centered on the concepts of self love, self
awareness, self con)dence, and self esteem as each have a direct impact when assisting to
close the achievement gap in the children of color.
PO BOX 189
LAUREL MD 20725
BLOOM BABY BABY BLOOM
From San Jose, California Jacquelyn Hopkins Howard University alumni, looking to make a
change in her community and provide a viable solution to help close the achievement gap in
the children of color. Created Bloom Baby Baby Bloom Llc an educational equity startup
located in the Washington DC metropolitan area, dedicated to encouraging children of color
through self love, cultural pride and acceptance. Bloom Baby Baby Bloom provides cultural
educational supplies, and instructional unit plans centered on the concepts of self love, self
awareness, self con)dence, and self esteem as each have a direct impact when assisting to
close the achievement gap in the children of color.
PO BOX 189
LAUREL MD 20725
BLOOM BABY BABY BLOOM
Jacquelyn Hopkins, Howard University alumna, looking to make a change in her community and provide a viable solution to help close the achievement gap in North American African children,
created Bloom Baby Baby Bloom, LLC., as an educational equity startup located in the Washington DC metropolitan area, dedicated to encouraging North American African children through self love, cultural pride and acceptance. Bloom Baby Baby Bloom provides cultural educational supplies and instructional unit plans centered on the concepts of self love, self awareness, self confidence, and self esteem as each have a direct impact when closing the achievement gap in NAA children.
PO BOX 189
LAUREL MD 20725
WWW.BLOOMBABYBABYBLOOM.COM
WWW.BLOOMBABYBABYBLOOM.COM
BLOOM BABY BABY BLOOM
From San Jose, California Jacquelyn Hopkins Howard University alumni, looking to make a
change in her community and provide a viable solution to help close the achievement gap in
the children of color. Created Bloom Baby Baby Bloom Llc an educational equity startup
located in the Washington DC metropolitan area, dedicated to encouraging children of color
through self love, cultural pride and acceptance. Bloom Baby Baby Bloom provides cultural
educational supplies, and instructional unit plans centered on the concepts of self love, self
awareness, self con)dence, and self esteem as each have a direct impact when assisting to
close the achievement gap in the children of color.
PO BOX 189
LAUREL MD 20725
WWW.BLOOMBABYBABYBLOOM.COM
WWW.BLOOMBABYBABYBLOOM.COM
↧
Harvey is Everyman
Marvin X and the beautiful Nuyorican Poet/Scholar Nancy Mercado at the Harlem reception for Marvin X at the home of Rashidah Ismaili.
Harvey is Everyman
We must begin this discussion in the deep structure of human myth/ritual, in the foundation of culture and socialization. We must examine the manhood and womanhood rites of passage for a clearer understanding of why men and women are caught in this global quagmire of sexual pathology now being exposed as Pandora's box has never seen. And yet we cannot put all the blame on Hollywood, even though Hollywood is one of the chief myth makers in the modern world. Thus the sexual improprieties can be seen as the rite of passage for those neophytes seeking advancement in the medium of film, to become the new high priest and priestess of the celluloid world of make believe.
And so the neophytes must appropriately endure the ordeal by fire to prove themselves worthy of advancement. Sexual debasement thus is a well known procedure in most myth-ritual based societies and institutions, whether tribal, religious, fraternal and sororal. Even the marriage rite began with having sex with the bride but has been reduced to kissing the bride. The prostitute evolved from the temple priestess who traded sexual favors for strangers who in turn gave love offerings to the temple god, the priest and herself. At some point in time immemorial the priestess's activity was deemed immoral, although we know the "church ho'" is yet alive and well today. And the priest/preacher/imam/Babalawo, et al., is yet known to take full advantage of his position as chief of the spiritual order.
As per sex with boys in the Catholic Church, we know it is an economic rather than sexual matter. In order to preserve property in the name of the Church, marriage had to be banned to prevent inheritance from flowing outside the church. Boys were sacrificed on the altar of economic prosperity and longevity. On the fifth century anniversary of the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther, we know one of his objections was Papal sex with boys, along with his main objection, paying one's way into heaven
Let's be fair and balanced, Muslims have long been known for their right/rite to have sex with boys, most recently in madrassas or religious schools. The US has allowed soldiers in the Afghanistan army to have sex with boys since it is their cultural and religious rite/right! Of course the glaring contradiction is the Islamic ban against homosexuality, including beheading and/or stoning to death. This latter sentence is given to women for adultery, but not men. Such gender discrimination is obviously the product of the patriarchal society. Alas, this entire discussion is about the myth/rituals embedded in patriarchal culture and socialization.
We say Harvey is Everyman because almost every man is socialized in patriarchal culture!
No matter than many of our children are raised in matrifocal households, i.e., mother in authority, she is herself a victim of patriarchal mythology and socialization and thus either consciously or unconsciously transmits this culture to her sons and daughters. When she tells her son to be man, what is she talking about except the patriarchal definition of manhood. The problem today is that when the son is so violently hostile to his absent and abandoned father, he often emulates the feminine behavior of his mother, verbally and physically in hand gestures and gait, and yet we heard this from a young man at a recovery meeting of men, "Let me say this, some of my friends you might think are gay but they are not gay, they just sound gay because they have never heard a man's voice!"
It is not simply a matter of pathology with men of power, after all, we grew up powerless in the hood yet engaging in gang rape we called "pulling a train on a bitch." And this occurred every Sunday at the movie theatre, sometimes behind the screen while the film was showing, then afterward as we crossed the tracks going home, literally on or near the freight trains. This was a cultural phenomena that seemed absolutely normal to us, as normal as beating up Mexicans in the movie house men's restroom during intermission, not because we hated Latinos but because they were a reasonable facsimile of the white boy who would/did not attend White's Theatre that was for blacks and Latinos only. Few whites went to White's Theatre!
And in our teenage ritual of sex and violence, we went to the Memorial Auditorium in Fresno for one purpose: to get the last dance with our girlfriends to guarantee pussy after the dance, but our primary mission was to fight the Latinos we called Meskins, again, not because we hated Latinos, afterall, we were both in the lower depths of oppression, but since the white boy rarely attended our Rock And Roll concerts featuring Little Richard, The Coasters, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Ike and Tina, Sam Cooke, and all the rest of our Rock and Roll heroes, we attacked the Latinos on the dance floor and for sure after the concert on the grass outside the auditorium, mad fist fighting and knifing, no guns at this time.
But the sociology of sexual pathology was pervasive in our young adult male/female relationships, after all, did we not own our mates and they owned us, thus a perfect prescription for violence upon any violation of chattel (personal, i.e., sexual) property rights/rites.
Of course this madness continued into our marriage rites, especially after sexual rites/rights were codified in the marriage rite: to death do us part! In the patriarchal social psychology, men were absolutely convinced they now owned the pussy and must have it at their beck and call. The wife had no choice in this matter since the man was paying the cost to be the boss, yes, he was paying his pussy bill, thus he owned the pussy and could go in and out as he pleased, no matter if and when the poor wife cried, "Can you let my pussy rest for 24 hours, just 24 hours, Baby, please let my pussy rest!"
His response was the Cave Man Supreme, "Bitch, you better hurry up and give me some of your good pussy! I don't want to hear bout yo pussy need a rest!"
Por favor, let us go global with this madness: we pray for the women of the world at this hour. In this entire discussion, we are tempered by the fact we have three daughters and now granddaughters, not to mention we have six sisters, and most importantly, the mothers of my children, who themselves were victims of my patriarchal madness. I bow down in praise to the wonderful mothers of my children, Patricia, Barbara and Nisa, and the other women partners in my life who endured my psycho-pathology that sometimes became physical. I know I am truly blessed to have the most beautiful, spiritual and intelligent women any man could have on this earth!. I give honor and praise to all the women in my life! They were all angelic, if anything, I was the devil!
Ok, I am known for glaring generalizations, hyperbole, but in truth, we know every man is not Harvey, that there are many men who've never contemplated the imaginings of Harvey and his ilk, but surely we know men of power throughout the world have enacted Harvey's ritual of sexual impropriety at every possible moment, whether in the arts, academia, religion, corporation, fraternity, home life or any other social situation.
As per solution, we know none except revolution in all institutions. In the words of Ancestor Kwame Toure' (Stokeley Carmichael), "Are you ready for revolution?"
Toward the Revolutionary Solution
We cannot get to the root of this matter and propose a solution until we start at the slave trade that was the total and absolute debasement of human beings, men, women and children. Nothing equaled this debauchery until the Crack epidemic in America. Four hundred years of free labor, free sex, imagine the surplus capital that was accumulated in four centuries, imagine the twisted psycho-pathology on all sides. News Year's Day being the most dreaded day in the life of the African captured in the American Slave System. New Year's was the slave auction, when mothers, fathers, children were separated from love ones. The slave master was so wicked, cruel, heartless that he sold this own children, especially those sired by him and his African captive woman. We don't want to acknowledge the wicked devil slave master raped African men, women and children, yes, even his own. With this DNA, do you imagine that there is any iota of moral fiber in the descendants of the slave master?
Do you realize the medical profession of gynecology is the result of experimenting on enslaved African women without anesthesia?
--continued-
--Marvin X
12/13/17
Harlem, New York reception for poet Marvin X, at the home of writer Rashidah Ismaili. Marvin X was in town to speak at the New York University memorial for poets Jayne Cortez and Amiri Baraka.
Harvey is Everyman
We must begin this discussion in the deep structure of human myth/ritual, in the foundation of culture and socialization. We must examine the manhood and womanhood rites of passage for a clearer understanding of why men and women are caught in this global quagmire of sexual pathology now being exposed as Pandora's box has never seen. And yet we cannot put all the blame on Hollywood, even though Hollywood is one of the chief myth makers in the modern world. Thus the sexual improprieties can be seen as the rite of passage for those neophytes seeking advancement in the medium of film, to become the new high priest and priestess of the celluloid world of make believe.
And so the neophytes must appropriately endure the ordeal by fire to prove themselves worthy of advancement. Sexual debasement thus is a well known procedure in most myth-ritual based societies and institutions, whether tribal, religious, fraternal and sororal. Even the marriage rite began with having sex with the bride but has been reduced to kissing the bride. The prostitute evolved from the temple priestess who traded sexual favors for strangers who in turn gave love offerings to the temple god, the priest and herself. At some point in time immemorial the priestess's activity was deemed immoral, although we know the "church ho'" is yet alive and well today. And the priest/preacher/imam/Babalawo, et al., is yet known to take full advantage of his position as chief of the spiritual order.
As per sex with boys in the Catholic Church, we know it is an economic rather than sexual matter. In order to preserve property in the name of the Church, marriage had to be banned to prevent inheritance from flowing outside the church. Boys were sacrificed on the altar of economic prosperity and longevity. On the fifth century anniversary of the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther, we know one of his objections was Papal sex with boys, along with his main objection, paying one's way into heaven
Let's be fair and balanced, Muslims have long been known for their right/rite to have sex with boys, most recently in madrassas or religious schools. The US has allowed soldiers in the Afghanistan army to have sex with boys since it is their cultural and religious rite/right! Of course the glaring contradiction is the Islamic ban against homosexuality, including beheading and/or stoning to death. This latter sentence is given to women for adultery, but not men. Such gender discrimination is obviously the product of the patriarchal society. Alas, this entire discussion is about the myth/rituals embedded in patriarchal culture and socialization.
We say Harvey is Everyman because almost every man is socialized in patriarchal culture!
No matter than many of our children are raised in matrifocal households, i.e., mother in authority, she is herself a victim of patriarchal mythology and socialization and thus either consciously or unconsciously transmits this culture to her sons and daughters. When she tells her son to be man, what is she talking about except the patriarchal definition of manhood. The problem today is that when the son is so violently hostile to his absent and abandoned father, he often emulates the feminine behavior of his mother, verbally and physically in hand gestures and gait, and yet we heard this from a young man at a recovery meeting of men, "Let me say this, some of my friends you might think are gay but they are not gay, they just sound gay because they have never heard a man's voice!"
It is not simply a matter of pathology with men of power, after all, we grew up powerless in the hood yet engaging in gang rape we called "pulling a train on a bitch." And this occurred every Sunday at the movie theatre, sometimes behind the screen while the film was showing, then afterward as we crossed the tracks going home, literally on or near the freight trains. This was a cultural phenomena that seemed absolutely normal to us, as normal as beating up Mexicans in the movie house men's restroom during intermission, not because we hated Latinos but because they were a reasonable facsimile of the white boy who would/did not attend White's Theatre that was for blacks and Latinos only. Few whites went to White's Theatre!
And in our teenage ritual of sex and violence, we went to the Memorial Auditorium in Fresno for one purpose: to get the last dance with our girlfriends to guarantee pussy after the dance, but our primary mission was to fight the Latinos we called Meskins, again, not because we hated Latinos, afterall, we were both in the lower depths of oppression, but since the white boy rarely attended our Rock And Roll concerts featuring Little Richard, The Coasters, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Ike and Tina, Sam Cooke, and all the rest of our Rock and Roll heroes, we attacked the Latinos on the dance floor and for sure after the concert on the grass outside the auditorium, mad fist fighting and knifing, no guns at this time.
But the sociology of sexual pathology was pervasive in our young adult male/female relationships, after all, did we not own our mates and they owned us, thus a perfect prescription for violence upon any violation of chattel (personal, i.e., sexual) property rights/rites.
Of course this madness continued into our marriage rites, especially after sexual rites/rights were codified in the marriage rite: to death do us part! In the patriarchal social psychology, men were absolutely convinced they now owned the pussy and must have it at their beck and call. The wife had no choice in this matter since the man was paying the cost to be the boss, yes, he was paying his pussy bill, thus he owned the pussy and could go in and out as he pleased, no matter if and when the poor wife cried, "Can you let my pussy rest for 24 hours, just 24 hours, Baby, please let my pussy rest!"
His response was the Cave Man Supreme, "Bitch, you better hurry up and give me some of your good pussy! I don't want to hear bout yo pussy need a rest!"
Por favor, let us go global with this madness: we pray for the women of the world at this hour. In this entire discussion, we are tempered by the fact we have three daughters and now granddaughters, not to mention we have six sisters, and most importantly, the mothers of my children, who themselves were victims of my patriarchal madness. I bow down in praise to the wonderful mothers of my children, Patricia, Barbara and Nisa, and the other women partners in my life who endured my psycho-pathology that sometimes became physical. I know I am truly blessed to have the most beautiful, spiritual and intelligent women any man could have on this earth!. I give honor and praise to all the women in my life! They were all angelic, if anything, I was the devil!
Ok, I am known for glaring generalizations, hyperbole, but in truth, we know every man is not Harvey, that there are many men who've never contemplated the imaginings of Harvey and his ilk, but surely we know men of power throughout the world have enacted Harvey's ritual of sexual impropriety at every possible moment, whether in the arts, academia, religion, corporation, fraternity, home life or any other social situation.
As per solution, we know none except revolution in all institutions. In the words of Ancestor Kwame Toure' (Stokeley Carmichael), "Are you ready for revolution?"
Toward the Revolutionary Solution
We cannot get to the root of this matter and propose a solution until we start at the slave trade that was the total and absolute debasement of human beings, men, women and children. Nothing equaled this debauchery until the Crack epidemic in America. Four hundred years of free labor, free sex, imagine the surplus capital that was accumulated in four centuries, imagine the twisted psycho-pathology on all sides. News Year's Day being the most dreaded day in the life of the African captured in the American Slave System. New Year's was the slave auction, when mothers, fathers, children were separated from love ones. The slave master was so wicked, cruel, heartless that he sold this own children, especially those sired by him and his African captive woman. We don't want to acknowledge the wicked devil slave master raped African men, women and children, yes, even his own. With this DNA, do you imagine that there is any iota of moral fiber in the descendants of the slave master?
Do you realize the medical profession of gynecology is the result of experimenting on enslaved African women without anesthesia?
--continued-
--Marvin X
12/13/17
↧
pan afrcan black love ghana tour 2018--feb 15-25, 2018
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