"Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."--Ishmael Reed


"We doubted a Marvin X
existed. We double doubt
there is a Plato Negro."
--Amiri Baraka






Introduction

by

Ptah Allah El


TTo all seekers of truth living in the post modern world, this volume of
literature is your pragmatic hustler’s guide and intellectual syllabus
for success. Some people found it strange when scholar Ishmael Reed
first compared Marvin X, the son of Owendell and Marian Jackmon to the
classical Greek Philosopher Plato (427 B.C.), son of Ariston and
Perictione.

No one can argue that both Plato and Marvin X have proven in
their dialogues/writings to be great thinkers and critics of their
respective eras. Although separated by over two thousand years of
history and clearly two distinct worldviews, research proves that these
poet/philosophers strangely share similar souls. Recently while reading
about the Dialogues of Plato, I came across a quote by William Chase
Greene, former Professor of Greek and Latin at Harvard University.
Greene describes Plato’s works by profoundly stating, “In yet another
field the Platonic Philosophy seeks to find an escape from the flux.

Those poets and artist who are content to record the fleeting
impressions of the senses, or to tickle the fancies and indulge the
passions of an ignorant people by specious emotional and rhetorical
appeals, Plato invites to use their art in service of truth.”

These are timeless words describing Plato’s classic works, yet if you simply
replace Plato’s name with Marvin X in the above quote, and review
Marvin’s work over the past 40 years, you won’t be surprised why he has
adopted the title “Plato Negro”.

In this classic volume Marvin X truly becomes Plato personified, as we see him transcend from master poet to philosopher. Plato was once a master poet until the death of his teacher Socrates in (399 B.C.). This marked a turning point in Plato’s life
causing him to fully convert to philosophy. The same can be said now
with Marvin X who recently lost his master teacher John Douimbia and has
since elevated beyond poetry, reincarnating as the philosopher “Plato
Negro”.

These “New Dialogues” of The Wisdom of Plato Negro provide a
post modern Gorgias, Sophist, Symposium of Laws, on how to hustle and
survive in the new Obamian American Republic. It is clear that Marvin X
has become the true Platonist of the day by demonstrating his Platonic
love for the people, taking us on a symbolic trip through the parable of
the Cave, where all true analysis takes place, inside the true self.

As an African Philosopher, as ironic as it sounds, the works of “Plato
Negro” prove to be a major contribution to the field of African
Philosophy. These works provide a model for a standard approach toward
reflective thinking and critical analysis for African people, still
trying to define their own philosophical worldview. What Plato’s works
did to inspire classical Greece and the European generations to follow,
we hope this brilliant piece of literature from “Plato Negro” will shed
light on Africans today and future generations to come. Write on “Plato
Negro”.

Ptahotep A. El (Trace 101)
Minister of Education, Academy of da Corner,
14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.

Parable of the Madpoet

And I'm the great would-be poet. Yes. That's right! Poet. Some kind of bastard literature...all it needs is a simple knife thrust. Just let me bleed you, you loud whore, and one poem vanished. A whole people of neurotics, struggling to keep from being sane. And the only thing that would cure the neurosis would be your murder...
--Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman
He was a man who lived on the razor's edge, like a tight walker about to fall into the chasm, a false step, a slight loss of balance and he would surely fly headlong into the precipice.

He wrote to keep from killing, from slaughtering the guilty and innocent. In his warped mind, the choice was society's, not his. For in his selfishness, either let his pen flow or blood shall flow upon the land because he felt wronged, the constant victim of theft, even by his friends or so called friends.

He had taught at the greatest universities in the land, but was often escorted off campus by police for violating the law of political correctness. He was deported from countries for the same reason, marched onto the plane at gunpoint, the hatch door slammed behind him. If madpoet returned, the prime minister said he would leave.

His writings were so outrageous people threw them on the ground in the north and dirty south. He told a man who threw his writings on the ground that he was dumber than the dumbest mule in Georgia. The man went away but came back to ask him if that was a line from a movie. Madpoet told him, "You the movie, nigguh!"

Even though he hadn't sought employment in decades, he believed he was banned from employment for life because of his deranged thoughts, that he was not invited to events to celebrate life or art, even events his peers organized, though he invited them to his productions without fail.

People wanted him to be rich by saying the right things so the public could accept his writings. But his doctor told him to remain poor so he could be truthful and free. Another friend told him not to worry about money because on the day he died he would surely be rich and famous. He was praised by word of mouth because nobody was going to talk about his writings out loud, but they hush hushed about it. It was very straight and plain. Youth told him he was very blunt!

Some people thought he liked to whine, snibble and was ungrateful because whenever he put on events they were unique and classical extravaganzas, though sometimes long, drawn out affairs without thought of intermission or length of time. Another mad friend named Sun Ra had taught him about infinity.

He had been confined to the mental hospital four times, but each time he had taken himself. He enjoyed the mental ward, especially since it was full of artists like himself who had crossed the line from creativity to insanity. Other than drugs, the doctors found nothing wrong with him so when he refused to leave, they threw him out onto the street. The police jabbed him in the ribs with their night sticks as they escorted him off the grounds of the mental hospital.

So please let his pen flow and do not disturb him for any reason, especially some menial chore, a mundane exercise, just leave him alone in the silence of his room. Let him ponder thoughts beyond the box, beyond the pale of tradition. Let him consider the finer things of life, what words to configure, what metaphors, psycholinguistic turns of the mind, the sociology and historiography of a people, or else there shall be chaos in the land and blood shall flow like a river, for his spirit shall be suppressed and shall seek an outlet in blood from the misery of his mind.

Yes, he is a killer in disguise, who appears in the persona of a poet for the good of society, but continue to oppress him, suppress him, and he shall strike out in a moment of black madness and those who have wronged him shall see your guts spilled, your head smashed against the concrete sidewalk.

Believe it, it is only a matter of time before the madpoet shall seek revenge and come upon those who have wronged him. He shall strike like a panther in the night, and you shall cry in horror as his knife enters your throat and from thence to the spilling of your guts upon the ground.

He shall walk away with a laughter and joy only the devil himself shall understand and appreciate.
--Marvin X
4/17/09
Gullahland, South Carolina
Revised 4/3/10

Sonia Sanchez, Queen Mother of BAM

Askia Toure, Rolland Snellings, one of the BAM Godfathers

Amina and Amiri Baraka, Queen and King of BAM

Marvin X, West Coast Godfather of BAM

In less than five years, America will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. Sonia Sanchez, one of the leading voices of the Black Arts Movement believes that “The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the “Negro’s” reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” These positive images of blackness were celebrated on August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. At the 1963 gathering, Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech represented the pinnacle of hope of freedom for all Americans. The question that must be asked fifty years later is “have we achieved that dream?” We must all ask, with the upcoming 50^th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, have the images of blackness in America changed? Is blackness still seen as inferior? In Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art,” first published in the liberator in 1966, he writes:

Clean out the world for virtue and love,

Let there be no love poems written

until love can exist freely and

cleanly….We want a black poem. And a

Black World.

Let the world be a Black Poem

And Let All Black People Speak This Poem

Silently or LOUD

Are black people speaking their poems, their truth about blackness? Has the Black Arts Movement created the hoped for change in how black people view themselves?

These questions and more will be explored at the International Conference on the Black Arts Movement and its influences at UC Merced, March 1-2, 2014. The call for papers on a worldwide level is asking the larger questions beyond race, and culture as we examine what happened during the Black Arts Movement, and how that changed us as a nation, and as a world. The Black Arts Movement, the spiritual twin of the Black Power Movement is noted for having changed how African Americans viewed themselves as a race. African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s created a new vision of blackness, one that celebrated the uniqueness of black culture. This call for papers invites scholars of all cultural and racial backgrounds to submit work that illustrates the influence of the Black Arts Movement, both past and present. The Chicano, Asian, Women’s, Disability Rights, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movements were all influenced by the Black Arts and Black Power Movements, establishing new academic fields of study, and empowering those that society had marginalized.
--Kim McMillan

Contact Kim McMillan at kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014

1^ST Floor Lantern (Kolligian Library)

8:00 – 8:30 AM Registration, Coffee/Tea and Light Refreshments

8:30 – 9:00 AM Welcoming Remarks (9:00 am – 5:00 pm

9:15 – 10:15 AM Multicultural Panel (Lakireddy Auditorium)

Belva Davis, Panel Moderator

Juan Felipe Herrera, California Poet Laureate

Genny Lim, Poet & Activist

Al Young, California Poet Laureate Emeritus

Avotcja, Poet

10:30 – 11:30 AM Black Power and Black Arts Roundtable (Lakireddy Auditorium)

Nigel Hatton, Moderator

Sonia Sanchez, Poet, Playwright, Teacher

John Bracey, UMass Amherst

James Smethurst, UMass Amherst

Amiri Baraka, Producer, Writer, Activist (still waiting for confirmation)

Marvin X, Playwright, Activist

11:30 – 1:00 PM Luncheon

1:15 – 2:00 PM Marvin X, Keynote Speaker

2:15 – 3:15 PM Theatre of the Black Arts Movement (speakers TBA)

4:00 – 5:30 PM Northern and Central California Voices of the Black Arts MovementInstallation

Merced Multicultural Arts Center

S.O.S. – Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader

Discussion with editors: John H. Bracey Jr., Sonia Sanchez, and James Smethurst

Dinner

7:00 – 9:00 PM Theatre of the Black Arts Movement

(Excerpts from the plays of Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed, Lorraine Hansberry, and George Wolfe) Performed by Michael Lange, Adilah Barnes, and UC Merced Students

(Must have purchased ticket for this event)

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014

Lantern, 1^st Floor Kolligian Library

8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration, Coffee/Tea and Refreshments

9:15 – 10:15 AM New Scholarship on the Black Arts and Black Power Movement(Lakireddy Auditorium)

Mike Sell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

James Smethurst, University of Mass, Amherst

Marvin X, Playwright

Sean Malloy, University of Merced

10:30 – 11:30 AM Black Studies & the Black Arts Movement

Dr. Nathan Hare

Sonia Sanchez

Dr. John Bracey

Judy Juanita

Lunch

1:15 – 2:00 PM Ishmael Reed, Keynote Speaker

2:15 – 3:00 PM Central Valley Voices of the Black Arts Movement

Nigel Hatton, Moderator

(Student Papers)

Give Birth to Brightness: A Thematic Study of Neo-Black Literature by Sherley Anne Williams & Somethin' Proper, the Autobiography of Marvin X

Hotel: Hampton Inn in Merced, CA will offer room discounts to conference attendees.

Call for Papers

A call for papers for an international conference on the Black Arts Movement and Its Influences, University of California, Merced, March 1-2, 2014

In less than five years, America will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. Sonia Sanchez, one of the leading voices of the Black Arts Movement believes that “The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the “Negro’s” reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.” These positive images of blackness were celebrated on August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. At the 1963 gathering, Martin Luther King’s “I Had a Dream” speech represented the pinnacle of hope of freedom for all Americans. The question that must be asked fifty years later is “have we achieved that dream?” We must all ask, with the upcoming 50^thanniversary of the Black Arts Movement, have the images of blackness in America changed? Is blackness still seen as inferior? In Amiri Baraka’s poem “Black Art,” first published in the liberator in 1966, he writes:

Clean out the world for virtue and love,

Let there be no love poems written

until love can exist freely and

cleanly….We want a black poem. And a

Black World.

Let the world be a Black Poem

And Let All Black People Speak This Poem

Silently or LOUD

Are black people speaking their poems, their truth about blackness? Has the Black Arts Movement created the hoped for change in how black people view themselves?

This conference, sponsored by the University of Merced’s African Diaspora Graduate Student Association, seeks papers that offer new scholarship on the Black Arts and Black Power Movements as well as new insights into the following areas of study:

◦ Regional examinations of the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Black Arts Movement -- national and international

◦ Women authors of The Black Arts Movement

◦ Male domination and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Politics and Art of the Black Power and Black Arts Movements

◦ Symbology and the Black Arts and Black Power Movements

◦ Cultural Legacies of the Black Arts Movement

◦ Community Theatre and the Black Arts Movement

◦ Clothing, Music, and Art of the Black Arts Movement

◦ Race and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The use of Poetry and Drama in the Black Arts Movement

◦ The media and the Black Arts and Black Power Movements

◦ The historical context of the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Black Panthers and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The influence of the Black Arts Movement on other cultures

◦ The use of language as Art in the Black Arts Movement

◦ The creation of the Black Arts and Black Power Movement

◦ Film and the Black Arts Movement

◦ The Intersection between the Civil Rights and the Black Power, and Black Arts Movements

Special invited guests include: Sonia Sanchez, Ishmael Reed, John Bracey, James Smethurst, Mike Sell, Juan Felipe Herrera, Genny Lim, Al Young, Belva Davis, Marvin X, Adilah Barnes, Dr. Nathan Hare, and others.

Please send your one-page abstract and brief bio to Kim McMillon at kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu by December 18, 2013.

Call for Papers, Reports, and Studies:

The Black Arts Movement Conference invites the following types of submissions:

Research Papers - Completed research papers in any of the topic areas listed above or related areas.

Student Papers - Research done by students in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.

Case Studies - Case studies in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.

Work-in-Progress Reports for Future Research - Incomplete research in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.

Presentations:

Paper sessions will consist of no more than four presentations in a 80-minute session. The session will be divided equally between the presenters.

Workshop presentations will be given a full 60-minute session.

Panel sessions will provide an opportunity for three or more presenters to speak in a more open session where ideas can be exchanged. These sessions are 80 minutes.

Poster sessions will last 90 minutes and consist of a large number of presenters. The following supplies will be provided for poster sessions:

• Easel

• Tri-fold display board (48 x 36 inches)

• Markers

• Push pins

• Tape

• Round table

• Chairs

Submitting a Proposal/Paper:

Make your submission by

following these directions:

Create a title page for your submission. The title page must include:

a. Title of the submission

b. Topic area of the submission (choose a topic area from the list at the top of this page)

c. Presentation format (choose one: Paper Session, Workshop, Panel Session, or Poster Session)

d. A description of your presentation, which should not exceed 150 words in total. Please note that you are still required to send in an abstract/paper in addition to this description.

e. paper author(s):

f. EACH author, should list the following:

• Full Name

• Department/Division

• University/Company/Organization

• Email Address (all acceptance/rejection letters are sent via email, so it is very important to have a correct email address for each author.)

g. Email your abstract and/or paper, along with the above-described title page, to kmcmillon@ucmerced.edu. Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged via email within one week.

NOTE: Conference papers, proposal, panels, workshops, and poster sessions will take place on the University of California, Merced campus concurrently from 9-4 pm on Saturday, and 10 am – 2:00 pm on Sunday, March 1-2, 2014.

When the Black Arts Movement Conference happens at UC Merced, Feb. 28 thru March 2, 2014, we wonder will the BAM folks get the turn out folks gave the First Lady? Probably not, but the BAM conference will be one of the largest gathering of North American Africans in Merced history.

It will be an event of critical importance as well, setting the stage for the 50th anniversary of BAM, the most radical literary and artistic movement in American history, featuring many of the founders, including Amiri Baraka, aka LeRoi Jones, Askia Toure, Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X, Roscoe Mitchell and others associated with BAM such as Ishmael Reed and Al Young.

For sure, BAM was a Black Nationalist movement inspired by the Nation of Islam, very similar to the Harlem Renaissance that was motivated by the Marcus Garvey Movement. There are those who will try to paint BAM as multicultural, but that came later, a result of BAM's impact on other ethnic groups and especially upon white academia. BAM was the root cause of American academia deciding to include non-white radical literature in its curriculum. Of course the effort was Miller Lite in the form of Black Studies and other ethnic and gender studies. BAM must now pass the baton to the next generation, i.e., the Black Power Babies and the Hip Hop generation, especially the conscious hip hop people.

We congratulate sister Kim McMillan and especially the University of California, Merced for deciding to produce this conference. We are already talking about a national tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of BAM.
--Marvin X, co-producer