The Honorable Ras Baraka, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
The Oakland Post Newspaper Group is honored to send Marvin X to cover this event for the Bay Area of Oakland/San Francisco
art by Emory, BPP
What I know about Ras Baraka
Marvin X
Let me start with his parents, Amina and Amiri, my friends of 47 years. I had met LeRoi Jones a couple of years before, but I met the couple in 1967, when they visited the Black House that Eldridge Cleaver and I cofounded in San Francisco, a political cultural center that housed the Black Arts Movement and eventually the Black Panther Party, 1967, San Francisco CA.
Ras is the first mayor of Newark with a truly revolutionary and radical consciousness, it is in his DNA, few other children in the Black Liberation Movement/Black Arts Movement had the opportunity to enjoy and love the masses as he has done through socialization in da hood. How many children had Martin Luther King, Jr. knock on their door?
I can say I have observed Ras in the political atmosphere of the Baraka world. But knowing the process, now we have the product, a man able to lead and be led, especially by his people. Listen to the people--there is only One Mind, truthful and beautiful. Ras is an achiever in the highest order of the Hip Hop generation. He is the Good Child, who ultimately does the right things, often shocking his parents that he had such intentions. We recall the first time he ran for Mayor, he didn't tell his parents he was running. The next time he was wise enough to involve them.
Wait a minute, Ras is the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Basta ya! No, let me continue with the story of a Black Power Movement baby. His brother and chief of staff, Amiri Baraka, Jr., says, "We grew up in a political atmosphere, you can't imagine who came to our house, including Martin Luther King, Jr. "
Ras attended Howard University and served as student body president, if I am correct. My daughter Muhammida befriended him, his brothers and other members of the hip hop generation at Howard.
Ras absorbed the radical tradition of his parents whose organization put the first Black mayor Ken Gibson in office. AB told Marvin X Gibson sold out before inauguration day. And all the black mayors since Gibson have been indicted or found guilty of corruption. Cory Booker escaped total corruption by winning a Senate seat, Ras took advantage of the vacuum, although he had run for mayor earlier.
Finally, with family and community support, he won, along with his slate of city council members. We have high expectations that Ras will be a man of the people--it's in his blood. We have complete confidence he will do the right things for the people of Newark, desperately in need of liberation from years of neocolonialism in black face.
His mother Amina said, "If we can keep members of his slate from turning, Ras will be successful and his administration a model of people's power!"
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
WEST COAST/EAST COAST: ONE LOVE!
Paul Cobb, Publisher of the Oakland Post Newspaper Group, assigned Marvin X to cover the inauguration of Ras Baraka (son of Amiri and Amina Baraka) as Mayor of Newark, New Jersey.
photo Walter Riley, Esq.
Poets dance the Last Dance: Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou (RIP)
We love you Amiri and Maya!
Amiri Baraka, aka LeRoi Jones, on the set of his play The Toilet. See Marvin X's essay Inside Baraka's Toilet: A Love Letter to Gay and Lesbian Youth. Mrs. Amina Baraka said, "We thought Marvin X was crazy, but not after I read his essay Inside Baraka's Toilet." Mrs. Baraka told Marvin, "After I read it, I gave it to Dr. Eleanor Traynor, she read it and said Hallelujah!"
Ras Baraka is carrying on his father's political tradition, Marvin X is carrying on AB's artistic tradition of the Black Arts Movement. He read Amiri Baraka's poem DOPE at the Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, May 17, 2014, Oakland, with longtime Baraka associate musician David Murray and the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra, now booking for a 27 city tour, long suggested by BAM godfather Amiri Baraka.
We are in the planning stages of a Bay Area salute to the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, founded by Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Marvin X, Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Last Poets, Sun Ra, Haki Madhubuti, Carolyn Rogers, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Woody King, Larry Neal, Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Chicago Art Ensemble, Gwen Brooks, Sarah Webster Fabio, Avotchja, Emory Douglas, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Jimmy Garrett, Danny Glover, Judy Juanita, Eleandor Barnes, etc .
The problem with you is that you don't know thew problem!--AB
Marvin, why didn't you help me?
AB, I did all I could do. I will continue, my brother! You called for a 27 city tour. I am going to do the 27 City Tour of the Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra--in honor of you, AB!
Amiri Baraka gave former Mayor Corey Booker and the entire Newark City Council, a copy of Marvin X's How to Recover from the Addiction of White Supremacy. We doubt Cory or the council members read it. They probably suffer denial and need to detox, then enter long term recovery. With a majority on the city council, Ras may be able to do implement a positive agenda as per education, jobs, housing, anti violence and economic development.
Is that Ras Baraka in his mother's arms? We think so!