Marvin X and Nisa Bey, aka Nisayah Yahudah, one of the Bay Area's most controversial women
James Sweeney says, "Marvin X walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out clean as white fish and black as coal." Marvin says the same can be said of Nisa Bey. We are survivors!
It has been seven years since Nisa Bey and Marvin X agreed to do her book project: Seven Years in the House of Elijah Muhammad. They ended the project when they could not come to a contractual agreement. Recently, they discussed the urgent need to finish the project. Marvin X says, "I don't like to start a project and not finish it." FYI, Nisa Bey, aka Nisa Islam, aka, Nisayah Yahudah, was a national sister captain in the Nation of Islam during the sixties. She was flamboyant and controversial in her role as trainer of women. Trained in the fashion world, Nisa convinced Elijah Muhammad to upgrade the uniforms of the women or M.G.T. She would become one of the wives of Oakland's Dr. Yusef Bey, owner of Your Black Muslim Bakery who made his transition before his legal problems could be adjudicated.
Nisa was privy to a conversation between Oakland Post Editor, Chauncey Bailey and Saleem Bey,
son-in-law of another Bey wife. Chauncey was assassinated by some of the sons of Dr. Bey (he had 43 children; the Oakland Police role in the murder of Chauncey has been underplayed).
The story of Nisa Bey is not an expose' but a story of a woman's rite of passage. Marvin X has agreed her narrative will be in the spirit of Betty Shabazz who said, "Find the good and praise it." FYI, some years ago, Nisa converted to Judaism. Her present name is Nisayah Yahudah.
SEVEN YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF ELIJAHA woman's search for Love and Spirituality
By Nisayah Yahudah: As told to Marvin X
Copyright © 2005 by Nisayah Yahudah and Marvin X
All Rights Reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: How I Came to Write This Book
*Chapter One: Growing Up in the Big "H"(Houston, Texas)
*Chapter Two: Summer in Galveston
*Chapter Three: Those Terrible Teen Years
*Chapter Four: New York, New York, Searching for God on Broadway
*Chapter Five: Was God My Black Shining Prince?
*Chapter Six: Miss Hollywood Rocks Mosque #26, San Francisco
*Chapter Seven: Off To Chicago for My "Execution"
*Chapter Eight: Life in the House of Elijah
*Chapter Nine: Table Talks With Elijah
*Chapter Ten: Elijah Cries for Malcolm
*Chapter Eleven: Night Talks With Sister Clara
*Chapter Twelve: Elijah's Last National Sister Captain
*Chapter Thirteen: Return to San Francisco Mosque #26 As Sister Captain: You
Are Properly Relieved of Your Post
*Chapter Fourteen: Ninety Days Out At the Messenger's Table
*Chapter Fifteen: My Prince Comes to Chicago
* Chapter Sixteen: Elijah's Transition: The Second Resurrection
*Chapter Seventeen: The Spiritual Journey Elijah Promised: Sufism, Judaism,
Ahmedism and Other Isms
*Chapter Eighteen : Passing of The Prince
*Chapter Nineteen: Return to the Compound: Healing and Reconciliation
*Chapter Twenty: Message to Girls and Women
Parable of why I talk with cows by Marvin X
This parable by Marvin X, describes a pause in one of the interview sessions he conducted with Nisa while he lived in the foothills of Northern California for five years, mostly in solitude. He wrote five books during this time. Over several days, he interviewed Nisa for her story.
Parable of Why I Talk With Cows
by
Marvin X
I talk with the cows because they listen, in fact, they stand at attention. Across the road from my writing retreat in the rolling hills of Cherokee, CA, about twenty miles from Chico, a few cows were standing around grazing on the grass as I returned from a short visit to the Feather River, down the road from where I live. I had taken a break from interviewing Sister Nisa Islam for her forthcoming book Seven Years in the House of Elijah, A Woman's Search for Love and Spirituality as told to Marvin X. The interview session was very intense, as if the ghost of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had entered the room, so we agreed to take a break, get some air. As we returned from Feather River, I stopped my car for a chat with the cows. Nisa will bear witness that at first there were only three or four cows but as I began to talk with them, suddenly the entire herd began to gather for my lecture, and as I said, they all stood at attention as I told them they should go eat their master before he eats them. They seemed to nod in agreement. Nisa was astonished at my conversation and the rapt attention of the entire herd as they listened to my every word. I said goodbye to the cows and entered the gate of my retreat.
Marvin X has been described variously:
The Sledgehammer--Kalamu Ya Salaam
The Human Earthquake--MC Melody
A Tsunami--Suzzette Celeste
Undisputed king of black consciousness--Dr. Nathan Hare
A killer-diller--Nisa Islam
He walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out clean as
white fish and black as coal--James W. Sweeney
Marvin X has always been in the forefront of Pan African writing. Indeed, he is one of the founders and innovators of the revolutionary school of African writing--Amiri Baraka
When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X. He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express black male urban experiences in a lyrical way--James G. Spady
Marvin's refreshing. He's a liberator. He has freed up contemporary black public speech--Rudy Lewis