Press Release: For Immediate Release
photo Kamau Amen Ra
1/9/2015photo Kamau Amen Ra
Contact Person:
Marvin X
510-200-4164
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Now available for interviews
The Black Arts Movement will celebrate its 50th Anniversary at Laney College on February 7th 2015.
On February 7th 2015, Laney College will host the 50th Anniversary of the Black Arts Movement. This event will begin at 10am until 10pm. Its focus will be the Bay Area’s contribution to the Black Arts Movement. BAM is often referred to as the sister of the Black Power Movement. BAM is also known as the most radical artistic and literary movement in American History. According to Ishmael Reed, "If not for the Black Arts Movement, African American culture would be extinct."
As a result of the Black Arts Movement, other ethnicities found their voices such as Asians, Native Americans and Latinos. It forced the inclusion of Afro American literature and other ethnic literature in American Academia.
BAM literature was often considered too radical for Academia and many of the BAM founders, poets, playwrights, essayists and others were purged from academia, especially from Black Studies programs. The radicals were replaced by more pliant Negroes or Continental and/or Caribbean Africans.
The Bay Area’s contribution included some of the primary BAM journals such as Soul Book, Black Dialogue, Journal of Black Poetry and the Black Scholar Magazine. The icons includ Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, The Last Poets, Haki Madhubuti, Askia Toure, Marvin X, Sarah Webster Fabio, Ed Bullins, Adam David Miller, Judy Juanita, Avotcja, Jose Goncalves, Elizabeth Catlette Mora and Emory Douglas.
Marvin X reads DOPE by Amiri Baraka, accompanied by David Murray and Earl Davis. Earl Davis performed in Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre on Fillmore Street, San Francisco, 1966
Empress Diamond, BAM Wellness Director, Mayor Libby Schaaf and Marvin X
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Working Program
10:00 AM--Black Arts Movement Physical Wellness Boot Camp, facilitated by Michael Bennett's Wellness Team from the YMCA, HP/Bayview
11:00AM-- Peer Group on Mental Wellness: How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy Group, facilitated by Dr. Nathan Hare and Suzzette Celeste, B.A., MPA, MSW
12 Noon--Book Fair--authors speak, music, Augusta Collins
2pm--Open Mike Poetry/Speak Out
2pm--BAM and Black Women Writers Panel; moderated by Elaine Brown; invited panelists: Judy Juanita, Avojtcha, Aries Jordan, Phavia Kujichagulia, Portia Anderson
4pm Black Arts Movement/Black Power Babies panel, moderated by Davey D; invited panelists: Phavia Kujichagulia and Taiwo; Dr. Ayodele Nzinga and Stanley; Terry Collins and Renya; Walter Riley and Boots Riley; Marvin X and Amira; Jerri Lange and Michael
6pm - RECEPTION IN THE ART GALLERY: EXHIBIT OF SAN QUENTIN PRISON ART and Bay Area Visual Artists; curated by Professor Leslee Stradford; invocation,Suzzette Celeste, Practitioner & Social Justice Activist; Welcome, Laney College President, Dr. Elnora T. Webb; proclamation of Black Arts Movement District, Libby Schaaf, Mayor of Oakland; Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney on the Black Arts Movement District; host, Paul Cobb, Publisher, Post News Group; music by Earl Davis, Fantastic Negrito
7pm Laney College Theatre: Marvin X's BAM classic play Flowers for the Trashman, introductory remarks by Dr. Nathan Hare, father of Black Studies, founding publisher of the Black Scholar Magazine
8pm Black Arts Movement Poet's Choir & Arkestra with special guests John Santos, Muziki Roberson and Phavia Kujichagulia.
BAM co-founders Marvin X and Sun Ra, both purged from teaching in Black Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
While students at San Francisco State College/now University, these men edited and/or contributed to Black Dialogue Magazine, Journal of Black Poetry, Soulbook and The Black Scholar Magazine: LtoR: Aubrey LaBrie, Marvin X, Abdul Sabrey, Al Young, Arthur Sheridan and Duke Williams.
Bay Area Black authors/activists celebrate the life of slain Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey. The pose in front of the Joyce Gordon Gallery at 14th and Franklin, part of the upcoming Black Arts Movement District.
photo Adam Turner/Gene Hazzard
The Black Arts Movement Arkestra and Poet's Choir performing at the Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival,
May 17, 2014, Oakland CA
photo collage Adam Turner