Chicago musician/scholar David Boykin invited Marvin X to participate in the Sun Ra Conference at the University of Chicago, May 22, 2015, Sun Ra's birthday, although he claimed infinity and eternity. David and Marvin X will perform together in honor of Sun Ra.
Marvin X says, "I will try to explain my relationship with Sun Ra. The only historic relationship I can think of is Shams and Rumi. As we know, their relationship was totally overwhelming to Rumi, but he submitted to his teacher Shams, discarding all his previous knowledge of theology and other matters. Shams told Rumi to discard his previous learning so he could be taught the mystical and metaphysical knowledge. In the manner of the humble student, he did so, but even then his mission did not begin until the death of his teacher by students of Rumi who were jealous and envious of the Shams/Rumi relationship.
Marvin X and Sun Ra's relationship was not so painful, but for sure Sun Ra altered Marvin X's morality and esthetics. Sun Ra questioned and challenged Marvin's Islamic morality. While working with Marvin at his Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco, 1972, and simultaneously working with Marvin in the Black Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley, he challenged Marvin's world view. When Marvin's Islamic morality caused him to alter the muscial version of Flowers for the Trashman, renamed Take Care of Business with music arranged by Sun Ra, Sun Ra burned him with these words of wisdom, "Marvin X, you so right you wrong! You took the low down dirty truth out of your play, trying to be so right you wrong. The people don't want the truth, they want the low down dirty truth. You had it but you took it out. Don't nobody want to hear the watered down truth, they want the low down dirty truth."
Sun Ra performed with Marvin's Black Educational Theatre, 1972, with his entire twenty piece band. As the Creator would have it, Marvin was able to house the entire band after John Handy declined.
Marvin X and Sun Ra's relationship was not so painful, but for sure Sun Ra altered Marvin X's morality and esthetics. Sun Ra questioned and challenged Marvin's Islamic morality. While working with Marvin at his Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco, 1972, and simultaneously working with Marvin in the Black Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley, he challenged Marvin's world view. When Marvin's Islamic morality caused him to alter the muscial version of Flowers for the Trashman, renamed Take Care of Business with music arranged by Sun Ra, Sun Ra burned him with these words of wisdom, "Marvin X, you so right you wrong! You took the low down dirty truth out of your play, trying to be so right you wrong. The people don't want the truth, they want the low down dirty truth. You had it but you took it out. Don't nobody want to hear the watered down truth, they want the low down dirty truth."
Sun Ra performed with Marvin's Black Educational Theatre, 1972, with his entire twenty piece band. As the Creator would have it, Marvin was able to house the entire band after John Handy declined.
When Shams was murdered, it was then that Rumi whirled and whirled in grief at that death of his teacher. Only then did he spit out the poetry as he grieved the lost of his teacher. Thus the beginning of the Sufi order of whirling dervishes known to the world today.
The poetry that emerged in the 14th century is still the most powerful poetry in the world, for sure the most popular poetry in America. Why? Because it is the poetry of love. Love of the Divine and the love of self as part of the Divine. I am in God and God is in me! This is the summary of Sufi love. It is the essence of Marvin X's love as poet and revolution ary.
So in the irony of ironies, Persian poet Rumi is the most popular and best selling poet in America, while America wants to bomb the hell out of Iran. Please explain how such action is more barbaric than the ISIS destruction of historic monuments in Iraq, Syria and wherever they are in control, including Timbuktu in ancient Mali.
Amiri Baraka said."Your poet and artists give you visions and prophesy. If you don't support your poets and artists, you shall get no visions nor prophesy. He said, further, don't have your visionaries and prophets performing in smoke filled rooms with cash registers clinging.
As per my mission, he called for a 27 city tour of the Black Arts Movement to spread revolutionary cultural consciousness in the Black Arts Movement tradition. In my old age, I am trying to carry out his message. I hear him every day saying, "Marvin, why didn't you do it?" I am not going to deny my ancestors as long as I have the energy, so I am about the BAM business, but this is a national project, not local or state wide. I am not motivated by money but by truth and beauty. Those who believe in truth and beauty, please come forward and let us continue our work until freedom is a reality.
Let the opportunists do their mission of taking advantage of the cultural revolution. But they need to study the 1960s, what happened to those opportunists who took advantage of the Black Arts Movement? Was the Black Arts Movement about money, tenured jobs, fame and fortune? The true troopers are still here fighting the fight til the fat lady sings. If you can help the true troopers, let us hear from you ASAP. Give a generous donation to the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour. Donate to the wish list and the dream of a Black Arts District in your city.
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So in the irony of ironies, Persian poet Rumi is the most popular and best selling poet in America, while America wants to bomb the hell out of Iran. Please explain how such action is more barbaric than the ISIS destruction of historic monuments in Iraq, Syria and wherever they are in control, including Timbuktu in ancient Mali.
Amiri Baraka said."Your poet and artists give you visions and prophesy. If you don't support your poets and artists, you shall get no visions nor prophesy. He said, further, don't have your visionaries and prophets performing in smoke filled rooms with cash registers clinging.
As per my mission, he called for a 27 city tour of the Black Arts Movement to spread revolutionary cultural consciousness in the Black Arts Movement tradition. In my old age, I am trying to carry out his message. I hear him every day saying, "Marvin, why didn't you do it?" I am not going to deny my ancestors as long as I have the energy, so I am about the BAM business, but this is a national project, not local or state wide. I am not motivated by money but by truth and beauty. Those who believe in truth and beauty, please come forward and let us continue our work until freedom is a reality.
Let the opportunists do their mission of taking advantage of the cultural revolution. But they need to study the 1960s, what happened to those opportunists who took advantage of the Black Arts Movement? Was the Black Arts Movement about money, tenured jobs, fame and fortune? The true troopers are still here fighting the fight til the fat lady sings. If you can help the true troopers, let us hear from you ASAP. Give a generous donation to the Black Arts Movement 27 City Tour. Donate to the wish list and the dream of a Black Arts District in your city.
Marvin X says, "On the 50th anniversary of the Black Arts Movement, sister of the Black Power/Black Student/Black Studies Movement, why don't one of you in the national black studies movement, hire Dr. Nathan Hare and his esteemed colleague Marvin X, M.A., as Visiting Professors in the Study of Social Movements, with a five-year contract. This would allow them to end their academic careers in professional dignity, especially since they are pioneers in multiple disciplines, including Social Movements, Black Arts Movement, Student Movements, Black Studies, Black Power Movement, etc.
FYI, the archives of Drs Nathan and Julia Hare, and Marvin X, M.A. are at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley CA.
On May 22, 2015, BAM poet/activist Marvin X will participate in a conference on BAM poet/bandleader, philosopher, mythologist Sun Ra at the University of Chicago. Marvin X is asking his Chicago friends and associates to host a reception/reading for him, if possible. Marvin X arrived in Chicago in 1968, when he departed Toronto, Canada as a resister to the Viet Nam war. Toronto radical DJ Norman Richmond was in exile with Marvin. Norman is still in Toronto.
After arriving in Chicago, via Detroit where the poet met historian Kofi Harun Wangara (Harold Lawerence) and poet Al Hamisi and other assoicated with Detroit's literacy scene, including publisher Dudley Randall who published X's Black Man Listen, poems and proverbs.
In Chicago, he hooked up with Don L. Lee (Haki Muhdubuti), Hoyt Fuller, Carolyn Rogers, Gwen Brooks, and others in OBAC. He also connected with the Phil Koran's AFro-Arts Theatre and the Chicago Art Ensemble that had performed at Marvin and Eldridge Cleaver's political/cultural center Black House, San Francisco, 1967.