Marvin X: A Critical Look
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marvin x, at oscar grant/frank ogawa plaza, oakland
photo pendarvis harshaw
photo pendarvis harshaw
Edited by Nefertiti Jackmon
Dedication
My life and death are all for Allah. I believe in the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I believe in the teachings of Jelaluddin Balkhi, better known as Rumi. I believe in the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyadeen. Gain a knowledge of my teachers and you will understand me. If you reject my teachers, there is no need to proceed further.
preface
Bismillah-r-Rahman-r-Rahim
If it is true that I am the father of modern Islamic literature in America, as Dr. Mohja Kahf proclaims, I would like to delineate my lineage. As a spiritual descendant of West African Muslims, I begin my literary biography in the Mali Empire, among those scholar/poet/social activists of Timbuktu: Ahmed Baba, Muhammad El-Mrili, Ahmed Ibn Said, Muhammad Al Wangari, and the later Sufi poet/warriors of Senegal and Hausaland, Ahmedu Bamba and Uthman dan Fodio.
In America, this literary tradition continued under the wretched conditions of slavery with the English/Arabic narratives of Ayub Suleimon Diallo, Ibrahima Abdulrahman Jallo, Bilali Mohammad, Salih Bilali, Umar Ibn Said and others who told how they got ovah, how they survived the worst terrorist regime in the history of mankind. Their narratives are thus the origin of Muslim literature in America, an integral part of the beginning of American and African American literature in general. There is some suspicion that David Walker, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington and Benjamin Baneker may have also been descendants of Muslims.
If it is true that I am the father of modern Islamic literature in America, as Dr. Mohja Kahf proclaims, I would like to delineate my lineage. As a spiritual descendant of West African Muslims, I begin my literary biography in the Mali Empire, among those scholar/poet/social activists of Timbuktu: Ahmed Baba, Muhammad El-Mrili, Ahmed Ibn Said, Muhammad Al Wangari, and the later Sufi poet/warriors of Senegal and Hausaland, Ahmedu Bamba and Uthman dan Fodio.
In America, this literary tradition continued under the wretched conditions of slavery with the English/Arabic narratives of Ayub Suleimon Diallo, Ibrahima Abdulrahman Jallo, Bilali Mohammad, Salih Bilali, Umar Ibn Said and others who told how they got ovah, how they survived the worst terrorist regime in the history of mankind. Their narratives are thus the origin of Muslim literature in America, an integral part of the beginning of American and African American literature in general. There is some suspicion that David Walker, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington and Benjamin Baneker may have also been descendants of Muslims.
Certainly they share the Islamic spirit of creative resistance (any means necessary), and we must acknowledge this spirit in the Islamic and Pan African writings of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the greatest African intellectual of the late 19th century. See his Islam, Christianity and the Negro Race, 1887. While Marcus Garvey was in London,1912, being taught One God, One Aim, One Destiny, African For the Africans, Those At Home and Those Abroad, by his Egyptian Muslim mentor Duse Muhammad Ali, Noble Drew Ali,1913, established his Moorish Science Temple in Newark, New Jersey, later Chicago, and created his Seven Circle Koran, a synthesis of Qur'anic, Masonic, mystical and esoteric writings.
And most importantly, Master Fard Muhammad arrived in Detroit, 1930, to deliver his Supreme Wisdom, mythological Sufi teachings, to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, later summarized in Elijah's primers of mystical Islamic theology and black nationalism, Message To The Black Man and The Theology of Time.
The next major work is Malcolm X's Autobiography , with the assistance of Alex Haley. This neo-slave narrative bridged ancient and modern Islamic literature in America. Let us also include Louis Farakhan's off Broadway drama Organa and his classic song A White Man's Heaven is The Black Man's Hell, anthem of the Black revolution of the 60s. Amiri Baraka utilized the Muslim myth of Yacub in his play A Black Mass, one of his most powerful works, an examination of the cloning of the white man, not such a fantastic idea today since the white man has begun cloning himself.
The next major work is Malcolm X's Autobiography , with the assistance of Alex Haley. This neo-slave narrative bridged ancient and modern Islamic literature in America. Let us also include Louis Farakhan's off Broadway drama Organa and his classic song A White Man's Heaven is The Black Man's Hell, anthem of the Black revolution of the 60s. Amiri Baraka utilized the Muslim myth of Yacub in his play A Black Mass, one of his most powerful works, an examination of the cloning of the white man, not such a fantastic idea today since the white man has begun cloning himself.
Askia Muhammad Toure must be credited for his Islamic writings, along with poetess Sonia Sanchez (Laila Mannan) who served a brief tenure in the Nation of Islam. Yusef Rahman and Yusef Iman created powerful Islamic poetry as well.
Now we may safely proceed into an examination of "Marvin's World." Enter at your own risk.
The following articles, essays, reviews and interviews give a good summary of Marvin X, aka El Muhajir, Nazzam Al Fitnah, Nazzam Al Sudan, Maalik El Muhajir, Marvin Ellis Jackmon.
Kalamu ya Salaam called me the sledgehammer. Sister poet MC Melody said I am the human earthquake. Suzzette Celeste said I am a tsunami, but I am that I am, so let the critics have their say, after all, they may know more about me than I do. What do I know about myself? I'm just now figuring out who I am.
As-Salaam-Alaikum
El Muhajir (Marvin X)
"O Men, listen to the wise," the poet pleads:
Other people don't get off so easy, including a certain "black joint chief of staff ass nigguh (kill 200,000 Muslims in Iraq)" in the sharply aimed poem "Free Me from My Freedom." (Mmm hmm, the 'n' word is all over the place in Marvin too.) Nature poem, wedding poem, depression poem, wake-up call poems, it's all here. Haiti, Rwanda, the Million Man March, Betsy Ross's maid, OJ, Rabin, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other topics make it into this prophetically voiced collection of dissent poetry, so Islamic and so African American in its language and its themes, a book that will stand in its beauty long after the people mentioned in it pass. READ MARVIN X for RAMADAN!
ContentsNow we may safely proceed into an examination of "Marvin's World." Enter at your own risk.
The following articles, essays, reviews and interviews give a good summary of Marvin X, aka El Muhajir, Nazzam Al Fitnah, Nazzam Al Sudan, Maalik El Muhajir, Marvin Ellis Jackmon.
Kalamu ya Salaam called me the sledgehammer. Sister poet MC Melody said I am the human earthquake. Suzzette Celeste said I am a tsunami, but I am that I am, so let the critics have their say, after all, they may know more about me than I do. What do I know about myself? I'm just now figuring out who I am.
As-Salaam-Alaikum
El Muhajir (Marvin X)
Foreword
Dr. Mohja Kahf
Marvin X: First Muslim American Poet
Have spent the last few days (when not mourning with friends and family the passing of my family friend and mentor in Muslim feminism and Islamic work, Sharifa AlKhateeb, (may she dwell in Rahma), immersed in the work of Marvin X and amazed at his brilliance. This poet has been prolific since his first book of poems, Fly to Allah, (1969), right up to his most recent Love and War Poems (1995) and Land of My Daughters, 2005, not to mention his plays, which were produced (without royalties) in Black community theatres from the 1960s to the present, and essay collections such as In the Crazy House Called America, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, 2005.
Marvin X was a prime shaper of the Black Arts Movement (1964-1970s) which is, among other things, the birthplace of modern Muslim American literature, and it begins with him. Well, Malik Shabazz and him. But while the Autobiography of Malcolm X is a touchstone of Muslim American culture, Marvin X and other Muslims in BAM were the emergence of a cultural expression of Black Power and Muslim thought inspired by Malcolm, who was, of course, ignited by the teachings and writings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that, taken all together, is what I see as the starting point of Muslim American literature. Then there are others, immigrant Muslims and white American Muslims and so forth, that follow.
There are also antecedents, such as the letters of Africans enslaved in America. Maybe there is writing by Muslims in the Spanish and Portuguese era or earlier, but that requires archival research of a sort I am not going to be able to do. My interest is contemporary literature, and by literature I am more interested in poetry and fiction than memoir and non-fiction, although that is a flexible thing.
I argue that it is time to call Muslim American literature a field, even though many of these writings can be and have been classified in other ways—studied under African American literature or to take the writings of immigrant Muslims, studied under South Asian ethnic literature or Arab American literature.
With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing about him—I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and graduate school—why is attention not given to his work in the same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his incredibly rich body of work.
He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is still kickin, still true to the word!
Love and War Poems is wrenching and powerful, combining a powerful critique of America ("America downsizes like a cripple whore/won't retire/too greedy to sleep/too fat to rest") but also a critique of deadbeat dads and drug addicts (not sparing himself) and men who hate. "For the Men" is so Quranic poem it gave me chills with verses such as:
Have spent the last few days (when not mourning with friends and family the passing of my family friend and mentor in Muslim feminism and Islamic work, Sharifa AlKhateeb, (may she dwell in Rahma), immersed in the work of Marvin X and amazed at his brilliance. This poet has been prolific since his first book of poems, Fly to Allah, (1969), right up to his most recent Love and War Poems (1995) and Land of My Daughters, 2005, not to mention his plays, which were produced (without royalties) in Black community theatres from the 1960s to the present, and essay collections such as In the Crazy House Called America, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, 2005.
Marvin X was a prime shaper of the Black Arts Movement (1964-1970s) which is, among other things, the birthplace of modern Muslim American literature, and it begins with him. Well, Malik Shabazz and him. But while the Autobiography of Malcolm X is a touchstone of Muslim American culture, Marvin X and other Muslims in BAM were the emergence of a cultural expression of Black Power and Muslim thought inspired by Malcolm, who was, of course, ignited by the teachings and writings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that, taken all together, is what I see as the starting point of Muslim American literature. Then there are others, immigrant Muslims and white American Muslims and so forth, that follow.
There are also antecedents, such as the letters of Africans enslaved in America. Maybe there is writing by Muslims in the Spanish and Portuguese era or earlier, but that requires archival research of a sort I am not going to be able to do. My interest is contemporary literature, and by literature I am more interested in poetry and fiction than memoir and non-fiction, although that is a flexible thing.
I argue that it is time to call Muslim American literature a field, even though many of these writings can be and have been classified in other ways—studied under African American literature or to take the writings of immigrant Muslims, studied under South Asian ethnic literature or Arab American literature.
With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing about him—I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and graduate school—why is attention not given to his work in the same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim American literature as a field of study is valuable because recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his incredibly rich body of work.
He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is still kickin, still true to the word!
Love and War Poems is wrenching and powerful, combining a powerful critique of America ("America downsizes like a cripple whore/won't retire/too greedy to sleep/too fat to rest") but also a critique of deadbeat dads and drug addicts (not sparing himself) and men who hate. "For the Men" is so Quranic poem it gave me chills with verses such as:
| for the men who honor wives and the men who abuse them for the men who win and the men who sin for the men who love God and the men who hate for the men who are brothers and the men who are beasts |
"O Men, listen to the wise," the poet pleads:
| there is no escape for the men of this world or the men of the next |
He is sexist as all get out, in the way that is common for men of his generation and his radicalism, but he is refreshingly aware of that and working on it. It's just that the work isn't done and if that offends you to see a man in process and still using the 'b' word, look out. Speaking of the easily offended, he warns in his introduction that "life is often profane and obscene, such as the present condition of African American people." If you want pure and holy, he says, read the Quran and the Bible, because Marvin is talking about "the low down dirty truth." For all that, the poetry of Marvin X is like prayer, beauty-full of reverence and honor for Truth. "It is. it is. it is."
A poem to his daughter Muhammida is a sweet mix of parental love and pride and fatherly freak-out at her sexuality and independence, ending humbly with:
A poem to his daughter Muhammida is a sweet mix of parental love and pride and fatherly freak-out at her sexuality and independence, ending humbly with:
| peace Mu it's on you yo world sister-girl |
Other people don't get off so easy, including a certain "black joint chief of staff ass nigguh (kill 200,000 Muslims in Iraq)" in the sharply aimed poem "Free Me from My Freedom." (Mmm hmm, the 'n' word is all over the place in Marvin too.) Nature poem, wedding poem, depression poem, wake-up call poems, it's all here. Haiti, Rwanda, the Million Man March, Betsy Ross's maid, OJ, Rabin, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other topics make it into this prophetically voiced collection of dissent poetry, so Islamic and so African American in its language and its themes, a book that will stand in its beauty long after the people mentioned in it pass. READ MARVIN X for RAMADAN!
Mohja Kahf / Associate Professor / Dept. of English & Middle East & Islamic Studies, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
Chapter One: A Literary Biography Lorenzo Thomas, Close Up and Personal Michael E. Idland, A Voice That Must Be Heard Lee Hubbard, Unplugged Chapter Two: Autobiography, Somethin Proper, 1998 Dr. Nathan Hare, introduction to Somethin Proper Dr. Julius E. Thompson, A Most Significant Work Fahizah Alim, A Proper Response James G. Spady, Making An Inventory and Constructing Self Reginal Major, Trampling His Soul Dingane (Joe Goncalves), Journey of A Restless Mind Dr. James Smethurst, Marvin X and the Black Arts Movement Chapter Three: Drama, 1965-- Michael E. Idland, Major Works and Themes Steven Winn, 'Day' A Searing Account of Addiction Dr. Nathan Hare, Letter to Marvin X Dennis Leroy Moore, Parable of the Man Who Was Crucified Lil Joe, Sexual Repression in Sergeant Santa Chapter Four: Essays, in the Crazy House Called America, 2002 James W. Sweeney, foreword Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA, introduction Dr. Nathan Hare, In the Crazy House of the Negro Dr. Nathan Hare, Letter to Marvin X Junious Ricardo Stanton, A Healing Peek Into His Psyche La Vonda R. Staples and Brenda A. Sutton, A Yoruba Chief Holds Court Lil Joe, Like Malcolm X, Marvin X Is A Revolutionary Muslim John Woodford, Bittersweet Fruits of Wisdom Aeeshah and Kokomon Clottey, The Quality of Heart Brecht Forum, Existential Musing Chapter Five: Poetry, Fly To Allah, 1969, Love and War, 1995 and Land of My Daughters, 2005 Johari Amini (Jewel C. Latimore), Fly To Allah Dr. Mohja Kahf, Love and War Rudolph Lewis, Using the Past Rather Than Glorifying Ishmael Reed, Overcoming With Faith and Will Chapter Six: Essays, Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, 2005 Rudolph Lewis, Discourse by Exaggeration and Humor Lil Joe, The Evolution of Consciousness Dr. Nathan Hare, He's Really That Good Pam Pam, Wish I, interview Terry Collins, Wish I, interview Chronology of Marvin X (El Muhajir ) 1944 Born May 29, Fowler, CA to Owendell and Marian M. Jackmon, second child. Sits atop desk as father and mother publishes Fresno Voice, the Central Valley’s first black newspaper. Father was a Race man who served in WWI. He introduced Christian Science to wife who becomes a lifelong follower of Mary Baker Eddy. Mr. Jackmon remained a Methodist. Marvin attended Lincoln and Columbia elementary schools in Fresno. In Oakland where the family moved, he attended Prescott, McFeely and St. Patrick elementary schools, also Lowell Jr. High. Wrote in the children’s section of the Oakland Tribune. 1962 Graduated with honors from Edison High School in Fresno. Classmate and girlfriend was poet/critic/professor Sherely A. Williams (now deceased). Marries Pat Smith, Catholic school girl, first son born, Marvin K. Attends Merritt College in Oakland where he meets Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Ken Freeman and Ernie Allen. Introduced to Black Nationalism. Wins short story contest in college magazine, story published in SoulBook, revolutionary nationalist publication. 1964 Second son born, Darrel, now deceased. Graduates with AA in sociology. Attends San Francisco State College. 1965 At the request of novelist John Gardner, San Francisco State College drama department produced first play, Flowers for the Trashman. Called the best playwright to hit SF State by Kenneth Rexroth. Worked as TA for novelist Leo Litwak. 1966 Writings begin to appear in Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Negro Digest (Black World), Black Scholar, Journal of Black Poetry, Black Theatre, and Muhammad Speaks. Black Dialogue staff visits Eldridge Cleaver and Bunchy Carter in Soledad prison. Marvin is present. Black Dialogue publishes Cleaver’s essay, “My Queen, I Greet You,” later it appears in Soul On Ice. Co-founds Black Arts West Theatre with Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt, Duncan Barber, Hillery Broadus and Carl Boissiere. 1967 Co-founds Black House political/cultural center in San Francisco with Eldridge Cleaver, Ed Bullins and Ethna Wyatt. Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez,Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Chicago Art Ensemble, Avotja, Reginald Lockett, Emory Douglass, Samuel Napier, Lil Bobby Hutton, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, attend Black House. Black Panthers plan invasion of state capital at Black House. Marvin joins Nation of Islam, flees to Toronto, Canada to protest draft and resist Vietnam War. 1968 Goes underground to Chicago shortly before assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lived on Southside during riots. Meets Don L. Lee, Gwen Brooks, Hoyt Fuller, Phil Choran, Carolyn Rogers, Johari Amini and others of Chicago BAM (Black Arts Movement. In Harlem joins Ed Bullins at the New Lafayette Theatre. Works as associate editor of Black Theatre magazine. Associates with Amiri Baraka, Askia Toure, Sun Ra, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Last Poets, Barbara Ann Teer, Milford Graves. Publishes Fly to Allah, poems that later establish him as the father of Muslim American literature, according to Dr. Mojah Kahf of the University of Arkansas department of English and Islamic Studies. 1969 Apprehended returned from Montreal, Canada, charged with draft evasion. Defended by Conrad Lynn. Returns to California to stand trial and teach at Fresno State University until removed at the insistence of Governor Ronald Reagan, “by any means necessary.” Angela Davis is also removed from teaching at UCLA. Student protesters burn computer center at Fresno State. Students from throughout California attend draft trial in San Francisco. 1970 Convicted, flees into exile a second time, this time to Mexico City and Belize. Marries Barbara Hall, a student from Fresno State College, in Mexico City. Revolutionary artists Elizabeth Catlett Mora and Poncho Mora witness civil ceremony. Deported from Belize because his presence was not beneficial to the welfare of the colony of British Honduras. While in custody, police ask him to teach them about black power. Sentenced to five months in Federal prison, Terminal Islam. Serves as Muslim minister. 1971 First daughter born, Nefertiti. Founds Black Educational Theatre in Fresno. Performs musical version of Flowers as Take Care of Business. Reactionary negroes kill choir director in theatre, put hit out on poet. He flees to San Francisco, opens Black Educational Theatre in Fillmore District, joined by Sun Ra’s Arkestra. Produced five hour musical version of Take Care of Business, with cast of fifty at Harding Theatre on Divisadero, choreography by Raymond Sawyer and Ellendar Barnes. 1972 Produced Resurrection of the Dead, a myth/ritual dance drama with Plunky, Babatunde Lea, Victor Willis as lead singer (Village People), dancers included Raymond Sawyer, Jamilah Hunter, Nisa Ra, Thomas Duckett. Lectures at University of California, Berkeley in Black Studies. Marries UCB student, Nisa (Greta Pope), second daughter born, Muhammida El Muhajir. Awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Travels to southern Mexico, Oxaca, Trinidad and Guyana. Interviews prime minister Forbes Burnham. Interview appeared in Black Scholar. Published Woman—Man’s Best Friend, poems, proverbs, lyrics, parables, Al Kitab Sudan Press. 1973 Third daughter, Amira Sauda, born to Barbara (Hasani). Returns to San Francisco State University, awarded BA. Earns MA in one semester, English/Creative writing. Teaches at SF State, black literature, journalism, radio and television writing. 1975 Lectures at Mills College, Oakland. Produced musical version of Woman—Man’s Best Friend. Upward Bound program pressured director Connie Wye to halt production. She refused, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and expired. 1976 Organizes Eldridge Cleaver Crusades. Hires staff of Black Muslims for Cleaver’s ministry. Meets Donald Rumsfeld, Charles Colson, Jim and Tammy Baker, Rev. Robert Schuller. Deals with Rev. Billy Graham, Rev. Falwell, Pat Roberson, Cal Thomas, Pat Boone, Hal Linsey, Art DeMoss. 1978 Returns to Fresno. Falls in love with Sharon Johnson, childhood friend. See autobiography Somethin Proper. 1979 Lectures at University of Nevada, Reno. Awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities planning grants. Produced Excellence in Education Conference. Participants included Eldridge Cleaver, Dr. Harry Edwards, Dr. Wade Nobles, Fahizah Alim, Sherley A. Williams, Ntizi Cayou, Dr. Ahimsa Sumchi. Publishes Selected Poems. Returns to Oakland to organize Melvin Black Human Rights Conference at Oakland Auditorium to stop police killing of black men. Participants included Minister Farakhan, Angela Davis, Paul Cobb, Eldridge Cleaver, Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour, Dr. Yusef Bey, Dezzie Woods-Jones. Police killings stop but drive by shootings begin along with introduction of Crack. 1980 Produced National Conference of Black Men at Oakland auditorium. Participants included Dr. Yusef Bey, Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Wade Nobles, Dr. Oba T’shaka, Dr. Lige Dailey, John Douimbia (founder), Betty King, Dezzie Woods-Jones. 1981 Taught drama at Laney College. Did production of In the Name of Love. Taught manhood training at Merritt College. 1982 Taught English at Kings River Community College, Reedly CA. Retires from Teaching with 97% student retention rate. Meets Marsha Satterfiend. 1983 Vends on streets of San Francisco, organizers vendors (mostly white) under his non-profit corporation. Harassed under color of law, “too much power for a nigguh” in downtown San Francisco, especially in the Union Square shopping area. 1984 Vends political buttons at Democratic and Republican conventions. San Francisco Chronicle called him the “Button King.” In Dallas, the Republicans observed his salesmanship and said, “If he makes one more dollar, he’ll be a Republican.” Descends into the muck and mire of hell: Crack drives him into the mental hospital several times. 1989 Writes article on Huey Newton, based on last meeting in Oakland Crack house. Article becomes source of Ed Bullins’ play, Salaam, Huey, Salaam. Article is beginning of autobiography, Somethin’ Proper. 1990 Begins recovery at San Francisco’s Glide Church with Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani. Transcribes testimonies of Crack addicts. Writes docudrama of his addiction and recovery One Day In The Life. 1995 Transition of Marsha Satterfield at 41 years old, cancer. Poet flees to Seattle, WA. Works on autobiography. Publishes Love and War, poems. 1996 Produces One Day In The Life with Majeeda Rahman’s Healthy Babies Project, a recovery program for woman and children. Play performed at Alice Arts Theatre. 1997 One Day In the Life opens at Sista’s Place in Brooklyn, New York, also Brecht Forum in Manhattan and Kimako’s Blues in Newark, New Jersey, home of the Barakas. 1997 Attends National Black Theatre festival, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Meets Carolyn Turner. She provides him with time and space to finish autobiography, plenty of sweet tea and dirty rice, in the tradition of the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. 1998 Transition of Eldridge Cleaver. Kathleen Cleaver approves poem “Soul Gone Home” to be read at funeral in Los Angeles. Marvin and Majeeda Rahman organize memorial service in Oakland. Participants included Emory Douglas, Tarika Lewis, Richard Aoki, Dr. Nathan Hare, Reginald Major, Dr. Yusef Bey, Minister Keith Muhammad, Imam Al Amin, Kathleen and Joju Cleaver. Publication of autobiography Somethin Proper. 1999 Establishes Recovery Theatre. Begins run of One Day in the Life. Gets support from Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco after Uhuru House performance. One Day becomes longest running black play in the Bay. Ishmael Reed says, “It’s the best drama I ever saw.” 2000 Meets Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA. 2001 Produces Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness at San Francisco State University. Participants included: Nathan and Julia Hare, Rev. Cecil Williams, Dr. Cornell West, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Ishamel Reed, Askia Toure, Avotja, Eddie Gale, Rudi Wongozi, Rev. Andriette Earl, Dr. Theophile Obenga, Elliott Bey, Destiny, Tarika Lewis, Phavia Kujichagulia, Suzzette Celeste, Tureeda, Geoffrey Grier, Rev. Otis Lloyd, Kalamu ya Salaam, Ptah Allah-El. Funded by Glide Church and Vanguard foundation. Video of Kings and Queens screened at New York International Independent film festival. In Newark on 9/11, stopped at airport by police. Daughter Muhammida’s documentary Hip Hop the New World Order, screened on 9/12. 2002 Transition of son Darrel at 38, suffered manic oppression. Publication of In the Crazy House Called America, essays. 2004 Produced San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair. Participants included Amiri and Amina Baraka, Nathan and Julia Hare, Al Young, Askia Toure, Kalamu ya Salaam, Ishamel Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Reginald Lockett, Charlie Walker, Jamie Walker, Davey D, Opal Palmer Adisa, Devorah Major, Fillmore Slim, Rosebud Bitterdose, Sam Hamod, Tarika Lewis. Published Land of My Daughters, poems, and Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, essays. Published issue of Black Bird Press Review newspaper. 2006 Writes Sweet Tea, Dirty Rice, poems; Up From Ignorance, essays; Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality, essays; Mama Said Use The Mind God Gave You, autobiographical novel. Archives go to Bay Area university. Transition of friends: Dr. Salat Townsend, Paul Shular, Alonzo Batin, Dewey Redman and Rufus Harley. Bibliography of Marvin X
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The Contributors
Dr. Mohja Kahf, professor of English and Islamic Literature, University of Arkansas. Her essay is revised (by ed.) from an earlier version that appeared online at Muslim Wake Up.Com. She is the senior editor of the forthcoming anthology Muslim American Literature, University of Arkansas Press. Marvin X is a co-editor. Her recent collection of poetry is E-Mails from Scheherazad, University Press of Florida.
Lorenzo Thomas, professor of English at the University of Houston, Texas, and author of Extraordinary Measures: Afrocentric Modernism and Twentieth-Century American Poetry, University of Alabama Press, 2000.
Michael Idland's essay is from African American Dramatists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.
Lee Hubbard is a Bay Area journalist, this interview appeared in the San Francisco Bayview newspaper.
Dr. Nathan Hare, sociologist/psychologist, is the father of black studies in America. He and his wife, Julia, are close associates, comrades and advisors to Marvin X. He is author of the classic sociological study The Black Anglo-Saxons. With wife Julia, he is co-author of The Endangered Black Familyand The Miseducation of the Black Child.
Fahizah Alim writes for the Sacramento Bee newspaper. Marvin X is her mentor. Her critical comments on Islam and male/female relations have been a source of inspiration to the poet.
La Vonda R. Staples is an online personality for newblackcity.com and creator of "Literally Speaking," an internet live book club.
James G. Spady's essay appeared in the Philadelphia New Observer. He is recipient of the American Book Award and the National Newspaper Association's Meritorious Award. His works have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals such as African Studies Review, International Journal of African Studies, College Language Association Journal, Black Scholar, Presence Africaine, Journal of African Civilizations and elsewhere.
Steven Winn is drama critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.
John Woodford is former editor-in-chief of Muhammad Speaks. He is currently editor of Michigan Today at the University of Michigan.
Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA is a social worker and spiritual practitioner at the East Bay Church of Religious Science. She also teaches counseling at Oakland's Merritt College.
James W. Sweeney is former director of the Oakland Independent Support Center, an outpatient center for the homeless and dual diagnosed. He is a former Berkeley City Councilman.
Aeesha and Kokoman Clotty are directors of Attitudinal Healing Center in Oakland and co-authors of Racial Healing.
Rudolph Lewis manages the African American literary website ChickenBones. He will soon publish "The Best of ChickenBones," and it is one of the best sites for African American literature on the internet. The best source for up-to-date writings by Marvin X, up-to-the-minute! Thanks Rudy for your hard work-a true trooper!
Ishamel Reed is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, editor and publisher. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, and for twenty years has been a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley. He is a supporter of Marvin X's many projects.
Lil Joe is Los Angeles community activist and revolutionary theoretician. He was among the group of revolutionary students from southern California who supported Marvin X when he fought to teach at Fresno State University but was removed by then Gov. Ronald Reagan, 1969. These students also supported his draft trial. They said, "We want Marvin X, not in Vietnam, not in jail, but on campus." Joe was also a member of the Black Panther Party. (Note: We love you Lil Joe for raising high the banner of revolution! As Mao taught, "The reactionaries will never put down their butcher knives, they will never turn into Buddha heads.")
Pam Pam is a community activist in San Francisco's dangerous Sunnydale district. She also produced, filmed and co-directed a film on Marvin X, Git Yo Mind Rite. She has a weekly program on San Francisco's KPOO radio.
Terry Collins, nephew of Malcolm X through his sister Ella Collins, is one of the founders and directors of KPOO radio. Terry was one of the revolutionary students at San Francisco State University, along with his roommate Danny Glover (who performed in Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre), fellow students Joe Rudolph (KPOO founder, peace be upon him) and Marvin X.
Dr. Julius E. Thompson's essay appeared in African American Review. He is a professor of African American Studies.
Reginald Major is author of The Panther Is A Black Cat, a study of the Black Panther Party. He writes for Pacifica News Service.
Dingane (Joe Goncalves) is founder and publisher of the 60s bible of poetry, the Journal of Black Poetry.
Dennis Leroy Moore is a New York filmmaker. His As An Act of Protest is an awarding winning film about the Neo-Black Arts Movement.
Junious Ricardo Stanton is a journalist who writes for newspapers nationwide, especially online journals such as The Black World Today.
Brecht Forum is a New York center for radical culture.
Johari Amini's (Jewel C. Latimore) review is from Negro Digest (Black World), 1969. Johari is one of the beautiful sister poets of the Chicago Black Arts Movement.
James Smethurst’s The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. He is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts.