Draft Prologue to Marvin X Dramatic Work: 1619-2019 Celebration of Resistance
of Africans in the American Slave System
Somewhere down the line
fathers mothers went blind
somewhere down the line
kings queens lost crowns
sent us through the door of no return
we yearn we yearn
Oh, Africa
Motherland of forgotten dreams
on ships we came
to a land not totally new
except the chains whips
washing of brains
rice cotton sugarcane
can't see til can't see
between cross lynching tree
we listened to strange songs of liberty
but not for we
chained bound democracy
yearning through centuries
be free be free be free
children lifted to sky
New Year's Day auction
bye bye children parents lovers
bye bye
Where is the God of the Sky
Where is Mother Earth
is this our birth for eternity
wretchedness of labor in sun rain
oh the pain
dance the medication
thousand year old songs tunes
now called Blues
Why you treat me so mean lover man
why you treat me so mean master man
why you jealous of me master woman
cause me yellow uppity wench
keep your man out my hut
keep your man out my sweet stuff
enough enough enough
rain pain enough sun wind
enough of you in me
poison no love
poison toxic
rape lust rape my man too children
what devil you
who gave birth to such
what mother's touch
wasn't my mother's milk
mother's milk was love
take me to your mother's house
\
every African in American slave system
resist resist resist
uncle tom resist
house niggga field nigga resist
smash passivity servility
smile resist grin resist
shuffle resist
dance resist
teach children resist
Harriet said what?
"I could have freed more slaves
if they had known they were slaves!"
Let us fly to Maroon land
Be free in the joy of sun moon
Nat Turner help us stand
Denmark Vesey help us stand
Gabriel Prosser help us stand
John Brown give us a hand
resist we must resist
We dream beyond memory
back through the door of no return
imagine we survived the Middle Passage
Triangular trade
survived capitalism and slavery
Christianity and white supremacist democracy
Is Jesus God of the KKK
like Jesus we survived
cross lynching tree
survived Kunta to Toby
survived pyramids to projects
Askia Toure' say
survived civil war for African bodies souls
200,000 African warriors critical decisive in Civil War
only for the betrayal of Reconstruction
sham freedom
mockery
no acres no mules
sharecropping fools
yeah we free
kkk free
dred scott free
black codes free
lynching free
Ida B. Wells free
Booker T. free
WEB free
Garvey free
Elijah Malcolm Martin free
Queen Mother Moore free
Clara Muhammad free
Cora Scott free
Fannie Lou free
Rosa Parks free
Why her house moved to Germany
Would Jew send freedom house to Germany
we resist resist resist
Angela Davis Assata Shakur free
Mumia Abu Jamal free
Rochell McGee free
3 million Constitutional slaves must be free
general amnesty
no 13th Amendment slaves in land of the free
civil rights good
reparations better
self-determination better
sovereignty best
national liberation most high expression of free North American Africans
We are slaves of no man
equal of all
we resist
we resist
we resist
freedom or death!
--Marvin X
12/30/18
Three book trees felled
By Herb Boyd
Special to the AmNews
Harlem NY
With the calendar about to flip and a new year is dawning, it was time for some house cleaning, time to clear a veritable forest of book trees making the path to the computer all the more challenging. During a recent trip to Detroit I dropped by the Charles Wright Museum of African American History to chat with my friend Charles Ferrell, who produces some of the most enlightening political and cultural programs in the nation.
On tap that afternoon was the poet and activist Marvin X and he gifted me with his latest book Notes of an Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X (Black Bird Press, 2019). After his opening remarks in which he let the audience know that he was well aware of Detroit’s prominence in the Black liberation struggle, ticking off names such Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, the Bogges, General Baker, and Imari Obadele, he read one of his favorite pieces. It was compelling but my preference from a long list of essays was his review of the Black Panther film that still had traction.
“While the film is a political disaster by projecting African royalty with its tainted past and/or present, those enamored of African culture will enjoy a boost of cultural consciousness,” he observed. “We Africans are a beautiful people, a cultured people, a people of genius in science and technology. If Black Panther replaces sagging pants with dashikis, surely, the film must be applauded.
“If it forces women to throw off their wigs as the woman did in the film,” Marvin continued, “it must be applauded. The music, the chants, the communal dancing, the most colorful costumes and traditional ritual face makeup, should help Africanize a starving population of North American Africans. The technology seemed excessive although we need to see African people utilizing science, technology, artificial intelligence, time travel.”
This kind of balance pertains in the book, though the bulk of his analysis leans perceptibly to keeping the Black Arts Movement alive, and that makes sense for someone who was/is a vital component of its maintenance....
Now Available from Black Bird Press, Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X
San Francisco State University, Marvin X's alma mater. He was a founding member of the Black Students Union.
photo Davey D
Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X
Now Available
Order your copy from
Black Bird Press
requested donation
$29.95
call 510-575-7148
credit cards accepted
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Marvin X
Poet, playwright, essayist, educator, activist
speaking/reading
University of Chicago, 2015
photo Burrell Sunrise