University of Nevada, Reno, Professor. Dr Justin Gifford, conducted his second interview with poet-playwright Marvin X at his Academy of da Corner Lakeshore Dr, Oakland. Justin had a few final questions as he concludes research for a biography of Eldridge Cleaver, essayist and Black Panther Party Minister of Information. Marvin was the first person Cleaver hooked up with upon his release from Soledad Prison, 1967. They co-founded the Black House, a political and cultural center that became chief venue for the black cultural revolution in the Bay Area, visited by Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Apprentice Bunchy Carter, Sarah Webster Fabio, Chicago Art Ensemble, Reginald Lockett, Judy Juanita, et al. Playwright Ed Bullins and Marvin's partner from Black Arts West Theatre, Ethna Wyatt, aka, Hurriyah Assar, lived at Black House, along with Eldridge after he was forced to move there from the white house he shared with his white woman, Attorney Beverly Axelrod.
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In his research, Gifford discovered Cleaver lifted Charles Colson's conversion testimony for his own story of discovering Jesus Christ in the moon. Marvin informed the Black Studies professor that he transcribed Cleaver's "Moonshot" and Cleaver instructed him to entitle it The Golden Shower!
Dr. Gifford, author of books on Iceberg Slim, told Marvin, "You were with him at critical points in his life, so you are critical throughout my biography of Cleaver."
Marvin was shocked to learn from the professor that Eldridge Cleaver's son, Ahmed Maceo Eldridge Cleaver, joined the ancestors last October, leaving behind three wives and fourteen children.
Photos Adam Turner