For those of you who thought Marvin X was just a nigga on the corner, read up! But before you read, you need to know that because of his presence on that corner, the people told him he made a difference. And as a result, he can't go anywhere in Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco without people recognizing him. "Maybe I'm famous, but when people know you and you don't know them, it means you gotta be on the up and up because you don't know who's watching you. When I went to Santa Rita Jail for failure to show on traffic tickets, when I finally got to my cell called "The Hole" and occupied by senior citizens, one told me, "I know who you are. My wife and I used to pass your stand at 14th and Broadway. We agreed, "That nigga's books sho is high, $20.00!" My books are $19.95 or twenty dollars because during my Crack addiction I only did twenty dollar rocks, didn't have enough game to buy a quarter or eight ball. 2020 all night long. Til the 20s were gone. So as per all the 2020s I bought, $20.00 dollars for a book ain't shit. Imagine all the twenty dollars we spent that went into hot air, literally, because often the dope was fake Crack, i.e., nothing but hot air!
Who was that Nigga on the corner?
Yes, that nigga who just received a $100,000 grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to organize the Black Vendors Association of Oakland. Por favor, Marvin X has ben trying to get Black vendors on the streets of Oakland since the regime of Oakland's first Black Mayor, the Honorable Lionel Wilson. The proposal to teach entrepreneurship to "at risk youth" was diverted to fund entrepreneurial projects for black bourgeoisie youth. Alas, the "at risk youth" joined the line to the brotherhood of mass incarceration as devotees in the California Department of Corrections where they were told by a correctional officer (member of the most powerful union in the state), "Just keep coming back. I got me a yacht, now I want to get one for my son, so nigga keep coming back!"
Comments on the Personality known as Marvin X
Ishmael Reed, Author, Emeritus Professor at UC Berkeley, said, "His play One Day in the Life is the most powerful drama I've seen.... If you want to learn about motivation and inspiration, don't spend all that money going to workshops and seminars, just go stand at 14th and Broadway and watch Marvin X at work. He's Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland!" Dr. Cornel West of Harvard University said, "Marvin X is the African Socrates teaching in the hood!" Marvin's dear friend James W. Sweeney RIP, said, "He walked through the muck and mire of hell and came out clean as white fish and black as coal!"
James G. Spady, the great Black Arts Movement and Hip Hop critic said, "When you listen to Tupac Shakur, E-40, Too Short, Master P or any other rappers out of the Bay Area of Cali, think of Marvin X! He laid the foundation and gave us the language to express black male urban experiences in a lyrical way...."
As per example of Marvin X's Black Arts Movement linguistics, Hip Hop Chuck D and NWA said, "Fuck the police!" But in his classic poem (some say it is his greatest poem) on the 1965 Watt's rebellion, Burn Baby Burn, Marvin X said,
"Motherfuck the police
and Chief Parker's sister too
Burn Baby Burn....
Fineburgs Wineburgs
Safeway Noway
Burn Baby Burn
in time they will learn...."
(FYI, this is a total corruption of my poem by myself off the top of my head, see the original published in Soulbook Magazine)
Bob Holman of New York's Bowery Poetry Club told us, "Marvin X is the USA's Rumi...the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wisdom of Saadi...." Por favor, imagine how it feels for a black nigga poet to be named after the greatest poets in Sufi and Persian literature? I am overwhelmed but thankful I am critiqued in another literary paradigm that transcends the essential thematic narrative of North American African literature, i.e., how I got ovah, how I survived the American death blows!
Now Black Street Magazine
Black Street is the quarterly publication of the Black Vendors Association, Oakland CA. The BVA's purpose is to support, educate, train and advocate for Black Street Vendors. Black Street Magazine is our vehicle to communicate our mission to the community. BVA membership will be promoted and advertised at discount rates. Feature stories about BVA vendors will appear in each issue. Ad sales persons please contact us.
The first issue is planned for early September. Tentative contents include:
1. A message from BVA Founder Marvin X
2. Interview with James Copes on Vending at Lake Merritt
3.Photo essay of Lake Merritt vendors.
4.Deconstruction of SB946, State Law on Street Vendors
5 Update on the Black Arts Movement Business District
6. Survey, What are the needs and wants of Black Street Vendors?
7. BVA Calendar of Events
September
Street Vendors Townhall: What do Black Street Vendors want and need?
October
BVA Social
November
BVA Video Series on Vending and Entrepreneurship
December
Pan African Market Place
January
Membership Drive
For more information about the BVA or Black Street Magazine, call 510-575-7148 or email jmarvinx@yahoo.com
This project is partially supported by a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation