Marvin X rocks University of California, Black Arts Movement Conference

Marvin X told the audience at the BAM reception to lighten up on conference planner Kim McMillan.  He first declared BAM is a revolutionary movement and must be seen in this light, not as some art for art sake or Negro Renaissance that patronized white people. He thanked UC Merced for having the nerve to bring a group of uppity Blacks to the little country town of Merced. This was a bold move on their part and we congratulate them but they put too much pressure on Kim. He told how other sisters were destroyed by the hostile environment of the UC system, including, e.g., UC professors VeVe Clark, Barbara Christian, June Jordan and Sherley Ann Williams, all deceased. So don't mess with Kim, he told the mostly white audience. Don't make me bring the BAM army back to UC Merced.
While in Harlem for a reception in his honor, Marvin X told the folks that UC was stressing out Kim. We got Kim on the phone and a brother told her to stand tall because she was standing on the shoulders of the ancestors. The BAM conference begins at 9am on Saturday and runs through Sunday afternoon.