No one can deny that Marvin X is accessible to the people, common people. Yet there are those who continue to ask him why is he selling his books on the corner, at the flea market and elsewhere. If he has written so many books, why is he down here in the ghetto with us? If truth be told, Marvin X is everywhere, on the street, in the club, at the festival, at the universities and colleges--he recently co-produced with Kim McMillan, The Black Arts Movement at the University of California, Merced. His central valley tour included Fresno City College and the Hinton Center on Fresno's West Side where he grew up with such people as Odell Johnson, President of Oakland's Laney College.
West Fresno icon Billy Hicks told people at the Hinton Center that Marvin was his neighbor in the projects while growing up. Billy Hicks has a recreation center named after him. But he remembered when Oakland's Merritt College basketball team, including Marvin X, came to Fresno City College. Billy said he was the only black on the team. Of course Merritt College beat FCC.
What If--Part Two
What if God is your liberator
not the crusher
lyncher
slaver for life
what if what if what if
What if your God frees you
no more slave
except to God
no slave to man
God hears you when you praise Him
Sami-allahu liman hamida
Rabbana laka al hamd
no deaf God here
making us weary in the bones in the winds
blues in the night
Where is the Blue Black God
Khrishna, Christ
Hail to the Blue Black God
Hari Christna Hari Christna
Hail to the Blue Black God
you Blues people
True to the Blue Black God.
Your God of Liberation
will lift you up
into the Upper Room
no more dungeon
no more hell
fly to the Upper Room
of your Father's House
no more stranger in strange land
no more
no more prayers to the God of the deaf, dumb and blind
Pray to the all seeing Eye
The eye you can't see
sees you
when you look at the monkey in the zoo
monkey looking back at you.
Pray to the Blue Black God
God of Revolution in the wilderness
God of David Walker
Denmark Vesey
Nat Turner
Grabriel Prosser
God of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells
God of Frederick Douglas, Booker T., W.E.B., Garvey,
Noble Drew Ali, Master Fard Muhammad, Elijah, Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Study the Cross and the Lynching Tree
Rev. Cone told Bill Moyers
Imagine what they thought about you
Mr. White Christian
Mr. Jew
Mr. Arab
Mr. African
The King sold the farmer to the ghost, Baraka said
The King sold the farmer to the ghost, Baraka said
In the Atlantic ocean is a railroad of human bones,
Baraka said
In the Atlantic ocean is a railroad of human bones,
Baraka said
praise his holy name
Griot of the griots
in the wilderness of North America
Is it difficult faya, he asked Hip Hop
is it difficult faya?
Let us hear conscious hip hop
conscious culture
no pants on behind
let's see the best of the hip hop mind!
don't show me yo behind
show me the best of yo mind!
Is it difficult faya, Baraka asked students
so flow wit da flow
the tide is turning
cause you are turning the tide
Look at the God in your life
the freedom God
God of Revolution
So pray to your Lord!
Fa salli li rabbika
Fa salli li rabbika.
--Marvin X
for Part One of What If, see Dr. M's How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, Berkeley CA.
photo by Marvin X
One of the most enduring couples in the Revolutionary 1960s
Other couples include Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, Amiri and Amina Baraka,
Nathan and Julia Hare
