The Best of Dr. Marvin

baithak: little mosque poems - mohja kahf

2009-12-16T02:40:00.000-08:00

baithak: little mosque poems - mohja kahf

2009-12-14T21:28:00.001-08:00

Foreword to How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy (Nathan Hare)
He’s the new Malcolm X! Nobody’s going to talk about his book, HOW TO RECOVER FROM THE ADDICTION TO WHITE SUPREMACY, out loud, but they’ll hush hush about it.—Jerri Lange, author, Jerri, A Black Woman’s Life in the Media
Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality, essays on consciousness
He is a Master Teacher in many fields of thought—religion and psychology, Sociology and anthropology, history and politics, literature and the humanities.
He is a needed Counselor, for he knows himself, on the deepest of personal levels and he reveals that self to us, that we might be his beneficiaries…. If you want to reshape (clean up, raise) your consciousness, this is a book to savor, to read again and again—to pass onto a friend or lover.
—Rudolph Lewis, Editor, ChickenBones: A Journal
Wish I Could Tell You The Truth, essays
….Malcolm X ain’t got nothing on Marvin X. Still Marvin has been ignored and silenced like Malcolm would be ignored and silenced if he had lived on into the Now.
Marvin’s one of the most extraordinary, exciting black intellectuals living today—writing, publishing, performing with Sun Ra’s Musicians (Live in Philly at Warm Daddies, available on DVD from BPP), reciting, filming, producing conferences (Kings and Queens of Black Consciousness, San Francisco Black Radical Book Fair); he’s ever engaging, challenging the respectable and the comfortable. He like Malcolm, dares to say things fearlessly, in the open (in earshot of the white man) that so many Negroes feel, think and speak on the corner, in the barbershops and urban streets of black America….
—Rudolph Lewis, Editor, ChickenBones: A Journal
In The Crazy House Called America, essays
…People who know Marvin X already know him as a peripatetic, outspoken, irreverent, poetic “crazy nigger,” whose pen is continually and forever out-of-control. As a professional psychologist, I hasten to invoke the disclaimer that that is in no way a diagnosis or clinical impression of mine. I have never actually subjected this brother to serious psychoanalytical scrutiny and have no wish to place him on the couch, if only because I know of no existing psycho-diagnostic instrumentality of pathology of normalcy that could properly evaluate Marvin completely.
—Dr. Nathan Hare, Black Think Tank, San Francisco
Land of My Daughters, poems
Marvin X has been a witness to history. He shows that an excellent minority writer can raise issues that the mainstream publishers and book reviewers find hard to grapple with…. He, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver and others were also casualties of the chemical attack on African Americans in the form of Crack and alcohol waged by corporations and a government that placed questionable foreign policy goals above the health of its citizens…. Many of those who inspired the cultural revolution of the 1960s remain stuck there. This volume shows that Marvin X has moved on.
—Ishmael Reed, novelist, poet, essayist, publisher, Oakland
Iraq…how did we get there and how do we get back? The consciousness-altering book of poems that tells the tale, in no uncertain terms and yet always via poetry, is the astonishing Land of My Daughters: Poems 1995-2005 by Marvin X. Marvin X is the USA’s Rumi, and his nation is not “where our fathers died” but where our daughters live. The death of patriarchal war culture is his everyday reality. X’s poems vibrate, whip, love in the most meta- and physical ways imaginable and un-. He’s got the humor of Pietri, the politics of Baraka, and the spiritual Muslim grounding that is totally new in English—the ecstasy of Hafiz, the wisdom of Saadi. It’s not unusual for him to have a sequence of shortish lines followed by a culminating line that stretches a quarter page—it is the dance of the dervishes, the rhythms of a Qasida.
—Bob Holman, Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

Mamadou Lumumba Memorial Service

2009-12-02T14:11:00.001-08:00

Mamadou Lumumba (Kenneth Freeman) Memorial

Mamadou Lumumba (Kenneth Freeman) was one of the premier neo-black intellectuals of the 1960s. He was the first black student to attend Bishop O Dowd high school. He graduated from University of San Francisco in 1960, with graduate studies at the University of Mexico. In Mexico he learned of the Cuban revolution and this expanded his radical conscious and social activism. When he returned to Oakland, he joined the group of young radicals at Merritt College, including Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Ernie Allen, Isaac Moore, Ann Williams, Marvin X and Carol Freeman, his wife. Mamadou became a member of Donald Warden's Afro American Association, a Black Nationalist organization. The AAA and the young radicals studied world revolution, including events in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and the Congo where the first elected prime minister was assassinated. Apparently his similarity to Congolese Patrice Lumumba, made him adopt the name. Mamadou became editor of Soulbook magazine, one of the most radical publications of the 60s, a publication of RAM or the Revolutionary Action Movement. He also organized the first Black Panther Party in the Bay.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, December 12, 2pm, at the Noodle Factory, 1255 26th Street at Union, Oakland. Call 510-355-6339 for more information

Excuse me, Mr. President

2009-12-01T19:38:00.001-08:00

Excuse me, Mr. President; the war in Afghanistan is not in the interests of the USA

There is nothing in Afghanistan that is vital to American interests unless those interests are heroin and oil pipelines around the Caspian Sea to escape Russian hegemony. Originally, the war in Afghanistan was to deny Al Quida a foothold and punish them for 9/11. The USA global bandits supplied and supported the Taliban as they ran the Russians out, but now they are fighting the Taliban to again deny Al Quida, although there is no Al Quida in Afghanistan. Thus, there is no need to have a surge of troops in Afghanistan. It is good for the militarist US economy, for the generals who run the corporations, the university/corporate e complex that benefits with contracts and related research.

The war in Iraq was a total failure simply because it was unnecessary to kill a million people over the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. But again, Iraq was for oil and to check Shia expansion for the reactionary Sunni regimes throughout the Middle East, namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Persian Gulf states--and of course to protect Israel.

Of course Obama is a politician looked toward the next elections so he must mollify the right wing militarists. He told you he would expand the war into Pakistan during his election campaign. At least he is true to his word. And so for political expediency he will expand the war in Afghanistan, then try to deescalate near election time.

He is not thinking of the American's who shall die and those sure to come home traumatized, suicidal and homicidal. He is allocating billions to buy off the Taliban's acts of violence, but here at home he does nothing to "buy off" those brothers and sisters terrorizing the hood with internecine violence, depriving the hood of any social security. How can the US pay the insurgents to stop violence yet allow brothers in the hood to wreak havoc throughout America with guns and drugs? Internal violence is the real threat to America’s interests and security. This is why the poet Amiri Baraka warns us, "In the end the Negro will be the terrorist." The violence in the hood would surely one day cross over to the white community. We see black men redirecting their guns against the police in Oakland and Washington State. If this trend continues, get ready for an escalation in the police/military occupation of the hood. As the depression continues and creates more joblessness, expect the prison population to increase leading to a further destabilization of the hood. As Dr. Cornel West says, we must protect and respect the President but we must also correct the President when he goes down the path of reaction by enacting policies against our national interests as North American Africans.

Meanwhile, North American Africans may be oblivious to the radicalization of Latin America, but how long can we maintain our reactionary support of the US when our friends, brothers and sisters throughout the Americas are charting their own agenda and it does not include the globalist free trade policies of the US and her allies. Where is the North American African leadership that is putting our agenda in harmony with the people of Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela? Shall North American Africans continue their addiction to white supremacy domination and exploitation? Or shall we unite with our brothers and sisters throughout the Americas and work toward an agenda in harmony with our national and regional interests?
Further, the so-called attempt to nation build in Afghanistan is legalizing the warlords to continue their traditional tribalism, not unify as a national state. The Pashtun, Tajik, Usbek and others have tribal interests rather than national interests. The loya jurga or meeting of the tribal elders would be the way to resolve matters among the people of Afghanistan, not by a military surge that will include more killing and destruction rather than reconstruction. If there is no Al Quida in Afghanistan, we need to get out now, but it shall not happen because white supremacy must prove its point, no matter that no armies have conquered this land, not the armies of Alexander the Great, the British, nor Russians. Obama now has his opportunity to defy history.

Politics, money, oil, dope. And India is the other key player in this madness. India is playing on Kabul to counter the Pakistan support of Taliban. As reactionary as the Taliban are, they stopped the poppies growing. Enter the US and the poppy fields are blooming with a resultant opium addiction of the country. Whole villages and entire families are addicted, even babies are given opium for any ailment, even as a substitute for food. It is worse than the US supplied Crack addiction of North American Africans.

The saddest part of Obama's speech to West Point was his falsification of American history, claiming America as the good guys in the white hats who've never unjustly occupied people's land around the world. Let us hear from the Native Americans on this point. Let us recount the US support of reactionary regimes around the world, and do not fail to count the number of US military bases around the world to suppress and oppress people in order to steal their labor and resources. We suggest Obama read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. President Obama is sounding as right wing as his predecessors in the White House, from the beginning to now, all of them promoted white supremacy at home and abroad.

Kamau

2009-11-30T23:00:00.001-08:00

Kamau

Quiet warrior
drummer supreme
father
husband
lover
we feel the drum silence
the moon is full yet empty this night
the Bay fog vanished
only for a beat in memory
it lingers forever.

a libation tonight
for a true trooper
a drum beat for culture
africanness beyond madness
a different drummer
sounds of freedom
round the world
hear the beat the rhythm of a new world
babylon trembles at the sound
gates of Jerico crumble
drum beats
stunted men fly in fear
the war drum in their ears
they are deaf from sound
give the drummer some.
Peace soldier!
--Marvin X

Spiritual Growth to Womanhood

2009-11-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

Spiritual Growth to Womanhood
A Manual based on Proverbs 16

by

Nefertiti Jackmon

70 pages, $15.00
Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702
Publication date: December, 2009

Spiritual Growth to Womanhood is a how-to manual for the spiritual woman of any faith, but the text is an exegesis of Proverbs 16, a chapter deconstructing the perfect woman who walks on solid ground, confident and sure of herself, determined to succeed in spite of all odds, to take care of herself first, though she is not selfish, rather selfless and unconditional in her love of family and community. She is an entrepreneur, a hustler for the good of herself and family. Nefertiti takes us on a whirlwind journey with incidents from her own life to illustrate her points. The style is clean, smooth and uplifting, always on the positive in presenting solutions to problems faced by today's woman. But Proverb 16 offers a clear path to success if women take heed of ancestral wisdom.

The manual grew out of Nefertiti's desire for mentorship. Since it was difficult to find a mentor, God told her the answer was in Proverbs. And so it is.

This book is recommended for young and mature women who might also be in need of spiritual mentorship , although such mentorship is based on practical steps that include thinking critically, self esteem, independence and interdependence. She negates poverty consciousness in favor of prosperity consciousness, prayer but work, not passivity.

While her target is women, there is much wisdom in this manual that men might find insightful, for it describes the woman every successful man would want at his side. The book includes a blank page after each section for notes.

Nefertiti Jackmon received her B.A. in English from Fresno State University, M.A. in Africana Studies from New York University, Albany. Her spiritual work included administering a mega-church in Houston, Texas.

She is available for readings and workshops, especially with women seeking spiritual growth.

Facebook | Your Photos - Mobile Uploads

2009-11-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

Facebook | Your Photos - Mobile Uploads

Facebook | Marvin X Jackmon

2009-11-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

Facebook | Marvin X Jackmon

2009-11-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

Facebook | Marvin X Jackmon

Amiri Baraka and Marvin X at San Francisco Celebration of AB's 75th bday

2009-11-29T18:20:00.000-08:00

Facebook | Marvin X Jackmon

Facebook | My Photos - Mobile Uploads

2009-11-29T18:18:00.000-08:00

Facebook | My Photos - Mobile Uploads

Facebook | Inbox - Somali Woman Stoned to Death for Adultery

2009-11-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

Facebook Inbox - Somali Woman Stoned to Death for Adultery

Beyond Religion toward Spirituality

2009-11-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

Beyond Religion toward Spirituality

Invite Marvin X to Speak

2009-11-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

One of the founders of the Black Arts Movement,

father of Muslim American literature, Dr. Mohja Kahf

the USA's Rumi, Bob Holman

undisputed king of black consciousness, Dr. Nathan Hare
Received writing awards from Columbia University,

National Endowments for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities

Marvin X (Marvin E Jackmon) [El Muhajir]

Contact: Marvin X, 510-355-6339, jmarvinx @yahoo.com

Marvin X (Marvin E Jackmon) [El Muhajir]. Somethin' Proper: The Life and Times of a North American African Poet, Berkeley, CA: Black Bird P 1998 278 pp $29.95.
Marvin X's autobiography Somethin' Proper is one of the significant works to come out of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It sums up the story of perhaps the most important African American Muslim bard to appear in the United States during the Civil Rights era. It opens with an introduction by scholar Dr. Nathan Hare, an iconic figure in the founding of Black Studies.
Marvin X then takes center stage with an exploration of his life, juxtaposed with the rapidly changing movements of contemporary history: Civil Rights, the Black Arts Movement, Black Power and especially Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam.
Marvin X was born Marvin E Jackmon in Fowler California, May 29, 1944, and grew up in West Fresno and West Oakland, California. His early education was in these cities, and he later attended Oakland City College (Merritt) and San Francisco State University, where he was awarded a B.A. and an M.A. in English. He emerged as an important poetic voice among California black bards in the early 1960s, and wrote for several of the major Black Arts Movement journals of the period, including the Journal of Black Poetry, Soulbook, Black Dialogue, Black Theatre magazine, Black Scholar, Black World, and Muhammad Speaks. He was also a founding BAM playwright, working with Ed Bullins in Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco, the Black House, also in San Francisco, with Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver, and Ethna Wyatt. 1968 he worked underground in Harlem, at the New Lafayette Theatre. He was historian and associate editor of Black Theatre Magazine, a publication of
the New Lafayette.
During the last forty years, Marvin X has taught Black Studies, literature, journalism, radio and television writing, technical writing, creative writing, drama, and English at Fresno State University, the University of California, Berkeley and San Diego, the University of Nevada, Reno, San Francisco State University, Mills, Merritt and Laney colleges in Oakland, California.

He recently did a national tour of his latest treatise Mythology of Pussy, a monograph black mothers and fathers are getting for their sons and daughters, despite the petit black bourgeoisie detractors.
Recent books include a memoir of Eldridge Cleaver, My friend the Devil, Black Bird Press, 2009, How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, BBP, 2007, Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, BBP, 2006, Land of My Daughters, poems, 2005, Wish I could tell you the truth, BBP, 2005. His next book is The Wisdom of Plato Negro: A Hustler's Guide to the game called life, BBP, 2010.

Black Bird Press

1222 Dwight Way

Berkeley CA 94702

www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com

jmarvinx@yahoo.com

Marvin X's Great Grandfather Was Former Slave

2009-11-27T11:19:00.000-08:00

Subject: From the Marvin X Archives: Former Negro Slave Dies on Madera Ranch

Fresno Bee, Tuesday, December 16, 1941

Ephraim Murrill, 99, who lived the first twenty years of his life as a Negro slave in North Carolina, died yesterday in his home on a Madera district ranch. Murrill, who was highly respected by both whites and Negroes in the community, recalled having seen Abraham Lincoln when the great emancipator was campaigning for his first term as president.

Surviving him are one daughter, Mrs. J. H. Hall, Madera; a son, John Murrill, Fowler; nine grand children and three great grandchildren. He would be 100 years old had he lived until next February 13. One of his brothers lived to the age of 116.

Funeral services will be hold tomorrow afternoon in the Jay Parlors and burial will be in Arbor Vitae Cemetary.
------------ --------- --------

Epharaim Murrill is the maternal great grandfather of poet Marvin X. His mother, Marian Murrill Jackmon, was born in Fowler, about thirty miles south of Madera. Marvin X was born there as well, May 29, 1944. Marvin's parents, Owendell Jackmon and Marian published the first black newspaper in the central valley, the Fresno Voice. They were also real estate brokers who sold many blacks their first home
after WWII. The Jackmons later moved to Oakland and became florists on 7th Street. Mr. Jackmon was prominent in West Oakland's political and social life. He was a member of the Men of Tomorrow, the Elks Lodge and the American Legion. He was a member of Downs Memorial Methodist Church. Mrs. Jackmon became a Christian Scientist, follower of Mary Baker Eddy.

Mrs. Jackmon later returned to Fresno with her children and opened a real estate business. In 1969, Marvin X became the most controversial black in Fresno history when he defied Governor Ronald Reagan by continuing to teach at Fresno State University, even though the Gov. ordered the college/now university to remove him by any means necessary, especially since he had refused to fight in Vietnam.

According to my colleague, Ptah Allah El, my great grandfather is one of the legendary men of the Central Valley. He and Col. Allenworth were associates. After Col. Allenworth, Murrill is the most prominent black man in the central valley. Something about him crossed the line separating blacks and whites. All the Negroes in the Valley know about Epharaim Murrill. According to Ptah Allah El, my great grandfather was well known in Madera, Fresno, Fowler, Hanford, Lemoore. He was a conscious black man. And, according to Ptah, there are conscious people throughout the valley who recognize Murrill as one of the icons. More research will reveal exactly what he did. I do know my people came to California as pioneers who were engaged in farming. My cousin Latanya Tony is researching our family history. She told me recently that our great grandfather was buried in Madera.

The reason my friend knows about Ephraim is because he traveled throughout the central valley recently selling food at events. People told him about the man named Ephraim Murrill. Ptah never made the connection between myself and my great grandfather. He didn't know my mother's maiden name was Murrill. I'm just learning of my grandfather's people. We had a family reunion in Chowchilla a few years ago, but it was mainly my grandmother's descendants.

I don't know why my mother never mentioned my great grandfather, but it appears he had more notoriety than his great grandson, Marvin X.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Religious Wars - NYTimes.com

2009-11-26T06:16:00.000-08:00

Op-Ed Columnist - The Religious Wars - NYTimes.com

Marvin X: " Poet, Playwright & The Undisputed King of Black Consciousness" - Rap Music - Zimbio

2009-11-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

Marvin X: " Poet, Playwright & The Undisputed King of Black Consciousness" - Rap Music - Zimbio

RACE IN AMERICA: The Grand Denial - Oakland Post - postnewsgroup.com

2009-11-25T20:52:00.000-08:00

RACE IN AMERICA: The Grand Denial - Oakland Post - postnewsgroup.com

Murder of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey

2009-11-25T20:50:00.001-08:00

Murder of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey

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Marvin X on Colored Ink

2009-11-25T18:13:00.000-08:00

THE HANDSTAND

Search

2009-11-25T18:11:00.000-08:00

You Don't Know Jack | Full Disclosure | East Bay Express

2009-11-24T15:59:00.000-08:00

You Don't Know Jack | Full Disclosure | East Bay Express

Cornel West As Angry Black Man

2009-11-24T15:56:00.000-08:00

Cornel West As Angry Black Man

The red, black, and green of Black Friday

2009-11-23T04:28:00.001-08:00

The red, black, and green of Black Friday

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My friend the devil

2009-11-22T12:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you who participated in the reading last night. It was a spiritual happening that makes me want to start a church. As Raja noted, we had all the elements: spoken word, music, dance and visual art. Of course this is known as theatre.

What makes me think of church is the healing aspect of what we did, even the welcome from Charlie Walker, a very subdued Charlie Walker since losing his grandson to police violence a few days ago.

And of course Suzzette Celeste followed his message with words of healing and inspiration. And then she read the Preface from My friend the devil.

Geoffrey Grier followed with Amiri Baraka's Introduction and later Geoffrey read the words of Huey Newton. Eugene Allen was outstanding reading the words of Eldridge Cleaver. Ayodele read chapter one, but she was a little under the weather with a tooth ache. We hope you are better today, Ayo.

Everybody was a little long winded, especially yours truly when I decided to just tell the story of Eldridge. Of course the highlight for me was reading the poem Soul Gone Home, accompanied by Rashidah on guitar and the angelic dancers, Raynetta Rayzetta and Linda Johnson who praise danced as Rashidah sang an original song Who Will Remember Me? Raynetta's movement with wings actually took us to heaven and Linda
co-signed with her gracious movement. So we had gods, devils and angels. This is why I say maybe we need a church--we seem to have all the elements.

Let me not forget the evening began with the trumpet of Earl Davis, an original member of Black Arts West Theatre on Fillmore Street, 1966.
It ended with Ptah Allah El's poem Can You Spare Some Change? I joined him with my poem Can You Change. Elena said we should take the show on the road. We'll see. We thank all of you who participated and we thank Eastside Arts for hosting the event.