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Marvin X: A Critical Look at the Father
of Muslim American Literature
Edited
by El Muhajir (Marvin X)
Preface
By Dr. Mohja Kahf
Marvin X: First Muslim American Poet
Have spent the last
few days (when not mourning with friends and family the passing
of my family friend and mentor in Muslim feminism and Islamic
work, Sharifa AlKhateeb, (may she dwell in Rahma), immersed in
the work of Marvin X and amazed at his brilliance. This poet has
been prolific since his first book of poems, Fly to Allah,
(1969), right up to his most recent Love and War Poems (1995)
and Land of My Daughters, 2005, not to mention his plays, which
were produced (without royalties) in Black community theatres
from the 1960s to the present, and essay collections such as In
the Crazy House Called America, 2002, and Wish I Could Tell You
The Truth, 2005.
Marvin X was a prime shaper of the Black Arts Movement
(1964-1970s) which is, among other things, the birthplace of
modern Muslim American literature, and it begins with him. Well,
Malik Shabazz and him. But while the Autobiography of Malcolm X
is a touchstone of Muslim American culture, Marvin X and other
Muslims in BAM were the emergence of a cultural expression
of Black Power and Muslim thought inspired by Malcolm, who
was, of course, ignited by the teachings and writings of the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And that, taken all together, is what
I see as the starting point of Muslim American literature. Then
there are others, immigrant Muslims and white American Muslims
and so forth, that follow.
There are also antecedents, such as the letters of Africans
enslaved in America. Maybe there is writing by Muslims in the
Spanish and Portuguese era or earlier, but that requires
archival research of a sort I am not going to be able to do. My
interest is contemporary literature, and by literature I am more
interested in poetry and fiction than memoir and non-fiction,
although that is a flexible thing.
I argue that it is time to call Muslim American literature a
field, even though many of these writings can be and have been
classified in other ways—studied under African American
literature or to take the writings of immigrant Muslims, studied
under South Asian ethnic literature or Arab American literature.
With respect to Marvin X, I wonder why I am just now hearing
about him—I read Malcolm when I was 12, I read Amiri Baraka
and Sonia Sanchez and others from the BAM in college and
graduate school—why is attention not given to his work in the
same places I encountered these other authors? Declaring Muslim
American literature as a field of study is valuable because
recontextualizing it will add another layer of attention to his
incredibly rich body of work.
He deserves to be WAY better known than he is among Muslim
Americans and generally, in the world of writing and the world
at large. By we who are younger Muslim American poets, in
particular, Marvin should be honored as our elder, one who is
still kickin, still true to the word!
Love and War Poems is wrenching and powerful, combining a
powerful critique of America ("America downsizes like a
cripple whore/won't retire/too greedy to sleep/too fat to
rest") but also a critique of deadbeat dads and drug
addicts (not sparing himself) and men who hate. "For the
Men" is so Quranic poem it gave me chills with verses such
as:
for the men who honor wives
and the men who abuse them
for the men who win
and the men who sin
for the men who love God
and the men who hate
for the men who are brothers
and the men who are beasts |
"O Men, listen to the wise," the poet pleads:
there is no escape
for the men of this world
or the men of the next |
He is sexist as all get out, in the way that is common for men
of his generation and his radicalism, but he is refreshingly
aware of that and working on it. It's just that the work isn't
done and if that offends you to see a man in process and still
using the 'b' word, look out. Speaking of the easily offended,
he warns in his introduction that "life is often profane
and obscene, such as the present condition of African American
people." If you want pure and holy, he says, read the Quran
and the Bible, because Marvin is talking about "the low
down dirty truth." For all that, the poetry of Marvin X is
like prayer, beauty-full of reverence and honor for Truth.
"It is. it is. it is."
A poem to his daughter Muhammida is a sweet mix of parental love
and pride and fatherly freak-out at her sexuality and
independence, ending humbly with:
peace Mu
it's on you
yo world
sister-girl |
Other people don't get off so easy, including a certain
"black joint chief of staff ass nigguh (kill 200,000
Muslims in Iraq)" in the sharply aimed poem "Free Me
from My Freedom." (Mmm hmm, the 'n' word is all over the
place in Marvin too.) Nature poem, wedding poem, depression
poem, wake-up call poems, it's all here. Haiti, Rwanda, the
Million Man March, Betsy Ross's maid, OJ, Rabin, Mumia Abu-Jamal,
and other topics make it into this prophetically voiced
collection of dissent poetry, so Islamic and so African American
in its language and its themes, a book that will stand in its
beauty long after the people mentioned in it pass. READ MARVIN X
for RAMADAN!
Mohja Kahf /
Associate Professor / Dept. of English & Middle East & Islamic
Studies,
University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
Preface of Father of
Muslim American Literature Introduction
Dedication
Contents The
Contributors
Bibliography of Marvin X
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 |
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By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
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what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
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entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* * * * *
|
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 16
December 2011
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