Marvin X: A Critical Look at the Father  

of Muslim American Literature  

Edited by El Muhajir (Marvin X) 

Dedication 

My life and my death are all for Allah. I believe in the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I believe in the teachings of Jelaluddin Balkhi, better known as Rumi. I believe in the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. Gain a knowledge of my teachers and you will understand me. If you reject my teachers, there is no need for you to proceed further.

Contents

*   *   *   *   *

The Contributors

Dr. Mohja Kahf, professor of English and Islamic Literature, University of Arkansas. Her essay is revised (by ed.) from an earlier version that appeared online at Muslim Wake Up.Com. She is the senior editor of the forthcoming anthology Muslim American Literature, University of Arkansas Press. Marvin X is a co-editor. Her recent collection of poetry is E-Mails from Scheherazad, University Press of Florida.

Lorenzo Thomas, professor of English at the University of Houston, Texas, and author of Extraordinary Measures: Afrocentric Modernism and Twentieth-Century American Poetry, University of Alabama Press, 2000.

Michael Idland's essay is from African American Dramatists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.

Lee Hubbard is a Bay Area journalist, this interview appeared in the San Francisco Bayview newspaper.

Dr. Nathan Hare, sociologist/psychologist, is the father of black studies in America. He and his wife, Julia, are close associates, comrades and advisors to Marvin X. He is author of the classic sociological study The Black Anglo-Saxons. With wife Julia, he is co-author of The Endangered Black Family and The Miseducation of the Black Child.

Fahizah Alim writes for the Sacramento Bee newspaper. Marvin X is her mentor. Her critical comments on Islam and male/female relations have been a source of inspiration to the poet.

La Vonda R. Staples is an online personality for newblackcity.com and creator of "Literally Speaking," an internet live book club.

Brenda A. Sutton is the co-founder of Afrikan Consciousness Center group and information director for Afrikan American award winning author, Tina McElroy Ansa. La Vonda and Brenda are also co-authors of "An Incident in Mayville," unpublished.

James G. Spady's essay appeared in the Philadelphia New Observer. He is recipient of the American Book Award and the National Newspaper Association's Meritorious Award. His works have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals such as African Studies Review, International Journal of African Studies, College Language Association Journal, Black Scholar, Presence Africaine, Journal of African Civilizations and elsewhere.

Steven Winn is drama critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.

John Woodford is former editor-in-chief of Muhammad Speaks. He is currently editor of Michigan Today at the University of Michigan.

Suzzette Celeste, MSW, MPA is a social worker and spiritual practitioner at the East Bay Church of Religious Science. She also teaches counseling at Oakland's Merritt College.

James W. Sweeney is former director of the Oakland Independent Support Center, an outpatient center for the homeless and dual diagnosed. He is a former Berkeley City Councilman.

Aeesha and Kokoman Clotty are directors of Attitudinal Healing Center in Oakland and co-authors of Racial Healing.

Rudolph Lewis manages the African American literary website ChickenBones. He will soon publish "The Best of ChickenBones," and it is one of the best sites for African American literature on the internet. The best source for up-to-date writings by Marvin X, up-to-the-minute! Thanks Rudy for your hard work-a true trooper!

Ishamel Reed is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, editor and publisher. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, and for twenty years has been a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley. He is a supporter of Marvin X's many projects.

Lil Joe is Los Angeles community activist and revolutionary theoretician. He was among the group of revolutionary students from southern California who supported Marvin X when he fought to teach at Fresno State University but was removed by then Gov. Ronald Reagan, 1969. These students also supported his draft trial. They said, "We want Marvin X, not in Vietnam, not in jail, but on campus." Joe was also a member of the Black Panther Party. (Note: We love you Lil Joe for raising high the banner of revolution! As Mao taught, "The reactionaries will never put down their butcher knives, they will never turn into Buddha heads.")

Pam Pam is a community activist in San Francisco's dangerous Sunnydale district. She also produced, filmed and co-directed a film on Marvin X, Git Yo Mind Rite. She has a weekly program on San Francisco's KPOO radio.

Terry Collins, nephew of Malcolm X through his sister Ella Collins, is one of the founders and directors of KPOO radio. Terry was one of the revolutionary students at San Francisco State University, along with his roommate Danny Glover (who performed in Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre), fellow students Joe Rudolph (KPOO founder, peace be upon him) and Marvin X.

Dr. Julius E. Thompson's essay appeared in African American Review. He is a professor of African American Studies.

Reginald Major is author of The Panther Is A Black Cat, a study of the Black Panther Party. He writes for Pacifica News Service.

Dingane (Joe Goncalves) is founder and publisher of the 60s bible of poetry, the Journal of Black Poetry.

Dennis Leroy Moore is a New York filmmaker. His  As An Act of Protest is an awarding winning film about the Neo-Black Arts Movement.

Junious Ricardo Stanton is a journalist who writes for newspapers nationwide, especially online journals such as The Black World Today.

Brecht Forum is a New York center for radical culture.

Johari Amini's (Jewel C. Latimore) review is from Negro Digest (Black World), 1969. Johari is one of the beautiful sister poets of the Chicago Black Arts Movement.

James Smethurst’s comments are from the just released The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. He is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts.

Preface  of father o f Muslim American Literature     Introduction    Dedication Contents The Contributors   Bibliography of Marvin X

posted May 22, 2005