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Books by Marvin X
Love and War: Poems /
In the Crazy House Called America /
Woman: Man's Best Friend /
Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
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X
A
Biographical Sketch
Marvin
X—born Marvin Ellis Jackmon on May 29, 1944 in Fowler,
California—attended Fresno at Edison High, Oakland City
College (now Merritt College) receiving an associate degree in
1964. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the founders of the
Black Panther Party, were fellow students at Oakland City
College. Marvin also received a BA and MA in English at San
Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University).
As part of Black Arts Movement (BAM),
Marvin X is most well
known for his work with Ed Bullins in the founding
in 1967
of Black
House and The Black Arts/West Theatre in San Francisco
Fillmore district. Black
House served briefly as the headquarters for the Black Panther
Party and as a center for performance, theatre, poetry and music.
Marvin X is a
playwright in the true spirit of the BAM. His most well-known
BAM play, entitled Flowers for the Trashman, deals with
generational difficulties and the crisis of the Black
intellectual as he deals with education in a white-controlled
culture. Marvin X's other works include, The Black Bird,
The
Trial, Resurrection of the Dead and In the Name of Love.
Marvin X's first play Flowers for the Trashman was also produced with an alternate title, Taking Care of
Business. The play's protagonist, Joe Simmons, an African
American college student, finds himself in jail with Wes, whom
the playwright describes as "his hoodlum friend."
He currently has the
longest running African American drama in the San Francisco Bay
area and Northern California, ONE DAY IN THE LIFE, a tragi-comedy
of addiction and recovery. He is the founder and director of
RECOVERY THEATRE.
Marvin X has continued
to work as a lecturer, teacher and producer. He has taught at
Fresno State University; San Francisco State University;
University of California - Berkeley and San Diego; University of
Nevada, Reno; Mills College, Laney and Merritt Colleges in
Oakland. He has received writing fellowships from Columbia
University and the National Endowment for the Arts and planning
grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Marvin
X has taught at such colleges and universities as Fresno State
University, San Francisco State University, University of
California -- Berkeley and San Diego, University of Nevada,
Reno, Mills College, Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland.
Marvin
X spoke from a Muslim perspective on race relations in America
in his play The Black Bird (Al Tair Aswad).
Marvin X's most recent production, One Day in the Life,
performed by his Recovery Theatre, provides a comprehensive view
into his own life as a black man using crack cocaine as well as
the devastating sphere of hurt, death, and destruction that came
to many loved ones in his life.
Chronology of Marvin X (El
Muhajir ) Bibliography of Marvin X
marvinxspeaks.blogspot.com
For more on Marvin X at Fresno
State University, check out the archives of Gov. Ronald Reagan
and FSU President Frederick Ness. Google has ample entries for
Marvin X. Visit his blog:
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com . Email him at:
jmarvinx@yahoo. com. His books are available from Black Bird
Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94702, $19.95 each. For
speaking engagements, call 510-355-6339
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Parable of the Cellphone (Marvin X)
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Ishmael Reed talks about this book with Phil Taylor of the Taylor Report
(audio)
Listen to interview with Ishmael Reed on KPFA Berkeley (min 32-60)
(audio)
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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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
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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ChickenBones Store
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posted 21 March 2009
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