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The poet will speak again on Saturday, November 16, 4pm at the Citywide Reparations Forum, Mt. Ararat Baptist Church, 5801 W. Montgomery St., Houston. Before leaving Houston, the poet will go into the recording studio of his son-in-law, Attorney Eric Rhodes, mixing his CD: MARVIN X LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA WITH ELLIOTT BEY AND THE CRAZY HOUSE BAND, FEATURING MARSHALL ALLEN, DANNY THOMPSON AND NOEL OF SUN RA's ARKESTRA, RUFAS HARLEY and others. The band is now available for bookings. 

Call Marvin X @ 510-798-9155, or email him @ xblackxmanx@aol.com.  

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Marvin X Speaks to the Gullah Nation

Last evening, poet Marvin X arrived late for Brother Jabari's radio show in Gullah country, Beaufort, South Carolina. When he finally arrived at the station, he told Gullahland listeners he was late as a result of being caught up in "negrocities," borrowing a term from Amiri Baraka who is writing a book about NEGROCITIES. During the course of the interview Marvin defined the term as an ailment caused by an inflamation of the Negroid gland at the base of the brain.

Brother Jabari, publisher of the Gullah Sentinel, questioned Marvin X page by page about his book IN THE CRAZY HOUSE CALLED AMERICA, starting with the suicide of his son on March 18 of this year. The poet said his pain was cushioned by the fact that so many of his friends have lost sons and daughters to homicide. Dr. Nathan Hare has written that homicide and suicide are two sides of the same coin. Marvin's son suffered mani-depression which the late revolutionary Dr. Franz Fanon called a "situational disorder" caused by oppression." Of course, Dr. Fanon, author of the classic WRETCHED OF THE EARTH, said finally that revolution was the solution to the mental health problems of the oppressed.

When Jabari turned to Marvin's essay THE INSANITY OF SEX, the poet read the first paragraph of the essay but refused to go further on the Christian owned radio station, although he noted that while sitting in the shade of a tree during the Gullah Nation's Heritage Festival on St. Helena island, he was soon joined by a group of church women who--after X showed them his book, immediately turned to THE INSANITY OF SEX and agreed with his opening paragraph one hundred per cent. Jabari, one of the sole lights in the Gullahland house of darkness, asked X about the culture of the crack house.

The poet said "The crack house is like a third world country: there is no electricity, no running water, no bathroom, no toilet paper, no food, no love. It is the worse thing since slavery." He then had the engineer play track ten of his CD version of ONE DAY IN THE LIFE, the drama of his addiction and recovery. In this "Preacher Scene" the minister describes the horrors of crack culture, ending with the lines, "Crack is worse than slavery. Didn't the slave love his Moma? His God? His Woman? His Children? Not the crack slave, the crack slave is a dirty, nasty, funky slave...."

X then said, "I want to say this to the Christian community: see, I lived in Reno, Nevada while teaching at the University of Nevada and the preacher in Reno never said anything against gambling and prostitution--which are legal. Now, members of the audience who have watched my play wanted to know why the pastors in the community never preach a sermon like the preacher in my play. On more than one occasion, a member of the audience stood to testify that many preachers cannot give a similar sermon because the church is compromised due to the fact that mothers in the church have sons and daughters who are contributing money from the drug trade to the church and if the preacher said anything he wouldn't have a congregation in many urban centers. And maybe in rural centers as well."

Marvin X was asked about education. He said Johnny and Johnnymae can sell dope, weigh dope, package dope, count dope money, but the teachers tell us Johnny and Johnnymae can't do math, can't read, can't do chemistry. This is a lie and the fact that youth remember hours of rap songs word for word is a testament to their intelligence. Marvin X spent his final day in Gullah land swimming in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of St. Helena Island. He listened to the pain of a mentally disabled Gullah woman who was camping near the ocean and was a friend of his host, Sister Hurriyah Amanuel, a landowner in Gullah country who is one of the Queens of the Black Arts Movement, having been a key player at Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco and at the Black House/Political/Cultural Center, visited by the likes of Amiri and Amina Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Bunchy Carter, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Lil Bobby Hutton, Eldridge Cleaver, Askia Muhammad Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Chicago Art Ensemble, and others.

When black clouds appeared, Marvin X knew the hour had arrived for him to depart Gullah country. After all, he had enjoyed the people, the land, the sea, the creeks, the chickens, geese, goats, calves, and dogs. Being a country boy from central calif, he talked to the animals and they to him. But he leaves Gullahland with a heavy heart, for if the ancestors have given the descendents of slavery any part of America, it is this beautiful land, these islands in the sun.

And he has vowed to return to this heaven on earth. Sister Hurriyah was the glue of the West coast black arts movement. And in the new epoch, she is showing the way to heaven on earth. If ever a man shall follow a woman, it is now, for she has created heaven on earth. --Marvin X, November 12, 2002, Beaufort, South Carolina.

 Monday night. The event was a recording session for a CD and DVD to go along with X's book IN THE CRAZY HOUSE CALLED AMERICA.

The poet pulled together members of Sun Ra's band, Marshall Allen--the world's greatest alto sax, Danny Thompson and Noel, also bagpipe master Rufas Harley, drummer Alexander El, jembe master Ancestor Goldsky (former drummer with Patti Labell) and keyboard master Elliott Bey, music director and cofounder of Recovery Theatre East. The poet opened with a monologue to Philadelphia Negroes, accompanied by the healing sounds of Elliott Bey on synthesizer. With the full band, the poet read FOR THE WOMEN; the band went crazy on NIGGUHS ARE CRAZY. In the best tradition of Sun Ra, his men went throughout the house, wailing and screaming--the audience appeared to have lockjaw. Rufas Harley introduced PALESTINE with bagpipes. Marshall Allen gave a screaming intro to BLACK HISTORY IS WORLD HISTORY, then the band joined for a musical tour of the world as the poet read his classic.

The set ended with THE PARABLE OF BLACK MAN AND BLOCK MAN. I failed to mention the Danny Thompson (flute) Rufus Harley duet--historic. If you can't  make the next appearance of Marvin X and the Crazy House Band tentatively scheduled for San Francisco's Loraine Hansberry Theatre in January, send for the CD/ VHS and/or DVD to BLACK BIRD PRESS, 3116 38th Ave., Suite 304, Oakland, CA 94619. Send $19.95, plus $5.00 for priority mail. Credit card holders go to www.paypal.com, credit xblackxmanx@aol.com.

The poet is now in the dirty south at the Penn Center Heritage festival on St. Helena island, South Carolina. His book tour ends next week at the University of Houston and at citywide rally for reparations. There will also be a Houston screening of his videodrama ONE DAY IN THE LIFE at the National Black United Front headquarters, 2428 Southmore St., Houston. 

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New York City was rocked yesterday by the Human Earthquake, Marvin X, who spent two hours ranting on Pacifica radio's WBAI, hosted by Louis Reyes Rivera, whose guests included John Watusi Branch of the Afrikan Poetry Theatre in Queens. Marvin X discussed everything under the sun, including the suffering people endure when loved ones make the transition. "We are forced to suffer alone, in silence because no one wants to hear about it, " the poet said. On the movement of the 60s, "We had many contradictions. We talked black power but went home to beat our wives and neglect our children in the name of revolution."

That evening the poet rocked Queens at the Afrikan Poetry Theatre, telling his audience many of us have a poverty consciousness, we don't want nothing, we have our fists balled up at God so that He cannot bless us even if He wanted to and He wants to bless us. Some of us are living in shelters because we rejected the mansions in our Father's House. Yet the whole world is trying to get to America to get some of the pie we created. The Chinese and Koreans come to our community and get rich selling rice, but we want to charge ten dollars for a bowl of rice and beans and wonder why no one supports our businesses. We are Block Man--we block our own good--yes, many times we are our worst enemy, not the white man.

If we stood up and took authority the white man would be gone in an instant. The million man marchers should have stayed in DC until freedom was secured. Our women were smart enough to set up the Million Man Mansion in Newark--the men don't have a million man mansion--but when the sisters execise their intelligence we want to knock them upside the head.

Ok, New York City, catch Marvin X at Sista's Place on Sunday, 4 PM, 456 Nostrand Ave. @ Jefferson, Brooklyn. He's be in Manhattan on Tuesday, October 29, 7PM at the Brecht Forum, 122 W. 27th St., between 6th and 7th Aves, 10th floor.

Amiri Baraka will host the Earthquake on Wednesday, October 30, 7PM in Newark at his home, 808 S. 10th Street, Newark, NJ. Marvin X will also appear with Amiri Baraka and Umar Bin Hasan of the Last Poets at the Bowery Poetry Club, Sunday, November 3, 9PM.

Sonia Sanchez will appear with the poet in Philadelphia on Friday, November 1, 7PM at the Women's Y, 5820 Germantown Ave.@ Chelten. Marvin will premier the Crazy House Band under the direction of Elliot Bey. Guest musicians include Jamal Khan,
Kesh, Rufus Harley (bagpipes) and Sun Ra's legendary Marshall Allen. Set designer Pat Lewis has created a monster set to suggest the Crazy House Called America. Sonia Sanchez will video the event for a documentary she is doing on the Black Arts Movement.

October 26, the poet will be at Amiri Baraka's monthly event called Kimako's Blues, 808 S.10th St., Newark, NJ. 

October 27, Marvin X returns to Sista's Place. Sista's Place gave him a venue for the New York premier of ONE DAY IN THE LIFE a few years ago. Nostrand and Jefferson, Brooklyn. 

October 28, St. Peter's Church (the jazz church) Marvin X will moderate a dialogue between Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Maulana Karenga. The theme is Reparations and Other Critical Issues and is the Witnessing for Reparations project of Joel Washington, cosponsored by Recovery Theatre East. Seating is limited. For more information, call Joel Washington @ 917-297-9829. 

October 29, the poet returns to the Brecht Forum for a reading/discussion/sigining. Brecht Forum is located  @ 122 W. 27th Street, Tenth floor, Manhattan, between 6th and 7th Avenues. 

November 1, the poet returns to Philly for a book reading/discussion at the Women's Y--SPECIAL GUEST SONIA SANCHEZ music by ELLIOT BEY will be in town to join him FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 8 P.M. . Marvin X is a member of the National Writers Union. 

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