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Marvin X Gives Barefoot Lecture
on Radical Spirituality
By
Marvin X
Poet Marvin X opened his reading on
Radical Spirituality by revealing to the audience he had
left home without shoes. He had on flip flops but by the
end of his performance, his shoes arrived via his
daughter Nefertiti. Also in the audience was his
daughter Amira, grandson James and niece Ariana. Also
present were his friend/companion Suzzette Celeste, her
mother and brother. His performance opened with the
essay “Love and Spirituality,” accompanied by the music
of Elliott Bey who provided the healing sounds for the
poetic essays, including “Ancestors” and “Prison.”
He also talked about sectarianism and
transcending religiosity to embrace radical
spirituality. "We must jump out of the box like Jack, "
he said, "Jump out of religious boxes, strive toward
spirituality. Religiosity keeps us going up the mountain
like Sisyphus, only to fall down to begin again, never
reaching the top where God awaits." Later he was
corrected by Suzzette Celeste, who informed him even the
process up the mountain is a divine effort.
The voice of X and the sounds of Bey
could be heard throughout the African American
Museum/Library, bouncing off the walls of the Paul
Robeson exhibit, the artistic freedom fighter with whom
Marvin X identifies one hundred percent.
This was the first reading of
Toward Radical Spirituality, the latest manuscript
by the poet. Later Saturday evening, Marvin X and
Elliott Bey exploded again at the Berkeley Art Center.
According to venue operators, the energy had never been
so high.
The following is an email Marvin X
received from a person who attending the Berkeley
performance:
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Hello Dear Brother:
I have had a chance to
read the first few chapters of your book,
"Wish I Could Tell You The Truth," after
seeing you perform at the Berkeley Art
Center last night. You are truly a prophet
and a treasure! Your honesty is exhilarating
and scary. I am thankful that you survived
hell to return to talk about it.
However, I sense that you
need a community of people holding you up in
prayer every minute of every day. Consider
me one of them. Thank you for generously
giving me copies of your poems that you read
from. I re-read the poems, and pulled out
"For the Women," but was unable to find much
elaboration on the title, although "In
Search of My Soul Sister" did continue that
theme. Your commentary on "Nigguh" was right
on! I am looking forward to reading your
next book. It was a pleasure to have met you
in person!
Blessings, Delores |
posted 29 June 2006
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Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
Books by Marvin X
Love and War: Poems /
In the Crazy House Called America
Woman: Man's Best Friend /
Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
Marvin X on YouTube Marvin X Table
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The Great Divergence
America's Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can
Do about It
By Timothy
Noah
For the past three decades, America has steadily
become a nation of haves and have-nots. Our incomes
are increasingly drastically unequal: the top 1% of
Americans collect almost 20% of the nation’s
income—more than double their share in 1973. We have
less equality of income than Venezuela, Kenya, or
Yemen. What economics Nobelist Paul Krugman terms
"the Great Divergence" has until now been treated as
little more than a talking point, a club to be
wielded in ideological battles. But it may be the
most important change in this country during our
lifetimes—a sharp, fundamental shift in the
character of American society, and not at all for
the better. The income gap has been blamed on
everything from computers to immigration, but its
causes and consequences call for a patient,
non-partisan exploration.
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The Gardens of Democracy: A New American Story
of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government
By Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer
American democracy is informed by the 18th century’s most cutting edge thinking on society, economics, and government. We’ve learned some things in the intervening 230 years about self interest, social behaviors, and how the world works. Now, authors Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer argue that some fundamental assumptions about citizenship, society, economics, and government need updating. For many years the dominant metaphor for understanding markets and government has been the machine. Liu and Hanauer view democracy not as a machine, but as a garden. A successful garden functions according to the inexorable tendencies of nature, but it also requires goals, regular tending, and an understanding of connected ecosystems. The latest ideas from science, social science, and economics—the cutting-edge ideas of today—generate these simple but revolutionary ideas: (The economy is not an efficient machine. It’s an effective garden that need tending. Freedom is responsibility. Government should be about the big what and the little how. True self interest is mutual interest. |
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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—Publishers
Weekly |
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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
/
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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