The Black Arts Theatre at Yoshi's San Francisco

The Black Arts Movement at Yoshi's, San Francisco

Last night at Yoshi's in the Fillmore, Amiri Baraka and Roscoe Mitchell performed a concert partially devoted to the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Baraka photo Kamau Amen Ra


Baraka is godfather of the Black Arts Movement or BAM, and Roscoe Mitchell of the Chicago Arts Ensemble is a BAM Master as well. They were joined by poet Marvin X who opened both sets with a poem. Marvin X's Black Arts West Theatre, 1966, was a block or two down from Yoshi's at Turk and Fillmore. With playwright Ed Bullins, essayist Eldridge Cleaver (Soul on Ice) and Ethna X, companion of Marvin X, they established the political/cultural Center called Black House.

The Black House on Broderick Street was the center for radical culture in the Bay Area, 1967. Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Emory Douglas, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Lil Bobby Hutton, Sarah Webster Fabio, Avotcja, Samuel Napier, Ellendar Barnes, Dezzie Woods Jones, Bennie Ivy, Norman Brown, Walter Riley, Rosco Proctor, and numerous arts and politicos congregated at Black House. The Chicago Arts Ensemble had performed. Roscoe remembers the Black House, especially the food. Ethna X (Hurriyah) and Amina Baraka created the food.




photo Gene Hazzard



Tonight was the rare coming together of BAM artists from three regions, although BAM was bi-coastal. Baraka from Newark, New Jersey, Roscoe from Chicago and Marvin X from the San Francisco Bay. Marvin X also worked at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem and with Sun Ra. Sun Ra created music for two musicals of Marvin's Take Care of Business (aka Flowers for the Trashman) and Resurrection of the Dead.

After Marvin's opening poem, Roscoe began with percussion work. He tinkered with bells and other sounds, preparing the way for Baraka, but this opening was himself at his greatest. Calmly he went about his musical work.

A musician who accompanies a poet must be humble to the word, he cannot become self-consumed so that we do not hear the word. Such a musician is thus highly conscious of the word as he is of himself. But the focus is on the word and he respects the word and wants to enhance the word, accent the word.

Roscoe is the man for the job. The first set he was reserved, it was a kind of rehearsal, though there is a natural harmony between the poet and musician, most especially with Amiri Baraka, who highly appreciates music and musicians. This is the BAM tradition.

At Black Arts West Theatre on Fillmore, we used to let the musicians be free. They asked to be free. During our productions they might roam the stage, the audience and go outside on the street to join the sounds of the street traffic and cars, often doing a call and response with car horns: Dewey Redman, Donald Rafael Garrett, Monte Waters, Earl Davis, BJ, Oliver Johnson, were some of the Black Arts West musicians.

Baraka joined Mitchell with tales and poems of his childhood in Newark, what a weird child he was, reading Japanese poetry and coming up with Lowku, the Negro version of Haiku Ku because we don't have time to count syllables. Baraka is the court jester, the comedian, the joker who is more than serious, for he is too bright to be taken lightly, the opposite of the people in one of poems, white racists, who are too ignut to understand what's happening to them, too ignut to be white even.

Baraka began his tribute to MLK with the wedding of MLK and Coretta Scott. He weaved his narrative by chronicling major events of MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. It was a history lesson every child should know, the dates, the events, the names of warriors, martyrs and devils Rosa Parks, Bull Conners, Black Power, Freedom Riders, Student Sit-ins, Black Power, Non-violence.

Baraka, 77 this year, transformed from poet to actor, playwright, singer, doing all the parts of blacks and whites. He sang all the freedom songs throughout his narrative, revealing his knowledge of black Christian culture, for it was the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement, after all, non-violence is a Christian concept, born of Jesus Christ, although at one point Baraka mentioned that Christians need do a body count as a result of their religion.

It was interesting to hear and see Baraka tell the story of MLK from his perspective, a participant/observer, analyst, organizer, living historian, walking history himself. He told the time MKL knocked on his door in Newark, during the Poor People's campaign, Martin had a stubble beard with no tie on. The King said to the king, Le Roi, you don't look like such a bad fellow!

Baraka does not attempt revisionist history, but tells it like it was, even free of strident ideology, propaganda, just the story. All the time Roscoe is dancing from horn to horn, never upstaging but accenting always, a call and response in the African and BAM tradition, which are one.

Only after Baraka ended the King narrative with his assassination did Roscoe take off on his horns, and this was especially during the second set. He took us to a lyrical land of sound and beauty, letting us know he is one of the true Masters of creative sound.

The audience gave the brothers much applause and appreciation. Ninety per cent of those present were whites. A brother whispered to me in the lobby, "Man, I never heard or seen anything like this in my life!"



Baraka could have used some help reading all the parts. Indeed, after the last set, he asked me rhetorically, Marvin why didn't you help me do this?
--Marvin X
1/18/11

Baraka and Marvin at Yoshi's
photo Julian Carroll







Catch Marvin X and poets in the Journal of Pan African Studies, Poetry Issue, edited by Marvin X, during Black History Month: Saturday, February 19, 3-6pm, Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th and Franklin, downtown Oakland.

Parable for Wannabe Actors, Part Two

Parable of the Wannabe Actor, Part Two
A great actor once said, and it may have been Sir Lawrence Oliver, "The best part of theatre is getting drunk after the show." I agree totally with him. I would never get drunk before the show or during the show (some actors are known and have been sound recorded entering the dressing room after a scene to take a nip).

I want full concentration before going on stage. Now this may be most difficult if the actor is also director and/or producer, as he must deal with his cast and their myriad psycho-artistic issues.
But I will do my best to focus on my time on stage, especially if it is a monologue, for I will not follow the script under any circumstances, well, I may follow the basic script, but one reason I want to focus beforehand is because I know I am not going to follow the script, but at the same time I have no idea whatsoever what I'm going to say, except that I am determined never to say the same thing twice, similar to the jazz musician who never plays the tune the same way, ever.

I would die if I had to follow the script each night without any changes whatsoever, but as I say, one must give respect to the other actors who may have ques, thus the basic text must be followed at certain points, at least when another actor is about to enter, otherwise you throw them off.

Now as actor/director/producer, one can say to hell with the other actors, though this is the height of arrogance and disrespect, for actors value and treasure their moment on stage, so there must be humility, even when the actor is also director/producer, meaning he has put the most time, energy and effort into the production, also writer. Thus, he has written the script, carved himself a part, raised the money for the production, directed it, so, yes, he is apt to be a bit arrogant, especially is the other actors sole input is to enter on stage to say their lines, then exit.

They have not promoted the show, sold one ticket, or invited anyone, including their mama, to the show. At the same time they want equal billing on promotional material, including posters, radio and television ads, etc.

So, yes, the best part of theatre for me is getting drunk after. Alone! Not Amiri Baraka style socializing at some restaurant and/or bar after the show. No, let me ease out the side door and slip home, no bar watered down drinks, no small talk with VIP theatre Negroes. Let me go to my hotel room and get drunk in peace. After all, I was on stage baring my soul, telling all and beyond all, why do you want to suck me dry, cannot I save a little of myself for myself?

Let me get drunk alone, the applause was fine, I loved it. I loved that it was a packed house, so packed people were sitting on the stage, in the aisle, but now I want to come down, no autographs, no smiles, leave me alone, I've given my all. Por favor! Basta ya!
--Marvin X
6/3/10

Parable for Wannabe Actors, Part One

Parable of the Wannabe Actor

in memory of Quentin Easter and Stanley E. Williams,
founders of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, San Francisco



Kill yourself, everything in you that has nothing to do with the character you are portraying. Kill the way you talk, walk, shit, drink, fuck, laugh, dress. Kill all the reflects you. And even before this murder of the self, you must be sure you know who you are! Are you even aware of how you talk, walk, shit, drink, eat, dress, fuck, shout?

Are you aware of whom you are? How can an actor play Plato Negro when he doesn't know his own true self? He may think he does, but in reality he doesn't because he's living a lie. He is not true to himself. All or most of his life he's been wearing the persona of some sucker he thinks he is or wants to be, even though his true self may be of higher quality than the sucker he's been claiming all his life.

So I ask the actor portraying Plato Negro, why don't you first get to the real you rather than that phony sucker you've been all your life? How can you get to the real me when you have never been to the real you? You may have convinced yourself you're a hustler, playboy, romantic or whatever, when in reality you are an intellectual, a nerd, but you refuse to admit this to yourself because you want to be accepted, though in reality you are being rejected because others can see a deeper you than you can see yourself. And you wonder why you are rejected by those with greater insight into your soul.

The sad truth is that you can't kill yourself because you don't recognize who you are. You can't get to the first step of acting: look in the mirror! Look at photos of yourself. Ask yo mama who you are. Ask your woman or the women you like but don't like you. Ask them why they don't like you, why you turn them off.

Maybe then you will want to kill your old fake self that is not only preventing you from becoming a stage actor but keeping you from acting on the stage called life!

My ancestor John Douimbia, founder of the Black Men's Conference, told me, "Marvin, you write great plays and you've been involved in theatre, but you don't know how to act in real life." I thought about what John D. said and decided to make a few changes in my life.

During my dope addiction, my changed attitude made me a better hustler. I was able to hustle the tourists in San Francisco. I sold them the homeless paper for twenty dollars per copy, or any other paper when I ran out of the homeless paper. I could sell them a roll of toilet paper for twenty dollars! People gave me money simply because they liked my smile. They passed me and made the block to give me bags of money--literally. I told the other brothers hustling with me to do the same and their luck changed immediately. They stopped coming on the street looking mean and evil at the white people.

Once the actor kills himself completely and totally, he is ready to don the persona of the character he wants to portray. Now some actors are under the grand illusion they can give their version of a character. No! Fuck "You." Your version is essentially you. It has nothing to do with the character. If you are going to portray a character, you must absolutely and totally transcend yourself, becoming 100% the character: you talk, walk, eat, drink, dress, laugh, cry, sing, dance, fuck, love, hate, as he does. You are no longer you, you are him, down to the minutest detail, if you are claiming to be an actor and striving to be a great actor.
--Marvin X

Marvin X began his actor career as a child at the recreation center in West Oakland, later in high school in the play Dino, made famous by Sal Mineo. His co-star was poet/critic Shereley A. Williams (rip).

His first play Flowers for the Trashman was produced by the drama department at San Francisco State University, 1965. Before founding the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale was the leader actor in Marvin's second play Come Next Summer. Marvin performed the role of Clay in Amiri Baraka's The Dutchman. His co-star was Hurriyah Asar as Lula (in white face, as per the BAM tradition). The Dutchman was performed at Fresno State University, circa 1967.

Along with playwright Ed Bullins, he established Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore District, 1966, (actor Danny Glover performed there) later worked with Ed at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, New York. Marvin, Ed Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver and Hurriyah Asar established the Black House in San Francisco, a political cultural center that became the center of poetry, drama and political activity in San Francisco during 1967. Associates of the Black House included Amiri and Amina Baraka, Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Avotcja, Sonia Sanchez, Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier, Little Bobby Hutton, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Black House later became the San Francisco headquarters of the Black Panther Party.

He taught drama at Fresno State University, University of California, Berkeley, Mills (Woman--Man's Best Friend, musical) and Laney College (In the Name of Love, musical).

He established Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore, 1972, working with San Ra's Arkestra and choreographer Raymond Sawyer (Resurrection of the Dead, a myth-ritual musical with Babatunde Lea and Plunky).

Sun Ra arranged music for Take Care of Business, the musical version of Flowers for the Trashman. Recovery Theatre was established in 1996, after producing his play One Day in the Life nationwide, in New York at Sista's Place and the Brecht Forum, in Newark at Baraka's Kimako's. On the west coast it was performed at the Malonga Center, the Lorraine Hansberry theatre and Recovery Theatre in San Francisco's Tenderloin. One Day in the Life is the docudrama of his addiction and recovery.

He is presently formulating Academy of Da Corner Reader's Theatre. The world premier of the Reader's Theatre will be at the Benefit for Black Bird Press, Saturday, May 15, 2pm, at the African American Museum Library, 14th and Martin Luther King, Jr., downtown Oakland.
Seating limited. RSVP 510-637-0200. The event celebrates the release of Marvin's latest book The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables and Fables, 311 pages, $100.00. If you can't make the event, please order the book from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702.
Advance the cultural revolution. Support one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement.

Creativity and Sexuality

Part Eight: Creativity and Sexuality

Let me begin by saying I do not think this subject is gender specific: sexual energy does not discriminate. Cutting to the chase, there are male whores and female whores, or simply persons who are highly sexed. Even religious or spiritual persons can fit this mode, i.e., church ho's or mosque ho's. Their spirituality may enhance their sexuality, for ultimately sex is recognized as a spiritual experience, a way to merge with the Divine force, how else is that feeling of oneness derived, that moment when the lover and beloved transcend gender to become a force of spiritual energy, united in the oneness of bliss, in harmony with the Divine?

Should we be so presumptuous to think the artistic person is therefore more sexually driven than the average, normal Joe Blow? In spite of my artistic personality, I think Joe Blow is just as sexually driven as I was as a young man. All humans have this sexual urge, although some have a greater urge than others, and they can be artists, Joe Blows, workers, preachers, dancers, intellectuals, or anyone, depending on their bio-chemistry.

For the artist, the problem is distinguishing the sexual urge from the creative impulse. And there are those workaholics who rather work than fuck--they actually get a nut working, sex is simply not a major force in their lives, just as the artist would often rather create than have sex. Duke said music was his mistress, and this is probably so for every true artist.

Now there are artists who drown in sex and everything else but creativity, even after a lifetime of artistic training. Of course they are ultimately punished by the Creator for dissing Him/Her. Sex, drugs, gambling, employment (for fear of poverty) and other diversions only delay their day of judgment when the Creator shall ask them why they did not serve Him/Her with all their being, since they were blessed with certain talent yet were in denial, fear and refused to exercise the discipline to be their creative best. With their God given talent, they remained stuck on stupid, only now and then giving expression to their creative genius.

And yet we might be forced to examine which comes first, the chicken or the egg? For a long time I imagined I had a sexual addiction as part of my general addictive personality--no matter what endeavor, I would take things to the extreme, whether sexual, political, religious, economic, etc. Eldridge Cleaver was a similar personality. No matter what he engaged in, he gave his all, whether criminality, study or self education, right or left wing politics, religious endeavors and especially his sexual fantasies.

But as per myself, upon closer examination, I concluded my sexual energy was in reality creative energy that I was wasting in carnality. And yet the sexual energy was the catalyst for my creativity. In short, after sex, I was full of energy and ready to get out of bed to write late into the night. In despair, my lover would cry, "Where are you going?" Sadly and tragi-comically, all the time we were making love I was thinking about a poem!

Well, we learn in recovery that the chemicals that make us high are already in the brain cells, certain activity releases them and we feel "high." Drugs, dancing, sex, walking, cigaretts, all release the chemicals that get us "loaded." Sex was thus the drug that ignited my creative impluse.

My friends could not understand why I didn't want or need cocaine back in the day when sniffing was en vogue. But I was naturally speeding, so what could cocaine do for me? The coke needed to catch up with me! I preferred weed to calm me down. But only when I became older and my sexual urge declined somewhat that my creative energy soared, to the degree that I preferred being creative rather than making love, although I still like pussy, but I'm full of "sex guilt" for wasting so much of my life pursuing sex when I should have been more creative and productive, not to mention the twelve years as a dope fiend on Crack.

Rather than twenty books, I should have written fifty or a hundred by now. I got stuck in the pussy and in relationships, including marriages, trying to be somebody's lover, partner and husband. I do not think I was ever a lover, partner or husband. I pretended to be and did a pitiful and miserable job of it. Ask my ex-lovers! I was no huband or father, didn't give a damn about any of that, only on the surface, but in the deep structure of my mind was the creative impulse, overriding everything else to the degree that I should have never married, although I do appreciate the women and children in my life. How they tolerated me, I don't know.

Mama said I was not the type of man she would have around her. And she said I definitely did not need a wife, maybe a secretary, maid and mistress, but not a wife. Maybe she recognized my creative essence and could see I was good for nothing else.

I have come to agree with her. We know Mom's always right. Of course I ignored her and got married numerous times, and all my marriages failed, simply because my mind wasn't there. It was up in the sky or somewhere. And so the failures were all my fault, the women were almost perfect in their love, loyalty and royal treatment of me. I am probably one of the most spoiled men in the world. Women should not spoil a man, only if they get reciprocity or get spoiled in return. How ironic that my favorite song is Nature Boy with the line, "The greatest thing you will ever learn is to love and be loved in return." What a wonderful lesson, and yet what relevance does it have for the creative personality?

I am willing to love, yet the creative urge dominates. At this point, does it matter if I love or not. In the end, does it matter if am remembered as a loving partner or husband, or will not the ultimate question be, "Did he get his life's work accomplished?" Does the world--not that we should be overly concerned with the world--give a damn about my personal life or my creative life? There are those who can't stand me as a person but love my creativity. Do we give a damn about how Miles Davis treated his women, or do we love and cherish the music of Miles Davis?

-- From The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Marvin X, BBP, 2010.

The Black Arts Movement, East Coast/West Coast

Lannan Podcasts » Amiri Baraka with Marvin X

Sun Ra and the Black Arts Theatre

"America, the Devil don't even want you--you not even suitable for hell!"--Sun Ra






Happy Birthday Sun Ra

Herman Poole Blount was born on May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, Planet Earth. Sun Ra was interested in music from an early age and by the time he was eleven he was able to sight read and compose music on piano. Growing up in Birmingham allowed him to catch famous Jazz musicians traveling through including Flecther Henderson, Duke Ellington and Fats Waller.

In his teens Sun Ra was able to listen to a big band perform and go home and write full transcriptions of the performance by ear and also began playing professionally as a teen. At the age of ten Sun Ra joined the Knights of Pythias and would remain with the group through high school.

This Masonic Lodge provided him to unlimited access to books and their books on Freemasonry and other subjects of the like influenced him heavily. In high school Ra studied with music teacher John T "Fess" Whatley who had a reputation for producing many great musicians. In 1934 Sun Ra began playing professionally full time with a former teacher named Ethel Harper and after she left the group Sun took over and called it the Sonny Blount Orchestra.

In 1936 Ra was awarded a scholarship to attend Alabama Agriculture and Mechanical University and studied music for one year before having an experience that would change the course of his life.


In 1937 during deep meditation Sun Ra briefly left this planet and traveled to Saturn and received important information about his path. In his own words, "… my whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself. And I went up … I wasn't in human form … I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn … they teleported me and I was down on [a] stage with them.

They wanted to talk with me. They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to me. They told me to stop [attending college] because there was going to be great trouble in schools … the world was going into complete chaos … I would speak [through music], and the world would listen. That's what they told me." Following this experience Sun Ra returned to Birmingham and worked frantically within music and reformed the Sonny Blount Orchestra which was well received in the area.

In the early 1940s Sun Ra was drafted in U.S. Military but was very much against war and killing which led to him being placed in jail for his beliefs. After being released in 1943 Ra returned home before moving north to Chicago.

In Chicago Ra began working with singer Wynonie Harris and made his recording debut in 1946 on the singles 'Dig This Boogie/Lightning Struck the Poorhouse' and 'My Baby's Barrelhouse/Drinking By Myself'. In 1946 Ra was hired by Fletcher Henderson to play piano and arrange music for the band and in 1948 performed in a trio with Coleman Hawkins and Stuff Smith.

Living in Chicago also influenced Ra and he was very interested in the city's many Egyptian style buildings and continued educating himself with books like "Stolen Legacy" written by George G.M. James. In 1952 Sun Ra formed the Space Trio with Tommy Hunter and Pat Patrick and also legally changed him name to Le Sony'r Ra. Soon John Gilmore and Marshall Allen would join the band and some other members during this period in Chicago would include James Spaulding, Von Freeman and Julian Priester.

Also in the 1950s Ra met Alton Abraham who would become his good friend, business manager and shared similar interests and beliefs as Ra. Sun Ra and Abraham also printed pamphlets and would hand them on the street about their beliefs and many of these can be read in the book "The Wisdom of Sun Ra: Sun Ra's Polemical Broadsheets and Streetcorner Leaflets" published in 2006.

Some of the Arkestra's recordings from the 1950s include 'Sound Sun Pleasure', 'Sun Song', 'Sound of Joy', 'Angels and Demons at Play' and 'We Travel the Spaceways'.


In 1961 the Arkestra moved to New York City and was able to find a regular gig at Slug's Saloon. This helped spread Sun Ra's popularity and for the most part he was well received. Though Ra would still experience hecklers from time but did receive support and encouragement from some very notable Jazz musicians including Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. The building the band lived in New York was sold in 1968 and a result they relocated to the Germantown section of Philadelphia and that would be their home base till the end and were known as very good neighbors due to their friendliness and drug free living. Sun Ra was a major influence on the Black Arts Movement and worked with Amiri Baraka's Black Arts Repertory Theatre in Harlem.

Marvin X performed with him in Harlem and later in Philly. Marvin became a disciple after interviewing Sun Ra for five hours at his Morton Street home.

Also in '68 Sun Ra toured the West Coast for the first time and even followers of the Greatful Dead would have altering experiences listening to Sun Ra. This tour led to Ra being featured on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine in 1969. The Arkestra began touring Europe in 1970 and was very well received and in 1971 Ra fulfilled one of his dreams by performing with his band at the pyramids in Egypt.

Also in 1971 Sun Ra was became the artist-in-residence at University of California, Berkeley and taught a course called "The Black Man In the Cosmos." Some of the required reading for this course included the Book of the Dead, Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons and The Book of Oahspe and the works of Madame Blavatsky and Henry Dumas.

During his tenure at UC Berkeley, Sun Ra worked at Marvin X's Your Black Educational Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore District. Sun Ra arranged music for Marvin X's Take Care of Business, the musical version of his first play Flowers for the Trashman. They performed a five hour concert (no intermission) at San Francisco's Harding Theatre, a fifty person production with Choreographers Ellendar Barnes and Raymond Sawyer dance troups. Marvin was in disbelief when Sun Ra told him he would be lecturing in Black Studies at UC Berkeley, especially since Gov. Ronald Reagan had banned him from teaching at Fresno State University in 1969, the same year he banned Angela Davis from teaching at UCLA. Marvin X was hired to teach journalism and theatre, producing a myth-ritual dance drama entitled Resurrection of the Dead.

In the mid and late '70s the Arkestra would perform locally in Philadelphia giving free concerts in a local park on the weekends and also had a stint as the house band at the Squat Theater in New York City in 1979.

Sun Ra and his Arkestra continued playing and recording in the 1980s and 1990s and Ra was well known as a part of Philadelphia by this time. He would often be a guest on local radio and give lectures locally as well. In 1990 Ra suffered a stroke but still continued to compose and perform until leaving this planet in 1993. Sun Ra leaves a legacy on this planet as a visionary artist dedicated beyond all else to convince mankind to face the fact they need to change their destructive and greedy ways as well as repair the self worth of African-Americans after the unimaginable abuse they have been through. Musically, Ra pushed any boundaries into oblivion as his musical imagination could not fit into any type of category or box. Sun Ra was one of the first in Jazz to use electronics and introduce the idea of collective free form improvisation. Ra's music and mythology has inspired so many people to not only develop themselves mentally and physically, but to explore the unknown and evolve spiritually.

"It's better to deal with the people who have intuition now. You see, they don't know what they're doing. The ones who do know what they're doing, haven't proven anything."
"Because everything that's unknown is part of the myth. And I'm sure that the myth can do more for humanity than anything they ever dreamed possible." - Sun Ra

The Differences

Sometimes in the amazing ignorance
I hear things and see things
I never knew I saw and heard before
Sometimes in the ignorance
I feel the meaning
Invincible invisible wisdom,
And I commune with intuitive instinct
With the force that made life be
And since it made life be
It is greater than life
And since it let extinction be
It is greater than extinction.
I commune with feelings more than
prayer
For there is nothing else to ask for
That companionship is
And it is superior to any other is.
Sometimes in my amazing ignorance
Others see me only as they care to see
I am to them as they think
According the standard I should not be
And that is the difference between I and them
Because I see them as they are to is
And not the seeming isness of the was.
--Sun Ra

Marvin X on Sun Ra



Happy earth day, Sun Ra, no matter where you are in the spirit world of the universe.You are the Supreme Prophet of our First Poet's Church. RA! RA! RA! We forever love you and praise you for teaching us how to submit to leadership or what is also known as discipline. This is the most crucial lesson for North American Africans, learning to submit and thus respect leadership. But of course the leader must be highly disciplined himself, above his carnal nature and focused on his/her spiritual mission, in service of the Creator God.

All artists, poets, writers, musicians, theatre persons, must learn the Sun Ra method of creative discipline, a holistic approach to life in the arts, how to bring all the genres together into a whole mythological order through creative ritual. And this includes a melting of art and audience, what we called Ritual Theatre. Sun Ra taught us all how to ritualize theatre by breaking down that wall and destroying the comfort of the audience, yet making them one with the myth/ritual moment in time and space.

Sun Ra demonstrated the eternity of time, beyond the finite into the everlastingness of it all. And so we are indeed the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists, updating our ancestors for the present time and eternity.--Marvin XPrime MinisterFirst Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists5/22/11http://www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com/

Shakespeare and Chauncey Bailey

Chauncey Bailey: A Shakespearan Tragedy

On one level, the Chauncey Bailey assassination can be best understood by recalling the drama of classic Shakespeare, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear. Many of his plays dealt with succession rights/rites, often involving themes of jealousy, envy, greed and power. Of course these are general themes of humanity, but the man known as Shakespeare wrote about these matters better than others before and after him. In Othello we find a man duped by his friend and advisor, Iago, so confused by the tricknology of Iago that the great Moorish warrior killed his beloved wife Desdemona, then took his own life.

Paul Robeson as Othello, the tragic Moor.

We can see the parallel in the Chauncey murder. The king dies and there is the fight over which of his twenty sons (there are twenty daughters as well, but this is a patriarchy) shall succeed him. One of the several mothers is determined she and her children should control the empire, but another mother feels the same and moves to secure the throne for her son (s). The first son dies mysteriously in a car-jacking. Her next in line takes over the throne.

Meanwhile, the man who was a dear friend of the king receives information about the succession battle, a piece of dirt that was, for the most part, already public information. But the messenger was sent by his mother-in-law, knowing the message would incite anger in the successor to the throne who was not of her bloodline.

When the message is delivered it is overheard by a former co-wife who immediately relays it to her friend, the wife or widow, whose son has seized control. Apparently she tells her son, the new king, who goes into a rage at his father's friend, not realizing he has been set up by the co-wife who sent the message by her son-in-law.

Iago, Murder under the color of law

Also, the new king's advisor, call him Iago, has deep resentment for the old king's friend, for the friend knows Iago is a devil and has been seeking information to expose him. Iago figures he can dispose of his nemesis by encouraging the boy-king to murder his father's dear friend.

Knowing the boy-king is a hot head, Iago (OPD), suggests the plan and it is carried out. He convinces the boy-king he will go free after his dastardly deed, for Iago claims special powers under the color of law. The boy-king is convinced he can commit innumerable crimes because he is under the protection of Iago. He truly believes Iago can get him out of any situation. Yet Iago has his own motivation for inspiring murder, to stop the old king's friend from a possible exposure of his dark deeds that, now involve the boy-king: money laundering, fencing, drug dealing, homicide, prostitution, etc. The boy-king is in too deep, even after considering that his father had a deep relationship with the man he must now dispose.

The co-wife, now widow, had no idea things would get out of hand but she felt entitled to the empire and was not about to settle for her sister-wife inheriting everything.

After the assassination of the old king's friend, Iago takes control of the crime scene, gathers selected evidence and a confession. He refuses to question eye-witnesses at the crime scene for they are irrelevant, he has accomplished his mission, or shall we say his patsy has.

The boy-king soon realizes he has been set up from two sides, the co-wife and Iago, for different reasons. He realizes his deed has caused the death of his father's friend and the possible death of himself by hanging.

Iago is in the corner laughing, yet worried his mentee may one day disclose all the dirty deeds he was asked to perform for Iago, hence Iago is not home free yet. Now he must configure a way to silence the boy-king. Stay tuned.

--Marvin X, Prime Minister of Poetry,

First Poet's Church of the Latter Day Egyptian Revisionists

http://www.firstpoetschurch.blogspot.com/

Marvin X received his B.A. and M.A. in English from San Francisco State University. One of his professors was novelist John Gardner who took Marvin's first play Flowers for the Trashman to the Drama department and they produced it while he was an undergrad. Marvin co-founded Black Arts West Theatre, 1966, with playwright Ed Bullins, and a short time later co-founded the Black House with Eldridge Cleaver., 1967.

Marvin X is the author of thirty books, eight in the last year. He is one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and cosidered the father of Muslim American literature (Dr. Mohja Kahf). Bob Holman calls him the USA's Rumi. Ishmael Reed says he is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland. From time to time he writes in the Oakland Post Newspaper, but most of his writings are on his twenty blogs on the Internet. He is editing an anthology of essays on the assassination of his friend Chauncey Bailey.

www.theblackchaunceybaileyproject.blogspot.com