NEO•GRIOT

Lineup for May 15th Benefit for Black Bird Press

Is Marvin X a Parable or Fable? I doubt Marvin X exists! I double doubt there is a Plato Negro!

--Amiri Baraka
photo Kamau Amen Ra

Quite extraordinary! Who else in America publishes two and three books a year? Who else within the Black Community engages our folks daily to liberate themselves in real and cyberspace?
Congratulations! on your wondrous achievements.
--Rudolph Lewis, founding editor, Chickenbones, A Journal

The African American Museum Library

14th and Martin Luther King, Jr., downtown Oakland
presents
a benefit for Black Bird Press
celebrating the release of Marvin X's
The Wisdom of Plato Negro
Parables and Fables

Saturday, May 15, 2pm
Donation for book $100.00
(one hunid)
Admission to event:
free
(give a donation)

The Linda Johnson Dancers
will perform Parable of the
Woman in the Box. Alona Clifton will read.

Alona Clifton has 35 years of activism and engagement in political, social and economic grassroots efforts. Her activism centers on providing better access, opportunity, and equity to African Americans in particular and to the greater community as a whole. Her desire to be involved and to be an active participant in social justice was shaped in the movements of the 1960’s during her teenage years.

Paradise is a Bay Area living legend in poetry. His selection is Parable of the Penguin.

Author Timothy

Reed
will perform Parable
of the Pit bull. photo by
Kamau Amen Ra

August Collins will
open show. He was
recently inducted
in the the Blues
Hall of Fame and
signed with Sony.

San Francisco Bay View Newspaper writer,
professor Wanda Sabir will read Parable
of the Heart. photo by Kamau Amen Ra

Dr. J. Vern Cromartie is
chair of the Sociology Department
at

Contra Costa College. He is a
Marvin X scholar and student.
Parable of the Hustler will be his
contribution.

Geoffrey Grier

of San Francisco
Recovery Theatre will read Parable of the Poor Righteous Teacher.
Eugene Allen and Ptah Allah El will perform also.
photo by Kamau Amen Ra

Mr. James W. Sweeney
will read Parable of the
Preacher's Wife. Mr. Sweeney
is a long-time associate and adviser
to Marvin X.

Mechelle LaChaux, actress, singer, will perform Parable of the Cell Phone along with Baron Cope.

James Moore, Jr

. produces the Annual Kwanza Show in Oakland, among other produciton. He will read Parable of the Good Children.

Rasheeda Sabreen will perform material from

upcoming CD The Language of Love, her original
songs with poetry read by Marvin X. Rasheedah Sabreen has been singing as long as she has been talking. She received her first acoustic guitar at the age of fifteen. Rasheedah's creative expression includes singing, acoustic and electric guitar, dancing,visual art, and short story writing.

Ramal Lamar will read Parable of the Parrot. He is a math teacher and will obtain his M.A. in Logic from Cal State U. East bay in May. He is an associate of Academy of Da Corner.
photo by Kamau Amen Ra

Charlie Walker

,
author, businessman,
activist will read
The Parable of what right?
photo by Kamau Amen Ra

Reginald James will read the Parable of Black Man and Block Man. Reginald James is an independent journalist. He hosts the internet radio show, The Black Hour."

Hunia Bradley

is an educator/activist/actress. She will read Parable of the Woman at the Well.

Ayodele Nzingha

is a c0-founder of Recovery Theatre and established her own theatre in West Oakland, the Lower Bottom Playazs. Poet, playwright, director, actor, she is one of Marvin X's brightest students. Ayo will read The Parable of the Real Woman.
photo by Kamau Amen Ra

Malcolm Shabazz Hoover. Parable of the A Students
is his selection.

Academy of Da Corner Reader's Theatre

Tentative Program

Musical interlude, Augusta Collins
Greetings, Veda Silva
Biography of Author, Carolyn Mixon
The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Introduction by Ptah Allah El
Parable of Love, Marvin X
Parable of the Heart, Wanda Sabir
Parable of the Real Woman, Ayodele Nzingha
Parable of Black Man and Block Man, Reginald James
Parable of the Woman in the Box, Alona Clifton, choreography by Linda Johnson
Parable of the Penguin, Paradise
Parable of the Hustler, J. Vern Cromartie
Parable of what right? Charlie Walker
Parable of the Poor Righteous Teacher, Geoffery Grier
Parable of the Parrot, Ramal Lamar
Musical interlude, Rashidah Sabreen and Marvin X
Parable of the City of God, Rev. George Murray
Parable of the Cell Phone, Michelle LaChaux and Baron Cope
Parable of the Rooster and the Hen, Fuad Satterfield
Parable of the Pitbull, Timothy Reed
Parable of the Preacher's Wife, James W. Sweeney
Parable of the A Students, Ramona Massey
Parable of the Good Children, James Moore, Jr.
Parable of the Donkey, Gregory Fields
Parable of the Woman at the Well, Hunia Bradley
Parable of Desirelessness, Marvin X

Q and A
Book signing
Refreshments

This event is a project of the Academy of the Corner Reader's Theatre and Black Bird Press, in cooperation with San Francisco Recovery Theatre and the Lower Bottom Playaz.

Thanks to the African American Museum Library, Greg Bridges of KPFA radio, Terry Collins of KPOO radio, Paul Cobb of the Oakland Post, Wanda Sabir. Thanks to the crew documenting this event: photographers Gene Hazzard and Kamau Amen Ra; videographers Ken Johnson, Adam Turner and Khalid Wajjib and Gregory Fields.

If you can't attend the benefit, please order the book from Black Bird Press, 1222 Dwight Way, Berkeley CA 94702. $100.00 or send a donation ASAP.