Nazzam Al Fitnah / Marvin Jackmon [Marvin X]

The Black Revolutionary Poet & The Primitive Man [signed special edition]

[San Francisco]: Journal of Black Poetry, 1967. Cover photo by Ted Goncalves. The signed special edition, of 30, of this poetry broadside. Signed and stamped folded broadside (9 x 12 inches) housed in pictorially illustrated card wraps. Near fine.
An early signed poetry broadside from the influential Black liberation poet and playwright Marvin X [credited here as Nazzam Al Fitnah] – from the same year he cofounded with Eldridge Cleaver the “Black House,” a Black political and cultural center that was a central node in early Black Panther organizing. Item #10544

One of Marvin X’s final productions before fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft, the broadside includes The Black Revolutionary Poet (credited under his birth name Marvin Jackmon), a fiery manifesto on the role and function of the title subject; and the poem, The Primitive Man.

A key figure in the Black Arts movement, Marvin X attended Merritt College with Black Panther Party founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, where he introduced them to a young Eldridge Cleaver, with whom he co-founded the Black House, and who would go on to become the Minister of Propaganda for the group. The Black House, which existed for only a few years as a central place for Black arts and organizing was frequented by Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Hutton, and others; it was also the setting for the first meeting of BPP Minister of Culture Emory Douglas with founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

Scarce itself in its larger edition, copies of the thirty signed editions (with an extra folded leaf containing “The Primitive Man”, a red rubber stamping, and a pasted-on signature in Arabic) are nearly unknown on the market and in institutional holdings.

A remarkably rare artifact of Black revolutionary poetry at the birth of the Black Panther Party.

Price: $1,500.00