muqtedar khan's resignation

In another kind of "declaration of independence", Muqtedar Khan recently resigned from the board of the PMUNA (Progressive Muslim Union of North America). Hopefully it will stimulate the growth and development of a Progressive Muslim movement which is both, genuinely progressive and genuinely Islamic. Here is his letter of resignation:

Dear Omid (Safi)

Assalamu Alaykum,

Lately I have found the environment with Progressive Muslims Union extremely oppressive, abusive and hateful. I have found both PMU and MWU extremely intolerant of difference and disagreement. This is the only Muslim group where people who believe in the teachings of the Quran are ridiculed and those who express ambivalence about it even about the existence of God are celebrated.

But lately the culture of takfir and the absolutely lack of basic adab and simple etiquette that is becoming a defining characteristic of PMU has become suffocating.I have been extremely critical of many Muslim organizations, specially ISNA, AMSS and CAIR organizations that are routinely ridiculed by PMU members who feel that they are morally superior to all Muslims -- both in private and in writing but have never, ever been abused by any of them and most importantly never ever been made to feel that I do not belong.

It should not be a great loss to PMU. Even though I was member of the advisory board for a year, I was never consulted even once on any of its decisions. The advisory board never met even once and we never even had a single meeting with the executive committee. It is a sham anyway.

My close interaction with PMU has taught me three things, (1) that clearly I am not sufficiently indifferent to the teachings of Quran and the traditions of the Islamic heritage to be a "good Progressive Muslim"; (2) I was too gullible to believe in its empty claims of openness and tolerance for different perspectives. And (3) I have also learned that I am completely opposite in nature to most of the members of PMU. For example I believe that a rational argument precedes the moral judgment.

PMU is operating with a set of moral principles randomly acquired from Marxism and/or postmodern cultural trends and is treating them as absolutely moral truths, and are now looking for arguments [hopefully with some Islamic content] to justify them. PMU members unleash fanatical rage when this is questioned and resort to abuse, distortion, false accusations as a substitute to argument.

I can understand, sympathize and participate in exercises of Ijtihad that seek to reassess "human understanding" of Islam. I have been advocating this for over a decade. My website Ijtihad was launched in 1999. But not to observe Islamic values after recognizing them as such to me is a sin. I cannot for example in good conscience approve of alcohol consumption by those who acknowledge it as forbidden. To demand that I do so in order to remain a member of the community is exactly the kind of oppression that I though we had come together to fight.

I have been very prolific in presenting my views and opinions on myriad things Islamic or otherwise and hence there is very little about my politics that can be claimed to remain unknown. So when PMU invited me to join the advisory board, it was with full knowledge of my positions, so why the uproar now over my refusal to toe the party line. I have never, ever, hesitated from expressing my views and dissenting with any majority in every organization that I have worked with. But, the extent of intolerance that I have experienced from members of PMU has been shockingly unexpected and unprecedented. I have come to this sad realization that PMU's moral claims on social justice and tolerance and the "big tent approach" are shallow and indeed false. PMU is just another organization as intolerant and closed as any in our society.

Please liberate me from the oppressive and intolerant culture of PMU and accept my resignation from the advisory board with immediate effect.

Your Brother in IslamMuqtedar KhanM. A. Muqtedar Khan, Ph.D.

Director of International StudiesChair, Political Science Department, Adrian CollegeNon-Resident Fellow, Brookings InstitutionTel: 517-264-3949URL: http://www.glocaleye.orgURL: http://www.ijtihad.org

"patriotism" is a way of saying "women and children first"

More food for thought on the Fourth of July: This isn't critical in the same way as my other "holiday" entries. This is from a speech called "The Pragmatics of Patriotism" by Robert Heinlein (yes the science fiction author) and he actually gives a really thoughtful way to think about these moral questions. :

I now define "moral behavior" as "behavior that tends toward survival." I won't argue with philosophers or theologians who choose to use the word "moral" to mean something else, but I do not think anyone can define "behavior that tends toward extinction" as being "moral" without stretching the word "moral" all out of shape.

Selfishness is the bedrock on which all moral behavior starts and it can be immoral only when it conflicts with a higher moral imperative. An animal so poor in spirit that he won't even fight on his own behalf is already an evolutionary dead end; the best he can do for his breed is to crawl off and die, and not pass on his defective genes.

The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for your own immediate family. This is the level at which six pounds of mother cat can be so fierce that she'll drive off a police dog. It is the level at which a father takes a moonlighting job to keep his kids in college —and the level at which a mother or father dives into a flood to save a drowning child… and it is still moral behavior even when it fails.

Evolution is a process that never stops. Baboons who fail to exhibit moral behavior do not survive; they wind up as meat for leopards.

The next level in moral behavior higher than that exhibited by the baboon is that in which duty and loyalty are shown toward a group of your own kind too large for an individual to know all of them. We have a name for that. It is called "patriotism."

Behaving on a still higher moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their actions tend toward the survival of the entire race of mankind.

[...]

Men are expendable; women and children are not. A tribe or a nation can lose a high percentage of its men and still pick up the pieces and go on… as long as the women and children are saved. But if you fail to save the women and children, you've had it, you're done, you're through! You join Tyrannosaurus Rex, one more breed that bilged its final test.

I first read this speech many many years ago but his way of grounding even very altruistic acts of sacrifice on survival of the fittest is rather compelling and its something that I've found myself thinking about over and over again. An interesting consequence is that even sacrifices made for Pan-Latino, Pan-African, Islamic causes would be considered "patriotism" under Heinlein's definition. The important thing is to make efforts for a cause larger than yourself.

what to the slave is the fourth of july?

This is a talk delivered by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852.

To check out the whole speech read the above link, but here is an exerpt (which is oddly modern for being over 150 years old):

Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work The downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly heard on the other. The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God."

"asalam-alaikum , akhi. could you get me a lottery ticket?"

i just had a weird experience. I was at a gas station tonight to put gas in my car. But the person in front of me in line (African-American) goes up to the guy at the register (probably Arab) and says:

"Asalam-alaikum, akhi. Could you get me a lottery ticket?"

He then haggles a little about the price of the ticket pointing out that the tickets are cheaper across the street. Then when the man receives his lottery ticket, he makes a point of saying "Shukran". But then when the Arab man says "your welcome" or something else in English, the first guy makes a point of saying that he should say afwan. Then he gives his salams and quickly leaves with his lottery ticket.

I don't mean to be judgemental and I wouldn't even claim that my own life is necessarily free from equally dramatic inconsistencies. But I'm not interested in turning this blog into a confessional where I tell on myself, at least not for the moment. All I'm saying is that the above exchange was really striking and I thought I'd share.

black loyalists

Here is another early "fourth of July" entry.

Just recently a good Black friend of mine told me that his family had cottage in Canada. And that every year they had a tradition of going there for the fourth of July. Go figure.

Anyway, it seems like a couple hundred years ago there were thousands of Black folks who had the same idea. I need to double-check to make sure that I'm remembering this correctly but I seem to recall seeing a historical special on tv which actually made the claim that MOST Blacks in the American colonies were Loyalists (pro-British) during the American revolution. They realized that the American revolution wasn't being fought for their freedom, and the British were offering land, freedom and security to Blacks who joined them... and according to some sources, hundreds of thousands took them up on it. Many of them ultimately settled in Canada. Check it out.

The Black Loyalist Heritage Society webpage

Another Black Loyalist Homepage

A page on Black Loyalists from the The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies

inside the river of poetry

Louis Reyes Rivera traces the origins of modern poetry and spoken word, with special attention to the Latino and Black contributors to the form.

for the fourth of july

I guess I'm in a pre-holiday kinda mood

From Malcolm X's Message to the Grassroots

(another site with text and audio)

Look at the American Revolution in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out?Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of independence. And the only way they could get it was bloodshed. The French Revolution -- what was it based on? The land-less against the landlord. What was it for? Land. How did they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost; was no compromise; was no negotiation. I'm telling you, you don't know what a revolution is. 'Cause when you find out what it is, you'll get back in the alley; you'll get out of the way. The Russian Revolution -- what was it based on? Land. The land-less against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed. And you're afraid to bleed. I said, you're afraid to bleed.

[As] long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls be murdered, you haven't got no blood. You bleed when the white man says bleed; you bite when the white man says bite; and you bark when the white man says bark. I hate to say this about us, but it's true. How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you were in Korea? How can you justify being nonviolent in Mississippi and Alabama, when your churches are being bombed, and your little girls are being murdered, and at the same time you're going to violent with Hitler, and Tojo, and somebody else that you don't even know?

If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it's wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it's wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.

more on negrismo

A brief page on negrismo (mostly in Spanish)

negrismo curriculum guide

Here is a resource meant for Spanish teachers who want to do something in their classroom for Black history month. It includes an overview of the negrismo movement, gives background for several different countries, describes possible classroom activities and has a useful bibliography.

memin pinguin

Without making any apologies for the Mexican government, I would say that they are probably being sincere in not seeing the Memin Pinguin stamps as offensive. The Negrismo movement (the Latin American black consciousness movement which coincided with the Negritude movement in the Francophone black world) such as it was, was centered more in the Caribbean (especially Cuba and Puerto Rico) and not so much in places like Mexico. And even in those areas of Latin America with high concentrations of blacks, history tended to move along a path somewhat different from the political/social/cultural movements exemplified by the civil rights/Black power struggle in the United States.

In some respects, Latin America is more racially inclusive than the United States. But in other respects, many in Latin America are not as "conscious" or sensitive to the sorts of slights which bother folks in the US. What's weird about the recent issue with the stamps is that it is not clear to me what the Afro-Mexicans feel about the situation.
It is clear that civil rights groups in the US are stirred up about the issue, but I wonder if the stamps are really the most important issue on the Afro-Mexican agenda (if there even is one). Maybe they have bigger fish to fry?

the mexican stamp controversy

Mexico recently issues a series of stamps based on Memin Pinguin, a popular black comic-book character drawn with features reminiscent of Jim Crow era pickaninny caricatures.

Najee Ali of Project Islamic H.O.P.E. is among the coalition of civil-rights activists who are condemning the stamps as racist.

The series of five stamps released for general use Wednesday depicts a child character from a comic book started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico.

The boy, hapless but lovable, is drawn with exaggerated features, thick lips and wide-open eyes. His appearance, speech and mannerisms are the subject of kidding by white characters in the comic book.

Activists said the stamp was offensive, though officials denied it.

"One would hope the Mexican government would be a little more careful and avoid continually opening wounds," said Sergio Penalosa, an activist in Mexico's smal black community on the southern Pacific coast.

"But we've learned to expect anything from this government, just anything," Penalosa said. In May, Fox riled many by saying that Mexican migrants take jobs in the United States that "not even blacks" want.

Fox expressed regret for any offense the remarks may have caused, but insisted his comments had been misinterpreted.

Carlos Caballero, assistant marketing director for the Mexican Postal Service, said the stamps are not offensive, nor were they intended to be.

"This is a traditional character that reflects part of Mexico's culture," Caballero said. "His mischievous nature is part of that character."

However, Penalosa said many Mexicans still assume all blacks are foreigners, despite the fact that at one point early in the Spanish colonial era, Africans outnumbered Spanish in Mexico.

"At this point in time, it was probably pretty insensitive" to issue the stamp, said Elisa Velazquez, an anthropologist who studies Mexico's black communities for the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

"This character is a classic, but it's from another era," Velazquez said. "It's a stereotype and you don't want to encourage ignorance or prejudices."

The 6.50-peso (60 cent) stamps -- depicting the character in five poses -- was issued with the domestic market in mind, but Caballero noted it could be used in international postage as well.

A total of 750,000 of the stamps will be issued.

Ben Vinson, a black professor of Latin American history at Penn State University, said he has been called "Memin Pinguin" by some people in Mexico. He also noted that the character's mother is drawn to look like an old version of the U.S. advertising character Aunt Jemima.

The stamps are part of a series that pays tribute to Mexican comic books. Memin Pinguin, the second in the series, was apparently chosen for this year's release because it is the 50th anniversary of the company that publishes the comic.

Publisher Manelick De la Parra told the government news agency Notimex that the character would be sort of a goodwill ambassador on Mexican letters and postcards. "It seems nice if Memin can travel all over the world, spreading good news," de la Parra said, calling him "so charming, so affectionate, so wonderful, generous and friendly."


Source CNN

ali shariati

I remember a long time ago (even before I was Muslim) I was reading about existentialism and how Sartre and Camus were atheist existentialists. And Kierkegard was a Protestant existentialist. And Marcel was a Catholic existentialist. And that Buber in some sense might have been a Jewish existentialist. And so of course the natural question was: What would Islamic existentialism look like? Even now, there are some features of existentialist thought which are appealing to me, but not enough for me to sign up for a membership card. And I think few Muslims would even be motivated to call themselves "Muslim existentialists" even if the label fit.(It would probably be seen as sectarian and assimilationist) In any case, to be honest, I still don't think I have a good answer to my question.

Fanon himself was strongly influenced by the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. In fact, Sartre wrote the preface to Wretched of the Earth. Fanon, was from Martinique but of course he ultimately went to Algeria to participate in the revolution in that particular Muslim country.

Sartre was also an admirer Ali Shariati, one of the intellectual architects of the Iranian revolution, of whom he said: "I have no religion, but if I were to choose one, it would be that of Shariati's."

Here is the "official" Shariati website (whatever that means) which contains a sampling of his writings and speeches, a biography and many other resources.

recalling frantz fanon

Recent events have made me want to go back to reading Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. The brother was a genius. Or at least he had a deep and far-ranging analysis of the ways in which white supremacy drives both black folks and white folks crazy. The style is sometimes hard to follow in the sense that he doesn't give us a systematic explanation or perspective. Instead, he presents the reader with flashes of experiences. And if you see yourself in them, fine. If you don't see yourself in them, that's fine too.

The way he puts it:

Many Negroes will not find themselves in what follows. This is equally true of many whites. But the fact that I feel a foreigner in the worlds of the schizophrenic or the sexual cripple in no way diminishes their reality. The attitudes that I propose to describe are real. I have encountered them innumerable times.

His other main work, Wretched of the Earth also deals with some of the same questions, except in the context of a national resistance movement against colonial oppression (the Algerian Revolution).

Some Quotes from Black Skin, White Masks

Some excerpts from Wretched of the Earth and related literature

piri thomas

Here is Piri Thomas' website
Actually, Down These Mean Streets was in certain respects as important to me as the Autobiography of Malcolm X. One of the more bizzare and striking passages in the book is when he and his brother argue about whether or not they are black. If I have more time I might quote the passage in another entry.

I"ve met Piri a couple of times. The first time was in college when I was active in the campus Latino student organization and I did alot of the coordination work to bring him on campus. The second time I was just in the audience at one of his "flows" and walked and talked with him a little bit afterwards.

nigger-reecan blues by willie perdomo

A long time ago, I remember seeing a show on PBS which showed various short art films or otherwise avant-garde performances. And on one episode of this show, I caught a film of Willie Perdomo doing "Nigger-Reecan" blues. I think it blew my mind to find out that there was someone out there who could relate to race in anywhere near the same way that I could. It's kind of funny from a certain point of view. In terms of my personal life, I think the poem was very much an important catalyst for me riding an entire train of thought. But now when I look back to the original poem, it doesn't impress me the way it once did. At one time, I very much needed to hear it, but right now I'm at a different place.

Nigger-Reecan Blues
Willie Perdomo (for Piri Thomas)


Hey, Willie. What are you, man?
No, silly. You know what I mean: What are you?
I am you. You are me. We the same. Can't you feel our veins drinking the
same blood?
-But who said you was a Porta Reecan?
-Tu eres Puerto Riqueno, brother.
-Maybe Indian like Gandhi Indian.
-I thought you was a Black man.
-Is one of your parents white?
-You sure you ain't a mix of something like
-Portuguese and Chinese?
-Naaaahhh. . .You ain't no Porta Reecan.
-I keep telling you: The boy is a Black man with an accent.
If you look closely you will see that your spirits are standing right next to
our songs. You soy Boricua! You soy Africano! I ain't lyin'. Pero mi pelo es
kinky y kurly y mi skin no es negra pero it can pass. ..
-Hey, yo. I don't care what you say - you Black.
I ain't Black! Everytime I go downtown la madam blankeeta de madesson
avenue sees that I'm standing right next to her and she holds her purse just
a bit tighter. I can't even catch a taxi late at night and the newspapers say
that if I'm not in front of a gun, chances are that I'll be behind one. I wonder
why. . .
-Cuz you Black, nigger.
I ain't Black, man. I had a conversation with my professor. Went like this:
-Where are you from, Willie?
-I'm from Harlem.
-Ohh! Are you Black?
-No, but-
-Do you play much basketball?
Te lo estoy diciendo, brother. Ese hombre es un moreno!
Miralo!
Mira yo no soy moreno! I just come out of Jerry's Den and the
coconut
spray off my new shape-up sails around the corner, up to the Harlem
River and off to New Jersey. I'm lookin' slim and I'm lookin' trim
and when my homeboy Davi saw me, he said: "Como, Papo. Te
parece como
un moreno, brother. Word up, bro. You look like a stone black
kid."
-I told you - you was Black.
Damn! I ain't even Black and here I am sufferin' from the young
Black man's plight/the old whtie man's burden/and I ain't even
Black, man/a Black man/I am not/Boricua I am/ain't never really
was/Black/like me. . .

-Leave that boy alone. He got the Nigger-Reecan Blues
I'm a Spic!
I'm a Nigger!
Spic! Spic! No different than a Nigger!
Neglected, rejected, oppressed and depressed
From banana boats to tenements
Street gangs to regiments. . .
Spic! Spic! I ain't nooooo different than a Nigger.

30 days - "muslim like me"

Morgan Spurlock, the creator of Supersize Me, has recently created a show for FX called 30 days where the premise is that he would follow an individual who would be put into a radically new situation, and the cameras would follow this person for a 30 day period to see what they learned.

Tonight's episode is supposed to show, evangelical Christian, David Stacy as he lives with a Pakistani and sees what it is like to be Muslim for 30 days.

Debbie Schlussel (who seems like an Ann Coulter clone in certain respects) has written a piece trashing the episode accusing Spurlock of having Islamist leanings (?) but if you look at the rest of her archives it is pretty clear that Schlussel's world view is basically distorted by antipathy towards Muslims. So it is not surprising that she would be motivated to discount anything which showed Muslims in a positive light.

In any case, the show should be interesting.

the sword of damocles

There once was a king whose name was Dionysius. He was so unjust and cruel that he won himself the name of tyrant. He knew that almost everybody hated him, and so he was always in dread lest some one should take his life.

But he was very rich, and he lived in a fine palace where there were many beautiful and costly things, and he was waited upon by a host of servants who were always ready to do his bidding. One day a friend of his, whose name was Damocles, said to him
-"How happy you must be! You have here everything that any man could wish."
"Perhaps you would like to trade places with me," said the tyrant.
"No, not that, O king!" said Damocles; "but I think that, if I could only have your riches and your pleasures for one day, I should not want any greater happiness."
"Very well," said the tyrant. "You shall have them."

And so, the next day, Damocles was led into the palace, and all the servants were bidden to treat him as their master. He sat down at a table in the banquet hall, and rich foods were placed before him. Nothing was wanting that could give him pleasure. There were costly wines, and beautiful flowers, and rare perfumes, and delightful music. He rested among soft cushions, and felt that he was the happiest man in all the world.

Then he chanced to raise his eyes toward the ceiling. What was it that was dangling above him, with it's point almost touching his head? It was a sharp sword, and it was hung by only a single horsehair. What if the hair should break? There was danger every moment that it would do so.

The smile faded from the lips of Damocles. His face became very pale. His hands trembled. He wanted no more food; he could drink no more wine; he took no more delight in the music. He longed to be out of the palace, and away, he cared not where.

"What is the matter?" said the tyrant.
"That sword! That sword!" cried Damocles. He was so badly frightened that he dared not move.
"Yes," said Dionysius, "I know there is a sword above your head, and that it may fall at any moment. But why should that trouble you? I have a sword over my head all the time. I am every moment in dread lest something may cause me to lose my life."
"Let me go," said Damocles.
"I now see that I was mistaken, and that the rich and powerful are not so happy as they seem. Let me go back to my old home in the poor little cottage amon the
mountains."

And so long as he lived, he never again wanted to be rich, or to change places with the king.

I like this story. I remember reading some version of it a long time ago, when I wore a younger man's underwear. For the longest time I just saw it as some kind of cautionary tale about the hidden risks and dangers which go along with power and authority. Then more recently I thought of it as a counter-revolutionary fable/myth, told to try to convince the people not to rise up against rich tyrants oppressing them.

But currently, in my own life, on a small scale, I've decided to accept my own seat under the sword so I'm trying to be more optimistic and hopeful. I'm trying not to be as gloomy or as cynical as the above interpretations suggest. Actually I think a more balanced and constructive approach to leadership is suggested by the following hadith from Bukhari:

Volume 9, Book 89, Number 261:
Narrated 'Abdur-Rahman bin Samura:
Allah's Apostle said, "O 'Abdur-Rahman bin Samura! Do not seek to be a ruler, for if you are given authority on your demand, you will be held responsible for it, but if you are given it without asking for it, then you will be helped (by Allah) in it. If you ever take an oath to do something and later on you find that something else is better, then do what is better and make expiation for your oath."

There are good ways to be a leader and bad ways. And maybe even the best leaders still get a sword dangling above their head, but maybe it's lighter? Or the thread is thicker? We'll see. Keep in me in your dua.

arabs in brazil

Here is an interesting piece about Arabs in Brazil. Apparently Brazil is the country with the most Arabs outside of the Middle East and many Arab-Brazilians have become an integral part of the society.

marvin x: first muslim american poet

Here is the preface, written by Dr. Mohja Kahf, for an upcoming book on Marvin X

louis reyes rivera

Here is an interview with Puerto Rican Afro-Latino poet, Louis Reyes Rivera from the Chickenbones: A journal website.

Known as the "Janitor of History," poet/essayist Louis Reyes Rivera has been studying his craft since 1960 and teaching it since 1969. The recipient of over 20 awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), a Special Congressional Recognition Award (1988), and the CCNY 125th Anniversary Medal (1973), Rivera has assisted in the publication of well over 200 books, including John Oliver Killens' Great Black Russian (Wayne State U., 1989), Adal Maldonado's Portraits of the Puerto Rican Experience (IPRUS, 1984), and Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Crown Publishers, 2001).

Considered by many as a necessary bridge between the African and Latino American communities, he is a professor of Pan-African, African-American, Caribbean and Puerto Rican literature and history whose essays and poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Areyto, Boletin, The City Sun, African Voices, and in five award-winning collections: In Defense of Mumia; ALOUD: Live from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Of Sons And Lovers, Bum Rush The Page, and his own Scattered Scripture.