I Grew up in Panther Town

by Craig 17X

aka:

Zahieb-Ab   When I was first “commissioned” to write this tome [tomb], I thought “Piece of cake”. It’s never been hard for me to remember the times and dates of all the trials and tribulations GOD alone has brought me through. All I have to do is see a headline, hear a lyric of a song, or pick up a menu and Bang! It all comes back to me as though it was happening right then.

 

Since I’ve been in this life people have been remarking about how “smart” I’m supposed to be. If only they knew the truth. I’m actually I’m more of an idiot savant. I’ve discovered that I’ve been possessed by certain quirks, powers as it were, that are kind of a birth right (birth defect?). A jack-of-many-trades, I have mastered one or two things in my time which have served me well. One of these quirks is the power of quick study and deductive reasoning. These tools have enabled me to display a maturity well beyond my years. As a young boy of 7 or 8 I was known as “mannish”. Then I was the young blood, all of 13 or 14 years old, hanging out at the Black Power Rallies. Then I’m 17 and married, hanging out with the pimps and pushers and whores and hustlers. Later I’m 19 hanging out in the bars with a 45 year old wannabe singer hanging on my arm, or at the coffee shop trying to spit poetics and polemics with old jazz men going through their midlife crises.

 

Sometimes it seems like I’ve have been here  “forever”. I’m kind of like a black Forrest Gump because, just like he was in the movie, I have “been there, done that and got the T-Shirt AND the mug (Actually, a lot of the things I’ve done I would do it again if the bullshit worked). Another of the gifts I’ve been imbued with is an understanding of the ‘theory of relativity’, and I don’t mean Einstein’s E=MC2.

 

What this gift enabled me to understand is that everybody is relative. I’m a people person, a zoon politikon. I rarely have met a person whom I couldn’t make an ally or whom I could not see redeeming qualities in. Part of this comes from the uniqueness of the time and place that I was born and grew up in. That special time of birth was October 4, 1956.

 

The 1950’s were limping to a close and America, though in the chilling grip of a cold war, would soon be literally on fire. One year before I was born, Emmit Till had been lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Twenty years later I would be arrested in Roseburg, Oregon for essentially the same thing.

 

What the hell do YOU care about my experiences? Would it matter if I were your step dad, even though I was only five years older than you were at the time your Mother and I were married? Answer? Reality is the dream we all share. There is no continuum, there is essentially what we agree is, was, and what is to come. And so we create this continuum through a recognition of our history, which is a reportage of certain events that have significance to those who want to remember, rejoice, or re-invent.

 

Which brings me to another of the gifts I have been blessed with. I am a Griot. What is the difference between a Griot and a poet? In the religion of Islam there are two books which believers rely on for their spiritual, mental, and social cues. The first is the Quran, of which even the uninitiated would be aware. The second is the Hadith or “Science of Tradition”. How does this relate to the differences between Griot and poet?

 

It is said that the very first thing that was revealed to the Prophet Muhammed were the words Iqraa. One interpretation of this word is Read which on a basic level is acceptable. However I’ve learned that the actual translation renders the word as more accurately meaning Recite.  This nuance speaks volumes when one considers that many at the time of the Prophet Muhammed, friend and foe alike considered him merely an epileptic poet. The dichotomy here is that Muhammed, as were the majority of those in his dispensation, was an unlettered man and so reading was generally not an option. Conversely, in order to recite one must internalize. The one who recites must do this from actual memory that is to say “from the heart”.

 

The “Science of Hadith” comes from the compiled written observances of what those around Muhammed witnessed of him. These Hadith are literal documentation of the many fascinating events surrounding the life of Muhammed during his quest to promulgate Islam. How might one perceive what is “real”? Through perception. How does one validate the efficacy of what has been perceived? Through replication.

 

I am a Griot then, in the sense that I am reciting, by memory, things that are of an historical nature. I hope these memories come across as plausible to the reader. I would be the first to admit that many of my experiences like many of the people I had these experiences with are bigger than life.  But that’s the thing. Reality is the dream we all share. If I just held on to the memories, I’d be merely a vessel; one which has held these things within myself for so long that, maybe, I would be giving them my own shape. I’d rather deliver these events like a river flowing, leaving the shape of where it is from, with the only embellishment being the boundaries of the perceiver who quenches his or her thirst with any part of it.

Enjoy.

(The following is the working Table of Contents)

Pimps, Players and Hustlers

1.     Ted Ward: The Ward Brothers – Pimping aint’ easy

2.     Felix Mitchell: Sleepy, King of The New Village

3.     Moochie Welch: Whup his ass Moochie

 

 

 

Poets, Revolutionaries and Pirates

 

1.     Huey P. Newton died for my sins

2.     Marvin X: The Traveler, my Brother

3.     Eldridge Cleaver: Papa Rage

4.     Other Panthers

 

Chance Meetings with Historical Characters

 

1.     Patty Hearst: Where’s Tanya?

2.     Ike Turner: My name ain’t Fishbone

3.     Sheila Escovido: I think she likes me

 

Rappers, Rippers and Robbers

 

1.     MC Hammer: Ain’t no Bank on High Street Boys

2.     Too Short: But you ain’t no pimp

3.     Drew Down, Ant Banks, The Luniz, Three X Crazy, Dru Down and Dangerous Dame: I remember how it all began

4.     The Whispers and Don Cornelius: When do we go on?

 

 

Honorable Mention

 

1.     The Women of my Life (by name, even)

      Leave a line for me and give me some feed back.