One of the important but lesser-known poets and playwrights who set the tone for the socially committed black arts movement of the 1960s, Marvin X is highly respected as a poet, performer, and organizer and has had his work (much of which has also been anthologized) published in important journals such as Journal of Black Poetry , Negro Digest, Soulbook, and Black Scholar. His play Flowers for the Trashman (also known as Take Care of Business ) was enormously popular and frequently performed by the network of black arts community theaters across the country from the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s. He has taught black studies at California State University in Fresno (1969) and later at the University of California, Berkeley (1972). Also in 1972 he received a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Marvin X was born Marvin Ellis Jackmon, the son of Owendell and Marian...