by Raymond Nat Turner
…be like Mike…
by Raymond Nat Turner
(For Michael Lange, teacher, mentor, friend, peer)
The quizzical look, the small
Gesture you taught me, made
All the difference in the world;
Made me, made John Brown’s Truth
Better, like the “Ballot or The Bullet”
Made the Million Worker March fund-
Raiser during ’04’s election charade
Better; like “What to the Slave Is the
Fourth of July” made our Frederick
Douglass Day /Alternative 4th of July
Celebrations better, for these reasons &
MORE:
I wanna be like Mike—
Practicing spiritual Aikido,
Becoming buff lifting others
Up, bodybuilding, building big
Big, warm, welcoming tents on
Towering plateaus of possitivity…
I wanna be like Mike—
Dream weaver spinning dramaturgical
Straw into gold, thespian talent into
Horace Silver/Wayne Shorter stage
Genius, super nova shining brightly
Between two Saturn-size shadows
I wanna be like Mike—
Times Square, off-Broadway,
Handling Town Biz, giving the Brit
Royal Shakespeare alum as good as
She gave, elongating our spines
I wanna be like Mike—
Black-Black, double Black,
Triple Black to the 3rd power,
Quoting Malcolm forwards,
Backwards, sidearm, overhand,
33, 45, 78, but not stuck like a
Hissing, popping needle in worn
60s grooves, with feats from
Yesteryear, repeating the
First three words of “Misty…”
Someday, not today,
I wanna be like Mike—
Great performance, fooling fans
Like me, an Ali ‘comeback’ V.
Holmes, I believed you’d upstage
Death, steal his scene, use it for
Redemption, use it to teach us to not
Fear, sanitize or gloss over your great
Antagonist with sticky, sweet, ‘transitions,’
‘Crossovers,’ like famous lines of a lion
In classic script; none of us, your adoring fans,
Really know where you go after this show,
All we really know is that you are answering
Our curtain call, bowing, basking, basking,
Bowing, in blinding light of tear refracted LOVE,
Solemn standing ovations, sustained applause…
Raymond Nat Turner © 2015 All Rights Reserved
Ann Garrison was invited to address the annual Eritrean Festival, which was held in Dallas. These are her remarks.
The elites who control international finance are the best educated people in the world. They are also the most dangerous and have inflicted the most harm.
Black August is the commemoration of actions carried out by revolutionaries ranging from Nat Turner to George Jackson. It is a month to "study, fast, train, and fight" to build the Black radical…
This week’s featured author is Maboula Soumahoro. Soumahoro is Associate Professor in the English department of the University of Tours. Her book is Black is the Journey, Africana the Name.
This week’s featured author is Jesse Olsavsky. Olsavsky is Assistant Professor of History at Duke Kunshan University in China.. His book is The Most Absolute Abolition: Runaways, Vigilance Committees…
