Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Friday?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
30 Nov 2017
🖨️ Print Article
Black Friday?
Black Friday?

Thought solemnity—
bowed heads, hands held,
streams of consciousness,
Blessings counted the day before:
Flowing water;
No rockets’ red glare; No
bombs
bursting
in
air
over
dead bird, cranberry,
pumpkin pie feasts was a prelude

Thought our ship came in,
Redressing ships making us
Sales
Thought it was about
Reparations—or 99%
demands on the way…

Thought it was about
Reparations—or at least—wild-eyed kinfolk
storming Wall Street, body-slamming,
beating down banksters and taking back
stolen Homes;
stampeding corporate headquarters,
snatching Single-Payer from
bloody hands of war profiteers;
wrenching Affordable Housing from
kleptocrats and lying politicians;
wrestling Boss Tweet to the
floor, pummeling he and torch
monkeys marauding the nation!

Next morning, glass cages
opened peculiar flashbacks:
Vaunted Negro buying-power on
fours—clawing for sweatshop shit…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist, You can find much more of his work at http://upsergejaz.com,

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Reese Piece…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Reese Piece…
15 April 2021
Salute to City of Angels’ son! He wrote, he wrote, he wrote And he wrote… Ramparts, The Progressive, The
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
27 January 2021
Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…”
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 January 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— 
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
13 January 2021
“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation
Think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Think…
06 January 2021
Think of peoples having the most tanks, the most drones, the most missiles, bombs, aircraft carriers, 

More Stories


  • Detroit is No Portland
    Diane Gee
    Detroit is No Portland
    05 Aug 2020
    It would be lunacy to send troops to Detroit, as Trump has threatened.   “This is pre-emptive warfare.”
  • Black August and Black Liberation: “Study, Fast, Train, Fight.”
    BAP National Coordinating Committee
    Black August and Black Liberation: “Study, Fast, Train, Fight.”
    05 Aug 2020
    We owe it to our ancestors and our incarcerated comrades to escalate the struggle against the white settler state and its imperial capitalist order.
  • Examining the Wreckage White Supremacy and Imperialism Have Wrought
    Nick Estes and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
    Examining the Wreckage White Supremacy and Imperialism Have Wrought
    05 Aug 2020
    Indigenous and African resistance and intellectual traditions provide key insights to the very nature of capitalism and how it has unfolded throughout space and time.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of August 3, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of August 3, 2020
    03 Aug 2020
    “Minneapolis Uprising Syllabus” Tells Why That City Sparked National Rebellion
  • US Whipping Up War Hysteria Against China
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Whipping Up War Hysteria Against China
    03 Aug 2020
    In the recent globally broadcast web event “No to a New Cold War,” BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley cautioned Americans not to fall for the Trump regime
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us