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


  • BAR Book Forum: Maureen Mahon’s “Black Diamond Queens”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Maureen Mahon’s “Black Diamond Queens”
    14 Oct 2020
    The standard version of rock and roll history does not allot much space at all to the discussion of African American women.
  • Health Justice and Black Liberation: Dána-Ain Davis
    Gwendolyn Wallace and Roberto Sirvent 
    Health Justice and Black Liberation: Dána-Ain Davis
    14 Oct 2020
    We can disentangle care from capitalism by increasing community-generated and community-led models of caring.
  • A Milestone for South African Shack Dwellers Movement
    Pan Africanism Today Secretariat
    A Milestone for South African Shack Dwellers Movement
    14 Oct 2020
    Abahlali baseMjondolo celebrates 15 years of revolutionary struggle for land, housing and dignity.
  • Why They Let Breonna Taylor’s Killer Go Free
    Interview by Alex N. Press
    Why They Let Breonna Taylor’s Killer Go Free
    14 Oct 2020
    People in Louisville were in motion, but the politicians shy away from “the massive transformative changes that we demand.”
  • Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform
    Jay Willis
    Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform
    14 Oct 2020
    Democratic mayors denounce Trump’s brutality but fail to keep their own cops from beating and gassing protesters. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us