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

Birmingham On The Hudson
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Aug 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

by Raymond Nat Turner

“Another generation of Gordon Gekkos

Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs

Funny money men, where anything goes

Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes”

 

Birmingham On The Hudson

by Raymond Nat Turner

Jazz Ballad Chorus

Headed for CUNY with dreams and hope

'Til gettin' swept up in Rope-and-Grope

Tuggin' down his testes on the street

Body-slammed, cursed and browbeat 

Meeting N-Y's finest's fists and feets

Given blurred vision of hoods and sheets

Bruised, bloodied victim of violent scam--

The Hudson banks on Birmingham

The Hudson banks on Birmingham.... 

Hip Hop Feel

Bull Kelly cut fire hoses and cattle prods

For Glockmiesters runnin' in death squads

Protecting and serving corporate masters

The privilege and supremacy of alabasters 

Guarding Merrill-Lynch and Killer Coke

Fighting crime's mirrors and smoke

Drivin' out the poor from dusk to dark

Like smashing Spring in Zucotti Park

 

After the Schultzes seized Native Land

Manhattan real estate rose in demand

They cashed the stolen land into rent

Maintained violently by the 1%

 

In this Age Of Metastasized Cash-ism

Wall Street's Kleptocratic Stash-ism

Mayor Bilbo's businesses blooming brisk

His real estate-driven Stop-and-Frisk

American-styled apartheid pass law

Bilbo's Gestapo's a blue cat's-paw

 

After the Schultzes seized Native Land

Manhattan real estate rose in demand

They cashed the stolen land into rent

Maintained violently by the 1%

 

Another generation of Gordon Gekkos

Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs

Funny money men, where anything goes

Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes

Putting our lives and health at risk

Run these cons through Stop-and-Frisk

Provocateurs and pundits in cahoots

Will look hip in orange jumpsuits!

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com.

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2012 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • .MANIFESTO: International African Service Bureau’s Manifesto Against War, 1938
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: International African Service Bureau’s Manifesto Against War, 1938
    08 Jul 2021
    German Nazis, Italian Fascists, British, French, Belgian democracies – all are the same, imperialist exploiters .
  • Legal scholar Francis A. Boyle told Ann Garrison that a “Responsibility-to-Protect” intervention in Ethiopia would be illegal and catastrophic.
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopian Conflict and International Law
    08 Jul 2021
    Legal scholar Francis A. Boyle told Ann Garrison that a “Responsibility-to-Protect” intervention in Ethiopia would be illegal and catastrophic.
  • A known known…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    A known known…
    08 Jul 2021
    “…there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns—things we do not know we know…” -- an infamous War Criminal
  • Critical Race Theory Opponents Are Just Proving Our Point For Us
    Gary Peller
    Critical Race Theory Opponents Are Just Proving Our Point For Us
    08 Jul 2021
    Conservative activists have branded all race reform efforts in education and employment as CRT.
  • Organizers Are Calling on Congress to Close Loophole That Enables Prison Slavery
    Tamar Sarai Davis
    Organizers Are Calling on Congress to Close Loophole That Enables Prison Slavery
    08 Jul 2021
    The ‘slavery clause’ made the passage of restrictions targeting Black people like the Black Codes possible as well as convict leasing of the late 19th century.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us