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


  • African Women, Don’t Be a Mammy for Empire
    Onyesonwu Chatoyer
    African Women, Don’t Be a Mammy for Empire
    31 Mar 2021
    All too often we witness petit-bourgeois African women willingly taking positions of leadership, power, and influence within the political and military infrastructure of the United States.
  • Derek Chauvin and the Myth of the Impartial Juror
    Sonali Chakravarti
    Derek Chauvin and the Myth of the Impartial Juror
    31 Mar 2021
    As a space for democratic deliberation and decision-making, the jury box still has the potential to shift the criminal legal system – but first  we must change who is able to serve on a j
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    31 Mar 2021
    This week the U.S. state’s propaganda and the Black elite were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Catie Coe’s Book, “The New American Servitude”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Catie Coe’s Book, “The New American Servitude”
    31 Mar 2021
    Senior care puts care workers into racialized, gendered, and age hierarchies, making it difficult for them to achieve social and economic mobility. 
  • BAR Book Forum: Jayna Brown’s “Black Utopias”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jayna Brown’s “Black Utopias”
    31 Mar 2021
    I am hoping my call will provoke/inspire us to practice forms of life and liveliness differently.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us