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


  •  Abolish Police, from the US to Nigeria
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Abolish Police, from the US to Nigeria
    02 Feb 2021
    Crystal, a first-generation US citizen of Nigerian descent and activist with the Assata Collective, supports the abolition of police in both countries.
  •  US Militarists Invent Enemies – and Russiagate -- for Dollars
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Militarists Invent Enemies – and Russiagate -- for Dollars
    02 Feb 2021
    Russiagate is a fiction concocted by Democrats and intelligence agencies explain Hillary Clinton’s defeat and fuel a New Cold War, said Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst.
  •  Billionaire Wealth Breaks All Records in Crisis
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Billionaire Wealth Breaks All Records in Crisis
    02 Feb 2021
    The US billionaire class has grown at unprecedented speed during the pandemic and economic crises, increasing their wealth by over a trillion dollars and adding 46 new oligarchs to their numbers, a
  • Democratic Fascists Prepare to Drop the Hammer
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Democratic Fascists Prepare to Drop the Hammer
    28 Jan 2021
    Democrats are determined to snuff out freedom of speech and assembly to protect the corporate ruling order – while pretending it’s to safeguard Black people.
  • Black Citizenship Forum: Pan-Africanism and the Pitfalls of National Citizenship 
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Black Citizenship Forum: Pan-Africanism and the Pitfalls of National Citizenship 
    27 Jan 2021
    The Review interrogates the thought of academic and activist Layla Brown-Vincent, who says she was “reared and steeped in Pan-Africanist thought and organization” from birth.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us