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


  • Martin Luther King Jr. and the Socialist Within 
    Stephen Joseph Scott
    Martin Luther King Jr. and the Socialist Within 
    27 Jan 2021
    Each year in January as King is honored in the eyes of the public, there is little mention of the demands of the man and his mission: his fight for economic justice.
  • Amazon Launches Anti-Union Website to Derail Alabama Union Drive
    Lauren Kaori Gurley
    Amazon Launches Anti-Union Website to Derail Alabama Union Drive
    27 Jan 2021
    The drive at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama marks one of the few times in the company's history that workers will have the opportunity to vote in a union election.
  • France Vows 'Symbolic Actions' but No Apologies for Colonization of Algeria
    Adlène Meddi 
    France Vows 'Symbolic Actions' but No Apologies for Colonization of Algeria
    27 Jan 2021
    Between 500,000 and 1.5 million Algerians died in the war for independence, but the French don’t like to talk about it. 
  • Still Can’t Breathe
    Topher Sanders and Lucas Waldron
    Still Can’t Breathe
    27 Jan 2021
    NYPD officers continue to use chokeholds on civilians without any meaningful punishment.
  • Encoding Anti-Blackness: Castration in the Digital Age
    Khalil Martin
    Encoding Anti-Blackness: Castration in the Digital Age
    27 Jan 2021
    El Negro de WhatsApp outgrew the category of prank to become “the biggest meme produced by social media culture in our country.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us