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


  • BAR Book Forum: Pamela Ayo Yetunde and Cheryl A. Giles’s “Black and Buddhist”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Pamela Ayo Yetunde and Cheryl A. Giles’s “Black and Buddhist”
    18 Nov 2020
    Activists and community organizers have never known the precariousness of the threats they face today.
  • Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
    Vijay Prashad
    Sanctions Against Venezuela Will Continue Under Biden
    18 Nov 2020
    There is every indication that a Biden administration will maintain the punitive sanctions against Venezuela, suffocating the country during the pandemic. 
  • Biden-Harris and the Diverse Faces of U.S. Imperialism
    Tye Salandy
    Biden-Harris and the Diverse Faces of U.S. Imperialism
    18 Nov 2020
    From Obama v McCain to Biden v Trump, the good cop/bad cop drama of US imperial politics, continues.
  • Don’t [Mourn] Celebrate, Organize!
    Riva Enteen
    Don’t [Mourn] Celebrate, Organize!
    18 Nov 2020
    The same “injustice” system that unlawfully locked up the Central Park Five will continue unabated with Biden and his “top cop” sidekick.
  • We’ll Have to Fight Corporate Democrats for Medicare for All
    Margaret Flowers
    ​​​​​​​We’ll Have to Fight Corporate Democrats for Medicare for All
    18 Nov 2020
    We must not allow the Democrats to weaken our demand that every person in the United States have access to the care they need.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us