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


  • Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly on the Necessity of Black Socialism 
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Report Presents: The Left Lens
    24 Oct 2020
    Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly on the Necessity of Black Socialism 
  • Peace, Black Self-Determination, and the Duopoly Trap
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Peace, Black Self-Determination, and the Duopoly Trap
    22 Oct 2020
    Corporate institutions and their Black servants conspire to hide the fact that the Black American worldview is profoundly Left on issues of peace and social justice.
  • Freedom Rider: Biden and Liberal Censorship
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Biden and Liberal Censorship
    21 Oct 2020
    It is Democrats and the technology companies which support them that are doing most of the censoring that is identified with fascist societies. 
  • Say Racism’s Name, and Fight it with Solidarity
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Say Racism’s Name, and Fight it with Solidarity
    21 Oct 2020
    Black Lives Matter is the internal enemy while China is considered the most dangerous foe to U.S. hegemony.
  • America’s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the DRC
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    America’s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the DRC
    21 Oct 2020
    This is an excellent chronicling of the Rwandan government’s racist policies toward the majority Hutu population, writes Ann Garrison.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us