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

Light Up In Harlem
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Oct 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner

Commemorating

Beyond Vietnam,

Celebrating

Grassroots pregnant with

Struggle

 

Light up in Harlem

by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner

(BAR 7th Anniversary Celebration)

“Over truth there is light” – Moroccan saying

 

Friday night and a

Light burns bright

Up here in Harlem—

Bright like LED smiles

Of Douglass, Delaney

Walker, Cornish and Ida B.

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight,

Illumination

Lineage of tens of

Of thousands of torchbearers

Dealing Defenders,

Dispatches, Eagles,

Afro-Americans,

Mysteries, North Stars,

Freedom Journals, New York

Globes, Boston Guardians and

Memphis Free Speech & Headlights

 

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight,

Back at Riverside

Commemorating

Beyond Vietnam,

Celebrating

Grassroots pregnant with

Struggle birthing the

March on Washington

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight,

Not neon soldiers

Of Fortune 500

Foundation followers

Mumbling mule madness

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight

Streaming from Philly,

Connecticut, Jersey,

Filtering in from

Atlanta, Massachusetts,

Parts west, popping corks

On Champagne and wines

Red and white, toasting

Truth telling, illuminating

The people, instead of

“Speaking truth to power,”

Under Bill Clinton’s

Desk, like chittlin-breath

Buffoons are prone to do…

We’re the light tonight!

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 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


  • Sudan refugees leaving Khartum
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Is the Sudan Civil War Nearing an End?
    28 Mar 2025
    Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of Pan-African Newswire, joins us from Detroit with an update on the two-year-long conflict in Sudan as government forces make headway in retaking the capital of Khartoum. Is…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Bernie and AOC Sheepdog for the Democrats
    26 Mar 2025
    Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are trying to re-engage disaffected voters who are rightly disengaged from the Democratic Party. Big rallies can’t hide the fact that the Fighting…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    LECTURE: A Humanist View, Toni Morrison, 1975
    26 Mar 2025
    Toni Morrison on art, archives, knowledge, and the long history of white supremacy in the United States.
  • African Court of Human and Peoples Rights
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Judicial Sovereignty for Congo and Africa
    26 Mar 2025
    Western courts have imposed imperial justice on Africa, but African courts promise judicial sovereignty.
  • Jon Jeter
    In Complying With Trump’s Demands to Crack Down on Free Speech, Columbia Confesses That Money, Not Education, Is Its Goal
    26 Mar 2025
    Columbia University quickly rolled over for the Trump administration’s demands to suppress pro-Palestinian protests, pulling back the thin veil of liberal academic freedom.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us