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

They came 4 Moms 4 Housing
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Jan 2020
🖨️ Print Article
They came 4 Moms 4 Housing
They came 4 Moms 4 Housing

Storming “ThTown’s” morning dew like badged vermin
Creeping from bent mist morning light, just before five
Barking cold commands in Pig Latin—or German?
Capitalist property law’s such barbaric jive!
Armed with aerosol bigotry, right from the can
Battering doors as the banksters' blu klux klan

Platoon, battalion, brigade—or whole damn division?
Invading with battering rams, A-Rs, robots and tanks
Raiding the unsheltered with Gestapo precision
For speculating realtors and parasitic banks…
Revealing jungle law of the rich to a woke mass—
Unhoused women and children of the working-class…

Flaunting naked violence of the plutocratic state
Guarding four vacant houses for each person unhoused
Proving—once again—what makes Amerikkka “great—“
Heavy-handed hoods—meeting a movement aroused!!

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com .

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who

More Stories


  • The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
    Mark P. Fancher
    The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
    12 May 2021
    The U.S. can never be reformed to render justice to its African residents. “Our struggle must have Africa at its core.”
  • Police and the License to Kill
    Matthew D. Lassiter
    Police and the License to Kill
    12 May 2021
    Detroit’s wanton killing of hundreds of Blacks in the civil right era shows why most of today’s proposals to make police more accountable are bound to fail.
  • BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    Tiana Reid
    BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    12 May 2021
    There was no way to make light of this daunting book and its effects on me, no matter how much I thought I knew it.
  • BAR Book Forum: Stefanie K. Dunning’s “Black to Nature”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Stefanie K. Dunning’s “Black to Nature”
    12 May 2021
    The author explores various social, political, and cultural sites that explore and highlight the Black pastoral experience. 
  • The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition
    Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
    The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition
    12 May 2021
    In the past year or two, the proposition of defunding or abolishing police and prisons has travelled from incarcerated-activist networks into mainstream conversations.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us