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

Meet me at Mary’s Place…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
10 Mar 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Meet me at Mary’s Place…
Meet me at Mary’s Place…

“…he said if you can enjoy
A real nice affair
(Over at Mary's place—oh)
Then you'll make it
Your business to be right there…
(Over at Mary's place— oh)” 
—Sam Cooke

All her friends were brilliant.
Brilliant bakers, bus drivers, 
plumbers, poets, professors, 
lawyers, filmmakers, activists, 
organizers, students, writers,
guitarists gathered ‘round the 
Campfire in her living room;
Where she’d wrestled Rumi
and sucked pomegranate
juice from every nano second

All her friends were brilliant.
Brilliant Native Americans, 
Armenians, Mexicans, Ethiopians,
Turks, Iranians, African-Americans,
Indians, Filipinos, Japanese and Jews
gathered ‘round the 
Campfire in her living room:
roasting marshmallows of ‘race;’
herding truth; grappling with and
wrestling racism to a mauling draw

All her brilliant friends showed up at 
Mary’s Place* minus psychic body armor;
sans anti-‘white’ supremacy shields and
swords—And begging the question(s):
“When did Irish and Italian become
‘white?” “When did Jews become ‘white;’
when might Mexicans become ‘white?’”

They gathered ‘round the 
Campfire in her living room
alerted by the clanging, jangling triangle— 
Her grub: fierce, uncured love! They washed it
down with cowboy coffee and shots of  brandied
Resistance; before filling their canteens from her 
spring of Solidarity…

They gathered ‘round the 
Campfire in her living room—
Devout do-it-yourself sorcerer who gave less than a
“flying fuck” ‘bout blind haters disguised as ‘experts’

They gathered ‘round the 
Campfire in her living room—
An organizer’s organizer—so systematized— 
so organized! Clipboards for writers without
hard surfaces; magic second and third calls
Transforming chip/dip/cheese food failures
Into internationalist horn of plenty feasts.
Her mystical signup sheets and lists made 
many hands, made setup, made breakdown, 
made cleanup magic ritual/spirit chatter/fun!

They gathered ‘round the 
Campfire in her living room—
telling torturous tales corporations and 
nonprofit junior partners, at imaginary 
Tables, pay premium lip service to…

*My beloved teacher, the late Mary H. Webb, legendary Berkeley City College Writing Instructor.

© 2021. 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 https://www.youtube.com/user/zigilow

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


  • Cradle Correspondent
    Gaza's Smoke Clouds the West Bank's Flames: The Colonial Project Made Permanent
    10 Dec 2025
    As international eyes stay locked on Gaza, Tel Aviv is executing its most aggressive campaign of ethnic cleansing and land theft in the occupied West Bank since 1948.
  • Jill Clark-Gollub , Margaret Flowers
    First International Day Against Unilateral Coercive Measures
    10 Dec 2025
    Unilateral coercive measures, sanctions, are weapons of mass suffering. This new international day marks a global rejection of the West’s economic warfare against sovereign nations.
  • Maurice Carney
    United States Secures its National Security Interests In Congo Peace Deal
    10 Dec 2025
    The so-called "peace agreement" between Rwanda and Congo prioritizes U.S. access to mineral riches. The violence carried out against thousands of civilians continues.
  • x
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Year in Rear View: What the Lack of Principled and Pronounced Opposition Reveals About that US Left (Or, Why Oppressed People Best Watch Your Backs)
    10 Dec 2025
    Trump’s accelerated fascism is met with the silence of a compromised U.S. "left." Its institutions, tethered to capitalism and the Democratic Party, reveal they are part of the machine they claim to…
  • Essam Elkorghli
    De-Baathification 2.0: One Year Since the Fall of Syria
    10 Dec 2025
    Western media celebrate the terrorist they supported as Syria's savior. Syria’s new U.S.-backed rulers have erased anti-colonial history, enacted neo-liberal policies, and welcomed Israeli occupation…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us