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

We were L.A.—way before they…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
19 Oct 2022
🖨️ Print Article
We were L.A.—way before they…
Protesters at Los Angeles City Council, October 11, 2022 (Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)

“Ignorance allied with power  

is the most ferocious enemy  

justice can have.”  

—James Baldwin

 

Venom-drenched recorded

conversation of rattler city

council criminals—with

Labor serpent fluent in

Forked Tongue—poisoned

the smog—City of Angels

Ruled by devils…

Not our Chicano Moratorium,

MEChA memories of the way

WE were…Could it be that

Class struggle was so simple then?

We were Black and Brown poets

named Myles, Miguel, Alejandro, Raymond…

Named Guzman, Proctor, Mugia, Turner…

burnished by Breakaway sun, singing

songs of solidarity

We were Black and Brown poets

walking vertically, wearing oneness on

our sleeves; standing shoulder to shoulder in

Struggle, filling Compton and L.A. libraries

and stages with four-alarm fire—

WE were L.A.—way before they!

We were Black and Brown poets

carrying compasses: South/East L.A.

We celebrated piping hot pinto beans, juicy

collard greens, hand made tortillas, buttery

cornbread, Jazz, wine, weed and Mariachi

We celebrated boycotted grapes,

brazen black cats, brown berets

and commemorated martyrs—

WE were L.A.—way before they!

We were Black and Brown poets

Sankofa birds flocking, flying forward faster

Resisting Pentagon with the Wind—sausage machine

in South-east Asia gobbling up, grinding down steeled

squads of ghetto/barrio warriors suited for service on

the home-front…

We were ‘Red Car’ babies with complicated

handshakes, Embraces—

way before Black faces in high places

way before Brown faces in high places

white supremacy places at the expense of

Salt of the earth—

WE were L.A.—way before they!

We were Black and Brown poets

Before cesspool plotters/planners backed by

bloody, badged Bandito/Executioner armed wings

arresting

dreams in tarp, tent, cardboard mattress Skid

Rows— Before Huxtabullshitters looking down

Pinocchio

noses at calloused hands, blistered feet of lunch bucket

Brigades…

Before battery-operated, corporate-controlled self

serving ethnic cleansers—treacherous white supremacist

strongmen/women with their worldwide networks—still,

WE were L.A.—way before they!

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.



Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.

Anti-Black Racism
Los Angeles
Black Brown unity

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


More Stories


  • Freedom Rider: Joe Biden and the Black Misleaders
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Joe Biden and the Black Misleaders
    06 May 2020
    The black misleadership class has no shame, only narrow ambitions. They are now called out to rescue the man who looks very much like a loser.
  • In the People’s War against COVID-19, Socialism Offers Victory while Capitalism Spells Defeat
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    In the People’s War against COVID-19, Socialism Offers Victory while Capitalism Spells Defeat
    06 May 2020
    Socialist societies are capable of doing much more to contain diseases like Covid-19, such as rapid testing, neighborhood food deliveries, and the use of AI technology to trace contacts and symptom
  • United States of Distraction: A Book Review
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    United States of Distraction: A Book Review
    06 May 2020
    The authors recount and document the descent into “post-truth” partisan journalism from the alt-right to the right, liberal, and even independent left media, between 2016 and now.
  • Mayday 2020
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Mayday 2020
    06 May 2020
    (For Ferguson, Baltimore, Million Workers March,  Arab Spring, Standing Rock, Occupy, Jackson Rising,  Fight for Fifteen, Extinction Rebellion, #Me Too…)
  • Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability
    Shaun Ossei-Owusu
    Coronavirus and the Politics of Disposability
    06 May 2020
    When the dust settles, as in all U.S. disasters, there will be a tale to tell of who mattered and who was sacrificed.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us