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


  • Poor, Black LGBTQ Youth Still Suffering
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Poor, Black LGBTQ Youth Still Suffering
    21 Oct 2019
    Although LGBTQ communities have a much higher political profile than in the past, Mustafa Sullivan, director of FIERCE, an organization that builds leadership among LGBTQ yout
  • Obama's War in Syria Led to Trump’s War in Syria
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Obama's War in Syria Led to Trump’s War in Syria
    21 Oct 2019
    Democrats pretend that the bloodshed in Syria is Donald Trump’s legacy, but Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka says, “We have to remind people
  •  Duboisian Scholar to Address BAR Gathering on “Building a Black Left”
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Duboisian Scholar to Address BAR Gathering on “Building a Black Left”
    21 Oct 2019
    “Decades ago, much of the Black Left “turned its back on Black working people in the interest of aligning with the liberal establishment that controls the Democratic Party,” said Dr An
  • Haiti and the Convenience of Imperial Amnesia
    Jemima Pierre
    Haiti and the Convenience of Imperial Amnesia
    16 Oct 2019
    The ongoing protests in Haiti are ultimately directed against the “Core Group” – US imperialism and its junior partners, who have teamed up to gang-bang the wounded and bleeding Black republic.
  • Black Activists Targeted -- by FBI and Killers Unknown: Glen Ford on the Real News
    The Real News Network
    Black Activists Targeted -- by FBI and Killers Unknown: Glen Ford on the Real News
    16 Oct 2019
    TRNN correspondent Jacqueline Luqman and Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford discuss the murders of Botham Jean and Joshua Brown in Dallas, Texas, the deaths of Black activists in F
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us