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


  • More than 6 million Congolese now shelter in IDP camps.
    Maurice Carney
    D.R. Congo’s Challenges: Elections, Rwanda’s War of Aggression and Critical Minerals for Green Transition
    06 Dec 2023
    The ongoing crisis is a result of converging forces determined to pursue their own interests by controlling the affairs within the Congo and subjecting the masses to inhumane conditions.
  • Kenya Parliament
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: National identity and Foreign Domination, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, 1982
    06 Dec 2023
    Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o reminds us that the primary contradiction in Africa is imperialism and its meek comprador bourgeoisie enforcers.
  • Symone Sanders
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Black Media Misleaders Do the Democrats' Dirty Work
    29 Nov 2023
    Over a year in advance, the Black Misleadership Class has kicked their efforts to corral Black people into the Democratic party, despite the Dems’ apathy toward Black politics or the concerns of…
  • Protester holding up sign saying "Don't censor Palestine"
    Thad Baltimore
    Uncovering Media Misinformation About The Gaza Genocide
    29 Nov 2023
    The US empire is continuing its psychological warfare campaign by conducting a mass mobilization of resources and waging a propaganda offensive to protect its interests in the Middle East.
  • Map of disputed territory between Venezuela and Guyana
    Tamanisha John
    Guyana and Venezuela: The Crisis of Imperialism Currently Unfolding on South America's Caribbean Coast
    29 Nov 2023
    Despite the reality of US intervention causing inhumane conditions in the region, Venezuela’s push for the annexation of Guyana’s Essequibo region prioritizes its own political objectives,…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us