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

MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
24 Jan 2024
🖨️ Print Article
JoeSam art
Courtesy JoeSam. and Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco Examiner

MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
“See with your ears,
and hear with your eyes …"

—Charlie Parker

I.

Happy hour colors are hummingbirds
hovering— Singing in 4 part harmony
At 3D jam sessions. His ebullient brushes are
Joysticks— conjuring Cool— after the Birth ...

Big! Bold! Proud! Loud! Resplendent rooster
Colors appear, reappear— disappear—
and allow us to be … Not shrink … fold …
Cowering in corners beneath       white hot gaze

Resplendent rooster colors call … Call us
Woke! Call us alert! Call us courageous! Spur
Improvisation— Make something from
Something else— disguised as ... Nothing ...

Dissonant colors imagine Monk’s “Bright Mississippi!”
Did I ever tell you MrJoeSam once lived high on Mississippi
Street smuggling medicine music onto canvases? Even Stevie
saw it …  stopped his driver and bought brushstrokes of love!

Did I ever tell you goog-ley eye implants appear, reappear, disappear,
Warning: Beware-beware-beware of eagle-eyed poles? Beware of
elephant-eared walls redacting 1st, 4th, 13th, 14th Amendments
for the 2nd Amendment and laws of war … on power to  The People?

Did I tell you goog-ley eye implants appear, reappear— disappear,
Warning: Beware-beware-beware of childlike belief in bipartisan
butchery? Death culture cruelty? … Orange buoy, saw blade, razor
wire welcomes in the Rio Grande?… Mass murder marathons in Gaza?

II.

I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to make my pen mix and sing
Colors his brushes splash crimson awfulness on canvas with.
I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to fling wildflowers from shoulders of the
Long and winding road to
My friend, mentor, big brother figure—Son of Harlem—
neither Super Storm Sandy, nor swollen Connecticut River
could wash away

I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to fling wildflowers MrJoeSam might
catch. Maybe be pricked by their thorns? Maybe hear their colors
Pop Lady Day-like gardenia notes …
I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to fling fresh wildflowers— to this
Already colorful, fully saturated, Son of Harlem— baaad as hell!\

© 2024. 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.

Harlem
Art
Charlie Parker

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
SONNY
27 May 2026
Our wise Monk-guru, White winter mane and Douglass beard,Sonny's anOak tree growing outSugar Hill concrete—
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Lorraine Hansberry
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SPEECH: A Challenge to Artists, Lorraine Hansberry, 1962
21 February 2024
At a rally against the House Un-American Activities Committee, insurgent playwright Lorrainne Hansberry called on artists to shake off the fear
For Larry Roland
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
For Larry Roland
08 March 2023
                                         
BAR Book Forum: Boukary Sawadogo’s Book, “Africans in Harlem”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Boukary Sawadogo’s Book, “Africans in Harlem”
24 August 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
A lil’ homegoing homage to Brother Donald…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A lil’ homegoing homage to Brother Donald…
27 April 2022
Donald Smith always performe
BAR Book Forum: Jennifer S. Ponce de León’s “Another Aesthetics Is Possible”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jennifer S. Ponce de León’s “Another Aesthetics Is Possible”
07 December 2021
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Photo: Kevin W. Thorbourne
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)
08 September 2021
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)  

More Stories


  • Freedom Rider: Trump/Biden Foreign Policy
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Trump/Biden Foreign Policy
    10 Mar 2021
    Biden rules like Trump regarding Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Haiti, because the two imperial parties serve the same masters.
  • Anti-Asian Racism Never Stopped Being an Outgrowth of U.S. Imperialism
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Anti-Asian Racism Never Stopped Being an Outgrowth of U.S. Imperialism
    10 Mar 2021
    Scant attention has been placed on the context of anti-Asian racism and its roots in the history of U.S. imperialism. 
  • Keep Victoire Ingabire in Your Hearts
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Keep Victoire Ingabire in Your Hearts
    10 Mar 2021
    Victoire risked her life to establish that Hutu people were also killed by the Tutsi army, before, during, and after the Rwanda genocide, writes Ann Garrison.
  • MANIFESTO: African LGBTI Manifesto/Declaration, April 18, 2010
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: African LGBTI Manifesto/Declaration, April 18, 2010
    10 Mar 2021
    The manifesto claimed the LGBTI struggle as an indelible and urgent part of the history of Pan-Africanism and the ongoing movements for Black sovereignty.
  • Meet me at Mary’s Place…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Meet me at Mary’s Place…
    10 Mar 2021
    “…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
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us