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

One Spring Day …
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
09 Apr 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Mass protest

“I believe there is yet a spirit of resistance z
in this country, which will not submit
 to be oppressed …”  —The Letters of Junius

One Spring day— 1st 100 daze— of
Scales slowly slipping from sleepy eyes …
One Spring day worth four drowsy years of
Billionaire business as usual …

One Spring day, our streets are rivers of
Resistance—tinged ferocious and festive!
Resistance enriched with cleverly crafted
Signs, piercing slogans, random acts of solidarity!

One Spring day, shoring up stainless steel spines
Rehabbing hearts— beyond 2/4 beats of braying
Donkey and trumpeting elephant $campaign-$election
Cycles of war, doom, gloom— And warp speed fascism.

One Spring day, checking blood pressure, measuring
Body mass index— And diagnosing just
How rapidly our class hatred of parasitic, champagne-
Caviar Cayman Island crowds is metastasizing …

One Spring day, dreaming of the world we want to
See. Smell. Taste. Touch. Rejecting transplanted South
African strains of nazism— Embedded in hi-tech trinkets—
Along with 16th century sentiments …

One Spring day, sweet resistance wrapped in ‘good trouble!’
One Spring day to play.  And, work at re-
Connecting connective tissue to class-calls: “Workers of the
World, Unite!”

© 2025. 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.

Working Class
resistance
revolution

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


Related Stories

Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
U.S. Support of Israel is Absolutely an Issue of Affordability and Economic Populism…So Why Won’t the Democrats Discuss it as Such?
29 July 2026
The Democratic Party's continued support for Israel's genocide is not just a moral and political liability but also an economic one w
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Short word problems: do the math
03 June 2026
Work these word problems. Work them as if your lives depend onYOUR correct answers.YOUR solutions … Because they do:
Community Movement Builders - Newark
CMB Newark Statement on the Delaney Hall Uprising
03 June 2026
The immigrants who revolted inside the Delaney Hall immigration jail are not criminals but prisoners of war, and their actions are those of res
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Zophia Edwards’ Book, “Fueling Development”
01 April 2026
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Gary Wilson
Dow 50,000 — and workers selling blood
18 February 2026
The Dow Jones hit 50,000, yet 200,000 people a day are selling their blood plasma to survive.
Jacqueline Luqman
Effective Organizing Requires Understanding Theory. That's Not A Hypothesis
21 January 2026
To dismiss revolutionary theory is to choose permanent defeat, reducing the movement to a hamster wheel of reaction and co-opted rage.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Day 40-something pedophile-protecting government shutdown
19 November 2025
Day 40-something of pedophile-Protecting-government shutdown —Snapshot of resistance revealed our unwillingness to 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Tuesday night’s tiny glimpse of what The People really want
12 November 2025
“Universal suffrage is thus the gauge of the maturity of the working class.
Jon Jeter
From Cadillac-Driving Welfare Queens to Xbox-Playing Slackers, the Oligarchs Vilify Others for Their Own Larceny
09 July 2025
America’s ruling class keeps inventing new boogeymen to disguise its endless war on workers, while wealth flows upward and capitalism’s collaps
Community Movement Builders - Newark
CMB Newark Statement on the Delaney Hall Uprising
18 June 2025
When oppression becomes unbearable, resistance erupts.

More Stories


  • The Spy Plane Over Baltimore is a Tool of Voter Suppression
    Barbara Arnwine, Curtis Cooper and Adjoa A. Aiyetoro
    The Spy Plane Over Baltimore is a Tool of Voter Suppression
    27 May 2020
    The eye-in-the-sky tells residents of the majority Black city that they are enemies of the state -- to be watched and, ultimately, crushed.
  • Once Dead, Thrice Killed
    Rohn Kenyatta
    Once Dead, Thrice Killed
    27 May 2020
    The summary execution of my brothers, sisters, women, men and children is so commonplace that it becomes numbing ‘white’ noise in the minds of an entire continent.
  • The Black American Amputation Epidemic
    Lizzie Presser
    The Black American Amputation Epidemic
    27 May 2020
    Black patients lose limbs at a rate triple that of others, despite the fact that diabetic amputations are, by some measures, the most preventable surgery in the country.
  • ​​​​​​​Getting a Covid-19 Education: From Race to the Top to a Plunge to the Bottom 
    Stan Karp
    ​​​​​​​Getting a Covid-19 Education: From Race to the Top to a Plunge to the Bottom 
    27 May 2020
    As bad as the Obama/Duncan era was for public education, the current administration is even more hostile.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 25, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 25, 2020
    26 May 2020
    Black Is Back Coalition’s “Ballot and the Bulllet” Electoral School
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us