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

No kings and things (Of mobilized masses)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Jun 2025
🖨️ Print Article
No Kings protest on highway

“You can’t dethrone a king
if you don’t know they exist.”
― Jasun Ether 

Today’s the tiny tip of an over-warmed iceberg. Its militance
Melts into 2,000 streams, rivulets and rivers of resistance!
Its waters rush cross country. They pour precious
Antifascist sediment onto our real estate-ravaged streets … 

The raging waters rush through reservations; campuses; through
Workplaces; state and private prisons. The waters trickle through
Quiet hamlets …  Through muffled villages and tidy town squares.
They are contaminated with courage.          Courage is contagious!

The raging waters flow through bowels beneath cities never
Sleeping. Cities with big shoulders. Cities where little cable cars

Climb halfway to the stars. Cities where angels strap on wings of
Resistance to fly above hoodlums on horses/bullies with badges.

No kings and things
No kissing rings
On bomber wings

No strongman’s strings
No ding-a-lings
Scooped from bullrings

No Kings Day Of Defiance—
Of coalition and alliance—
Revolutionary science …

Freedom rider trains— stuffed sardine-tight— arrive at crowded
Stations. Emptying to overcrowded streets above takes 30 minutes.
Antifascist riders bet on sardine-tight trains; over shackles and chains;
Over boxcars bound for ‘black sites’/disappearing concentration camps …

Rainbow signs bloom like flowers from Arab Spring and
George Floyd Summer: THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE
IS STRONGER THAN THE PEOPLE IN POWER!
NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR! And, ICE IS BEST CRUSHED!

Harmonic resistance of tubas, trombones, saxophones and
Drums drown out hate speech of heel-clickers.  And angry
Antiwar activists shout, “Thank you for your service!” to war-weary
Vets hoisting banners emblazoned: BENEFITS NOT BULLSHIT!

Black and Brown bus drivers spontaneously step from lines of
Busses five blocks long.    Will they rediscover superpowers?
Resurrect roles for
Working-class women?                 Trane for General Strikes?

No kings and things
No kissing rings
On bomber wings

No strongman’s strings
No ding-a-lings
Scooped from bullrings

No Kings Day Of Defiance—
Of coalition and alliance—
Revolutionary science …

Will rally-goers remember falling in behind
Dems causes serious injury? Causes death?
Or will marchers muscle up for mission creep—
Rebuild dream muscles for movements militant, robust—
Numbers scaled up from mobilizing angry millions for:

Monthly

NO KING DAYS—

Weekly

NO KING DAYS—

Daily

NO KING DAYS

Forever

NO KING DAYS?

© 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.

protest
Donald Trump
Democrats
class consciousness

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


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
"Woke 1" and Democratic Party Deceit
19 August 2026
The democrats’ backtracking on what they dismissively refer to as “wokeness” is the newest iteration of their political trickery as o
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Neoliberalism to Trumpism: The Re-Normalization of White Supremacy as State Ideology
29 July 2026
The crisis of late-stage capitalism has stripped away the liberal disguise and revealed white supremacy as the official ideology of t
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
hand ‘em another $350 billion to fight Communism?
29 July 2026
Two Harlem booksellers say, yellowed, dusty copiesof Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto and Engels’ 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Slimy green cesspool reflecting capitalist rule
22 July 2026
Capitalism says corporations are people …  It says,Money’s speech …    Buying, bossing, sock-puppet
Devin B. Martinez
ICE Killings Fuel Nationwide Protests
22 July 2026
Recent killings at the hands of federal agents have fueled protests across the US, including a nationwide day of action on July 18.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Lindsey Graham Was the Face of the Duopoly
15 July 2026
The late Senator Lindsey Graham played the role of chief congressional warmonger very well.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
DOCUMENT: “We Will Find You and We Will Kill You”: United States Counterterrorism Strategy, 2026
15 July 2026
“Americans should be safe to live their lives without the fear of terror attacks, the threat of Jihadists, the flooding of our commun
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Trump and America’s Fascist Forefathers
01 July 2026
Donald Trump is not an anomaly, but the heir of fascism which began in 1776 and continued throughout U.S. history.
Matt Sledge
Prairieland Defendant Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Moving a Box of Antifascist Zines
23 June 2026
Anti-ICE activists received lengthy prison terms — including a 100-year sentence — in the first major trial of the NSPM-7 era.

More Stories


  • White Nationalists Will Convene at American Renaissance Conference
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    White Nationalists Will Convene at American Renaissance Conference
    28 Oct 2022
    Daryle Lamont Jenkins is Executive Director of the One People’s Project, which seeks to combat right wing groups and individuals by exposing their threat to the world. He joins us from New Brunswick…
  • International Realignments and the Absence of Progressive Voices in the West
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    International Realignments and the Absence of Progressive Voices in the West
    28 Oct 2022
    Dr. Gerald Horne was a guest on Sputnik's The Critical Hour, with Dr. Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon. He discussed the realignment of African nations away from the US and former colonizers and towards…
  • DOCUMENT: Prologue: The Global Fragility Act, April 2022
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    DOCUMENT: Prologue: The Global Fragility Act, April 2022
    26 Oct 2022
    The US is ushering a new foreign policy doctrine through “The Global Fragility Act.” We need to not only understand these new forms of imperial practice, but to also see the cunning use of language…
  • Biden Orders Progressives to Denounce Themselves on Ukraine
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Biden Orders Progressives to Denounce Themselves on Ukraine
    26 Oct 2022
    Progressives made a mealy mouthed appeal to Biden to engage in talks regarding Ukraine. He slapped them down and they in turn slapped themselves.
  • The Importance of the 20th CPC National Congress to the World
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Importance of the 20th CPC National Congress to the World
    26 Oct 2022
    Corporate media fail in the most basic of journalistic standards when covering China. The recent 20th National Congress of the CPC was an opportunity to convey important information instead of "China…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us