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

Stand in solidarity with our Councilmember (Versus voices of white supremacy/death…)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Jan 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Stand in solidarity with our Councilmember  (Versus voices of white supremacy/death…)
Picketers representing the National Association of Colored Women march past the White House in Washington, DC, July 30, 1956 (Photo: AP)

                                                                                                             Stand in solidarity with our Councilmember  

                                                                                                             (Versus voices of white supremacy/death…)

 

I.

Distant echoes—Sun revolving ‘round flat

Earth— ‘round Inquisition; witch-burning;

‘round bubonic plague— 'round pre-printing

press politics…

Embalmed voices—decomposing pogrom tones—

crunch like dry leaves beneath boots of Strike-tober;

beneath street heat of George Floyd Summer; beneath

Occupy; Arab Spring— beneath history’s forward march…

II.

Prancing peacock proud, tiny stickers boasted,

“I VOTED—”

Hired her to argue and

Fight for us. Sent her to City Hall. Tolt her, “Say

what we say…” Axed her, “Amplify Our voices—

Speak truth and Voice Our choices—

while we work; babysit; help with homework; care

for loved ones/neighbors; make art, money, love, babies.”

Suddenly, sunup to sundown King Cotton voices spit

Bullwhip white noise; Spit 1619 stripes at Black backs… again…

plantation overseer voices—

Civil War amputation without anesthesia voices;

Leaking faucet, running toilet voices; Artificial

intelligence/false consciousness voices call… again…

Asthmatic nazi phlegm voices call… again…

Wheezing, wicked, weaponized, “I can’t breathe!”

Jangling, quavering, nicotine hoarse, death squad

soldier, plastic police voices call… again…

Scowling, steely, tinny fingernails across chalkboard voices;

Glock muzzle mouths to burner phone voices call… again…

Gravelly, gaslit, graveyard, good guy with gun voices

call… again… Troll farm, tiki torch, bestial, bear

spray, January 6th, criminal, Charlottesville voices call… again…

Pacific-prowling aircraft carrier filled with shit voices call… again…

Nasal, hollow, clean coal, fracking fluid/fart voices call… again…

Death rattle, decomposing system on life support voices call… again…

But, hissing, filibustering, burning cross voices—Jim Crow, Bull

Connor, Tulsa, Rosewood, Red Summer, lynching voices will not rob us

of representation…. again…

Bloody Mary, banana republican poll tax, “How many bubbles

in a bar of soap?” “How many jelly beans in a jar?” voices will

not disenfranchise us…. again…



© 2023. 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.

Black politics

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
Trash Panda Politics Guides the Black Misleadership Class’s Electoral Dumpster Dive
29 July 2026
The Congressional Black Caucus electoral strategy has turned the 2026 midterm elections into a dumpster dive for corporate interests and Zionis
Mark P. Fancher
The Foolish, Futile Struggle to be Both African and American Will be Televised
29 July 2026
Corporate media require American identity politics which contradict African authenticity.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Building Black Self-Determination and Ending the Politics of Fear
22 July 2026
Black political self-determination is always tenuous, even when Black people hold office.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Patriot Front and What Once Was Chocolate City
08 July 2026
The Patriot Front’s bold incursions into U.S.
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Time to Sharpen Our Weapons and Wits
27 May 2026
Six years ago, George Floyd was murdered by police.
Gary Wilson
From Louisiana to Havana: Law as a weapon against Black power and liberation
20 May 2026
The same legal machinery that once protected Jim Crow segregation has found a new way to strip Black voters of political power without touching
Mark P. Fancher
If Iran has the Strait of Hormuz, What Can Black People Use for Leverage and Power?
13 May 2026
Tennessee just erased its only majority-Black voting district.
Mark P. Fancher
Political Snobbery Delays Black Liberation
29 April 2026
The conditions are ripe for growing Black political consciousness, but revolutionary movements must broaden their reach to all sectors and clas
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Black Folks and Foreign Policy, June Jordan, 1983.
25 March 2026
“Who will we become if we remain the silent partners to this white arrogance?”
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Ajamu Baraka Remembers Rev. Jesse Jackson
18 February 2026
What is Jesse Jackson’s legacy? Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report editor and columnist, provides his reflections.

More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Jennifer Goett’s Book, “Black Autonomy”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jennifer Goett’s Book, “Black Autonomy”
    08 Jul 2021
    The author examines postwar violence through the activism of Afro-Nicaraguan women and men from the Caribbean coast of the country.
  • BAR Book Forum: Adam Elliott-Cooper’s “Black Resistance to British Policing”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Adam Elliott-Cooper’s “Black Resistance to British Policing”
    08 Jul 2021
    Historically, most of Britain’s policing hasn’t taken place on the British mainland – it has taken place in its colonies.
  • Historian Michael Honey Recalls Martin Luther King’s Message of Economic Justice In New Book, “To The Promised Land”
    Peter Kelley
    Historian Michael Honey Recalls Martin Luther King’s Message of Economic Justice In New Book, “To The Promised Land”
    08 Jul 2021
    King said the best anti-poverty program is a union, where you can fight for your own agenda — somebody doesn’t have to hand it to you.
  • Escape as Resistance for Enslaved Women During the American Revolution
    Karen Cook Bell
    Escape as Resistance for Enslaved Women During the American Revolution
    08 Jul 2021
    Motherhood often served as a catalyst for attempted escape during the American Revolution. 
  • The US “Left” Has Repositioned Itself on the “Right” – Aligned with Capital, War and Repression
    Riva Enteen
    The US “Left” Has Repositioned Itself on the “Right” – Aligned with Capital, War and Repression
    08 Jul 2021
    The most dangerous component of ‘MSM’ fake news is arguably propaganda by omission.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us