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
  • omnibus

Summer of Soul/Summer of Struggle…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Aug 2021
Summer of Soul/Summer of Struggle…
Summer of Soul/Summer of Struggle…

BAR's poet in residence pays tribute to fallen Black Panther Party comrades.

Chalk silhouettes, bullet-violated bodies of

Bunchy and John—UCLA, cold Campbell Hall

floor—Punctuated January ’69…like a loud

Prelude to December’s death squad symphonies:

Silencing Chicago songs of spring; Meeting riffs of

Resistance during L. A.’s 5 hour breech birth of SWAT

Sing their names! Sing their names! Names

floating from wings of history’s stage—Names

Never too far from tips, riffs, runs of flattened

tongues of our true singers, shouters, belters…

Magic, Sly, High Priestess African rainbows

in everyday people gospel-blues-soul-funk-jazz—

in Great Black Music—Mississippi to South Africa…

Enveloping, wrapping world peoples in its broad,

Black, sweltering sonic arms—Pre-Bitch-ho/Hope-change

desert storm of white noise; pre-half century rest…

Sing their names! Sing their names! Names

floating from wings of history’s stage—Names

Never too far from tips, riffs, runs of flattened

tongues of our true singers, shouters, belters…

Sing their names! Sing ‘bout blended voices

Voted from ‘office’ with hot lead ballots—

Cast in driveway, ballroom, bedroom, motel,

Polling places! The M’s alone, loop like some

hypnotic drum machine’s licks—repeatedly

pounding trauma into wide Eyes On The Prize…

Sing their names!Sing them as rhythmic

responses to ancient calls of our organic

Leaders.

Sing them as legato ghost note tributes to

Martyrs waking our resistance with

counter melody messages to the Grassroots…

Sing their names! Sing their names! Names

floating from wings of history’s stage—Names

Never too far from tips, riffs, runs of flattened

tongues of our true singers, shouters, belters…

Names forecasting 2020 Summers of Rainbow

Resistance…

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished poet and performing artist, and an official of the National Writers Union. Find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

Black Panther Party

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


Related Stories

EDITORIAL: Poor Women: Pawns in the Abortion Controversy, The Black Panther, 1980
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
EDITORIAL: Poor Women: Pawns in the Abortion Controversy, The Black Panther, 1980
07 December 2021
A 1980 editorial in The Black Panther argues that the war against abortion is a bi-partisan war against poor women.
Lessons from Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panther Party
Ahjamu Umi
Lessons from Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panther Party
16 June 2021
Just like we glorified the black leather jackets, black berets, and guns in the 60s, we still romanticize African people with guns and mouths that
The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular, but Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten
Santi Elijah Holley
The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular, but Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten
06 May 2021
The name Black Panther is a box-office draw, but can cinematic sympathy be extended to the Panthers who are still living and breathing in this coun
Newly Obtained FBI Files Shed New Light on the Murder of Fred Hampton
Aaron J. Leonard and Conor A. Gallagher 
Newly Obtained FBI Files Shed New Light on the Murder of Fred Hampton
10 March 2021
That all this time later we are still learning new information about Hampton’s killing is testament to the sheer volume of the effort aimed at this
How Should Revolutionaries Relate to this Film? 15 Lessons from Judas and the Black Messiah
Joseph G. Ramsey
How Should Revolutionaries Relate to this Film? 15 Lessons from Judas and the Black Messiah
03 March 2021
Let’s not allow our revolutionary wish-list to keep us from appreciating the ways this film intervenes—with force and clarity—in our present Americ
Why a Shootout Between Black Panthers and Law Enforcement 50 Years Ago Matters Today
Paul Ringel
Why a Shootout Between Black Panthers and Law Enforcement 50 Years Ago Matters Today
24 February 2021
The 1971 raid marks a nationwide militarization of police relations with Black protest groups and Africa Americans as a group.
Judas and the Black Messiah, A Missed Opportunity
Dante James
Judas and the Black Messiah, A Missed Opportunity
24 February 2021
The film framed Hampton as a victim instead of a pro-active freedom fighter and revolutionary.
What isn’t in Judas and The Black Messiah is Just as Important as What is
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
What isn’t in Judas and The Black Messiah is Just as Important as What is
17 February 2021
Hollywood is big, mostly white, capitalist business, so it’s no surprise that its new film on Fred Hampton provides little information on Black Pan
Black Liberation in Context: Political Prisoner Speaks on Torture at 2005 Human Rights Conference
Sundiata Acoli
Black Liberation in Context: Political Prisoner Speaks on Torture at 2005 Human Rights Conference
17 February 2021
Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army political/prisoner of war Sundiata Acoli told human rights activists “torture is nothing new” in U.S.
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: A Short People’s History
Flint Taylor
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: A Short People’s History
10 December 2020
Hampton's body was dragged from the bloodstained bed to the hallway floor, to be displayed as the raiders' trophy

More Stories


  • PROCLAMATION: LIBERTY OR DEATH, JEAN JACQUES DESSALINES, 18
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    PROCLAMATION: LIBERTY OR DEATH, JEAN JACQUES DESSALINES, 1804
    06 Oct 2021
    This proclamation by Jean Jacques Dessalines, the first leader of a free Haiti, is one of the most radical declarations of freedom in history.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    “Our democracy:” Dictatorship of death merchants in bipartisan Brooks Brothers suits…
    06 Oct 2021
  • Internally displaced persons in Amhara Region, Ethiopia, 10/2021. Credit: Jemal Countess
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Shell Shocked in Amhara, Ethiopia: “I don't even want to hear the word ‘America’ ”
    06 Oct 2021
    A displaced person in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region told photographer and human rights investigator Jemal Countess that he didn’t want to talk to him because he was American and “didn’t even want to
  • Some provisions of Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislation benefit the masses of Black people, but this legislation is a bare minimum effort to blunt some of the sharpest contradictions of the system while attempting to maintain the neoliberal order.  
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Build Back Better Legislation: New Keynesianism or Neoliberal Public Relations Stunt?
    06 Oct 2021
    Some provisions of Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislation benefit the masses of Black people, but this legislation is a bare minimum effort to blunt some of the sharpest contradictions of the
  • BAR Book Forum: Louis M. Maraj’s “Black or Right”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Louis M. Maraj’s “Black or Right”
    06 Oct 2021
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Louis M.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us