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

Trigger Warning
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
22 Nov 2023
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Protest for Palestine at the White House (Photo: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Trigger Warning

Palestine’s the
Answer—
What was the
Question?

Why the red line in the tan sand—splitting the
World into irreconcilable camps? Oppressed-
oppressors; Exploited-exploiters; haves-Have nots?
Why the flashing cherry red moral lights—Demanding
Decisive Action—NOW?

Why siren urgency of squawking shofars? Of searing
saxophones? Why are anti-genocide guerrillas riding
in the moment? Improvising like Jazz Masters? Rallying
Scorched earth actions— cutting off Business As Usual
Choke-points?

Why the occupations of great train stations? The re-routing of rail-
roads? Why the blocking of bridges? Why are ports being held hostage—
From the Hudson to the Pacific? Why the sit-ins in offices of Lilliputians
posing as lionized leaders? Why are corrupt congress members’ and
sleazy senators’ steer manure messages being blown out of the water?
Why are Moby Dick-sized lies of bought and bossed windbags getting
Shot down…. one-by-one?

Why do Hellfire Missiles of murderous, mustard seed-hearted men
incinerate our holiness? Coat our hearts with white phosphorus?
Strangle our souls?
Killing us softly with their
Wars?

Palestine’s the
Answer—
What was the
Question?
 

© 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.

Palestine
poetry

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


Related Stories

Palestine Chronicle Staff
Another Massacre at Rafah Aid Center as Gaza Death Toll Mounts
04 June 2025
Gaza health officials report mass casualties as Israeli forces shell humanitarian aid distribution points.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: The Intellectual Origins of Imperialism and Zionism, Edward Said, 1977
28 May 2025
“In theory and in practice, then, Zionism is a degraded repetition of Europ
Brett Wilkins
Video Shows Girl Trying to Escape Inferno as Gaza Family 'Burned Alive' in Israeli Massacre
28 May 2025
The story of Ward Al-Sheikh Khalil is a horrifying reminder of the human cost of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Towards Lasting Peace, Shirley Graham DuBois, 1970
21 May 2025
Shirley Graham Du Bois on the liberation of Palestine.<
The Cradle News Desk
Israel Kills Five Journalists, Over 100 Civilians in One Night as ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ Begins in Gaza
21 May 2025
The Israeli army has intensified attacks on hospitals as part of the new operation, which aims to displace the entire population of Gaza.<
The Cradle News Desk
US Abandons 'Hamas Disarmament' Demands in Gaza Truce Talks: Report
14 May 2025
A reported rift between Trump and Netanyahu continues to widen ahead of the US president's first visit to West Asia since regaining power. 
North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights , Black Alliance For Peace
The Black Alliance for Peace Calls for International Popular Mobilizations to Stop Israel’s Genocidal Campaign to Starve Palestinians to Death!
30 April 2025
The Israeli state’s starvation campaign in Gaza—backed by the U.S. and Europe—is a livestreamed genocide.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
U.S. and Israel Gangsterism Has Created a Hobbesian International State of Nature
23 April 2025
Gaza has exposed the West’s ‘human rights’ as a colonial farce.
Jehad Abusalim
"It Is Neither Death, Nor Suicide"
09 April 2025
For 76 years, Gaza has been has been the defiant heart of Palestinian resistance.
Palestine Chronicle Staff
ICRC, PRCS Condemn Israel’s Killing of Eight Medics, Five Rescuers in Gaza
02 April 2025
The medics who were killed were identified as Mustafa Khafaja, Ezzedine Sha’at, Saleh Moammar, Rifaat Radwan, Mohammad Behloul, Ashraf Abu Labd

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Ukraine Terrorism and the Question of U.S. Involvement
    04 Jun 2025
    The U.S has been involved in every aspect of Ukraine’s military activity against Russia. The recent drone and sabotage were likely committed with U.S. help. It is possible that president Trump was…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MEMOIR: The Making of a Rebel, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, 1980
    04 Jun 2025
    “We cannot write in foreign languages unspoken and unknown by peasants and workers in our communities and pretend that we are writing for…those peasants and workers.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Struggle for a Somali Nation
    04 Jun 2025
    Despite shared language, culture, and religion, Somalis still struggle to become a cohesive nation.
  • Jon Jeter
    America’s Best Economic Forecaster? Pizza, of Course!
    04 Jun 2025
    The shift from delivered to frozen pizza is a sign. Wages can't keep up with prices, debt is crushing workers, and racial capitalism keeps us divided over shrinking slices. This isn't just inflation—…
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Rising Temperatures and the Rising Need for a Black Radical Lens in the Climate Change Discourse.
    04 Jun 2025
    Liberal climate movements keep bargaining with capitalism, but the Black Radical Tradition knows survival requires its destruction. Until environmentalism adopts abolition and anti-capitalism, it…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us