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

Birmingham On The Hudson
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Aug 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

by Raymond Nat Turner

“Another generation of Gordon Gekkos

Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs

Funny money men, where anything goes

Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes”

 

Birmingham On The Hudson

by Raymond Nat Turner

Jazz Ballad Chorus

Headed for CUNY with dreams and hope

'Til gettin' swept up in Rope-and-Grope

Tuggin' down his testes on the street

Body-slammed, cursed and browbeat 

Meeting N-Y's finest's fists and feets

Given blurred vision of hoods and sheets

Bruised, bloodied victim of violent scam--

The Hudson banks on Birmingham

The Hudson banks on Birmingham.... 

Hip Hop Feel

Bull Kelly cut fire hoses and cattle prods

For Glockmiesters runnin' in death squads

Protecting and serving corporate masters

The privilege and supremacy of alabasters 

Guarding Merrill-Lynch and Killer Coke

Fighting crime's mirrors and smoke

Drivin' out the poor from dusk to dark

Like smashing Spring in Zucotti Park

 

After the Schultzes seized Native Land

Manhattan real estate rose in demand

They cashed the stolen land into rent

Maintained violently by the 1%

 

In this Age Of Metastasized Cash-ism

Wall Street's Kleptocratic Stash-ism

Mayor Bilbo's businesses blooming brisk

His real estate-driven Stop-and-Frisk

American-styled apartheid pass law

Bilbo's Gestapo's a blue cat's-paw

 

After the Schultzes seized Native Land

Manhattan real estate rose in demand

They cashed the stolen land into rent

Maintained violently by the 1%

 

Another generation of Gordon Gekkos

Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs

Funny money men, where anything goes

Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes

Putting our lives and health at risk

Run these cons through Stop-and-Frisk

Provocateurs and pundits in cahoots

Will look hip in orange jumpsuits!

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com.

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2012 All Rights Reserved

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


More Stories


  • Faris Giacaman
    Israel is using the ‘Gaza doctrine’ in Lebanon and Iran
    11 Mar 2026
    For years, Israel used the “Dahiya doctrine” in Gaza. Now it’s using the “Gaza doctrine” in Dahiya — and Tehran.
  • Gary Wilson
    Oil War Sends the Bill to Workers
    11 Mar 2026
    The cost of the United States' war on Iran is falling hardest on the working class.
  • Pambazuka News Editors
    The Global African Implications of US-Israel Aggression towards Iran
    11 Mar 2026
    Global Africa must oppose military aggression. Global Africans must stand with the Iranians and prepare to navigate the ripple effects of this war on African peoples.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 6, 2026
    06 Mar 2026
    In this week’s segment, we discuss past and present U.S. imperialism, analyzing struggles to protect Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution and to bring independence to Puerto Rico.
  • Gerald Horne
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gerald Horne on The Hawaii Coup and the Roots of US Imperialism in the Asia-Pacific Basin
    06 Mar 2026
    Dr. Gerald Horne joins us from Houston to discuss his latest work, The Counter Revolution of 1893: The Hawaii Coup and the Roots of U.S. Imperialism in the Asia-Pacific Basin. He connects 19th-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us