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


  • Deportation
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    African Governments Participate in Trump's Third Nation Deportations
    24 Oct 2025
    Our guest is Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan African Newswire.
  • Jamarl Ajamu
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Jamarl Thomas
    Ajamu Baraka | "Very Dangerous Situation"
    22 Oct 2025
    Ajamu Baraka, BAR Editor and Columnist, joined Jamarl Thomas to discuss U.S. decline into overt fascism, the proxy war in Ukraine, and the regime change campaign against Venezuela.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    No Kings and the Lure of Spectacle
    22 Oct 2025
    The most recent No Kings march will hopefully be the last. A Democratic Party get out the vote effort is a show that obscures and obstructs the real work of organizing. 
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: Cuba, Nicaragua, Grenada Together We Shall Win, Maurice Bishop, 1980
    22 Oct 2025
    “Long live the Grenadian revolution! Long live the militant unity and solidarity of workers internationally!”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    A Tale of Two Ceasefires: Gaza and DRC
    22 Oct 2025
    The US has negotiated ceasefires in Gaza and the DRC’s eastern Kivu Provinces, but the killing, displacement, and devastation in both continue.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us