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

Light Up In Harlem
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Oct 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner

Commemorating

Beyond Vietnam,

Celebrating

Grassroots pregnant with

Struggle

 

Light up in Harlem

by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner

(BAR 7th Anniversary Celebration)

“Over truth there is light” – Moroccan saying

 

Friday night and a

Light burns bright

Up here in Harlem—

Bright like LED smiles

Of Douglass, Delaney

Walker, Cornish and Ida B.

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight,

Illumination

Lineage of tens of

Of thousands of torchbearers

Dealing Defenders,

Dispatches, Eagles,

Afro-Americans,

Mysteries, North Stars,

Freedom Journals, New York

Globes, Boston Guardians and

Memphis Free Speech & Headlights

 

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight,

Back at Riverside

Commemorating

Beyond Vietnam,

Celebrating

Grassroots pregnant with

Struggle birthing the

March on Washington

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight,

Not neon soldiers

Of Fortune 500

Foundation followers

Mumbling mule madness

We’re that light tonight…

 

We’re that light tonight

Streaming from Philly,

Connecticut, Jersey,

Filtering in from

Atlanta, Massachusetts,

Parts west, popping corks

On Champagne and wines

Red and white, toasting

Truth telling, illuminating

The people, instead of

“Speaking truth to power,”

Under Bill Clinton’s

Desk, like chittlin-breath

Buffoons are prone to do…

We’re the light tonight!

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 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


  • low-coup: 4th of July weak end   (For Amiri)
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    low-coup: 4th of July weak end (For Amiri)
    06 Jul 2022
    low-coup: 4th of July weak end (For Amiri)
  • Abolishing the Family Policing System: An Interview with Joyce McMillan
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    Abolishing the Family Policing System: An Interview with Joyce McMillan
    06 Jul 2022
    Roberto Sirvent speaks to Joyce McMillan, an advocate for parental rights in the family policing system. So called "child welfare" disproportionately impacts and harms Black people.
  • BAR Book Forum: Emilio Amideo’s Book, “Queer Tidalectics”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Emilio Amideo’s Book, “Queer Tidalectics”
    06 Jul 2022
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Emilio Amideo. Amideo is a research fellow in English language and translation at…
  • Haiti: The Ransom is Still Being Paid
    Robert Roth
    Haiti: The Ransom is Still Being Paid
    06 Jul 2022
    The acknowledgement that France and the U.S. robbed Haiti of billions of dollars is long overdue. Yet the discussion is useless absent monetary reparation and the end of the control both those…
  • The White Socialist Left: Seeing a Bleak Future for ‘Black and White Unite and Fight’
    Jon Jeter
    The White Socialist Left: Seeing a Bleak Future for ‘Black and White Unite and Fight’
    06 Jul 2022
    White leftists have a history of using class reductionism to ignore racism and even of making common cause with white supremacy itself.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us