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

I am Charlie…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Jan 2015
🖨️ Print Article

I am Charlie…

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

Tomfoolery, swooning of

Unca Jim, his CBC Gap

Band is embarrassing—

Maybe the Commander 

Should don his Hannibal

Lecter mask and someone

Should warn us, “Warm up

With belly laughs” for

Serial killer standup

Before billionaire, bought,

Bossed, ‘live’ audience—

He kills, but then again,

He bombs…

Yeah, he bombs in Teddy

Roosevelt-style Tourettes—

Schizophrenic as two

Hemispheres of a French

Brain split by the Seine

Champagne smooth, like

“Liberte, egalite, fraternite,”

Josephine Baker’s Croix de

Guerre, Rosette de la Resistance,

Jimmy Baldwin’s La Legion D’

Honor… Paris Commune or Battle

Of Algiers strangling Haiti with debt

Slaughtering Vietnamese,

Torturing Tunisians, murdering

Moroccans and Algerians? Yeah,

We know where West African bodies

Are buried, beside Cote d’ Ivoire and

Mali! Smooth, nuanced pomposity not

Harsh, guttural like venom the funny

Mustached muthafucka spewed, not stiff

Like looters with attitude, re-

Branding looting the British Museum

But on another night, nobodies

Like me, stood frozen-footed

Two hours on 20 degree

Sidewalks, waiting for

Town Hall NYC opening for the

Charlie Haden Memorial, where

Ernie went Watts, “Burn, baby

Burn!” Setting Town Hall on fire!

Ravi was a Coltrane transporting

Ancestral sounds in un-fracked

Tears, Robesonian-deep as Henry

Butler’s “Deep River,” sonic waves

Reigning with 99%ers like me…

A night of cookers, transparent, true

Independence like Jack DeJohnette’s

Drum solo; love like Ernie, Ravi, Joshua

Redman runs, Gerri Allen, Kenny Barron,

Alan Broadbent arpeggios; more community,

Crazy glue unity in Liberation Music

Orchestra, Haden Triplet harmonies,

Than 1%-patriot act-Capitalist Hill-Wall 

Street benefit concerts will ever possess!

A night of cookers legislating, medicating,

Operating, educating, adjusting, grooming,

Banking— best US’s offering the Americas,

The world— 99%ers like me, who are Charlie

Haden…

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com
Raymond Nat Turner © 2105 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


  • The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
    An open letter to the honorable people of the United States of America
    07 Oct 2026
    The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a letter addressed to the American people, outlining its views on recent developments and Iran-U.S. relations.
  • Cheryl LaBash
    Is starvation Rubio’s only strategy? The new attack on Cuba’s private sector
    07 Oct 2026
    The Trump administration's new sanctions on Cuba, are part of a dual strategy to create unendurable hardship while simultaneously making Cuba financially dependent on the United States.
  • Berthony Dupont
    How the OAS Works for Imperialism in Haiti
    07 Oct 2026
    The armed groups in Haiti are not a spontaneous wave of banditry, but a scheme orchestrated by imperialist powers in concert with a reactionary and subservient Haitian political class. The…
  • The Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa
    CEIA Launches International Pan-African Solidarity Campaign for the Republic of Cuba
    07 Oct 2026
    A coalition of Pan-African and socialist organizations has launched an international campaign to defend Cuba, arguing that African peoples must remember the sacrifices Cuban internationalists made…
  • Dr. M. Reza Behnam
    Three Years of Genocide: How ‘Never Again’ Lost Meaning in Gaza
    07 Oct 2026
    If international law and justice are buried in the rubble of Gaza, the global community will ultimately be digging its own grave.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us