by BAR poet in residence Raymond "Nat" Turner
Our poet recalls the
living memory of the
Watts LA uprising
a half century ago this week
August 144 hours
by BAR poet in residence Raymond "Nat" Turner
(Hail the 50th Anniversary of
The Heroic L.A. Uprising!)
1.Looting
āIām gonna loot ātil the midnight hour
Thatās when the gates come tumblinā down
Iām gonna loot ātil the midnight hour
When thereās no guardsmen aroundā¦ā
I kicked off that martial law, off-the-dome
version of āWickedā Pickettās dance floor-
filler and Son-Hawk, Ches-Schu, Ron Shaw,
āPookie,ā Jimmy and Jerome came in, Right
On Time, as though weād rehearsed it, all of
our livesā¦
Our greeting to hoarse engines, huge tires,
of giant army green trucks bristling with
rifles, loaded with blue eyes and itchy trigger
fingers. Rumbling east, it headed down79th Street,
toward Central AvenueāāThe Stem,ā as Bunchy
Carter used to call it.
Sitting on wooden milk crates, snacking on cup
cakes, chocolate milk and chips, holding court
as we usually did, we werenāt gonna ālootātil
the midnight hourā¦ā Brothers had jobs, working
There at the Chinese-owned Family Market.
But belly fires set by the Frye Bros. and their
Mother on the 1-1-6 and Avalon wouldnāt let
us sit silently, saying nothingā if we did nothing
but taunt the pale, alien army occupying our streets,
Disturbing our peace!
Really, we felt like Original Guardsman of āThe City
of Angelsāā Chumash, Tataviam, Tongva, Serranoā
felt about marauding mass murderers, looters, disguised
as
explorers,
Disturbing their peace!
The āCity of Angelsā first inhabitants didnāt
believe in devils and evil spirits, until Spanish
missionaries and settlers arrived with āthug life.ā
Natives didnāt connect murder and manhood.
Endurance trials, fasting, teaching legends of
the worldās origin, hallucinogenic rituals, were
ways elders built boyz to
Men.
Medicine people, spiritual people, gathering in
Circles making decisions, saw sacredness in sweet
Air, crystalline water; knew the penalty for taking
too many deer, sheep, fish, mountain goat and rabbit.
They knew nothing of incest, murder, robbery and rape
and had no chiefs named Parker, Davis, Gates, Bratton,
Beckā¦
Thereās no psychic statue of limitation for looting land,
Lives, lineage of Serrano, Tongva, Tataviam, Chumash
Peoples.
āThug lifeā missionaries of expropriation, assimilation,
relocation, reservation and extermination, wiped out 90%
of First peoples. Show us mass graves, where the bodies
are
buried.
2.Shooting
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop Thew-thew-thew-thew-
thew-thew-thew Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud
Coming quickly after trigger-happy, young occupiersā English
Checkpoint, curfew commandsā¦Mexican drivers, habla Espanol;
volley after volley at volley after volley, at volley, anything moving
Bees piercing walls, farting clouds of fine white dust; buzzing
Lethal lead lullabies to my six-year-old sister and mom, trapped
all day, all night, on their dentistās floor off 103rd St., the Heart of
Watts.
Down on the ground, Mom and Penny saw much, heard allā¦
The 8-year-old Watts veteran visited aunts, uncles, cousins for
Summer vacationātwo years later. Entering their city from
Metro Airport, Uncle James, pre-Marvin, posed the question:
āWhatās Goinā On?ā Penny explained: Motown was āDancing
In The Streets,ā like sheād seen L.A. dance, two years earlierā¦.
While Mom and Penny dodged lead fillings from National Guards,
Dad and I bonded, āCome on, boy,ā gruff style, grunting, motioning,
We hiked from the front yard of 730 East 81st Street, pink stucco three-
bedroom we called home. Heading northeast for the 70s, we hit 77th &
Central AvenueāWhite FrontāWal-Mart-Costco cross of the times
festive energy flowing from the crowd like black pepper, garlic, onion
smells telegraphing good cooking. Mostly reminded me of when Ali
Stood his ground whipping Liston in Floridaāmaybe, even a wee bit like
when enslaved Africans heard about the Emancipation Proclamation!
steel gates and doors shimmied, wrenched, buckled and broke. Families
emerged elated! Carrying couches, stoves, washing machines, pushing
vacuum cleanersā no money down, no money everā for overpriced
furniture and appliances, Liberation Shoppingā based on needānot
āBlackā Friday frenzies of overnight camper-zombies, lusting for latest
slave labor products
We sampled soulful, savory democracy, sweet hints of collectivity,
watching organized young men slip like specters through steel gates
and doors liberating guns, before exiting, making way for the masses
Peoples joy chiseled smiles in my dadās heart, unmasking contours Iād
Never noticed. Truly a crazy glue moment bonding us for the rest of our
Livesā¦ I was proud of him, like I was proud of his work:
Like men on 81st, my dad worked. Worked hard. Outside hammering,
Sawing, sanding cabinets; inside small hours, listening to 105.1 FM Jazz,
Magi birthing blueprints, running the drafting table like a
pool shark on Green felt for new jobs; Bel-Air bar, Beverly Hills office,
Hollywood kitchenā¦
scribbling my lilā sloppy thoughts in ragged notebooks, Iād sometimes join
Him, nights I couldnāt sleep
āBurn, baby, burn,ā came crescendo cries, unifying calls and responses, from
the white vanāa van weād see speeding around several times that night!
Magnificent Montagueās lick, heād shouted it for years over KGFJ airwaves at
Hot music of The Ice Man, Curtis, cominā out of Chitown; The Funk Brothers,
Stevie, Smokey out of Motown; Booker T & The MGs, Sam & Dave, The Big O
out of Memphisā a time when Great Black Music justified: āBurn, baby, burn!ā
That night āBurn, baby, burnā locked rhythms of resistance with harmonies of
Solidarityā¦
Heading back to 81st Street, Daddy decided weād walk west to Avalon.
Gusās burger/pastrami stand: OK; Virgil & Atkinsā state of the art Tonsorial:
OK; but, a crowd ballooned āround the Stein BrothersāTed and Alanāsā
Liquor store. a navy blue valiant roared up from hell. Four, white- helmeted,
shotgun-toting, devils leaped out barking epithets and jacking rounds into WMD.
corralling bystanders, one snarling thug slammed my schoolmate, Eddie Rose,
AKA āBulldog,ā through T& Aās Ponderosa plate glass window. Candy cane-
Thick shards of glass smashed into āBulldogāsā head like a guillotine, slicing
the Nile in his neckā¦
3.āJust the facts, manā
We all know the facts, *34 dead, murdered mostly
by police and National Guard
1032 injured, mostly by police and National Guard
**3438 arrested,
$40 million property damage.
We all know the chain of eventsāthe event of chains 1619ā1965:
August 11, 1965 21-year-old Marquette Frye was DUI.
And hereās where beautyās in the eye of the beholder:
Black angels with wide wings gathered in tens of thousands,
spitting out rot gut of 2nd class citizenshipā
Speaking fluent Fanny Lou, in actions, āWe are sick and tired of being sick and tiredāā
of all the āroutineā bullshit harassment traffic stops, dumb-ass degrading, humiliating,
Three Stooges questions, corny B- Movie āyou fit the descriptionā¦ā āA car like
yoursā¦ā throwaway lines, perverted frisks, planting dope and weapons, gratuitous
violence, stream of conscious ātesti-lying,ā puttinā cases on folksā¦
Not this Wednesday; not this 11th day of August; not this 65th year of the 20th century
This hump day will be the tipping point, critical mass
We control the horizontal, we control the vertical for 46 square miles Not this Wednesday; not this 11th day of August; not this 65th year of the 20th century
We mount the world stage, sons of Malcolm, Mama Harrietās daughtersānot Slausons,
Businessmen, Gladiators, Farmers, āspooks,ā not niggers, or āmonkeys in the zooā¦ā
mushroom clouds of Watts will never fit back in the bottleā¦ Rivers of blood, oceans of tears have
Cleansed scales/washed sleep
from a
Generation of L.A. eyesā¦if only for 144 hoursā¦
*34 people were killed in the L.A. August 1965 rebellion; 5 were killed in 7 1964 uprisings in, Rochester, Paterson, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Chicago, Philadelphia and NYC.
**3,438 were arrested in L.A. August 1965. There were 1,116 arrests in the 7 rebellions of 19
64.
Raymond Nat Turner Ā© 2015 All Rights Reserved
&nbs
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