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

Oh, what a night…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
21 Dec 2016
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Our poet shares a scene from a late nite NYC subway ride home from this years' holiday party of the National Writers Union.

Oh, what a night…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

“Oh, what a night…”

Red letters emblazoning big white cake

“Workers of the WORD, Unite!”

150 small, cloth flags hanging

from the ceiling, above our food,

Representing places, spaces

Working-class brothers and sisters gather

Breaking bread, sipping wine, gulping water…

Making memories, visualizing peace—better lives—

Not children’s, grandchildren’s broken, bloody bodies…

“Oh, what a night…”

Our NWU holiday party

Wild women of the WORD—

Friendships of fifty years

Talking “class struggle”, “socialism”

A woman, UAW leader, pops in

Announcing victory:

Research and Teaching Assistants

Won unionization at Columbia!

“Oh, what a night…”

Six bottles of sparking cider lighter,

On the A Train, heading

Home to Harlem in a hurry

Brothers behind me loud talkin’—

Not dissin’ or arguing—more like preachin’

To the choir

Brother One’s shouting ‘bout Cuba’s

schools and literacy compared to here.

Brother Two’s chimin’ in ‘bout the Bay of Pigs,

Allen Dulles, killing of Kennedy— just before

Brother Three jumps to billionaire appointees

Only in New York!

“Oh, what a night…”

Never mind three delays

between 34th and 125th

Couldn’t take it any longer—

Got up, got some of that WORD:

“Is this ‘The Friendship Train’

Listen to us—woop-woop—…doin’ our thing?

Y’all scaring me and folks up front with

that revolutionary foolishness!”

Smiling eyes, belly laugh betrayed me—but

Crescendo “Oooh!” response to my call:

“Hell, folks been asleep 8 years!”

Plus, pregnant pause, birthed this poem

Granting you permission to: pimp-slap, kick

fear-mongers to the curb; they squander

Seeds of struggle, rays of resistance… Listen to

Lil’ David’s lesson: Goliath’s gotta bring ass to kick ass…

Poet’s Note:

NWU is National Writers Union

UAW is United Auto Workers

Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 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 Venezuela Myth Keeping Us From Transforming Our Economy
    Ellen Brown
    The Venezuela Myth Keeping Us From Transforming Our Economy
    13 Feb 2019
    Venezuela’s hyper-inflation is caused by US economic warfare, not government spending on social needs.
  • An Open Letter to the People of the United States
    Nicolás Maduro
    An Open Letter to the People of the United States
    13 Feb 2019
    We demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people.
  • In Venezuela, White Supremacy Is a Key Driver of the Coup
    Greg Palast
    In Venezuela, White Supremacy Is a Key Driver of the Coup
    13 Feb 2019
    The coup is, at it heart, a furious backlash of whiter and wealthier Venezuelans against the mixed race and Black majority.
  • Black Agenda Radio, Week of February 11, 2019
    Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio, Week of February 11, 2019
    12 Feb 2019
    Democrats are neither socialist nor even serious says Dr.
  • The Political Geography of Feminism
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    The Political Geography of Feminism
    11 Feb 2019
    “African feminism searches for solutions “that are not rooted in colonial structures,” said Dr Alicia Decker, of Penn State University, co-director of the African Feminist Initiati
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us