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

Deliver us from lesser evil…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
04 Sep 2018
🖨️ Print Article
deliver us from lesser evil
front row at Aretha's funeral

Star-struck, in childlike

awe of celestial

Voices, silver tongues;

I spent seven hours

glued to the screen—

back in the Baptist Church,

Celebrating, honoring the

humanitarian, North Star

Shero—genius in her field!

What a day, imbibing

Mighty Black Music!

Joyful noise, Lake Michigan-

sized magnet, gathering forces

elbow to elbow—

Enemies, Orange Age

Allies on the clock…

Basking in reflected light,

Assassins, informants, jailers,

Mouthpieces, mass murderers,

super predators, slutty professors

came riding, riding, riding, riding

bare-back, backwards on a

Donkey to The D.

Riding in corporate coats

of many logos—then

Limboing their way

Center stage, tracking

donkey dung down the

red carpet; playing

our emotions, our

Souls, our strength—

our Achilles’ heel

like plastic kazoos:

resurrecting the

Democratic Party…

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Our poet in residence, Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed performing artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Kamau Franklin
    You Can’t Abolish the States Institutions without Abolishing the State that Created Them
    10 Nov 2021
  • Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
    03 Nov 2021
    Black politicians may be openly conservative or pretend leftists but their constituents rarely get what they need.
  • Ajamu Baraka on U.S. Ethiopian Policy
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ajamu Baraka on U.S. Ethiopian Policy
    03 Nov 2021
    Ledet Muleta is the host of Prime Media’s "Prime Time." She spoke with Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace on October 30.
  • TRANSCRIPT: “Will they mourn us on the front line?” Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, speech at the Opening of the World Leaders Summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), November 1, 2021
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    TRANSCRIPT: “Will they mourn us on the front line?” Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, speech at the Opening of the World Leaders Summit of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), November 1, 2021
    03 Nov 2021
    Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley provided an impassioned call for global action on climate change. But what does it mean to beg for your life from the white neocolonial powers who have…
  • Ethiopia: “I've lost faith in everything American”
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopia: “I've lost faith in everything American”
    03 Nov 2021
    In October 2021 Black Agenda Report published my interview
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us