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

For Fancy Miss Nancy
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
19 Dec 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Nancy Sue Wilson 1937-2018
Nancy Sue Wilson 1937-2018

Guess who I saw
today, black and white photo,
Marching, Montgomery from
Selma, ‘65?

Guess who I saw
at my high school swingin’ the
Trio; urging us to stay in school?

Guess who I,
was privileged to sequence
a later CD for, late one night?

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
put the purr in whisper, with a sultry
Sound that could make subpoenas seem sensuous

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
Appeared, sparkling, at the end of the
golden era—looking as good as she sounded—
Her face should grace
Buckeye State flags emblazoned
“There will never be another you…”

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
Hovered earth— stunning hummingbird,
gorgeous humanitarian, giving the greatest
performance of her life, moments I loitered—
not seizing the time and asking, “When did
You leave heaven?”
Though, I think it was maybe ’37? I know she’s

Free Again…

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

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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


More Stories


  • MLK Was a Radical Who Hated Not Only Racial Subordination But Class Exploitation
    Sylvie Laurent, interviewed by Arvind Dilawar
    MLK Was a Radical Who Hated Not Only Racial Subordination But Class Exploitation
    07 Apr 2021
    King explicitly linked the value of human dignity to the material conditions necessary to enable people to live a decent life.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    by Jahan Choudhry, Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    07 Apr 2021
    In "On Anarchism and Black Revolution" Peter James Hudson examines the historical roots of critiques of anarchism and its relationship to Black liberation movements.
  • BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    Troizel Carr
    BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    07 Apr 2021
    Being in the wake, in the afterlives of slavery…is to be caught in the reverberating aftermath of a long disaster, a durational dance with danger, with terror.
  • BAR Book Forum: Amandla Thomas-Johnson’s “Becoming Kwame Ture”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Amandla Thomas-Johnson’s “Becoming Kwame Ture”
    07 Apr 2021
    The Stokely Carmichael of the 60s continued to politically and ideologically evolve while in Africa where he adopts the names of his political mentors Sekou Toure and Kwame Nkrumah. 
  • Fanon Can’t Save You Now
    Todd Cronan
    Fanon Can’t Save You Now
    07 Apr 2021
    The great revolutionary foresaw the need to “rapidly switch from a national consciousness to a social and political consciousness” committed to the “distribution of wealth and social relations
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us