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

They came 4 Moms 4 Housing
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Jan 2020
🖨️ Print Article
They came 4 Moms 4 Housing
They came 4 Moms 4 Housing

Storming “ThTown’s” morning dew like badged vermin
Creeping from bent mist morning light, just before five
Barking cold commands in Pig Latin—or German?
Capitalist property law’s such barbaric jive!
Armed with aerosol bigotry, right from the can
Battering doors as the banksters' blu klux klan

Platoon, battalion, brigade—or whole damn division?
Invading with battering rams, A-Rs, robots and tanks
Raiding the unsheltered with Gestapo precision
For speculating realtors and parasitic banks…
Revealing jungle law of the rich to a woke mass—
Unhoused women and children of the working-class…

Flaunting naked violence of the plutocratic state
Guarding four vacant houses for each person unhoused
Proving—once again—what makes Amerikkka “great—“
Heavy-handed hoods—meeting a movement aroused!!

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com .

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who

More Stories


  • Denise Powell
    A Southern Reckoning with the Medical Myth of Race as a Diagnostic Tool
    30 Sep 2026
    Race is a sociopolitical construct, not a biological truth. The real determinants of health are structural factors like zip code, environmental pollution, and access to resources.
  • Abel Prieto
    Venezuela: It Is What You See
    30 Sep 2026
    A photograph of Delcy Rodríguez smiling with Donald Trump after the U.S. kidnapped Nicolás Maduro is evidence of subordination to the United States. These images cannot be reconciled with the dignity…
  • Pambazuka News Editors
    Türkiye, UAE, and the Imperialist Chain: African Ports and War
    30 Sep 2026
    Imperialist competition and wars that facilitate extractivism have long shaped the use of seaports for access to resources, markets, and devalued labor. In the last decade, countries in the chain of…
  • The Cradle News Desk
    US military withdraws from Iraq after two decades: Report
    30 Sep 2026
    Iraqi Kurdish leaders say the US withdrawal will leave their region, long a CIA and Mossad hub, vulnerable to Iranian attacks.
  • Margaret Kimberley
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Garland Nixon
    INTERVIEW: The US is firmly committed to global hegemony
    29 Sep 2026
    BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist Margaret Kimberley advises caution when people say the US is in decline. Evidence from foreign policy rebuts that. There's been a bipartisan effort to bring…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us