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

Club None Long To Belong To…*
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
30 Nov 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Club None Long To Belong To…*

                                                                                         Club None Long To Belong To…*

 

No proof of residency, utility bills, bank

or vaccination records or two pieces of ID

Needed.

No bios, resumes, CVs, credit scores, or

References required.

No decoder rings/secret handshakes used.

No gifts given to joiners. No monthly news

letters.

No Mickey Mouse Club; Book Club; Buyers

Club or Nightclub.

Lifetime Membership Club: struggling to stay

exclusive—Fighting to keep others out…

Members instantly earn seasoned ears; helping

hands; broad shoulders; steadfast instruction in

Hugging.

Members learn when to call. What to say. When

to say it. When to feed/text/tweet—And when to

Shut the fuck up…

Monthly membership dues include sleepless

nights; ulcers; cancer; stroke; heart attack;

depression; divorce; anger and isolation.

Smells, songs, snacks, words re-stimulate

salinity, helping trace bitter tracks of members’

Tears…as they cry themselves to sleep nightly…

Members remember ‘The Call’ admitting them

to The Club as though nano seconds ago…

remember robotic motions/silent shrieks…

Birthdays/death dates still stir tsunamis of tears…

Death certificates double as membership cards bearing

“Justifiable Homicide” hashtags sanctioned by the

state

Members remember sweetness, savoriness of eats. Re

member fuzziness—foggy flashbacks—chuckles and

belly laughs…

Members remember surreality/shock and awe;

remember distrusting ears—

demanding— “Stop joking!!!” “Stop playing around!!!!”

Members remember automated voices—cold calls of

Strange Fruit messengers—remember ‘grapevine’ voices

and

poison penned/murder mouthed Fox-box foot soldiers digging

dirt—covering up crimes of testi-lying triggermen…

Members Remember…

pithy politicians’ semiautomatic… “…thoughts and prayers…”

Members remember fiery pulpits falling silent. Remember

teddy bears, liquor bottles, candles, hand-lettered signs, T

shirt likenesses and “say their names” strangers

going poof. Members remember Mr. Pain, Ms. Emptiness, Mr. McGrief

and No Getting Over It Crew…hanging out as house guests: Overseeing

State machine accountants and lawyers determining how much, if any,

Black Lives Matter…

*Inspired by groups of grieving parents witnessing for the world…



 

Police
Police Killings
Police brutality

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


More Stories


  • Return of the Lab Leak Conspiracy Shows Biden is a Democrat with Trumpian Characteristics on China
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Return of the Lab Leak Conspiracy Shows Biden is a Democrat with Trumpian Characteristics on China
    02 Jun 2021
    Now Biden and his top allies have given credence to the lab leak conspiracy, as they escalate their confrontation with China.
  • ESSAY: Knife Edge: Living with Domestic and Economic Violence, Andiaye, 2013
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Knife Edge: Living with Domestic and Economic Violence, Andiaye, 2013
    02 Jun 2021
    Andiaye, a tireless advocate for the rights and welfare of women in Guyana, agitated against the system’s “way of organizing the economy which creates poverty and then criminalizes it.”
  • MOVE Tulsa to Gaza…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    MOVE Tulsa to Gaza…
    02 Jun 2021
    The Mass Shooting Of The Day— this time was in San Jose… Do you know the way to San Jose?
  • Before Tulsa there was Bethesda:  The Cover-up of MAAFA (Genocide) and the Continuation of State Sponsored Racial Terror
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    Before Tulsa there was Bethesda:  The Cover-up of MAAFA (Genocide) and the Continuation of State Sponsored Racial Terror
    02 Jun 2021
    The Black community in Bethesda and descendants of those buried in Moses Cemetery demand an immediate halt to the destruction of their ancestors’ resting place.
  • Bob Wing’s Strategy to Build the “Anti-Racist State” to Replace the “Racist State” is Liberal Social Imperialist Nonsense
    Quetzal Cáceres
    Bob Wing’s Strategy to Build the “Anti-Racist State” to Replace the “Racist State” is Liberal Social Imperialist Nonsense
    02 Jun 2021
    What Wing has done is taken an important formulation and neutered it to serve neoliberal multiculturalism.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us