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

MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Jun 2024
🖨️ Print Article
JoeSam's painting
Courtesy JoeSam. and Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco Examiner

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surrounded by his family. He was 85 years old. When JoeSam first rented his studio in 1986, he was one of only two Black artists at the shipyard. Besides pursuing his own art, he tirelessly worked to increase access for Black artists to the shipyard studios. He also publicly criticized local museums for not including the work of artists of color, particularly Black artists. After a career running San Francisco’s Head Start program and participating on other City boards and commissions, JoeSam decided to devote the rest of his life to his art. His first major body of work, the acclaimed Black West series, won him an NEA grant in 1986. These works celebrated Black cowboys and other significant Black figures in the West.



“See with your ears,

and hear with your eyes …"

—Charlie Parker

I.

Happy hour colors are hummingbirds

hovering— Singing in 4 part harmony

At 3D jam sessions. His ebullient brushes are

Joysticks— conjuring Cool— after the Birth ...

Big! Bold! Proud! Loud! Resplendent rooster

Colors appear, reappear— disappear—

and allow us to be … Not shrink … fold …

Cowering in corners beneath       white hot gaze

Resplendent rooster colors call … Call us

Woke! Call us alert! Call us courageous! Spur

Improvisation— Make something from

Something else— disguised as ... Nothing ...

Dissonant colors imagine Monk’s “Bright Mississippi!”

Did I ever tell you MrJoeSam once lived high on Mississippi

Street smuggling medicine music onto canvases? Even Stevie

saw it …  stopped his driver and bought brushstrokes of love!

Did I ever tell you goog-ley eye implants appear, reappear, disappear,

Warning: Beware-beware-beware of eagle-eyed poles? Beware of

elephant-eared walls redacting 1st, 4th, 13th, 14th Amendments

for the 2nd Amendment and laws of war … on power to  The People?

Did I tell you goog-ley eye implants appear, reappear— disappear,

Warning: Beware-beware-beware of childlike belief in bipartisan

butchery? Death culture cruelty? … Orange buoy, saw blade, razor

wire welcomes in the Rio Grande?… Mass murder marathons in Gaza?

II.

I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to make my pen mix and sing

Colors his brushes splash crimson awfulness on canvas with.

I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to fling wildflowers from shoulders of the

Long and winding road to

My friend, mentor, big brother figure—Son of Harlem—

neither Super Storm Sandy, nor swollen Connecticut River

could wash away

I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to fling wildflowers MrJoeSam might

catch. Maybe be pricked by their thorns? Maybe hear their colors

Pop Lady Day-like gardenia notes …

I'm tryin, I’m Tranein … to fling fresh wildflowers— to this

Already colorful, fully saturated, Son of Harlem— baaad as hell!\

© 2024. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal .

Art
poetry
San Francisco
Memorial

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
JoeSam art
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
24 January 2024
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
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.
BAR Book Forum: Jennifer S. Ponce de León’s “Another Aesthetics Is Possible”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jennifer S. Ponce de León’s “Another Aesthetics Is Possible”
07 December 2021
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Reese Piece…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Reese Piece…
15 April 2021
Salute to City of Angels’ son! He wrote, he wrote, he wrote And he wrote… Ramparts, The Progressive, The
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
27 January 2021
Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…”
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 January 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— 
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
13 January 2021
“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation

More Stories


  • BAR Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio August 28, 2026
    28 Aug 2026
    In this week’s segment, we hear about the crisis in northwest Indiana, including the city of Gary, where residents have gone up to two weeks without power after a storm. As in the rest of the country…
  • Sam Husseini
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Journalist Sam Husseini Runs for Congress as a Green Party Candidate
    28 Aug 2026
    Our guest is Sam Husseini. He’s a veteran independent journalist and senior analyst at the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is now running for Congress in Maryland’s 4th district as a Green Party…
  • Closed store sign
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gary, Indiana Struggles for Two Weeks Without Electricity
    28 Aug 2026
    Akili Shakur is a revolutionary activist and the wife of political prisoner Shaka Shakur. She joins us from Gary, Indiana, which has been without power for two weeks after an extreme storm. She…
  • x
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Dhoruba bin-Wahad , Kelonji Changa
    The Guardian Open Letter Exposed: Margaret Kimberley & Dhoruba Bin Wahad Speak Out
    26 Aug 2026
    In this special broadcast, BAR Senior Columnist and Executive Editor Margaret Kimberley and Black Panther Veteran Dhoruba Bin Wahad offer an uncompromising, sharp critique of the anti-Iranian open…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Hakeem Jeffries and Jared Kushner Meeting Reveals Ugly Truths About U.S. Politics
    26 Aug 2026
    If the Democratic Party prevails in the midterm elections, Hakeem Jeffries will become the Speaker of the House of Representatives. But his decision to meet with Jared Kushner was a textbook case of…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us