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


  • Austin Cole
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Repression of Palestine Solidarity at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Part 2
    24 May 2024
    In part two of our interview, Austin Cole joins us to discuss his suspension from MIT due to his participation in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and his own experience with the attack directed by the…
  • ICC prosecutor
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    International Criminal Court Action Falls Short in Addressing Israeli War Crimes
    24 May 2024
    Ajamu Baraka joins us to discuss the International Criminal Court, the ICC, and the announcement by Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan that he is applying for arrest warrants for both Israeli and…
  • President Joe Biden's approval ratings
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Biden Struggles in the 2024 Presidential Election
    24 May 2024
    Margaret Kimberley recently joined Sputnik News program, Fault Lines, and discussed why incumbent president Joe Biden is struggling to make the case for a second term.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Western Arms Supplies to Ukraine Prevent Peaceful Solutions
    22 May 2024
    Margaret Kimberley, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, was invited to brief the United Nations Security Council on May 20, 2024, as a civil society representative. The subject of the meeting…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    HISTORY: The Mutiny at Dominica, 9 April 1802
    22 May 2024
    As a Black army of mercenaries from Kenya, Barbados, Jamaica, and elsewhere arrives to continue the West’s colonial project in Haiti, we remember the history of the 1802 mutiny of African soldiers at…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us