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


  • The Little-Known International Charter At The Center of Ukraine War and China's Future Defense
    Jacqueline Luqman
    The Little-Known International Charter At The Center of Ukraine War and China's Future Defense
    27 Apr 2022
    The U.S. talks about "rule based order" because international law is not on its side. The OSCE 1999 Charter explains why the Biden administration would rather make up a new phrase out of whole cloth…
  • Imperialism
    John Parker
    Imperialism
    27 Apr 2022
    The word imperialism has been used and misused often as the crisis in Ukraine continues. An understanding of its meaning is important in any analysis.
  • The Nuclear Threat From Beyond the Ideological Compass
    Jeremy Miller
    The Nuclear Threat From Beyond the Ideological Compass
    27 Apr 2022
    The expiration of nuclear treaties between the U.S. and Russia mean that conventional wars bring a risk of nuclear weapons use.
  • Canada and the Overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah
    Owen Schalk
    Canada and the Overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah
    27 Apr 2022
    April 27, 2022 is the 50th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah's death. He was ousted from the Ghanaian presidency by Canadian trained elements of his own military who were also supported by the CIA.…
  • Devastation in Durban
    New Frame
    Devastation in Durban
    26 Apr 2022
    The floods that have wreaked havoc in the shacklands of Durban, South Africa are another searing indictment of the social abandonment of the majority by a predatory political elite.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us