Crowd at a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, July 1964, Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, USM
âPoetry is always dissident.â
âOctavio Paz
It was muted Miles when we
Woke Saturday mornings.
When we rose from slumber
to scents of sausage, potatoes,
bacon, eggs and coffee âŚ
It was muted Miles when we
Woke to fragrances wafting
from Sunbeam waffle iron.
Maybe manicures and pedicures, post-
breakfast? Maybe, on his way to
Work, the barber would pick us up for
close-cropped hair and nourishing adult
ear worms?
Maybe Iâd be pitching? Brother
Steve catchingâor gobbling
up ground balls at second base?
My Mother could organize all that!
Then rip apron off, gavel meetings
to order. Pull together picket lines;
Run California assembly and senate
campaignsâOr, settle long, long-
simmering disputes. She came equipped.
No cape. No âSâ on her chest. No
unusual way of getting around. She
was just Mom âŚ
Crazy Mom. Invited me to attend
a meeting with her. My response:
âI donât wanna go to your political meetingsâ
I just wanna play Little League Baseball!â
Her muted Miles reply⌠âBaby, everythingâs
Political⌠How do you think your park got
there? How do you think your coach got hired?
Everythingâs political, baby.â
Š 2023. 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.
"Donât point fingers. Donât ask evil questions." is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
As settler-colonial violence escalates from Kanaky to Palestine, Fanonâs century-old warnings are critical todayâcapitalismâs genocidal expansion demands revolution.
Kenya's Gen Z uprising is met with live bullets and a US-funded police crackdown. The brutal repression exposes the reality of neocolonialism, where Western 'aid' arms murderous regimes and IMFâŚ
Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, Director of Field Hospitals at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, warned that nearly half, 47%, of essential medicines are now completely depleted.
Western cameras frame this as Israel vs. Iranâbut African analysts see through the script: another case of ârules for thee, not for meâ in a system built to punish the Global South.
