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

For a neighbor: Hall of Fame Herb
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
28 Oct 2026
🖨️ Print Article
Herb Boyd
Herb Boyd, author and New York Amsterdam News columnist

“If you know whence you came, 
there is really no limit to where you can go.” 
—James Baldwin

How do we describe Hall Of Fame Herb?
Is he adjective, noun — or a swinging verb?
Bombing-ham-born — but raised in The D —
Where he would meet Malcolm before ’63!

He arrived determined. And he came equipped.
Bebop, Doo-Wop schooled — Hard Bop hipped.
Gracing BAI Fridays to “kick it” and schmooze,
Gifting riffs of news and views People can use.
Swingin prose infused with Black Bottom Blues
Harlemite manner of great Langston Hughes.

From Black Bottom Blues, to swing of Sugar Hill
His prose waltz through history with dazzling skill,
His anecdotes bequeathing us with thrill after thrill —
Since his old army sword recycled into African quill …

© 2026. 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.
 

Literature
Herb Boyd
Black Writers
Detroit

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


Related Stories

BAR Book Forum: Interview with Tyrone S. Palmer
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Interview with Tyrone S. Palmer
23 February 2022
As part of the Black Agenda Report Book Forum, we interview scholars about a recent article they’ve written for either an academic journal or p

More Stories


  • Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Katrina: The Rich Folks' Opportunity and Our Dismal Failure
    27 Aug 2025
    "Racism showed its ass in the days after August 29, 2005."
  • Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    The People, Not FEMA, Saved Themselves
    27 Aug 2025
    The official response to Katrina was a catastrophic failure of the state. The real story of survival was written by a coalition of the discarded—ex-offenders and Black churches—who built their own…
  • Movement for Social Justice
    The MSJ Unequivocally Condemns the US Military Buildup in the Southern Caribbean
    26 Aug 2025
    The U.S. is a purveyor of global violence, as illustrated by the intensifying militarism in the Caribbean and targeting of Venezuela. The struggle to establish a Zone of Peace directly challenges…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Epitomizes Black Misleadership
    20 Aug 2025
    Mayor Bowser going along to get along with Donald Trump is unsurprising to anyone who has followed her political career. She is the Black misleader par excellence.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Haitian Revolution and its Impact on the Americas, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 1991
    20 Aug 2025
    “To understand the history of the Americas we must pay tribute to…Haiti.”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us