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


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MEMOIR: The Making of a Rebel, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, 1980
    04 Jun 2025
    “We cannot write in foreign languages unspoken and unknown by peasants and workers in our communities and pretend that we are writing for…those peasants and workers.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Struggle for a Somali Nation
    04 Jun 2025
    Despite shared language, culture, and religion, Somalis still struggle to become a cohesive nation.
  • Jon Jeter
    Pizza Goeth Before a Fall? Changes in Americans’ Eating Habits Foretell a Deep Recession
    04 Jun 2025
    Wages can't keep up with prices, debt is crushing workers, and racial capitalism keeps us divided over shrinking slices. This isn't just inflation—it's collapse.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Rising Temperatures and the Rising Need for a Black Radical Lens in the Climate Change Discourse.
    04 Jun 2025
    Liberal climate movements keep bargaining with capitalism, but the Black Radical Tradition knows survival requires its destruction. Environmentalism must adopt principles of abolition and anti-…
  • Aby L. Sène
    Drones, Elephants and Imperialist Interests in Africa
    04 Jun 2025
    Conservation in Africa has long been a smokescreen for imperial power. Veiled behind the cause of environmentalism and stopping poachers, western governments, intelligence agencies, and billionaire-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us