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

One Spring Day …
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
09 Apr 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Mass protest

“I believe there is yet a spirit of resistance z
in this country, which will not submit
 to be oppressed …”  —The Letters of Junius

One Spring day— 1st 100 daze— of
Scales slowly slipping from sleepy eyes …
One Spring day worth four drowsy years of
Billionaire business as usual …

One Spring day, our streets are rivers of
Resistance—tinged ferocious and festive!
Resistance enriched with cleverly crafted
Signs, piercing slogans, random acts of solidarity!

One Spring day, shoring up stainless steel spines
Rehabbing hearts— beyond 2/4 beats of braying
Donkey and trumpeting elephant $campaign-$election
Cycles of war, doom, gloom— And warp speed fascism.

One Spring day, checking blood pressure, measuring
Body mass index— And diagnosing just
How rapidly our class hatred of parasitic, champagne-
Caviar Cayman Island crowds is metastasizing …

One Spring day, dreaming of the world we want to
See. Smell. Taste. Touch. Rejecting transplanted South
African strains of nazism— Embedded in hi-tech trinkets—
Along with 16th century sentiments …

One Spring day, sweet resistance wrapped in ‘good trouble!’
One Spring day to play.  And, work at re-
Connecting connective tissue to class-calls: “Workers of the
World, Unite!”

© 2025. 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.

Working Class
resistance
revolution

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


Related Stories

Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
U.S. Support of Israel is Absolutely an Issue of Affordability and Economic Populism…So Why Won’t the Democrats Discuss it as Such?
29 July 2026
The Democratic Party's continued support for Israel's genocide is not just a moral and political liability but also an economic one w
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Short word problems: do the math
03 June 2026
Work these word problems. Work them as if your lives depend onYOUR correct answers.YOUR solutions … Because they do:
Community Movement Builders - Newark
CMB Newark Statement on the Delaney Hall Uprising
03 June 2026
The immigrants who revolted inside the Delaney Hall immigration jail are not criminals but prisoners of war, and their actions are those of res
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Zophia Edwards’ Book, “Fueling Development”
01 April 2026
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Gary Wilson
Dow 50,000 — and workers selling blood
18 February 2026
The Dow Jones hit 50,000, yet 200,000 people a day are selling their blood plasma to survive.
Jacqueline Luqman
Effective Organizing Requires Understanding Theory. That's Not A Hypothesis
21 January 2026
To dismiss revolutionary theory is to choose permanent defeat, reducing the movement to a hamster wheel of reaction and co-opted rage.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Day 40-something pedophile-protecting government shutdown
19 November 2025
Day 40-something of pedophile-Protecting-government shutdown —Snapshot of resistance revealed our unwillingness to 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Tuesday night’s tiny glimpse of what The People really want
12 November 2025
“Universal suffrage is thus the gauge of the maturity of the working class.
Jon Jeter
From Cadillac-Driving Welfare Queens to Xbox-Playing Slackers, the Oligarchs Vilify Others for Their Own Larceny
09 July 2025
America’s ruling class keeps inventing new boogeymen to disguise its endless war on workers, while wealth flows upward and capitalism’s collaps
Community Movement Builders - Newark
CMB Newark Statement on the Delaney Hall Uprising
18 June 2025
When oppression becomes unbearable, resistance erupts.

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Ultimate Betrayal of Alex Saab and the Fate of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan People
    16 Sep 2026
    The United States got its hands on Alex Saab a second time in order to use him in its case against Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. succeeded in getting a guilty plea from Saab, but the current Venezuelan…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    COMMENTARY: The Shrinking American Empire, Glen Ford, 2009
    16 Sep 2026
    “The Iraq invasion greatly accelerated the process of U.S. imperialism’s decline.”
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Black Radicalism and the Return of the “Subversive Negro”
    16 Sep 2026
    NSPM-7 and the State Department's international campaign against "far-left political terrorism" represent new and more dangerous forms of domestic repression in the 21st century, while reconstructing…
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Colin Kaepernick’s “The Perilous Fight”
    16 Sep 2026
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Colin Kaepernick.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    A Climate “Movement” Homonym: (Or, How the Big Apple’s Annual Environmental Gathering Surfaces an Imperative Inquiry, Climate Week or Climate Weak?)
    16 Sep 2026
    The climate movement has been captured by a professional managerial class that prefers charity galas and virtue signaling to building power.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us