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
  • omnibus

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

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.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Solidarity Against ICE and the Entire State Apparatus
11 June 2025
Popular resistance against the Trump administration in Los Angeles and other cities is a very positive
Struggle La Lucha
ICE Raids Escalate in LA As Community Fights Back
11 June 2025
While ICE and law enforcement unleash raids across LA, protesters stand firm, exposing the brutal machinery of deportation and the state’s viol
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
One Big Beautiful Bank Job!
28 May 2025
Masked. Armed to the teeth. Synchronized
Louisiana Workers Council
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and More
28 May 2025
Following is a fact sheet about how Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill cuts essential services and benefits for workers to give to the wealthy
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
DOGE— Department Of Grifter Enrichment
07 May 2025
“Empathy is the bane of western civilization.” 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
March, March, March… (For Million Worker March and Brother Ray Quan)
30 April 2025
1. Dust dances on sunbeams streaming through busted eyes; Lunch bucket language no longer lingers
Jocelyn Figueroa
Working Homeless People: Laboring Without a Roof
23 April 2025
For millions, a job is no longer enough to afford housing—yet the myth that homeless people don’t work still dominates public opinion.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Armed Struggle: Natural Response to Fascism, Martin Sostre, 1975
02 April 2025
“The question now is: What are we going to do about this murderous fascism?”

More Stories


  • Tracie Canada
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Tracie Canada’s Book, “Tackling the Everyday”
    10 Sep 2025
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Tracie Canada.  Canada is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of…
  • Jill Clark-Gollub
    Why the SanctionsKill Campaign Supports BDS
    10 Sep 2025
    The SanctionsKill campaign exposes how US economic warfare kills civilians across the Global South. Meanwhile, the Palestinian-led BDS movement represents a legitimate tool of grassroots resistance…
  • Joshua Reaves
    From Refusal to Resilience: How Hurricane Katrina Birthed A Global Health Vanguard
    10 Sep 2025
    The US government left Black residents to die after Hurricane Katrina, refusing Cuba's offer of emergency doctors. This racist neglect exposed a truth that the US state would rather sacrifice its own…
  • Jacqueline Luqman
    The Military Occupation of Washington, DC: Then and Now
    10 Sep 2025
    The current military occupation of DC is not an anomaly but an escalation of a long war on Black communities, a more visible form of ongoing political subjugation.
  • Sarah B.
    Gaza to Donbass: How Israel and Ukraine Built a Fascist, Transnational War Machine
    10 Sep 2025
    From Bandera to Ben-Gurion, an axis of ethno-supremacy is rising, fueled by U.S. backing. Same guns. Same flags. Same ideology. Gaza and Donbass are not separate wars. They are one machine.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us