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

Oooh, what a lil’ Movement can do…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
08 Jul 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Oooh, what a lil’ Movement can do…
Oooh, what a lil’ Movement can do…

“There are decades where nothing happens;  and there are weeks where decades happen.” ― Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…

Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Unca Ben and Aunt Jemima just suddenly retired
Cop-calling ‘Karens’ are being called out and fired
The stars and bars are now banned at NASCAR
And Euro drivers rallied behind the one Black star
suddenly confederate statues are tumbling down—
and young Euros are speaking fluent John Brown
Protracted struggle’s gifting time to cheer and brag
Even ol’ Mississippi pulled down its terrorist rag

Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Because worldwide tens of millions protested—
U.S. killer cops are being fired and arrested…
Legislation is piling up like white bales of cotton
and everyone’s noting that capitalism is rotten
quick, fast, and in a hurry—and out of desperation
politicians are passing reams of toothless legislation
bought and paid for ones don Kente taking bent knees
Maybe they’ll do splits, begging “Baby, please, please…?”

Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Youth see world-changing ain’t a spectator sport
Like Longshore workers shutting down the port
Not Yankees, Raiders, Warriors, Steph or LeBron
Time for sitting on the sidelines is long, long gone
Workers kicking racist gun thugs out labor’s house
as Democratic Party preachers play church mouse

Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
Oooh, oooh, what a lil’ movement can do for you
New generations learn in University of the streets
studying night after night, testing phenomenal feats
Parks, schools, streets are rechristened at warp speed
elders mentor revolutionary youth taking the lead…
youth beaten, maced, tear-gassed, arrested and tortured 
No longer look for bad apples but the whole rotten orchard
We’ve grown weary of pleading for peaceful coexistence
as we’re relearning the awesome power of active resistance
Street heat’s sayin’ clearly “Normal don’t live here “No Mo’!”
The whole damn system’s thoroughly rotten and has gotta go…

Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh…
Oooh, oooh… what a lil’ movement can do for you…

Poet’s note: Inspired by Lady Day, the great Billie Holliday

© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com .

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who

More Stories


  • Jon Jeter
    Making a Mountain out of a Mole Hill, Trump Sends Troops to Los Angeles, Hoping to Energize His MAGA Base
    11 Jun 2025
    Trump deploys Marines against LA protesters, echoing Nixon’s Kent State crackdown. But this time, he faces a broader, greatly disaffected opposition ready to fight back.
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Edna Bonhomme’s Book, “A History of the World in Six Plagues”
    11 Jun 2025
    This week’s featured author is Edna Bonhomme. Bonhomme is a historian of science, culture writer, and journalist based in Berlin, Germany. Her book is A History of the World in Six Plagues: How…
  • Jill Clark-Gollub
    Daniel Ortega is No Bukele
    11 Jun 2025
    Ortega and Bukele are polar opposites: one invests in dignity and democracy, the other in mass incarceration and imperial alliances.
  • Aiyana Porter-Cash
    False Promises of Protection Embedded in U.S. Militarism and Carcerality
    11 Jun 2025
    "Protection" is a lie—a pretext for state violence, militarism, and control, targeting the marginalized while masking harm as care. True safety comes not from oppressive systems, but from resistance…
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    Oppression Breeds Resistance, Organization Sustains It
    11 Jun 2025
    Defeating the war on Black/African people requires solidarity with all who are oppressed and resistance against our common enemy.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us