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

POEM: There it is, Jayne Cortez, 2009
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
19 Oct 2022
POEM: There it is, Jayne Cortez, 2009

The late Jayne Cortez spits fire, reminding us of the need to fight, resist, organize, and unify to seize power. You should read her NOW.

Jayne Cortez (May 10, 1934–December 28, 2012) was a poet, a performance artist, an activist, a Black Arts Movement blueswoman steeped in free jazz and surrealism, a pan-African feminist and an anti-imperialist whose uncompromised voice and visiom stalked the imperial highways. She released a dozen books of poetry and as many albums, led The Firespitters (with her son, Deanardo Coleman, on drums), founded the Watts Repertory Company and Bola Press, co-founded the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, and was the moving spirit behind the legendary literary gathering Yari Yari : Black Women Writers and the Future, held in New York City in 1997. Born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, Cortez lived in Los Angeles, New York, and Dakar – the place she felt was her home. “Cortez’s life, touched the entire black world,” the poet E. Ethelbert Miller once wrote, while acknowledging that, despite her influence and energy, she has not received the recognition she deserves. To speak of the “power” of her poetry does not convey that very power. Read it. Hear it. And you will understand how much we need Jayne Cortez right now.
 

There It Is

Jayne Cortez

My friend
they don't care
if you're an individualist a leftist a rightist
a shithead or a snake
They will try to exploit you absorb you confine you
disconnect you isolate you or kill you

And you will disappear into your own rage
into your own insanity
into your own poverty
into a word a phrase a slogan a cartoon
and then ashes

The ruling class will tell you that
there is no ruling class
as they organize their liberal supporters into
white supremacist lynch mobs
organize their children into
ku klux klan gangs
organize their police into
killer cops
organize their propaganda into
a device to ossify us with angel dust
preoccupy us with western symbols in
african hair styles
inoculate us with hate
institutionalize us with ignorance
hypnotize us with a monotonous sound designed
to make us evade reality and stomp our lives away
And we are programmed to self-destruct
to fragment
to get buried under covert intelligence operations of
unintelligent committees impulsed toward death
And there it is

The enemies polishing their penises between
oil wells at the pentagon
the bulldozers leaping into demolition dances
the old folks dying of starvation
the informers wearing out shoes looking for crumbs
the life blood of the earth almost dead in
the greedy mouth of imperialism
And my friend
they don't care
if you're an individualist
a leftist a rightist
a shithead or a snake

They will spray you with
a virus of legionnaire's disease
fill your nostrils with
the swine flu of their arrogance
stuff your body into a tampon of
toxic shock syndrome
try to pump all the resources of the world
into their own veins
and fly off into the wild blue yonder to
pollute another planet

And if we don't fight
if we don't resist
if we don't organize and unify and
get the power to control our own lives
Then we will wear
the exaggerated look of captivity
the stylized look of submission
the bizarre look of suicide
the dehumanized look of fear
and the decomposed look of repression
forever and ever and ever
And there it is

Jayne Cortez, "There It Is" from On the Imperial Highway (Hanging Loose Press, 2009)

Black arts movement
Jayne Cortez

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


Related Stories

Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                                                                              Another June 1  
 BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
11 January 2023
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio July 4, 2025
    04 Jul 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss navigating celebrity culture and liberation politics. Also, organizers will convene in Philadelphia to mobilize on behalf of Mumia Abu Jamal. But first, we learn…
  • Legal Defense Fund
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Birthright Citizenship and the Supreme Court
    04 Jul 2025
    On Inauguration Day, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order which stated that the federal government would require proof of parental citizenship or permanent residency in order to grant birthright…
  • Kalonji Changa
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Struggle for Liberation Amid Celebrity Culture
    04 Jul 2025
    We are joined by Kalonji Changa, who is a co-founder of Black Power Media, founder of the FTP Movement, and co-author of the book Beyond Cop Cities: Dismantling State and Corporate-Funded Armies and…
  • Free Mumia event flyer
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Free Mumia Coalition of New York City Joins Mobilization in Philadelphia
    04 Jul 2025
    Gil Obler is an organizer with the Free Mumia Abu Jamal Coalition of New York City. He joins us from New York to discuss the Saturday, July 5th rally and march at Malcolm X memorial park in…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Necessity of Birthright Citizenship for Black People
    02 Jul 2025
    Black citizenship was non-existent for the first 200 years that enslaved and free people were present in what became the United States. Even long-standing legal victories are tenuous, and now…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us