by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Some artists write poems and novels. Others paint and perform. Some build imaginary worlds you can immerse and lose yourself in. Some bring messages from the future, prophesying, fortelling the fates of this one. Our poet recalls one of these...
Ra Was Right
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
like a flaming guitar
sprinkled with lighter fluid,
four alarm fires roar
through Dark Ages on
synthesizers,
saxophones, trumpets,
pianos, drums, basses—
bari on bottom of
Interstellar swing—
Bebop blessings of
High Priests of Black Music
Time’s one dimensional
flying forward—
Fly Me To The Moon
let me loiter in the
Universe beyond
historical blips:
Above smoke stacks
spewing mushroom clouds;
Above wingtip-wearing
idiots poisoning our planet’s water;
Above primitive
Tomahawk missiles,
‘Apache’ and ‘Blackhawk’
helicopters and drones;
Above true believers
babbling ‘bout ‘our democracy;’
Above multibillionaire
media disguised as ‘mainstream;’
Above 37% ‘approval’ ratings;
Above an orange meteorite
un-humbled by the stars!
Fly Me To The Moon
with a connecting
flight to Saturn—
Recalibrating
my mind ‘round icy rings,
low-riding unknown
regions, horizons—
Finding formulations,
Equations, for overthrowing
gray-suited, star-spangled
lapel pin patriots—
True believers in
Yes, we can—
Yes, we can and
Bottle Jim Jones Juice
and deliver regime
Change you can believe in…
They said Ra was out—
way, way too far out:
Now, out is in, and
In is out—and the
cosmos is cool,
Saturn’s home—
“Space is the place!”
Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
Anti-Blackness and antiradicalism function as the legitimating architecture of modern U.S. racial capitalism.
This week protests in Portland and Racial Capitalism were on your minds.
Our theorizing must take on the dynamic, fugitive, and excessive aesthetics of black practice and performance.
Islam should be understood as a religion of enslaved African Muslims and contemporary Black Muslims in the Americas—not simply as a religion of 20th and 21st century Arab, African, and As
With Black is King, Beyoncé and Disney have combined to sell audiences a lavishly fabricated Africa—one that is entirely devoid of class conflict.
