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

Ancestral Thoughts, Aloud…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Feb 2017
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

The first full week of the Trumpacolypse behind us, our poet consults the ancestors...

Ancestral Thoughts, Aloud…

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Grateful

catching snow cone cars crawling up St. Nic…

Eyelid levees breached by hot tears

Flowing with WBAI evening news

This storm and stress period…

Thinking out loud how

Robert Knight might be writing

Reports into tiny morning hours—

“the Knight has a thousand eyes…”

Thinking out loud how

Pete Seeger, well worn voice, metallic twanging

banjo strings might ‘kettle’ ten thousand of us,

singing just octaves below the better world in birth

Thinking out loud how

Amiri Baraka might split our sides showing

No regard for Beauregard, his Cheeto Bandito boss,

and bottom-feeders drained from the swamp—

A Low Coup, or Who coup upped Amerikkka?

Thinking out loud how

Jayne Cortez might drill marching women:

“Find your own voice, use your own voice;

Find your own voice, use your own voice…” in

Independent politics denouncing Dem body snatchers

looking through the women into 2018—seeing 2020…

Thinking out loud how

Michael Ratner might give

Litigation Sensation to any administration—

Filing fifteen suits—one for every day

Boss Tweet/$cammany Haul have

Occupied the offal office, stonewalled hearings on

capitalist hill and recklessly eyeballed the

white supreme court with bloodshot eyes

Thinking out loud how

cranky Odetta might be ‘bout “Jim Crow Blues”

But, singing it, steeling us and casting a spell

on the apprentice devil, foppish Führer




Thinking out loud how

the Zinn master might remind those tired of

Traveling by mule that they can’t

“be neutral on a moving train”

Friendship Train, solidarity train

Thinking out loud how

Oscar Brown, Jr.’s demand for:

“40 Acres and A Mule” might go well with

Single-payer—or, how he might just call

Tomfoolery of Price, “Bullshit!”

Thinking out loud how

an Abbey Lincoln release from tension—

“I Got Some People In Me”

A Kleenex-snatching “Down Here Below”

”Brother Can You Spare A Dime” might

Steel our spirits for class war—and

Thinking out loud how

Confucius might say,

“Man who grab pussy, turn Tiger loose…”

Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2017 All Rights Reserved

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performance artist. Find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com

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


More Stories


  • Sara Flounders
    U.S./Israeli plans to destabilize Africa and Asia – Somaliland Recognition
    14 Jan 2026
    Breaking the longstanding African consensus on post-colonial borders, Israel is actively destabilizing an entire continent to serve its interests and Washington's.
  • Michael Smith
    Malcolm X’s Daughters Sue NYPD, FBI About Their Role in His Assassination
    14 Jan 2026
    A top-notch legal team is delving into how the FBI and their local police partners collaborated in both the assassination of Malcolm X and Chicago Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio January 9, 2026
    09 Jan 2026
    In this week’s segment, we discuss why Israel is the first and only nation to recognize the Somaliland region of Somalia and the impact of this act on the Horn of Africa region. But we begin with a…
  • Pro-Venezuela protest
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Solidarity with Venezuela and Opposition to U.S. Aggression and Kidnapping of the Maduros
    09 Jan 2026
    The U.S. attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of the president and first lady are the culmination of years of intervention against that state. Corinna Mullin discusses the importance of anti-…
  • Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Israel's Recognition of Somaliland Destabilizes the Horn of Africa
    09 Jan 2026
    Israel is the first and only nation to recognize the Somaliland region of Somalia as an independent state. The zionist entity's plan to establish a military presence will enhance the U.S. decades-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us