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

Ready for the Roaring ‘20s?
BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
08 Jan 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Ready for the Roaring ‘20s?
Ready for the Roaring ‘20s?

This Orange Age outrage—
Reich of the child’s cage
Cancer at fourth stage—
Rogue state’s rampage…
is a tiny blip on capitalism’s 
Continuum…
Its hypnotic ebb and flow,
distilled decades of woe—
decades of darkness,
Slowly bend in scalding
magma, bubbling up from below…
Sorry for the inconvenience—
the beginning is near…
Sweeping in the Roaring ‘20s…

Was it a Night in Tunisia? 
Ferguson? Occupy? Palestine? 
Baltimore? Madison?
A single spark in the dark
setting off prairie fire?
Was it Standing Rock, ‘Red’
State teachers’ strikes? Was it
the tick of Time’s Up-Me Too? The
Howl of climate chaos—Extinction 
Rebellion—Or harmony 
of… “All the above…”
Sweeping in the Roaring ‘20s?

Tsunamis of struggle sweep
World streets into 99% gyms—
Core/cardio spaces building big hearts;
Strength training, flexing, stretching—
muscling up militant mass movements
Against corporate olympics: Race to the 
bottom!
Strength training, squeezing concessions
from barbarians in Brooks Brothers suits
and other capitalist costumes—
Sweeping in the Roaring ‘20s!

No Charleston, flappers, speakeasies.
No bootleg liquor. Fewer pain dulling
shots. Less low sodium tears in beer…
Militant mass action’s tonic and gin—
Magic potion; prayer; voodoo—and a 
Vote for the lesser of evils…
“Happy Hour’s” the 99% cheering
favorite forms of 
Resistance on bars’ big screens—
Sweeping in the Roaring ‘20s
Sweeping in the Roaring ‘20s…

© 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

poerty

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


Related Stories

Israeli sniper prepares to implement the piece process.
Raymond Nat Turner , BAR poet-in-residence
Piece Process
23 May 2018
Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze it’s a joy-stick; a video game to him He has orders to “light up” anything that moves;

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