Crowd at a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, July 1964, Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, USM
âPoetry is always dissident.â
âOctavio Paz
It was muted Miles when we
Woke Saturday mornings.
When we rose from slumber
to scents of sausage, potatoes,
bacon, eggs and coffee âŚ
It was muted Miles when we
Woke to fragrances wafting
from Sunbeam waffle iron.
Maybe manicures and pedicures, post-
breakfast? Maybe, on his way to
Work, the barber would pick us up for
close-cropped hair and nourishing adult
ear worms?
Maybe Iâd be pitching? Brother
Steve catchingâor gobbling
up ground balls at second base?
My Mother could organize all that!
Then rip apron off, gavel meetings
to order. Pull together picket lines;
Run California assembly and senate
campaignsâOr, settle long, long-
simmering disputes. She came equipped.
No cape. No âSâ on her chest. No
unusual way of getting around. She
was just Mom âŚ
Crazy Mom. Invited me to attend
a meeting with her. My response:
âI donât wanna go to your political meetingsâ
I just wanna play Little League Baseball!â
Her muted Miles reply⌠âBaby, everythingâs
Political⌠How do you think your park got
there? How do you think your coach got hired?
Everythingâs political, baby.â
Š 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal.
The trans-Atlantice slave trade did not end with the 1808 ban. The Clotilda arrived in 1860 and the descendants of those enslaved people are impacted by that history, as are all African people in theâŚ
The U.S. imposes unilateral coercive measures, sanctions, against millions of people around the world. Sanctions are war by other means, creating as much damage as bombs and bullets do.
Black people are disproportionately convicted of felonies across New York State. In Manhattan, a Black person is 21 times more likely to be convicted of a crime than a white person.
Thank you for your support in 2022. Black Agenda Report Will Return on January 4, 2023.
The effort to save an African cemetery from destruction and desecration, witnessing Cuba and the Black liberation connection, and the impact of a Supreme Court decision in Moore v. Harper.
