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

What makes you hopeful? (For Kris and KT)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
26 Jan 2022
What makes you hopeful? (For Kris and KT)

                                                                                                               What makes you hopeful?
                                                                                                                     (For Kris and KT)

                                                                                                         ”…I hope someday you’ll join us.
                                                                                                           And the world will live as one.”
                                                                                                                     —John Lennon

There are times she asks me, “What gives you hope?”
I say, “Ain’t The Audacity of Dope—“
Ol’ Schmo, Slick Willy or The Drone Ranger
It’s random acts of kindness from a stranger
It’s Farmers Markets, Co-Ops and mutual aid
It’s those first crayon drawings my children made!

It’s couples taking care of each other
It’s a professor teaching his grandmother
It’s the bad saxophonist who can sing—
It’s the hot Jazz group that can playground swing
It’s a young drummer who’s living his dream…
It’s John Coltrane blowing A Love Supreme!

It’s the cozy, sable, zippered sweater
It’s brilliant teachers making me better
It’s red flags flying from a church steeple—
It’s gangstas woke—now serving the people!

It’s school children walking out in protest
It’s freedom fighters who risk arrest…
It’s an addict living clean and sober
It’s Ferguson’s thru-line to Strike-tober
It’s speeches of Malcolm and Dr. King
It’s George Floyd Summer thawing Arab Spring…

It’s my ‘rabbi’ dying—then coming back
It’s waking up this morning—proud and Black
It’s fifteen minutes of flame once a week—
It’s Tryin’/Tranein’ for my Wikileak!

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, 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: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund

PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

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


More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Ukraine Terrorism and the Question of U.S. Involvement
    04 Jun 2025
    The U.S has been involved in every aspect of Ukraine’s military activity against Russia. The recent drone attacks and sabotage were likely committed with U.S. help. Of course, is possible that…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MEMOIR: The Making of a Rebel, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, 1980
    04 Jun 2025
    “We cannot write in foreign languages unspoken and unknown by peasants and workers in our communities and pretend that we are writing for…those peasants and workers.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Struggle for a Somali Nation
    04 Jun 2025
    Despite shared language, culture, and religion, Somalis still struggle to become a cohesive nation.
  • Jon Jeter
    Pizza Goeth Before a Fall? Changes in Americans’ Eating Habits Foretell a Deep Recession
    04 Jun 2025
    Wages can't keep up with prices, debt is crushing workers, and racial capitalism keeps us divided over shrinking slices. This isn't just inflation—it's collapse.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Rising Temperatures and the Rising Need for a Black Radical Lens in the Climate Change Discourse.
    04 Jun 2025
    Liberal climate movements keep bargaining with capitalism, but the Black Radical Tradition knows survival requires its destruction. Environmentalism must adopt principles of abolition and anti-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us