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

A whistle and honk for our cities under siege
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
11 Feb 2026
🖨️ Print Article
ICE arrest

Exploding eyeballs of children in chokeholds. Shivering 
seniors drug out into teen temperatures in their underwear;
bloody faces of body-slammed elders, face prints in snow.
Packs of 250lb. fantasy football bettors/NFL-wannabes pile on.

Invasion of the body snatchers! Deputized traitors / MAGAt 
magicians disappearing loved ones. Boss Tweet’s bounty hunters —
$50,000 bonuses — body-slamming, beating down, choking and
Redacting 1st , 4th,  14th and other amendments — on our dime!

Home doors busted open like piñatas by battering ram-wielding
thugs. Shards of car window glass shower city streets with freezing
chaos and terror. 
Another US city’s under siege. Will the reign of ICE stall in snow?

Burrito shop hungry hardhats flooded for lunch; 
for strategy sessions; for 30 minute escapes into
sports sections folded up in sturdy denim back 
pockets: EMPTY.

Coffee shop where co-workers; old and new
neighbors and welcome visitors gathered to chat
over cappuccino, chai, mocha, Americano; or sat
journaling or answering messages: EMPTY.

Corner church swollen with Sunday harmonies 
with communion; with fellowship: EMPTY.
Neighborhood school’s steady stream of shrieking drop-offs 
and pickups ground to sudden halt.
Clinic’s steady stream of cold and flu sufferers: are missing
in action. Community life is strangled under brownshirt siege.

Recalling “No Kings” rally ‘eons ago.’ Signs reading: NO WAR BUT 
CLASS WAR! Recalling contagious rage against grifting Judas. And
feeling hopeful as hell. Remembering solidarity’s our silver lining
in swastika infused clouds … almost filling battleship gray skies …

© 2026. 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.

ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
state violence
protests

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
STOP Cruel Reich Cult (CRC) from reinventing the wheel
01 April 2026
Cruel Reich Cult coveting Utopia of no unrest. No protest. Voiceless
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
War Crime Cafe
25 March 2026
“War is a racket. It always has been. 
Black Alliance For Peace
In Solidarity with the Prairieland Nine
25 March 2026
The Prairieland Nine convictions are an example of lawfare designed to criminalize political dissent and intimidate movements challenging the n
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
It will be about the survivors and about the Tao
18 February 2026
“What does the Tao have to do with anything? Are you kidding?”Epstein-class — pedophile protectors — RICCO racketeers agree 
Black Alliance for Peace Nashville Citywide Alliance
Community Control: No to Privatization & No to the National Guard
18 February 2026
The militarization of disaster response is an indication that public infrastructure is not a governmental priority.
Iker Suarez
Anti-ICE, Anti-Imperialism. A Primer on the Role of ICE and How to Fight It
11 February 2026
To dismantle ICE, we must first understand its purpose in a global system.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Minnesota 9 — now say their names: pastor, lawyer, journalists and resistance leaders
04 February 2026
No Deaths. No Injuries. No Deaths. No Injuries.No Property damage.Unlike 16th Street Church blast 
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
ICE Exposes Democratic Party Irrelevance
28 January 2026
The Democratic Party is useful only to the oligarch class, who give them their marching orders.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
EXCERPT: The Palmer Raids, Labor Research Association, 1948
28 January 2026
“We forget easily in America. We have forgotten the story of the Palmer Raids.”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
For an ICU VA Nurse
28 January 2026
He had a history of healing.History of showing up torooms, sometimes surgically Masked.

More Stories


  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Big Green + Big Tech = Bigger Environmental Racism: How Certain white-led “environmental” Groups are Selling out Frontline Communities to Accommodate Data Centers
    25 Mar 2026
    Big Green groups taking millions from Big Tech have abandoned vulnerable communities to become accomplices in data center proliferation rather than opponents.
  • Hanna Eid
    Structures of the Imperialist Assault on Iran
    25 Mar 2026
    The Axis of Resistance has forged a path of self-sufficiency that turned Iran into a power capable of challenging U.S. and zionist power.
  • Mark P. Fancher
    When Black People are Xenophobic They Risk Black Deaths in Iran
    25 Mar 2026
    Black youth fed xenophobia instead of international solidarity become military pawns who risk their own lives and their people's liberation.
  • Ritaj Ibrahim
    Immigrants as the Working Class: How States Import Labor to Delegitimize Revolt
    25 Mar 2026
    Gulf states like Qatar and the UAE have built a system where migrant workers perform the productive labor while being stripped of their legal and human rights.
  • Junior “Spirit” Cottle
    The US Military Blockade – Its Potential Impact on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
    25 Mar 2026
    St. Vincent legalized medicinal cannabis in 2018, but the industry cannot take off while US warships enforce a blockade. A nation cannot build a legal economy under military threat.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us