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

Wizard of Oz redux— …and some casting questions…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
24 Aug 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Wizard of Oz redux—  …and some casting questions…

                                                                                                                     Wizard of Oz redux—

                                                                                                            …and some casting questions…

Suppose Hollywood hits you up
‘bout this big budget redo of
The Wizard of Oz? What if they
say it’s all your call…’cept this?

They say you must shoot in Uvalde
using locals. No big name stars. Do you say
“OK” when they say, “And you must cast the
Cops?” Or, do you ask—“What as?”

Angry Apple Tree? Crows in the Corn
Field? Ozmites? Tin Polishers? Horse
of Another Color? Almira Gulch’s bi
cycle?

Lullaby League? Lollipop Guild? Scare
crow? Sleepyheads? Munchkin Fiddlers?
Munchkin Soldiers? Munchkin Barristers?
Munchkin Mayor? Munchkin Coroner?

Hunk? Uncle Henry? Hickory? Toto?
Dorthy Gale? Aunt Em? Almira Gulch?
Professor Marvel? Tin Man? Glinda?
Wizard? Wicked Witch? Ruby Slippers?

Winged Monkeys instructed: “Take your Army
to the Haunted Forest and bring me those boys
and girls! Do what you want with the others—
They'll give you no trouble I promise you that?”

Winkies chanting, “O-Ee-Yah! Eoh-Ah!” into
radios in the school hallway? Hearing, “Poppies,
poppies, poppies” instead of some shooter’s
Pop-pop-pop-pops for some 70 minutes?

Are we leaving any characters out?

© 2022. 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.

Uvalde

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


More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Edward Onaci’s “Free the Land”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Edward Onaci’s “Free the Land”
    01 Jul 2020
    The desire for US citizenship was never the sole consideration of African and African-descended people.
  • My Student Comes Home from Prison
    Chris Hedges
    My Student Comes Home from Prison
    01 Jul 2020
    In 1990, Lawrence Bell was 14, orphaned and living in an abandoned house when three Camden cops pressured him to sign a confession of murder.
  • Interrogating Systemic Racism and the White Academic Field
    Nelson Maldonado-Torres 
    Interrogating Systemic Racism and the White Academic Field
    01 Jul 2020
    The US university is marked by the dominance of intellectual white liberalism in tension and complicity with conservative nationalism and neoliberalism.
  • A Southern Vanguard, The Lost History of Communism Below the Mason-Dixon Line
    Robert Greene II 
    A Southern Vanguard, The Lost History of Communism Below the Mason-Dixon Line
    01 Jul 2020
    Alabama Communists helped lay the foundation for the organized civil rights movement that emerged in the late 1940s and early ’50s.
  • The Struggle to Abolish the Police is Not New
    Garrett Felber
    The Struggle to Abolish the Police is Not New
    01 Jul 2020
    Prison and police abolition were key to the thinking of many midcentury civil rights activists.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us