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: Lavelle Porter’s “The Blackademic Life”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Lavelle Porter’s “The Blackademic Life”
    25 Nov 2020
    Despite academia’s inherent racism, black scholars have figured out ways to work within these institutions.
  • BAR Book Forum: Erin Manning’s “For a Pragmatics of the Useless”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Erin Manning’s “For a Pragmatics of the Useless”
    25 Nov 2020
    Schizoanalysis opens up new alliances (approximations) in the uneasy overlaps of neurodiversity and black life.
  • Alexander Hamilton: An American Slave-Master 
    Bashir Muhammad Akinyele
    Alexander Hamilton: An American Slave-Master 
    25 Nov 2020
    The Broadway show is a fiction and bamboozlement: Hamilton was a depraved enslaver of people, just like most of the Founders of the White Settler State.
  • Our Vaccine Infrastructure Needs a Radical Overhaul
    by Ravi Gupta
    Our Vaccine Infrastructure Needs a Radical Overhaul
    25 Nov 2020
    Public health departments will be hard-pressed to overcome existing racial and class disparities in health care and to address to structural racism.
  • Ethiopia: The TPLF’s Precipitous Fall
    Dr. Fikrejesus Amahazion
    Ethiopia: The TPLF’s Precipitous Fall
    25 Nov 2020
    The TPLF was a “darling” of the West, especially the US and UK.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us