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

 For Brother Bruce
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Jul 2019
🖨️ Print Article
 For Brother Bruce
 For Brother Bruce

Here’s the FOIA requested,
Redacted part of the story they never tell
You. 

Baby Bruce was wandering
the Midwest with Dorothy and Toto—
Before they picked up the Tinman in 
Pittsburgh, the Scarecrow on Staten Island,
the Cowardly Lion in Los Angeles
Baby Bruce had a baby brain, a huge
heart and fully formed courage that
would be schooled and steeled at the 
point of production—
Molding a straight-up soldier on
The Long March; A rank-in-file, 
meet ‘em where they’re at,
shoe leather, serve the people, 
door-to-door knocking, 
troublemaking organizer;
Chitown stubborn kinda fella— 
stubborn as a Georgia mule—
Refusing to slip, on Iceberg Slim
posing as community organizer…

He had huge heart, big brain and 
courage. Barrel of his pen blazing—
welcoming me from the wilderness,
Cali isolation, to fight side by side
Against the masked man— The
Drone Ranger; when icons and 
Legends were losing their minds

and Slutty Professors dangled
on the dick of Deporter-in-Chief!

When Bruce’s 404 popped up on my phone
It was business—but personal—laughing, joking, 
we’d cover the waterfront with lunch bucket language…
I pray The Wizard put a Bruce Dixon Organizer’s App
 on my phone countering some spyware…

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Bruce Dixon

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


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Twenty Years of Black Agenda Report
28 October 2026
Reaching a 20th anniversary for Black Agenda Report is indeed a milestone.
The Courage to Write the Truth: Where and When Bruce Dixon Enters History
Dr. Matthew Quest
The Courage to Write the Truth: Where and When Bruce Dixon Enters History
21 August 2019
Bruce entered history as the most distinguished critic of the Black political class during the Age of Obama.

More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​Who’s Afraid of Alice Walker?
    Earl Hazell
    ​​​​​​​Who’s Afraid of Alice Walker?
    06 Nov 2019
    Opera singer and producer Earl Hazell reminds us that standing up for artists and their vision is standing up for free speech, democracy, and ourselves.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    06 Nov 2019
    This week our readers discussed black feminism and the alleged killing of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.  We print your letters for “
  • BAR Book Forum: Keguro Macharia’s “Frottage”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Keguro Macharia’s “Frottage”
    06 Nov 2019
    Instead of succumbing to xenophobia and nativism, as with anti-Somali sentiment in Kenya or ADOS in the US, we need to pursue freedom in ways that speak to our differences.
  • BAR Book Forum: Dario Azzellini’s “Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Dario Azzellini’s “Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela”
    06 Nov 2019
    Millions of Venezuelans are building socialism from below, and most of them are Black, brown and female.
  • Mass Shootings and the Misguided and Pernicious Push for “Gun Control”
    Enzo Calandra
    Mass Shootings and the Misguided and Pernicious Push for “Gun Control”
    06 Nov 2019
    The atrocities committed by white male shooters are part and parcel of US behavior both domestically and around the world.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us