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

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


  • BAR Book Forum: Destin Jenkins and Justin Leroy’s “Histories of Racial Capitalism”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Destin Jenkins and Justin Leroy’s “Histories of Racial Capitalism”
    03 Feb 2021
    Racial capitalism is insidious and malleable, and can adapt to nearly any political context.
  • BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s "In the Wake"
    Jade Bentil
    BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s "In the Wake"
    03 Feb 2021
    To read In the Wake  is to read a love letter to Black people in the everywhere of this world.
  • Building Solidarity 
    Renée Feltz 
    Building Solidarity 
    03 Feb 2021
    Mutual aid tends to expose the reality that people lack what they need, while also creating spaces to meet those needs and build a shared analysis.
  • Book Review: The Prologue, The Prototype, The O.G. Hater
    Todd Steven Burroughs
    Book Review: The Prologue, The Prototype, The O.G. Hater
    03 Feb 2021
    Hubert Henry Harrison was a Black intellectual inferno, a warrior in the cause of a race- and class-based politics.
  • Beyond Slogans: Palestinians Need an Urgent, Centralized Strategy to Counter Israel in Africa
    Ramzy Baroud
    Beyond Slogans: Palestinians Need an Urgent, Centralized Strategy to Counter Israel in Africa
    03 Feb 2021
    Israel has accelerated its plans to exploit Africa’s many political and economic opportunities, especially as the continent is now an open ground for renewed global attention.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us