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


  • Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups
    Lauren Kaori Gurley
    Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups
    10 Dec 2020
    Dozens of leaked documents from Amazon reveal the company’s use of Pinkerton operatives to spy on warehouse workers, labor unions and social movements.
  • The Right to Live in Health and Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution: A Review 
    Kelly Urban
    The Right to Live in Health and Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution: A Review 
    10 Dec 2020
    Cuban medical professionals created a project to join science and statecraft and secure health as a fundamental right of citizenship.
  • Hierarchies of Modern Western Colonialism
    Dr. Kweli Nzito
    Hierarchies of Modern Western Colonialism
    10 Dec 2020
    Imperialists continue to exercise control of former colonies from the comfort of their metropolises as their former subjects appear resigned to their post-colonial fates.
  • Reckoning With Slavery: What a Revolt’s Archives Tells Us About Who Owns the Past
    Marjoleine Kars
    Reckoning With Slavery: What a Revolt’s Archives Tells Us About Who Owns the Past
    10 Dec 2020
    Writing one’s own history is an act of emancipation. “Former slaves organized a government and controlled most of the colony.”
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 7, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 7, 2020
    08 Dec 2020
    Beware Biden-Harris Neoliberalism
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us