Stable working class neighborhoods are the bane of speculators, developers and capitalist politicians.
Lording over the landscape like giant
Insects sucking soul, blood, chocolate
into multi-colored mushrooms
Metastasizing citywide.
Officers ordering vacant storefronts,
lined up like soldiers, to make money,
while brothers with cupped hands
platoon on plastic crates at entrances to
$4-a-cup coffee shops with belligerent baristas.
Beneath fiery crimson skies,
afternoon freeways are fuming parking lots.
Capitalismās poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters donāt care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed buttsātents and jails.
First come the cranesāthen the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgagesāthen the
Rentsā¦ money, money, money for military
Bases in far off placesābut, itās āPie in the
sky,ā to demand affordable living spaces!
Basketball teamās outgrown The Town,
football teamās slipping off to Sin
City after slurping at the troughā¦
Capitalismās poisoning water and air,
and ignorant exploiters donāt care!
Pyramids and huts; tuxes and tails,
unwashed buttsātents and jails.
First come the cranesāthen the
Tents, skyrocketing mortgagesāthen the
Rentsā¦ money, money, money for military
Bases in far off placesābut, itās āPie in the
sky,ā to demand affordable living spaces!
And we play dress-up in grown folksā clothesā
Tiny red, white and blue stickersā pretending
weāre fixing it in 20 minutesā¦ every 2-4 years ā¦
Ā© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.
The grassroots movement to put a Cop City referendum on the ballot came closer to becoming a reality when a federal judge denied the city of Atlanta's appeal to stop the petition drive.
The people of Haiti are once again facing attack, now with the use of Black nations as a cover for an impending invasion and occupation. Haitians are still resolute in fighting for their freedom.
In this weekās segment we hear about the origins of Black August with a former political prisoner, and we hear analysis of the U.S. response to the recent military coup in Niger. But first we discussā¦
Leah Goodridge joins us from New York City to talk about that cityās loss of its Black population, 200,000 people in the last 20 years.
In August 2020 the late Glen Ford spoke to former political prisoner Jihad Abdulmumit of the Jericho Movement about the origins and importance of Black August.
