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 Fancy Miss Nancy
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
19 Dec 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Nancy Sue Wilson 1937-2018
Nancy Sue Wilson 1937-2018

Guess who I saw
today, black and white photo,
Marching, Montgomery from
Selma, ‘65?

Guess who I saw
at my high school swingin’ the
Trio; urging us to stay in school?

Guess who I,
was privileged to sequence
a later CD for, late one night?

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
put the purr in whisper, with a sultry
Sound that could make subpoenas seem sensuous

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
Appeared, sparkling, at the end of the
golden era—looking as good as she sounded—
Her face should grace
Buckeye State flags emblazoned
“There will never be another you…”

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
Hovered earth— stunning hummingbird,
gorgeous humanitarian, giving the greatest
performance of her life, moments I loitered—
not seizing the time and asking, “When did
You leave heaven?”
Though, I think it was maybe ’37? I know she’s

Free Again…

© 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.

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


More Stories


  • Poem: June Jordan, Moving towards Home, 1982
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Poem: June Jordan, Moving towards Home, 1982
    19 May 2021
    Seventy-three years after the Nakba began, the Zionists continue their land and rights thievery, to which June Jordan, the Black American poet, bore powerful witness.
  • The Hoops and the Hype: Basketball Africa League Debuts
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Hoops and the Hype: Basketball Africa League Debuts in Rwanda
    19 May 2021
    The decision to debut the Basketball Africa League in Rwanda is a huge public relations coup for totalitarian, war criminal, and US military partner Paul Kagame, writes Ann Garrison.
  • Herd impunity?
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Herd impunity?
    19 May 2021
    What if a colonial settler state accidentally vaccinated 61% of its population With a virulent variant of a vicious virus?
  • BAP US Out of Africa Network Statement On the Latest Zionist Genocidal Assault in Palestinian
    US Out of Africa Network
    BAP US Out of Africa Network Statement On the Latest Zionist Genocidal Assault in Palestinian
    19 May 2021
    The ongoing Nakba is only possible because of the Pan-European white supremacist and imperial support for the crimes of the Zionist entity.
  • Caribbean Organizations Call on CARICOM, the US, Britian and EU to Take Urgent Action
    Caribbean Pan-African Network
    Caribbean Organizations Call on CARICOM, the US, Britian and EU to Take Urgent Action
    19 May 2021
    The Zionists are continuing a campaign of dispossession, terror and murder of Palestinians that began in 1948.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us