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

short school struggle poem
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
02 Mar 2022
🖨️ Print Article
short school struggle poem

                                                                                 short school struggle poem…

                                                        “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice.
                                                                            Then he made school boards.”
                                                                                       —Mark Twain

Ignoring hot tears in tones of cracking voices
Ignoring Town Black and Brown children
parents— Ignoring ravenous bodies of heroic hunger-
striking
Teachers…
Real estate-powered, battery-operated, school board
members
Voted in wee hours to close several precious schools:
capitalism’s eating children/schools/hunger strikers…

Bought and bossed board members gifted Town
Children class struggle college educations—gifted them
mass
matriculation in George Floyd Summer School for an
Arab Spring Semester—promising to last a lifetime…

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet;
BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC.
You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund
PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

San Francisco
Public Schools

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


More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio October 31, 2025
    31 Oct 2025
    This week’s segment includes excerpts of a discussion regarding the New York City mayor’s race and the focus on Zohran Mamdani. But first, we hear from an organizer in Guyana who discusses how U.S.…
  • Map of the Caribbean and Venezuela
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    U.S. Threats Against Venezuela Target the Entire Region
    31 Oct 2025
    Gerald Perreira is the chairperson of the Organization for the Victory of the People in Guyana. He joins us from Guyana to discuss Donald Trump’s regime change threats against neighboring Venezuela,…
  • Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Zohran Mamdani and the New York City Mayor's Race
    31 Oct 2025
    Margaret Kimberley was recently a guest on James Fauntleroy’s YouTube program, Jaybefaunt. They discussed the upcoming mayoral election in New York City that pits the Democratic Party nominee, Zohran…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Shutdown and Neverending Hostility to the Welfare State
    29 Oct 2025
    The federal government shutdown is a fight between Trump and democrats, but it is also emblematic of the tenuous nature of the welfare state in the U.S. The duopoly parties are both committed to…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    The United States and Israel: The Tale of Two Rogue Settler-Colonial States United by A Commitment to White Supremacy and Barbaric State Violence
    29 Oct 2025
    The genocide in Gaza, the threat to Venezuela, and the targeting of Iran are not isolated crises. They are coordinated fronts in a single war effort attempting to enforce imperial dominance.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us