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


  • David Escobar
    Notes from the Backyard: Is the Fall of the Transnational Vampires Beginning?
    11 Nov 2026
    The Democratic takeover of both houses of Congress in the 2026 midterms is a check on Trump's executive overreach rather than a moral restoration. U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America is…
  • John Perry
    Trump renews designation of Nicaragua as an ‘extraordinary threat’
    11 Nov 2026
    Washington cut off $500 million in annual loans, sanctioned officials, threatened trade, and even discouraged cruise ships from docking, and Nicaragua still posted the region's fastest GDP growth in…
  • Nicholas Mwangi
    40 Years Later, Calls Grow Demanding the Truth About Samora Machel’s Death
    11 Nov 2026
    Mozambique renews calls for answers over the 1986 plane crash that killed its first president, as unresolved questions surrounding the tragedy continue to cast a shadow over his legacy.
  • BAR Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 6, 2026
    06 Nov 2026
    In this week’s segment, we hear about the Southern Human Rights Organizers' Conference (SHROC), which will be held in Jackson, Mississippi, in December. But we begin with an analysis of the Michigan…
  • Abdul al Sayed
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Abdul El-Sayed's Senate Victory in Michigan
    06 Nov 2026
    Abayomi Azikiwe is editor of the Pan-African Newswire and a Detroit-based activist. Abdul El-Sayed won his election and will represent Michigan as a United States senator. He defied the Democratic…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us