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

Bye, Big Sis
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
11 May 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Bye, Big Sis

                                                                                                          Bye, Big Sis

Cred befo’ ‘Ree cried: R-E-S-P-E-C-T for

the record; Feminist befo’ we knew its name

pre-Panther Radical, Mama Harriet-style, you

packed that Luger before there was unpacking,

centering, contextualizing.

You trained with brothers who became BPP

fore there was intersectionality.

You spoke Spanish; Swahili; handled your French;

Italian; German; Arabic—crossing teas; dotting eyes…

But Caffie wrenched the gun from your hand—

putting her children in your hands—weaponizing

Us, instead of losing you—shooting some cop.

Made you magnificent mentor ‘stead of middling martyr— Community-building big

sis; ‘stead of forgotten #????????

We, younger brothers and sisters, stared as you strode lioness-like through sun shards

on “The Stem—”

Bunchy’s beloved Central Avenue! We watched

how you navigated an apartheid City of Angels—

Ruled by devils. Cuz we longed to make you proud…

We, younger brothers and sisters, watched as you walked the world down in wondrous

ways, from the feet of Elder/soldiers who’d fled up south from Hell.

We watched you seize the time as elder/soldier—

beautiful, statuesque, warrior woman—baddest,

blackest ‘fro this side of Angela. You came equipped! Skillsets/talents taking you

‘round the world in its wine,  weed, drums, dance, food, fashion funky-ness— even Porkchop torture! Your po’ kidneys/Pay or Die Disease-‘care!’

We, younger brothers and sisters, watched as you birthed Black beauty into our chalky

worlds. Our first live theater. Sitting in the dark. Eyes bugged out; hot young minds

blown… You on stage

Baldwin’s words in your mouth! You: Sister Boxer. Whitman Mayo: Brother

Boxer/your husband. We: Your Amen Cornerfor life…

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

Los Angeles
Black Panther Party

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


Related Stories

Johari Diata Osei , Dhoruba bin-Wahad
The Black Panthers Didn't Start in Oakland. The History We Tell Does.
28 October 2026
The Black Panther Party did not begin in Oakland on October 15, 1966, but emerged from earlier organizing in Harlem and Lowndes Count
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Black Radicalism and the Return of the “Subversive Negro”
16 September 2026
NSPM-7 and the State Department's international campaign against "far-left political terrorism" represent new and more dangerous form
Michael Steven Smith
Meet the Radical Legal Collective That Won Justice for Fred Hampton and Continues Fighting to This Day
09 September 2026
Longtime attorney Flint Taylor’s new book tells the story of the People’s Law Collective, which grew out of the radical movements of the late 1
Karin Stanford
Afterlife of a Hijacker
11 August 2026
Former Black Panther Deputy Minister of Defense Byron Booth's journey from Compton to Cuba, Algiers to Lagos, reveals the global reac
Adam Mahoney
From Watts to D.C.: How 500 Black Neighborhoods Vanished in 45 Years
02 July 2025
America’s gentrified neighborhoods have lost 500,000 Black people, while gaining residents of every other race, a study finds.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Southern Panther Malik Rahim
14 May 2025
In “A Southern Panther,” movement elder Malik Rahim talks about his lifetime of battling ra
Lexis-Olivier Ray
Black People Make Up 75% Of All Weed Arrests At LAX, Data Shows
16 April 2025
Roughly a third of the people who were arrested by LAPD in the city of Los Angeles for cannabis-related offenses since 2020 were arrested in We
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The fire this time … (as Amiri tolt me)
29 January 2025
“Scratch a lie—find a thief !”
NY Panther 21
Dhoruba bin-Wahad
55th Anniversary of the NY Panther 21 Case
03 April 2024
The trial of the New York Panther 21 was the moment in the Black liberation movement that ushered in an era of intensified state repressio
Saturday Mornings
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Saturday Mornings
29 March 2023
                                         

More Stories


  • Michelle Obama Slanders Black Men in Her Book, Adds to the Obama Family’s Long Anti-Black Tradition
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Michelle Obama Slanders Black Men in Her Book, Adds to the Obama Family’s Long Anti-Black Tradition
    19 Dec 2018
    The Obamas are cashing in on their lifelong project to further the destruction of Black people, while blaming the victim.
  • The People v. The Information Monopolies: Case Continued
    Ann Garrison , BAR contributor
    The People v. The Information Monopolies: Case Continued
    19 Dec 2018
    Democrats failed to get enough votes to repeal the FCC’s undoing of net neutrality, but there’s still time to change some member’s votes.
  • BAR Book Forum: Julia Jordan-Zachery’s“Shadow Bodies“and Sabine Broeck’s “Gender and the Abjection of Blackness”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Julia Jordan-Zachery’s“Shadow Bodies“and Sabine Broeck’s “Gender and the Abjection of Blackness”
    19 Dec 2018
    Our authors examine how white feminism became “junior partner to enslavist capitalist patriarchy,” and how do we “resist silences that limit the span of democracy?”
  • This Radical Plan to Fund the ‘Green New Deal’ Just Might Work
    Ellen Brown
    This Radical Plan to Fund the ‘Green New Deal’ Just Might Work
    19 Dec 2018
    The US could finance a “Green” New Deal in the same way that it paid for the first New Deal, during the Depression – with public “banking” institutions.
  • “Green Book” – Not Our Story; His-Story, Their Fiction
    Wilmer J. Leon III
    “Green Book” – Not Our Story; His-Story, Their Fiction
    19 Dec 2018
    Hollywood does not hesitate to totally fictionalize, diminish and malign a Black historical figure, Dr Don Shirley, for its own white supremacist purposes.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us