Crowd at a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, July 1964, Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, USM
âPoetry is always dissident.â
âOctavio Paz
It was muted Miles when we
Woke Saturday mornings.
When we rose from slumber
to scents of sausage, potatoes,
bacon, eggs and coffee âŚ
It was muted Miles when we
Woke to fragrances wafting
from Sunbeam waffle iron.
Maybe manicures and pedicures, post-
breakfast? Maybe, on his way to
Work, the barber would pick us up for
close-cropped hair and nourishing adult
ear worms?
Maybe Iâd be pitching? Brother
Steve catchingâor gobbling
up ground balls at second base?
My Mother could organize all that!
Then rip apron off, gavel meetings
to order. Pull together picket lines;
Run California assembly and senate
campaignsâOr, settle long, long-
simmering disputes. She came equipped.
No cape. No âSâ on her chest. No
unusual way of getting around. She
was just Mom âŚ
Crazy Mom. Invited me to attend
a meeting with her. My response:
âI donât wanna go to your political meetingsâ
I just wanna play Little League Baseball!â
Her muted Miles reply⌠âBaby, everythingâs
Political⌠How do you think your park got
there? How do you think your coach got hired?
Everythingâs political, baby.â
Š 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
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 and PayPal.
The settler colony known as the United States inflicts violence upon Black people as a function of its existence. But the murder of a mother and her infant daughter by Missouri police officersâŚ
The domestic expression of imperialism has once again been made clear with the installation of a new cobalt refinery in an Oklahoma town. Through the extraction of raw materials from the global southâŚ
Nonprofit organizations of all orientations are under attack, with threats of withholding funding, for their association with Palestine solidarity activities. Climate justice organizations haveâŚ
Harry Haywoodâs work is a guiding light to help Black people analyze our position in the U.S. and rethink how we might engage in electoral politics. Are we building power toward revolution or are weâŚ
The Black Alliance for Peace and U.S. Out of Africa Network provided this report following their participation in the âConference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahelâ.
