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

A Li'l Somethin' for Dick Gregory
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
31 Aug 2017
🖨️ Print Article
A Li'l Somethin' for Dick Gregory
A Li'l Somethin' for Dick Gregory

A Li'l Somethin' for Dick Gregory

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

Our white-bearded cannon
fell silent—
The day became grayer…
I know, I know, I know, I know…
He was my Mom’s favorite funnyman—
She bought his books, his vinyl
Speaking to her like Malcolm
(who she shared Turkish Coffee
with on his trips west, fishing for men)

I remember his mantra
He chanted like a Buddhist Priest:
“You youngsters got a lotta work to do…”
“You youngsters got a lotta work to do…”
Doubling us over,
splitting our sides, shaking our cores…

I remember his mantra
He chanted like a Buddhist Priest:
“You youngsters got a lotta work to do…”
“You youngsters got a lotta work to do…”
Piercing steel veils with X-ray vision
puncturing absurdities with barbed tongue—
Soul-ar powered bullshit detector
administering smell tests

I remember his mantra
He chanted like a Buddhist Priest:
“You youngsters got a lotta work to do…”
“You youngsters got a lotta work to do…”
while coming as close as we’ve come to
Having a Super Hero
putting his body
On the line running,
Marching, fasting, speaking,
Teaching us to follow
the money where the
bodies are buried…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Right Reserved

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


More Stories


  • A “Communalist” Future?
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    A “Communalist” Future?
    10 Nov 2020
    “Socialism is communalism in the modern form,” said activist and University of Illinois doctoral candidate Shay Akil McLean, citing Kwame Nkrumah.
  •  Biden to Oversee a Kinder, Gentler Repression
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Biden to Oversee a Kinder, Gentler Repression
    10 Nov 2020
    “The Democratic Party has used the language of law and order as much as the Republicans,” said Justin Lang, a doctoral candidate and activist at Brown University.
  • White Supremacy Lite Wins the Prize
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    White Supremacy Lite Wins the Prize
    10 Nov 2020
    The contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was about how best to preserve whiteness, said Dr Johnny Williams, professor of Sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticu
  • Corporate Democrats Want to Run Against Trump-like Republicans Forever
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Corporate Democrats Want to Run Against Trump-like Republicans Forever
    05 Nov 2020
    Whoever wins the Electoral College, race-based politics will continue to allow the corporate rulers to ignore public demands for relief from the Race to the Bottom and endless war.
  • Freedom Rider: Black People Lose in 2020
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Black People Lose in 2020
    05 Nov 2020
    Black people will get nothing from a Joe Biden administration except fiscal austerity and the precarity that comes with it.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us