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
  • omnibus

No kings and things (Of mobilized masses)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Jun 2025
🖨️ Print Article
No Kings protest on highway

“You can’t dethrone a king
if you don’t know they exist.”
― Jasun Ether 

Today’s the tiny tip of an over-warmed iceberg. Its militance
Melts into 2,000 streams, rivulets and rivers of resistance!
Its waters rush cross country. They pour precious
Antifascist sediment onto our real estate-ravaged streets … 

The raging waters rush through reservations; campuses; through
Workplaces; state and private prisons. The waters trickle through
Quiet hamlets …  Through muffled villages and tidy town squares.
They are contaminated with courage.          Courage is contagious!

The raging waters flow through bowels beneath cities never
Sleeping. Cities with big shoulders. Cities where little cable cars

Climb halfway to the stars. Cities where angels strap on wings of
Resistance to fly above hoodlums on horses/bullies with badges.

No kings and things
No kissing rings
On bomber wings

No strongman’s strings
No ding-a-lings
Scooped from bullrings

No Kings Day Of Defiance—
Of coalition and alliance—
Revolutionary science …

Freedom rider trains— stuffed sardine-tight— arrive at crowded
Stations. Emptying to overcrowded streets above takes 30 minutes.
Antifascist riders bet on sardine-tight trains; over shackles and chains;
Over boxcars bound for ‘black sites’/disappearing concentration camps …

Rainbow signs bloom like flowers from Arab Spring and
George Floyd Summer: THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE
IS STRONGER THAN THE PEOPLE IN POWER!
NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR! And, ICE IS BEST CRUSHED!

Harmonic resistance of tubas, trombones, saxophones and
Drums drown out hate speech of heel-clickers.  And angry
Antiwar activists shout, “Thank you for your service!” to war-weary
Vets hoisting banners emblazoned: BENEFITS NOT BULLSHIT!

Black and Brown bus drivers spontaneously step from lines of
Busses five blocks long.    Will they rediscover superpowers?
Resurrect roles for
Working-class women?                 Trane for General Strikes?

No kings and things
No kissing rings
On bomber wings

No strongman’s strings
No ding-a-lings
Scooped from bullrings

No Kings Day Of Defiance—
Of coalition and alliance—
Revolutionary science …

Will rally-goers remember falling in behind
Dems causes serious injury? Causes death?
Or will marchers muscle up for mission creep—
Rebuild dream muscles for movements militant, robust—
Numbers scaled up from mobilizing angry millions for:

Monthly

NO KING DAYS—

Weekly

NO KING DAYS—

Daily

NO KING DAYS

Forever

NO KING DAYS?

© 2025. 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.

protest
Donald Trump
Democrats
class consciousness

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


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Trump and Democrats Fuel the Washington DC Crime Panic
13 August 2025
Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department is not merely a result of his racist and authoritarian
Black Alliance For Peace
End the Colonial Occupation of Washington D.C.: The People Demand Self-Determination and Self-Governance
13 August 2025
Washington, D.C.'s political subjugation exposes America's democratic facade. While claiming to champion self-rule globally, the U.S.
Jon Jeter
Stagflation Returns, Shining a Spotlight on the Federal Reserve’s War on the Working Class
06 August 2025
History exposes the Fed's inflation fight for what it truly is: a decades-long class war waged against working people under the guise of moneta
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Obama Colluded with the Surveillance State Against Trump
30 July 2025
It is true that Barack Obama used the surveillance state apparatus in an effort to undermine the first Donald Trump administration with the Rus
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Killing the Kennedy Center softly for the Reich?
30 July 2025
With our own say so How low can we go On nazi limbo To be WOKE no mo?
High Crimes
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
High Crimes and Misdemeanors – Not by Trump but Obama and Democrats
23 July 2025
The real collusion wasn’t between Trump and Putin; it was between intelligence elites and a Democratic establishment.
Caitlin Johnstone
AOC Is a Genocidal Con Artist
23 July 2025
She’s actively stopping American politics from moving any further left than the nightmare we see before us.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Don’t point fingers. Don’t ask evil questions.
16 July 2025
This was a one in One Hundred Year Event! One in Five-Hundred Year Event! One in One Thousand Year Event—
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
New York Times Joins a White Supremacist In Attacking Zohran Mamdani
09 July 2025
Zohran Mamdani, the choice of Democratic Party voters in New York City, is anathema to the billionaire
Jon Jeter
Unable to Reinvent Itself, Dems Can’t Capitalize on Trump’s Missteps
25 June 2025
The Democratic Party is in crisis—divided, broke, and struggling to counter Trump’s agenda despite growing public backlash.

More Stories


  • Erica Caines , Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Prison Imperialism: A Critical Examination of Bukele’s Deal with the U.S
    19 Feb 2025
    The deal for a prisoner exchange proposed by the El Salvadoran president presents a dangerous threat to incarcerated people in the U.S. The continued outsourcing of the U.S. penal system…
  • Jon Jeter
    Another Love TKO: Falling Marriage Rates Stagger Black Family Formation, and Community Development
    19 Feb 2025
    The economic stress on African American people shows itself in phenomena like marriage rates. What once was a benefit to Black communities and a path to the middle class, marriage is becoming…
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    STICKUP: MORE for the GREEDY; less for the needy!!
    19 Feb 2025
    "STICKUP: MORE for the GREEDY; less for the needy!!" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Nato Koury
    Guantánamo Bay’s forgotten history of detaining Haitian migrants
    19 Feb 2025
    The threats by the Trump administration to detain migrants in Guantanamo Bay will not be the first time the United States has used the facility for migrant detention. Not too long ago,…
  • Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
    Malcolm X, Black Nationalism and the Cold War
    19 Feb 2025
    United States intelligence agencies kept close watch over developments in the African American struggle for freedom, justice, equality and self-determination after the conclusion of the Second…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us