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

Summer of Soul/Summer of Struggle…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Aug 2021
🖨️ Print Article
Summer of Soul/Summer of Struggle…
Summer of Soul/Summer of Struggle…

BAR's poet in residence pays tribute to fallen Black Panther Party comrades.

Chalk silhouettes, bullet-violated bodies of

Bunchy and John—UCLA, cold Campbell Hall

floor—Punctuated January ’69…like a loud

Prelude to December’s death squad symphonies:

Silencing Chicago songs of spring; Meeting riffs of

Resistance during L. A.’s 5 hour breech birth of SWAT

Sing their names! Sing their names! Names

floating from wings of history’s stage—Names

Never too far from tips, riffs, runs of flattened

tongues of our true singers, shouters, belters…

Magic, Sly, High Priestess African rainbows

in everyday people gospel-blues-soul-funk-jazz—

in Great Black Music—Mississippi to South Africa…

Enveloping, wrapping world peoples in its broad,

Black, sweltering sonic arms—Pre-Bitch-ho/Hope-change

desert storm of white noise; pre-half century rest…

Sing their names! Sing their names! Names

floating from wings of history’s stage—Names

Never too far from tips, riffs, runs of flattened

tongues of our true singers, shouters, belters…

Sing their names! Sing ‘bout blended voices

Voted from ‘office’ with hot lead ballots—

Cast in driveway, ballroom, bedroom, motel,

Polling places! The M’s alone, loop like some

hypnotic drum machine’s licks—repeatedly

pounding trauma into wide Eyes On The Prize…

Sing their names!Sing them as rhythmic

responses to ancient calls of our organic

Leaders.

Sing them as legato ghost note tributes to

Martyrs waking our resistance with

counter melody messages to the Grassroots…

Sing their names! Sing their names! Names

floating from wings of history’s stage—Names

Never too far from tips, riffs, runs of flattened

tongues of our true singers, shouters, belters…

Names forecasting 2020 Summers of Rainbow

Resistance…

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished poet and performing artist, and an official of the National Writers Union. Find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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

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
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
Eddie Conway Tribute
Mali Collins
Eddie Conway Tribute
15 March 2023
The late Eddie Conway was a young member of the Black Panther Party who was framed for the killing of a police officer and spent more
BAR Book Forum: Interview with Akinyele Umoja
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Interview with Akinyele Umoja
08 June 2022
As part of the Black Agenda Report Book Forum, we interview scholars about a recent article they’ve written for either an academic journal or p
911 Is a Joke: Preferring to Shoot Unarmed Blacks, Cops Find It Ain't No Fun When the Rabbit Has the Gun
Jon Jeter
911 Is a Joke: Preferring to Shoot Unarmed Blacks, Cops Find It Ain't No Fun When the Rabbit Has the Gun
01 June 2022
Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) began after an LAPD raid on the Black Panthers in 1969 and spread throughout the country.
Bye, Big Sis
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Bye, Big Sis
11 May 2022
                                         
EDITORIAL: Poor Women: Pawns in the Abortion Controversy, The Black Panther, 1980
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
EDITORIAL: Poor Women: Pawns in the Abortion Controversy, The Black Panther, 1980
07 December 2021
A 1980 editorial in The Black Panther argues that the war against abortion is a bi-partisan war against poor women.
Lessons from Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panther Party
Ahjamu Umi
Lessons from Eldridge Cleaver and the Black Panther Party
16 June 2021
Just like we glorified the black leather jackets, black berets, and guns in the 60s, we still romanticize African people with guns and mouths that
The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular, but Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten
Santi Elijah Holley
The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular, but Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten
06 May 2021
The name Black Panther is a box-office draw, but can cinematic sympathy be extended to the Panthers who are still living and breathing in this
Newly Obtained FBI Files Shed New Light on the Murder of Fred Hampton
Aaron J. Leonard and Conor A. Gallagher 
Newly Obtained FBI Files Shed New Light on the Murder of Fred Hampton
10 March 2021
That all this time later we are still learning new information about Hampton’s killing is testament to the sheer volume of the effort aimed at this

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Fall of Eric Adams
    19 Feb 2025
    Eric Adams has a multitude of legal and political problems that have ended any political ambitions he may have had. Donald Trump may have kept him from going to jail, but in seeking a lifeline from a…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Malcolm X Presente!
    19 Feb 2025
    Every year, people around the world honor Malcolm X. Though he was taken from us prematurely, his memory and impact remain. With that memory, there is a mandate that we accept and carry on the legacy…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    POEM: Where will you be? Pat Parker, 1978
    19 Feb 2025
    Pat Parker warns us that cowardly acquiescence to fascism is deadly for us all.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Congo Activists to NBA: Black Lives Matter in DRC, Cut Ties with Rwanda
    19 Feb 2025
    As Rwandan troops tightened their grip on the capitals of DRC’s Kivu Provinces, activists protested the National Basketball Association’s close collaboration with the Rwandan regime.
  • 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…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us