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

Warriors we are…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
22 Jun 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Warriors we are…
2020 San Francisco Protest (Photo: Kit Castagne)

                                                                                                                              Warriors we are…

                                                                                                 (For my Friend Larry’s lean years/in between years)

                                                                                                     “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war,

                                                                                          while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

                                                                                                                                 – Sun Tzu

Pop-pop-pop-pop—explosions! Kaleidoscopic
cracks of color, age, orientation—in motion—
But no one’s running. No one’s hiding behind
doors; behind desks; Fearing AR-15 weekly reports.

No howling lynchers, hangman’s nooses, hockey
sticks! No bear spray, baseball bats, brass knuckles!
No white supremacist supermarket shooters; No homo
phobic haters! No blu klux klan knees/chokeholds; No
Glocks killing because of—You name the verb—
“…while Black…”

Market and Main parade route. Banners waving,
festooned on San Francisco’s streets
Arms are bridges between dancers, huggers, high
fivers; between generous tossers of extra snacks.
Ivory smiles, improvised explosive devices blasting
stink-eye smug/mean mugs from blissful faces.
Joyful faces, cheering and singing harmoniously!
If this is what Warrior wins look like—we will be
Warriors for windmill/solar panel-size victories…

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
Rejecting realtors’ flagrant fouls: tarps, tents, card
board mattresses/urine-smelling, shit-slippery streets…

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
Sweeping stroke, diabetes, cancer, heart attack in four!
Winning dental/healthcare for ALL! Ejecting barking
bellies; trading Franken ‘food’ for Fresh Fruits/Veggies

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
99% Strength In Numbers—Arab Springs, Occupies, Strike
tobers, George Floyd Summers for un-fracked/unleaded
water
Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE.
Springing up like Splash Brothers for three point
shots at DAs prosecuting killer cops; booking low Barr Boss
Tweet thugs bleeding budgets for death and destruction

Everyday people—Warriors—wanting better.
Seizing strength through LOVE—through
Justice and Peace pleading with us: man/woman up! Be
Spartacus, Che, Harriet Tubman, Douglass, Fanny Lou,
John Brown, Malcolm, Martin and close this game
Out…

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

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, 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.

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


More Stories


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: Elections and economic crisis in Guyana: Interview with Working People's Alliance leader Eusi Kwayana, 1986
    14 Oct 2026
    “So we started to preach the doctrine of self-organization. And we made it very clear what we were after — the genuine multiracial and democratic power of the working people.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Trump Terrorizes Ilhan Omar and Somali Americans in Minnesota
    14 Oct 2026
    Trump is terrorizing Minnesota’s Somali Americans in a desperate xenophobic and racist appeal to voters in the state’s white farming and mining communities.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The r(AI)cial Divide of Big Tech and Data Center Buildout
    14 Oct 2026
    Artificial intelligence and hyperscale data center buildout constitute a new front of environmental racism and a project to optimize white supremacy, with Black communities targeted as sacrifice…
  • Kribsoo Diallo
    The Congo as a Site of Capital Accumulation: Erik Prince and the Privatization of War
    14 Oct 2026
    Erik Prince's mercenary operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo serve U.S. imperial and corporate interests in critical minerals and violate the Congolese peoples' sovereignty.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Contributions of the Alliance of Sahel States to the African and World Revolutions
    14 Oct 2026
    Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are leading the way toward the realization of Pan-Africanism and the struggle against imperialism in the 21st century.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us