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

Saturday Mornings
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
14 May 2025
🖨️ Print Article
MFDP meeting
Crowd at a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, July 1964, Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, USM

“Poetry is always dissident.”
—Octavio Paz


It was muted Miles when we 
Woke Saturday mornings.
When we rose from slumber
to scents of sausage, potatoes,
bacon, eggs and coffee …

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 I’d be pitching? Brother
Steve catching—or 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
campaigns—Or, settle long, long-
simmering disputes. She came equipped.

No cape. No “S” on her chest. No
unusual way of getting around. She
was just          Mom …

Crazy Mom.    Invited me to attend
a meeting with her. My response:
“I don’t wanna go to your political meetings—
I just wanna play Little League Baseball!”

Her muted Miles reply…  “Baby,    everything’s
Political…      How do you think your park got
there?  How do you think your coach got hired?
Everything’s political,     baby.”

© 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.

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


More Stories


  • Anthony Rogers-Wright
    Preserving the Legacy of Martin Luther King and The Black Radical Tradition Requires Saving Both from the Congressional Black Caucus More than from white moderates and white supremacists (Or, I said what I said)
    21 Jan 2026
    Preserving the Black Radical Tradition demands struggle not only against white supremacists, but also against the co-opted Black political class who actively support the very evils Dr. King named.
  • Mark P. Fancher
    A Role for Africans In Exile: “Revolutionaries at Large”
    21 Jan 2026
    Africans in the U.S. must weaponize their position and sabotage imperial projects from the inside. Black revolutionaries must modify traditional strategy.
  • Jamal Abdulahi
    Saudi Arabia Asserts Dominant Role in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea 
    21 Jan 2026
    Israel's recognition of a breakaway region in Somalia has redrawn the map of the Horn of Africa, pitting two oil-rich Gulf powers against each other and forcing the U.S. to delay its imperial plans…
  • Monique Welch-Rutherford
    This Texas County Is the Deadliest Place in the U.S. for Black Mothers to Give Birth
    21 Jan 2026
    Harris County, home to a world-renowned medical center, holds the worst maternal death rate for Black women in the entire nation. This staggering statistic represents a systemic failure that subjects…
  • x
    Orinoco Tribune
    Venezuela Rejects CIA Award Rumors While President Maduro’s Son Sparks Backlash Over Comments Suggesting to Resume Diplomatic Ties with ‘Israel’
    21 Jan 2026
    Venezuela's official stance remains one of principled anti-imperialism. Internal discussions reflect the complex realities of navigating a crisis.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us