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

…solidarity sounds like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
10 Apr 2019
🖨️ Print Article
movement
this is what solidarity looks like...

I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m also a Pyongyang, Managua, Manilla,
Teheran Man, too—As opposed to despot
As I am to coup!
When they go high—
Pole dancing palace and peacock throne—
I go low— on my own: grassroots, salt of the earth…
Lookin’ here and there, searchin’ everywhere
for bleach, Windex, Pine Sol scents—
janitors scrubbing toilets, mopping floors;
Lookin’ for blue plumes of forklift fumes—
pallets groaning in harmony with lunch
bucket language of warehouse workers;
Lookin’ for oily mist, machines birthing
stainless steel parts on shop floors;
Listenin’ for punch presses pounding parts
out for machine tools;
Listenin’ for squealing carts of library workers;
Listenin’ for intercoms ordering nurses to stations,
bells releasing teachers to lunch
Lookin’ to stand shoulder to shoulder
with—Workers of the World

I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m a Seoul Man, da-da-da—dat-da-da-da
I’m also a Pyongyang, Managua, Manilla,
Teheran Man, too—As opposed to despot
As I am to coup!
When they go high—
Pole dancing palace and peacock throne—
I go low— on my own: grassroots, salt of the earth…
Lookin’ here and there, searchin’ everywhere
Listenin’ for stiffening spine, rattling chain
leaping from guitars and marching to drums;
Lookin’ for ruby banners and fiery pens;
Lookin’ for actors; not dupes and dopes
dangling on dicks of dictators, kleptocrats,
torturers, Czars—like Negroz and liberals
dangled from The Drone Ranger…

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.,br/> Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

poetry

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


More Stories


  • Ahmed Kaballo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ahmed Kaballo on the France Africa Summit
    15 May 2026
    Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report speaks to Ahmed Kaballo, founder of Nairobi-based Sovereign Media, about the Africa Forward summit with France, the Pan-Africanism Summit Against Imperialism…
  • PSAI
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team Reports from the Pan-Africanism Summit Against Imperialism
    15 May 2026
    The Black Alliance for Peace was invited to send a delegation to the Pan-Africanism Summit Against Imperialism (PASAI) in Kenya, a counter-summit to the imperialist Africa Forward convening. Africa…
  • PSAI
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Communist Party Marxist Kenya at the Pan-Africanism Summit Against Imperialism
    15 May 2026
    Booker Omole and Adjiambo Ashlyn of the Communist Party Marxist-Kenya speak to Black Agend
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    France Out of Africa! PASAI Shows the Way
    13 May 2026
    An international gathering of anti-imperialists in Nairobi, Kenya revealed the lies of “Africa Forward” as the presidents of France and Kenya made plans to continue the exploitation of a nation and…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: Analyse Schématique 1932-1934, Jacques Roumain and Étienne Charlier, 1934
    13 May 2026
    “To combat Imperialism is to combat Capitalism, foreign or native…”
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us