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

Stand in solidarity with our Councilmember (Versus voices of white supremacy/death…)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
25 Jan 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Stand in solidarity with our Councilmember  (Versus voices of white supremacy/death…)
Picketers representing the National Association of Colored Women march past the White House in Washington, DC, July 30, 1956 (Photo: AP)

                                                                                                             Stand in solidarity with our Councilmember  

                                                                                                             (Versus voices of white supremacy/death…)

 

I.

Distant echoes—Sun revolving ‘round flat

Earth— ‘round Inquisition; witch-burning;

‘round bubonic plague— 'round pre-printing

press politics…

Embalmed voices—decomposing pogrom tones—

crunch like dry leaves beneath boots of Strike-tober;

beneath street heat of George Floyd Summer; beneath

Occupy; Arab Spring— beneath history’s forward march…

II.

Prancing peacock proud, tiny stickers boasted,

“I VOTED—”

Hired her to argue and

Fight for us. Sent her to City Hall. Tolt her, “Say

what we say…” Axed her, “Amplify Our voices—

Speak truth and Voice Our choices—

while we work; babysit; help with homework; care

for loved ones/neighbors; make art, money, love, babies.”

Suddenly, sunup to sundown King Cotton voices spit

Bullwhip white noise; Spit 1619 stripes at Black backs… again…

plantation overseer voices—

Civil War amputation without anesthesia voices;

Leaking faucet, running toilet voices; Artificial

intelligence/false consciousness voices call… again…

Asthmatic nazi phlegm voices call… again…

Wheezing, wicked, weaponized, “I can’t breathe!”

Jangling, quavering, nicotine hoarse, death squad

soldier, plastic police voices call… again…

Scowling, steely, tinny fingernails across chalkboard voices;

Glock muzzle mouths to burner phone voices call… again…

Gravelly, gaslit, graveyard, good guy with gun voices

call… again… Troll farm, tiki torch, bestial, bear

spray, January 6th, criminal, Charlottesville voices call… again…

Pacific-prowling aircraft carrier filled with shit voices call… again…

Nasal, hollow, clean coal, fracking fluid/fart voices call… again…

Death rattle, decomposing system on life support voices call… again…

But, hissing, filibustering, burning cross voices—Jim Crow, Bull

Connor, Tulsa, Rosewood, Red Summer, lynching voices will not rob us

of representation…. again…

Bloody Mary, banana republican poll tax, “How many bubbles

in a bar of soap?” “How many jelly beans in a jar?” voices will

not disenfranchise us…. again…



© 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.

Black politics

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


Related Stories

Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Breaking it Down with Barron: The New York City Mayoral Race, New York City Politics, and a Primer for an Independent Black Revolutionary Polity
30 July 2025
Charles Barron dissects the NYC mayoral race, Mamdani’s struggles with Black voters, and why independent Black radical politics are e
Jon Jeter
Mamdani’s Train is Running But Blacks Wonder if There is Space for Them
02 July 2025
Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist vision won NYC’s primary but lost Black voters to scandal-plagued Cuomo by 20 points, exposing the l
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Fear is Still the Motivation for Black Voters
27 November 2024
Kamala Harris is now a historical footnote who is heading for the dustbin of history.
Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
Harry Haywood, Black People, and the 2024 U.S. Election
27 November 2024
Harry Haywood’s work is a guiding light to help Black people analyze our position in the U.S.
Jon Jeter
Not Like Us: Black Men Frown on Harris Campaign Because Democrats Have Done Nothing to Help Them in This Worst Hard Time, Not Because of Misogyny
16 October 2024
For decades, the Democratic Party has pushed Black men as the scapegoat for election losses.
Jon Jeter
Like Chisolm Before Her, Harris’ White House Bid is More Sizzle than Steak for Black Community
02 October 2024
Since Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for president, liberals have seen her as the next Shirley Chisholm.
Jon Jeter
How the Democrats’ Use Performative Blackness to Gaslight Blacks’ Legitimate Political Grievances
25 September 2024
The Democratic Party pulls out all the stops to maintain its base of Black voters - except push any policy that will improve their material con
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: In Our Hands: Thoughts on Black Music, Bernice Johnson Reagon, 1976
31 July 2024
For the late Dr.
Jon Jeter
How the Democratic Party Committed Suicide by Biting the Black Hands That Feed It
31 July 2024
The Democratic Party dug its own grave decades ago when it began trying to siphon voters from the GOP by appealing to conservatives and ignorin
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
CHAPTER: The Ford Foundation and Black Power, Robert L. Allen, 1968
24 July 2024
The late Robert L. Allen broke down the dialectics of Black elite co-option and counter-revolution. Hello, Kamala.

More Stories


  • Haiti
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    STATEMENT: By the Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, Dominique de Villepin, on the situation in Haiti, 25 February 2004
    28 Feb 2024
    Remembering France’s odious participation in the 2004 coup d’etat in Haiti.
  • Army in Haiti
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Haiti: 20 Years After the Coup
    28 Feb 2024
    Jemima Pierre’s presentation at a forum to commemorate the US-France-Canada-sponsored 2004 coup d’état in Haiti. The forum was hosted by the Center for Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto…
  • February 17 Eritrean Independence Day Celebration
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Investigations of Attacks on the Eritrean Diaspora Are Underway
    28 Feb 2024
    Ann Garrison spoke to Eritrean British attorney Feven Yemane regarding attacks on Eritrean diaspora festivals and gatherings and the investigations underway.
  •  Linda Thomas-Greenfield
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    United Nations Negroz
    28 Feb 2024
    "United Nations Negroz" is the latest poem from our Poet-in-Residence, Raymond Nat Turner.
  • William Bass and railroad workers
    Joseph Sturgeon
    The Exploitation Zone: The Caribbean as a Site of Imperialist Extraction, Western Paradise, and Labor Exploitation
    28 Feb 2024
    From the moment the first colonizers arrived in the Caribbean, the West has treated the region as a treasure chest for resource extraction and labor exploitation.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us