Tag: Raymond Nat Turner

One hand, one heart . . .one world.

Happy Black History Month! We get an extra day and we need it too to get our Black Joy parade gear picked out for Sunday, Feb. 23. It’s an attitude, not an outfit.

Welcome! Welcome – canoe, slave ship, raft, riverboat, barge, banana boat, tug – WELCOME: to the boat we’re All in –

Lording over the landscape like giant -- Insects sucking soul, blood, chocolate -- into multi-colored mushrooms -- Metastasizing citywide. -- Officers ordering vacant storefronts, -- lined up like soldiers, to make money, -- while brothers with cupped hands -- platoon on plastic crates at entrances to -- $4-a-cup coffee shops with belligerent baristas.

They got Jel-Low Puddin’ Man – --- one less backwards Taliban --- treating women like beasts – --- Packs of predator priests --- next they’re comin’ for you – --- your whole predator Krew --- silver bracelets, orange --- jumpsuit await you too! --- Hey Mr. Tangerine Man – --- They’re comin’ for you next --- Before you tweet or text --- Hey Mr. Tangerine Man – --- your FOX-hole country --- only needs one tree ---

Bottom of the boat --- rocking, rolling, thrashing --- Violently – the quaking black --- hole now her life. She had --- No idea where she was --- on the awful ocean, --- Traveling shackled for --- thousands of miles; --- belly beginning to bulge --- with the baby of her rum-reeking rapist and his --- “Zero Tolerance” policy --- for --- tears… --- She would bear four more for --- a ‘Master,’ who’d sell her --- to the West Virginian wanting --- her in the worst way –

Introduction: Kiilu Nyasha, Black Panther veteran, revolutionary journalist and mother of every movement, joined the ancestors on April 10, and just three days later, Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir opened the phone lines on her morning radio show for tributes to our revered comrade. To listen to the entire show, go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2018/04/13/wandas-picks-radio-show-special-tribute-to-kiilu-nyasha or listen here. – Editor

Never thought I’d see --- the day that I’d pray --- for: Fake News; --- Never thought I’d see --- the day that I’d pray --- for: Alternative Facts --- from Boss Tweet – pray that --- scribblers screwed up tenses --- scribbling ‘bout a constant struggler – 3-time loser in capitalist Amerikkka: --- Disabled, Black and Woman – Panther to the core, --- Ida B-child soldier speaking, writing in real time – Mentoring men and women for battlefront lives --- worth living …

by Raymond Nat Turner Abracadabra Open sesame Om Presto Poof! Twisting useless, endless parades of powdered wigs, wars, battles, bills, laws, names, dates, great men, generals, captains of industry, presidents Bore us to tears...

Oct. 12 is the birthday of one of the most talented and promising young men martyred in the massive state repression against the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter. Unlike Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver and George Jackson, Carter has almost been forgotten from the history of Africans in America except for diehards. Carter, then 26 (born Oct. 12, 1942), was assassinated on Jan. 17, 1969 in a Campbell Hall classroom at UCLA in Los Angeles.

Colin Kaepernick, Yusef Lateef, Willie Dixon --- Prelude: It’s nev-er, it’s nev-er, ever the time, --- It’s nev-er, it’s never, never, ever the way --- Never, ever time for free-dom fight-ing --- It’s al-ways, it’s al-ways, always the wrong way --- It’s al-ways, al-ways, al-ways wrong and unwise --- Al-ways wrong and un-wise, to fight for free-dom (REPEAT) --- The Chinese had a saying --- About single sparks igniting prairie fires --- #7’s that spark – for The Fire This Time …

I cried, “Help, Mama Harriet, help!” and you, ... Beautiful young warriors, came Toyi-toying ... from Ferguson, Baltimore, The Town, etc. ... Through teargas clouds, pepper spray storms ... You came tying traffic into hangman nooses, ... shutting malls down like open and shut cases ... of killer cops who walk. You came wrestling ... Your minds out of the hands of exploiters!

Detroit activists concerned about the massive water shutoffs across the economically devastated city blocked entrances into the yard of Homrich, a firm given a nearly $6 million contract to terminate services for hundreds of thousands of people. The firm was hired by emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who was appointed by right-wing Gov. Rick Snyder, who forced the city into the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history a year ago.

When our Knights are captured -- Or fall on battlefields, as they -- Surely must, and we lose their -- Brilliant light and we are -- Scrambling to pry pens, -- Swords, spears, bread and -- Roses from stainless steel -- Grips of their icy hands – Scrambling to hoist our -- Fallen banners, temporarily -- Mired in mud and blood, -- Even higher, scrambling -- To staunch rivulets of -- Brine from our sweetly -- Shattered hearts …

I searched frantically for you at the end ... Of the Apollo’s Sekou Sundiata celebration; ... I jumped over a chair, just missing you, at ... The Harlem Stage tribute to Abbey Lincoln; ... Finally, caught you at the Schomburg’s ... Langston Hughes Auditorium, at the ... Fidel-Malcolm Meeting book talk ... Forgave you for slipping ... On Iceberg Slim, and ... Told you, “I LOVE YOU …”

Leo lives in every navy blue or ash T-shirt with brown, beige, Tan, ivory, hands circled in solidarity, In every fiery speech during San Francisco strikes and Port Of Oakland shutdowns, in fights for health care, cradle To grave, in housing, library, post office and school struggles, In good fights against fracking and in the Occupy Movement …

With the storm approaching New Orleans, I spoke to Dwight Henry, co-star in the film, “Beasts of a Southern Wild,” currently in Bay Area theaters. I spoke to three men who are riding the storm out: Parnell Herbert, Angola 3 activist and playwright, Mwalimu Johnson, community organizer and prison abolitionist, and Malik Rahim, former Black Panther.

I would like to wish all the fathers a blessed and happy Fathers’ Day 2012. It is a hard time to be a parent of a youngster, not to mention an adolescent or youth. The challenges are great, in direct proportion to the rewards. I’d like to congratulate the young fathers who are stepping up and participating in their children’s lives, especially when society equates parenting with one’s largess or paycheck.

The fundraiser at the College of Alameda on May 18 was a great success, thanks to Maria Labossiere, Colette Eloi, Carolyn Brandy, Michelle Jacques and the ASCOA representative. The Social Welfare Club raised $170 for Jean Ristil’s organization in Cite Soliel.

Harper’s Ferry ... freeing slaves … Virginia ... hanging ... white man – this is the extent of my knowledge of John Brown. I wasn’t aware that it was 150 years ago, on Oct. 14-15, 1859, that this happened, an event which many say forecast the Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved Africans. See the opera Sunday afternoon, March 14, 3 p.m., at the East Side Cultural Center.