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

For Fancy Miss Nancy
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
19 Dec 2018
🖨️ Print Article
Nancy Sue Wilson 1937-2018
Nancy Sue Wilson 1937-2018

Guess who I saw
today, black and white photo,
Marching, Montgomery from
Selma, ‘65?

Guess who I saw
at my high school swingin’ the
Trio; urging us to stay in school?

Guess who I,
was privileged to sequence
a later CD for, late one night?

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
put the purr in whisper, with a sultry
Sound that could make subpoenas seem sensuous

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
Appeared, sparkling, at the end of the
golden era—looking as good as she sounded—
Her face should grace
Buckeye State flags emblazoned
“There will never be another you…”

…and you don’t know, you don’t know how
Glad I am that she
Hovered earth— stunning hummingbird,
gorgeous humanitarian, giving the greatest
performance of her life, moments I loitered—
not seizing the time and asking, “When did
You leave heaven?”
Though, I think it was maybe ’37? I know she’s

Free Again…

© 2018. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com.

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


More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    ICE Exposes Democratic Party Irrelevance
    28 Jan 2026
    The Democratic Party is useful only to the oligarch class, who give them orders. Doing anything that serves the people is never on the agenda. They will not address the ICE violations of law and…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: The Palmer Raids, Labor Research Association, 1948
    28 Jan 2026
    “We forget easily in America. We have forgotten the story of the Palmer Raids.”
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    For an ICU VA Nurse
    28 Jan 2026
    "For an ICU VA Nurse" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Austin Cole
    Data Center Boom, Corporate Extraction, and the Obfuscation of the Land Question in the U.S.
    28 Jan 2026
    The grassroots resistance against data centers is about more than zoning. It is the latest front in America’s war against the people over land, sovereignty, and who controls the future.
  • Jacqueline Luqman
    Continuity of Social Control From Slave Patrols To Policing To ICE
    28 Jan 2026
    To understand the violence of contemporary immigration enforcement, one must trace its lineage directly to the slave patrols of the antebellum South—a system founded on racial terror and the…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us