Storming the Capitol
Trump set their touchpaper alight They marched there tooled up for a fight They’re so convinced that they are right And most still live – because they’re white
Issues and campaigns: Americas
Articles, poems and other items about Canada, the USA, Central and South America.
Black culture and resistance: the Harlem Renaissance
Published in Solidarity 569: One hundred years ago, an arts movement was forming in a mainly-black district of New York City. Later known as the Harlem Renaissance, it was primarily cultural but also inescapably political. Literature, poetry, jazz, … Read more
Clerihew: Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes Wrote poems in the rhythm of the blues He gave folk the shivers With ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’
Poems of the Harlem Renaissance
I have contributed this short article to Black History Month activities where I work. Poems of the Harlem Renaissance – recommended by Janine Booth Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were all black American poets who were part of … Read more
Uproot, Depart
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” But when did the executing start? When did the racist recruiting start? And when will the prosecuting start? That will be when the suits will start elocuting and refuting parts, disputing and diluting … Read more
Coronavirus Has Caught Bolsonaro
He was socially close, untamed, unmasked His magic medicine uncasked He didn’t care so he never asked He’ll brush it off, he’s so athletic The tough guy, leading man aesthetic No chance it makes him empathetic He’ll rise above like … Read more
One And All
When my team lost to a goal in the last five minutes of the match from a free kick that should never have been given and got relegated and my face went down with them, you didn’t tell me that … Read more
Bearing Down
The white power cap on the top of the head of the cop with his knee on the neck of the man on the floor by the pass- enger door Who said please I can’t breathe and who called for … Read more
Da Capa al Coda
They held a peaceful protest People didn’t notice Nothing changed Then they rioted and burned The world watched and learned, views exchanged The respectable people said Their cause is just, but why must they riot? Why don’t they hold a … Read more
Stonewall Was a Riot
Stonewall Was a Riot It wasn’t the Stonewall focus group or the Stonewall business case It wasn’t the Stonewall let’s-present- our-most-acceptable-face Long years of asking nicely had not got us anywhere Our rulers did not hear us when we whispered: … Read more