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

Play, Black Girl, play! (For the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s girls)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Mar 2026
🖨️ Print Article
Nina Simone

“The music is the magic through a raging storm …” 

— Abbey Lincoln

Play, Black Girl, play —
Play your piano, now
Come, now, let Sister-
Master show you how

Play, Black Girl, play —
Play your hot saxophone
On shoulders of giants
You don’t stand alone …


© 2026. 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.

Music
Black children
culture
Oakland
Black Women

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Declaration of Independence (for Donald "Duck" Bailey)
15 July 2026
Drummer men, drummer men, fluid loose-limbed rhythm-masters, were you born free?Did you drum? Did you drum? Did you drum
Photo: Kevin W. Thorbourne
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)
08 September 2021
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)  
BAR Book Forum: Symposium on Sarah Haley’s "No Mercy Here"
Marisa Fuentes
BAR Book Forum: Symposium on Sarah Haley’s "No Mercy Here"
06 May 2020
This is a book about the ideological construction of black women as “non-human” and exploitable for capitalist profit in the making of the New Sout

More Stories


  • Bayard Rustin
    Jon Jeter
    Bayard Rustin, A Menace Not a Messiah
    31 Jan 2024
    The recent Obama-produced retelling of the life and work of Bayard Rustin is better judged by what it leaves out - his legacy of counterrevolutionary action designed to defang radical movements.
  • Kenyan High Court
    Booker Omole
    CPK Applauds High Court Ruling Against Kenyan Police Deployment in Haiti
    31 Jan 2024
    The International Department of the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of Kenya issued a statement of support in response to the recent decision from the Kenyan High Court declaring…
  • Pastor
    Maya King
    Black Pastors Pressure Biden to Call for a Cease-Fire in Gaza
    31 Jan 2024
    Israel's genocide in Gaza is now a litmus test for Black voters, and clergy are warning Joe Biden that he risks losing their support as his approval rating continues to fall in an election year.…
  • Haitian mom and child on a bus
    Socialist Movement of the Workers of the Dominican Republic
    Dominican Republic Continues to Illegally Separate Haitian Children from Their Families
    31 Jan 2024
    The Dominican Republic continues the disturbing pattern of mass expulsions and arbitrary detentions of Haitian and Haitian descended Dominicans, including the illegal separation of infants and…
  • Representatives of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
    Peoples Dispatch
    Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger withdraw from ECOWAS
    31 Jan 2024
    ECOWAS has long been condemned by West Africa’s popular movements as an agent of French imperialism. With the withdrawal of the three nations, it may usher in a new era for the region.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us