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


  • Black Agenda Radio November 4, 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 4, 2022
    04 Nov 2022
    Black politics in Pennsylvania and the mid-term elections, the Play Cousins Collective serves Black families in Louisville, Kentucky, and in New York City, Dr. Al-Fatah Stewart fights for justice and…
  • Black Politics and the 2022 Mid-Term Elections
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Politics and the 2022 Mid-Term Elections
    04 Nov 2022
    Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a Duboisian scholar and founder of the Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. He joins us from Philadelphia…
  • The Play Cousins Collective Serves the Needs of Black Families in Louisville, Kentucky
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Play Cousins Collective Serves the Needs of Black Families in Louisville, Kentucky
    04 Nov 2022
    Kristen Williams is Executive Director of the Louisville, Kentucky based Play Cousins Collective. Play Cousins Collective develops and facilitates programing and curriculum centering Black children's…
  • Dr. Al-Fatah Stewart Fights for Freedom
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Dr. Al-Fatah Stewart Fights for Freedom
    04 Nov 2022
    Dr. Al-Fatah Stewart has been held in the Rikers Island correctional facility in New York City for the last 43 months without trial. He recorded this message from Rikers Island in October 2022. His…
  • Politicians Make Black People the Face of Crime
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Politicians Make Black People the Face of Crime
    02 Nov 2022
    Manufactured crime panics are still a successful method of getting votes from white people.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us