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


  • Israel’s True Target Is Not Islamic Jihad
    Ahmed Abu Artema
    Israel’s True Target Is Not Islamic Jihad
    10 Aug 2022
    Israel's periodic and deadly attacks on Gaza continue. Despite a variety of justifications, the true goal is to maintain control by terrorizing the Palestinian population. 
  • Black Agenda Radio August 5, 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio August 5, 2022
    05 Aug 2022
    This week we have one special guest, Omali Yeshitela. He is Chairman of the African Peoples Socialist Party (APSP) and leader of the Uhuru Movement and the Black is Back Coalition. The APSP Uhuru…
  • FBI Attack on the Uhuru Movement is a Warning
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    FBI Attack on the Uhuru Movement is a Warning
    03 Aug 2022
  • ARTICLE: We Can Defeat Repression, Charlene Mitchell, 1973
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ARTICLE: We Can Defeat Repression, Charlene Mitchell, 1973
    03 Aug 2022
  • The Movement Sorely Misses Glen Ford
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    The Movement Sorely Misses Glen Ford
    03 Aug 2022
    Remembering Glen Ford and all that he taught us.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us