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


  • Report: Incarceration Destabilizes Neighborhood Economies, Doesn’t Increase Safety
    Hannah Gaskill 
    Report: Incarceration Destabilizes Neighborhood Economies, Doesn’t Increase Safety
    25 Nov 2020
    Mass incarceration robs and destabilizes Black communities, and doesn’t make anyone safter.
  • The Ruling Elite’s War on Truth
    Chris Hedges
    The Ruling Elite’s War on Truth
    25 Nov 2020
    Venezuelan socialists and Russian intelligence are blamed for America’s ills, leaving corporate power, endless wars, austerity and deindustrialization blameless.
  • Billionaire-Owned Corporations Fail Workers During Covid Crisis
    by Institute for Policy Studies
    Billionaire-Owned Corporations Fail Workers During Covid Crisis
    25 Nov 2020
    A “Delinquent Dozen” companies have vastly increased fortunes for their owners and CEOs but provided inadequate protection for their workers.
  •  GOP Tried to Re-Imprison Jalil Muntaqim
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    GOP Tried to Re-Imprison Jalil Muntaqim
    24 Nov 2020
    After 49 years as a Black Panther Party political prisoner, Jalil Muntaqim was released on parole, only to be rearrested for attempting to register to vote in his hometown of Rochester, New York.
  •  Colin Kaepernick: “Free Mumia”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Colin Kaepernick: “Free Mumia”
    24 Nov 2020
    Abu Jamal “has had to endure this second-by-second assault on his soul for 38 years,” said banned football quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us