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


  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    16 Sep 2020
    This week Ibram X. Kendi, Toussaint Louverture, community control of the police, and the trial of Julian Assange were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    Nada Mustafa Ali
    BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    16 Sep 2020
    Students of all ages can share the experiences of women from the slum margins of Nairobi and young female shapeshifters at a Detroit homeless shelter.
  • BAR Book Forum: Samantha Pinto’s Book, “Infamous Bodies”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Samantha Pinto’s Book, “Infamous Bodies”
    16 Sep 2020
    The author examines the lives of five Black female historical figures and challenges some deeply-held ideas about Black women in politics
  • Water Poverty and the Growing Conflict between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia
    Julian Vigo
    Water Poverty and the Growing Conflict between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia
    16 Sep 2020
    The Ethiopian government made a strategic decision to control most of the Nile River that flows into Egypt and Sudan.
  • Ungovernable: An Interview with Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin
    William C. Anderson
    Ungovernable: An Interview with Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin
    16 Sep 2020
    Black anarchists organized around the things that we still see happening today: mass imprisonment of Black people and murderous shootings by the police or fascist vigilantes.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us