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

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 Alliance For Peace
    Black Alliance for Peace Calls On International Community to Boycott the 2026 World Cup Games Scheduled for the United States
    03 Jun 2026
    The World Cup is meant to be a celebration of global unity, not a propaganda shield for a superpower waging genocide abroad and running detention gulags on its own soil.
  • Community Movement Builders - Newark
    CMB Newark Statement on the Delaney Hall Uprising
    03 Jun 2026
    The immigrants who revolted inside the Delaney Hall immigration jail are not criminals but prisoners of war, and their actions are those of resistance against a fascist detention system.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Central and East Africa Causes Alarm
    03 Jun 2026
    Since early May, the World Health Organization and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been working to contain the spread of a rare and virulent strain of Ebola virus disease.
  • Sam E. Anderson
    Beyond the Algorithm: Defending the Cuban Revolution’s Record Against Ahistorical Attacks
    03 Jun 2026
    A critical analysis of the U.S. backed social media "influencer" war propaganda campaign against Cuba as it struggles against a criminal siege.
  • David Escobar
    Colombia: An ethical revolution (with a grassroots focus) / Una revolución ética (con acento popular)
    03 Jun 2026
    Colombia's presidential election will be held on June 21st as Historic Pact candidate Ivan Cepeda runs against the Trump endorsed right wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella. This analysis written…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us