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


  • Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” Proposal Appeals to Black Misleaders
    11 May 2020
    Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka said de facto Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s “Lift Every Voice” plan for Black America “assumes th
  • Whose Crisis?: When the People Lose, the Corporate Parties and the Rich Win
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Whose Crisis?: When the People Lose, the Corporate Parties and the Rich Win
    07 May 2020
    The Democratic Party is a servant of corporate capital and cannot possibly be converted to a people’s party. The rise and demise of Bernie Sanders proves the point.
  • Freedom Rider: Joe Biden and the Black Misleaders
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Joe Biden and the Black Misleaders
    06 May 2020
    The black misleadership class has no shame, only narrow ambitions. They are now called out to rescue the man who looks very much like a loser.
  • In the People’s War against COVID-19, Socialism Offers Victory while Capitalism Spells Defeat
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    In the People’s War against COVID-19, Socialism Offers Victory while Capitalism Spells Defeat
    06 May 2020
    Socialist societies are capable of doing much more to contain diseases like Covid-19, such as rapid testing, neighborhood food deliveries, and the use of AI technology to trace contacts and symptom
  • United States of Distraction: A Book Review
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    United States of Distraction: A Book Review
    06 May 2020
    The authors recount and document the descent into “post-truth” partisan journalism from the alt-right to the right, liberal, and even independent left media, between 2016 and now.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us