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


  • Eric Adams' Response to the Killing of Jordan Neely
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Eric Adams' Response to the Killing of Jordan Neely
    19 May 2023
    Margaret Kimberley was a guest on the Sputnik program, The Critical Hour, with co-hosts Dr. Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon. She discussed New York City mayor Eric Adams’ response to the killing of…
  • Durham Report Reveals the Real Threat to “Democracy” – The FBI Weaponized by Democrat Party Affiliated Elites
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Durham Report Reveals the Real Threat to “Democracy” – The FBI Weaponized by Democrat Party Affiliated Elites
    17 May 2023
    Donald Trump calls Russiagate a "hoax" but it is in fact much worse. The manufactured scandal was part of successful efforts to intimidate, to censor, and to discredit opposition to state…
  • Tribute to Comrade Chris Che Matlhako
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Tribute to Comrade Chris Che Matlhako
    17 May 2023
    Chris “Che” Matlhako was a Central Committee member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and served as Secretary for International Relations at Party Headquarters when he passed away on April…
  • FACT SHEET: The Palestine Problem: Test Your Knowledge, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, 1967
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    FACT SHEET: The Palestine Problem: Test Your Knowledge, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, 1967
    17 May 2023
    Do you know that the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) published a fact sheet in 1967 detailing the truth about the history of Zionist, British, and U.S. aggression against the…
  • Escaping Debt Slavery: Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Escaping Debt Slavery: Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF
    17 May 2023
    In 1987, at the Organization for African Unity, Thomas Sankara said, "Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa." Ethiopia might actually be better off if the US keeps the IMF from signing off…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us