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


  • Ethiopia: The Tigray Famine Narrative Was a Total Fabrication
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopia: The Tigray Famine Narrative Was a Total Fabrication
    15 Feb 2023
    The narrative of famine in the Tigray region of Ethiopia was repeated uncritically by the media and was amplified by people who were on board with the U.S. regime change plot against the…
  • “Our” Congressmen and Mayors obey Multibillionaires  (cops are just their henchmen) Defunding The People
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    “Our” Congressmen and Mayors obey Multibillionaires (cops are just their henchmen) Defunding The People
    15 Feb 2023
                                                         
  • Black Agenda Report Book Forum: An Interview with Garrett Felber
    Garrett Felber , Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    Black Agenda Report Book Forum: An Interview with Garrett Felber
    15 Feb 2023
    To commemorate 100 years since the birth of former political prisoner Martin Sostre, the Black Agenda Report Book Forum interviews Garrett Felber, A Visiting Fellow at Yale University who is…
  • The Caribbean Connection | Jeffrey Epstein, JP Morgan Chase and How Powerful Banks Escape Accountability
    Thad Baltimore
    The Caribbean Connection | Jeffrey Epstein, JP Morgan Chase and How Powerful Banks Escape Accountability
    15 Feb 2023
    Banks operate with impunity and so they act accordingly.
  • Report From Lima, Perú
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Report From Lima, Perú
    15 Feb 2023
    On December 7, 2022 a right wing coup removed Perú’s President Pedro Castillo Terrones from power, but the people have protested against the coup regime ever since.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us