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


  • Ukraine and Imperialism's Death Spiral
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Ukraine and Imperialism's Death Spiral
    18 Jan 2023
    Glen Ford spoke at a May 10, 2014 Ukraine teach-in sponsored by the International Action Center in the wake of the U.S. backed coup. His words were prescient and explain U.S. actions…
  • The Empire Provides A Paper Trail To The Conflict In Ukraine, No Matter What The Latte Left Says
    Jacqueline Luqman
    The Empire Provides A Paper Trail To The Conflict In Ukraine, No Matter What The Latte Left Says
    18 Jan 2023
    Ukraine is a challenge to those who claim to be on the left. War propaganda tells us to support U.S. imperialism, but even cursory knowledge of the facts shows that the U.S. and its allies provoked…
  • BAP Haiti/Americas Team Condemns the Dina Boluarte Coup Regime’s Violent Repression of Protesters in Perú
    Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    BAP Haiti/Americas Team Condemns the Dina Boluarte Coup Regime’s Violent Repression of Protesters in Perú
    18 Jan 2023
    The Haiti/Americas Team of the Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Dina Boluarte Coup Regime’s Violent Repression of Protesters in Perú .
  • Is the promise of 30,000 visas a Trojan horse?
    Kim Ives
    Is the promise of 30,000 visas a Trojan horse?
    18 Jan 2023
    Washington's announcement that 30,000 new visas would be made available to Haitians raised more questions than it answered.
  • Africa in Review 2022, III: Mounting Challenges Require Long Term Solutions
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Africa in Review 2022, III: Mounting Challenges Require Long Term Solutions
    18 Jan 2023
    Peace accord in Ethiopia, COP27 at Sharm-el-Sheikh and the second continental public health summit portend much for the coming years.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us