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


  • The Vote for House Speaker Obscured Democratic Treachery
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Vote for House Speaker Obscured Democratic Treachery
    11 Jan 2023
    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's need for 15 rounds of voting from his party is viewed with alarm or humor. But the right wing proved that activists win if they make demands. Democrats have no members…
  • MANIFESTO: The Dakar Declaration 2022
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: The Dakar Declaration 2022
    11 Jan 2023
    ​​​​​​​The Dakar Declaration 2022 calls for Pan-African, South-South cooperation and global solidarity against global economic and political crisis and Africa’s adverse incorporation into the…
  • APP:  Another Pinocchio Politician
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    APP: Another Pinocchio Politician
    11 Jan 2023
                                                         
  • Haiti in the Age of the Ukraine Proxy War
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    Haiti in the Age of the Ukraine Proxy War
    11 Jan 2023
    Black Agenda Report editors and contributors Margaret Kimberley, Danny Haiphong, and Dr. Jemima Pierre discuss what Haiti's struggles can teach us at this pivotal moment in history.
  •  BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
    11 Jan 2023
    This week’s featured author is Damien M. Sojoyner. Sojoyner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. His book is Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us