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 Hoosier State hero’s baaaaack—  saving Amerikkka from the woke left!
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    The Hoosier State hero’s baaaaack— saving Amerikkka from the woke left!
    23 Feb 2022
                                                           …
  • Hide Nothing From The Masses: An Insider Perspective in the Black Lives Matter Global Network Sham
    Yahne Ndgo
    Hide Nothing From The Masses: An Insider Perspective in the Black Lives Matter Global Network Sham
    23 Feb 2022
    Questions about finances at the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation made headlines, but political impropriety is at the heart of the matter.
  • NATO and Africa: A Relationship of Colonial Violence and Structural White Supremacy
    Djibo Sobukwe
    NATO and Africa: A Relationship of Colonial Violence and Structural White Supremacy
    23 Feb 2022
    NATO is the means of continuing colonial aggressions against African countries.
  • What You Should Really Know About Ukraine
    Bryce Greene
    What You Should Really Know About Ukraine
    23 Feb 2022
    The history of U.S. involvement in Ukraine is rarely analyzed by corporate media. The desire to open Ukraine to finance capital, the 2014 U.S.
  • War in Europe and the Rise of Raw Propaganda
    John Pilger
    War in Europe and the Rise of Raw Propaganda
    22 Feb 2022
    Events in Ukraine have been stoked by US/UK war propaganda. Journalistic standards have been replaced with evidence free narratives meant to get public support for acts of aggression.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us