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


  • US Bombing Wars Remain Hidden from the American People
    Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies  
    US Bombing Wars Remain Hidden from the American People
    12 Jan 2022
    The military revealed the extent of its deadliness, acknowledging 337,000 bombs dropped around the world for the last 20 years.
  • Covid Fueled by Neoliberal Austerity
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Covid Fueled by Neoliberal Austerity
    05 Jan 2022
    The neo-liberal austerity model of governance ensures that Covid-19 will continue spreading and producing new variants. Only people focused public health remedies will end the pa
  • Ukraine: What Does it Have to Do with Black Folks?
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ukraine: What Does it Have to Do with Black Folks?
    05 Jan 2022
    “…it is imperative that everyone, in particular Black and working-class people, understand that not having an awareness of the interconnections of the “grind” (the struggle to survive in the U.
  • The Black Agenda Review of Books
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    The Black Agenda Review of Books
    05 Jan 2022
    An overview of recent Black books that can help us get through the year ahead.
  • Don't Look Up Reflects the Cynicism of Capitalist Decay, for Better and for Worse
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Don't Look Up Reflects the Cynicism of Capitalist Decay, for Better and for Worse
    05 Jan 2022
    The controversial film offers insight into the crisis of the system but misses the mark in key areas.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us