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


  • BAR Book Forum: Monika Gosin’s “The Racial Politics of Division”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Monika Gosin’s “The Racial Politics of Division”
    01 Jul 2021
    Miami serves as a heightened case to explore such contradictions as I look closely at tensions between African Americans, white Cubans, and Black Cubans.
  • BAR Book Forum: João H. Costa Vargas’s “The Denial of Antiblackness”
    João H. Costa Vargas
    BAR Book Forum: João H. Costa Vargas’s “The Denial of Antiblackness”
    01 Jul 2021
    In typical critical analyses and progressive multiracial mobilizations Black suffering is acknowledged while antiblackness is negated
  • The Unknown History of Black Uprisings
    Keeanga-Yamahia Taylor
    The Unknown History of Black Uprisings
    01 Jul 2021
    Historian Elizabeth Hinton’s book reveals that, in the late sixties and early seventies, there were hundreds of local rebellions against white violence and racial inequality.
  • American Racism in the Time of Plagues
    Andrew Lanham
    American Racism in the Time of Plagues
    01 Jul 2021
    The U.S Has a long history of blaming Asian immigrants for outbreaks of disease, and every time, democracy and public health suffer.
  • Lost Opportunity, Lost Lives
     Lisa Armstrong
    Lost Opportunity, Lost Lives
    01 Jul 2021
    Prison officials could have prevented sickness and death by releasing those who were most vulnerable to coronavirus and least likely to reoffend — older incarcerated people.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us