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


  •  Reefer Legalization “Not Good” for Revolution, Says New York Lawmaker
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Reefer Legalization “Not Good” for Revolution, Says New York Lawmaker
    21 Jun 2021
    Although he’s glad recently passed marijuana legislation will halt arrests for possession and expunge criminal records, NY State Assemblyman and former Black Panther Charles Barron
  •  G7 is a Neocolonial Cabal
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    G7 is a Neocolonial Cabal
    21 Jun 2021
    The recently concluded summit meeting of so-called G7 nations revealed them once again to be nothing “but a cabal and gangsters” bent on “maintaining neocolonial rule” of the planet, said R
  •  Make Black Lives Matter Fund-Raising Socially Accountable
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Make Black Lives Matter Fund-Raising Socially Accountable
    21 Jun 2021
    “Finance capital doesn’t fund liberation movements,” said Dr Joy James, the Williams College Humanities professor who moderated a recent Accountability in Social Justice Movements
  • Freedom Ride: How Not to Celebrate Juneteenth
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Ride: How Not to Celebrate Juneteenth
    16 Jun 2021
    Juneteenth has become the latest iteration of liberal capture of Black politics, opportunistic virtue signaling, and the intentional misrepresentation of America’s history.
  • Independent Media is Political, Too: A Defense of “State” or Publicly-Funded Media
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Independent Media is Political, Too: A Defense of “State” or Publicly-Funded Media
    16 Jun 2021
    It is imperative for independent journalism to serve as the media arm of a movement that opposes the privatization of information and works toward the development of a public media apparatus.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us