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: Gerald Horne’s The Dawning of the Apocalypse
    Dr. Gerald Horne
    BAR Book Forum: Gerald Horne’s The Dawning of the Apocalypse
    24 Feb 2021
    Britain is, indeed, the “mother country” of US white supremacy, having bythe 13th century become “The First Racial State in the West.”  
  • BAR Book Forum: Adam Kotsko’s “Neoliberalism’s Demons”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Adam Kotsko’s “Neoliberalism’s Demons”
    24 Feb 2021
    Nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression and exclusion are an integral part of the neoliberal order.
  • Why a Shootout Between Black Panthers and Law Enforcement 50 Years Ago Matters Today
    Paul Ringel
    Why a Shootout Between Black Panthers and Law Enforcement 50 Years Ago Matters Today
    24 Feb 2021
    The 1971 raid marks a nationwide militarization of police relations with Black protest groups and Africa Americans as a group.
  • Mumia Abu Jamal Newspaper Admonishes DA to Stop Defending the Indefensible
    Pam Africa
    Mumia Abu Jamal Newspaper Admonishes DA to Stop Defending the Indefensible
    24 Feb 2021
    “If DA Krasner wants to embrace anti-racist principles…then he needs to take an honest look at the facts of Mumia’s case.”
  • Judas and the Black Messiah, A Missed Opportunity
    Dante James
    Judas and the Black Messiah, A Missed Opportunity
    24 Feb 2021
    The film framed Hampton as a victim instead of a pro-active freedom fighter and revolutionary.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us