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


  • Cuomo Wins an Emmy for Being an Effective Weapon of Corporate Power
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Cuomo Wins an Emmy for Being an Effective Weapon of Corporate Power
    10 Dec 2020
    While liberals celebrate Biden and Cuomo at brunch, the situation for the growing class of “have-nots” in the U.S. and around the world becomes more grim.
  • Notes Toward a National Defense Organization Against Racism and Political Repression, 1973
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Notes Toward a National Defense Organization Against Racism and Political Repression, 1973
    10 Dec 2020
    Few records survive of the birth of a national anti-police repression organization formed by supporters of Angela Davis – but government spies preserved Davis’ speech.
  • Coronavirus Protocols as Tools of Repression
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Coronavirus Protocols as Tools of Repression
    10 Dec 2020
    Covid-19 is a convenient excuse for governments to ban or restrict activities they don’t like.
  • $election postmortem 
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    $election postmortem 
    10 Dec 2020
    It was the Latino Vote… No, it was the Latinix vote! No, it was Black Women! No, it was LGBTQ+ Black Women! No, it was Red State Soccer Moms!
  • The Assassination of Fred Hampton: A Short People’s History
    Flint Taylor
    The Assassination of Fred Hampton: A Short People’s History
    10 Dec 2020
    Hampton's body was dragged from the bloodstained bed to the hallway floor, to be displayed as the raiders' trophy “He's good and dead now."
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us