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 Facilitates Arms for Killer Cops and Criminals in Haiti
    Jake Johnson
    US Facilitates Arms for Killer Cops and Criminals in Haiti
    02 Sep 2020
    Weapons are flowing to pro-regime gangsters suspected of assassinating opponents of the US-backed regime.
  • Police Kill. We March. Why?
    Mark P. Fancher
    Police Kill. We March. Why?
    02 Sep 2020
    We must instead think creatively about how to either take total community control of law enforcement as an institution or to bring about an independent, nation-building, self-governing reality.
  • A Tale of Two Teens: When White Killers Are Treated Better Than Black Victims
    Hana Kiros
    A Tale of Two Teens: When White Killers Are Treated Better Than Black Victims
    02 Sep 2020
    It’s Cowboys and Indians updated: a wicked game where Black people are seen as predators but almost always end up prey.
  • Cuba’s Experience Teaches Us That Medicare-for-All Is a Beginning, Not the End Point
    Don Fitz
    Cuba’s Experience Teaches Us That Medicare-for-All Is a Beginning, Not the End Point
    02 Sep 2020
    Cuba built a universal health system from scratch, and we should follow that example to replace the US non-system of medical care.
  • Some Reflections on Systemic Racism and Capitalism 
    Philippe Gendrault
    Some Reflections on Systemic Racism and Capitalism 
    02 Sep 2020
    The system of exploitation that bore slavery remains, albeit without slavery, the very same system of exploitation.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us