Music

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Play, Black Girl, play! (For the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s girls)
18 Mar 2026
"Play, Black Girl, play! (For the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s girls)" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SONG: International Organizations/Oganizasyon Mondyal, Manno Charlemagne, 1986
11 Mar 2026
“We salute all peoples who are fighting/We honor all those who have died/For the cause of freedom.”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Killing the Kennedy Center softly for the Reich?
30 Jul 2025
"Killing the Kennedy Center softly for the Reich?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Alan MacLeod
From Fight the Power to Work for It: Chuck D, Public Enemy and How the CIA Neutralized Rap
28 Aug 2024
Chuck D was once seen as a rapper with the politics to back up his lyrics. But in recent years he has thrown his hat in the ring with the Department of State, acting as a willing agent of the U.S.…
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: In Our Hands: Thoughts on Black Music, Bernice Johnson Reagon, 1976
31 Jul 2024
For the late Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Black music was a tool in the struggle for Black liberation, and not what it has mostly become today: a retrograde appendage to neoliberalism and white power.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Avotcja’s Love…
22 Mar 2023
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Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
For Larry Roland
08 Mar 2023
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Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A lil’ homegoing homage to Brother Donald…
27 Apr 2022
Donald Smith always performed at Black Agenda Report events in New York City. He was a great musician and friend to the Black Agenda Report team. He will be missed.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)
08 Sep 2021
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra) Gathering witnesses bearing beautiful collisions—