This Black History Month, I’m sharing art, songs, movies, and other creative expressions from and about Black women that spark joy for me. Because Black women are often not remembered for their contributions, I thought this would be one way to give flowers to those who inspire me.
For Day 26, I’m shining a light on musician and activist, Nina Simone.
Nina Simone was born in North Carolina and began playing piano as a toddler. She aspired to be a concert pianist and eventually attended Julliard for two years.
When she was born her name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon. She changed her name to Nina Simone, when she started singing in nightclubs to hide from her family, so they wouldn’t know she was singing “devil’s music.”
Many of Nina Simone’s most popular songs are still in rotation today, like her cover of Sinnerman and Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.
Nina Simone was active in the civil rights movement, and would go on to record several civil rights songs, like I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free.
Simone’s activism was sparked by her experiences with racism. When she was twelve and was singing in a classical recital, her parents were asked to move to the back of the audience to make space for White people. Nina refused to sing until her parents were moved back to the front.
"I choose to reflect the times and the situations in which I find myself. That, to me, is my duty. At this crucial time in our lives when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved. How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That, for me, is the definition of an artist."– Nina Simone
Her first civil rights song was Mississippi Goddam, which she recorded in response to Medgar Evers murder and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four little Black girls in Birmingham, AL. She was bubbling over with anger about the racial violence, so she channeled her rage into the song and wrote it i under an hour.
“At first I tried to make myself a gun. I gathered some materials. I was going to take one of them out, and I didn’t care who it was. Then Andy, my husband at the time, said to me, ‘Nina, you can’t kill anyone. You are a musician. Do what you do.’ When I sat down the whole song happened. I never stopped writing until the thing was finished.” - Nina Simone
Nina Simone was another one of my mom’s favorite singers. I remember she would sing Simone’s Young Gifted and Black to my brother and me. Nina wrote the song to honor her friend, Lorraine Hansberry, the first Black woman playwright to have a play on Broadway. The song was an homage to a speech Hansberry gave right before her death, when she told a group of students, "I wanted to be able to come here and speak with you on this occasion because you are young, gifted and black." She wanted to write a song that would “make Black children all over the world feel good about themselves, forever."
“To be young, gifted and black Oh, what a lovely precious dream To be young, gifted and black Open your heart to what I mean In the whole world you know There are a million boys and girls Who are young, gifted and black And that's a fact!”
Thank you, Nina Simone, for pouring so much into your music, and creating so many anthems that honor the Black existence.
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