Speaking Volumes | Learn more about artist and activist Nina Simone at the library
Singer and pianist Nina Simone was born (as Eunice Waymon) in 1933 in Tryon, N.C., a tiny town about 90 miles outside of Charlotte. Her childhood home was recently purchased by a group of African American artists who plan to restore the home with guidance from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the World Monuments Fund, with the goal of preserving part of her legacy as a jazz icon and civil rights activist.
Sometimes referred to as the “High Priestess of Soul,” which was the title of one of her later albums, Simone’s complex, agile voice and rousing piano-playing bridges the genres of jazz, soul, gospel, R&B, and blues music. She originally intended to be a classical concert pianist, but she began to play in nightclubs after she was denied a scholarship to a music conservatory (she later received an honorary degree from the same school). Her virtuoso classical training would forever infuse her music. She recorded her first album “Little Girl Blue” in 1959, and began performing at popular venues like the Apollo Theater, the Blue Note, Carnegie Hall, and the Copacabana, as well as jazz and folk festivals.
As her career progressed and she produced many more albums, Simone also used her art form to be an outspoken critic of segregation, racism, and Jim Crow laws. The social commentary of Lorraine Hansberry’s play “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black” inspired Simone to compose the civil rights anthem of the same name. Many of her songs were cultural activism that expressed the anger, fear, and despair that Black Americans felt before and during the civil rights movement. Powerful lyrics such as ‘All I want is equality/For my sister my brother my people and me,’ directly challenged politicians and everyday citizens to confront racial injustice.
To experience one of her electrifying live performances, check out the DVD “Nina Simone: Live at Montreux 1976.” Search our library catalog for her music on CD, and the Hoopla app to stream her studio and live albums. Her last studio album, “A Single Woman,” was released in 1993, 10years before her death. While she toured the US and the world extensively, Simone lived abroad for decades and eventually settled in France, where she died in 2003.
In 2010, a life-size sculpture of Simone playing a piano (that seems to levitate in the air) was installed in a downtown Tryon park commemorated as Nina Simone Plaza. The bronze memorial includes some of her ashes welded within a sculpted heart. Other recognitions include the Grammy Award Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Learn more about this incredible musician, composer and arranger, by visiting the websites www.ninasimone.com and ninasimoneproject.org.
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Speaking Volumes is written by members of the staff at the Manatee County Public Library System. Ericka Dow is the Central Library’s information services supervisor.