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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2003
ARTS
The Black
Panthers made
these kids realize
that there are Black
heroes who will
fight and die if
necessary to get
what they want...
I want to be
remembered as a
diva from beginning
to end who never
compromised in
what she felt about
racism and how the
world should be,
and who to the end
of her days
consistently stayed
the same.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: JAMIE SWIFT/MAROON TIGER
by Timothy J. Cunningham
MANAGING EDITOR
I f Malcolm was “our own black
shining Prince”, then Nina was our
Queen Mother. Throughout her
life, her lyrics detailed our struggle.
Even in death, her deep, dark voice
arouses the passion of living.
Nina Simone’s celebrated career
spanned from 1959 with the release of
her first single, Gershwin’s “I Loves
You Porgy,” to her last public
performance in July 2002 in Poland.
Often considered a jazz singer, her
works included pop, cabaret, rhythm
and blues, soul, classical, and gospel.
When she described her craft in
her 1991 autobiography, / Put a Spell
on You, she wrote, “If I had to be called
something, it should have been a folk
singer because there was more folk and
blues than jazz in my playing.”
Bom Eunice Kathleen Waymon
on February 21, 1933, Nina Simone
was one of eight children in Tyron,
North Carolina. By the age of six, her
talent was noticed when she began to
play the piano and sing in the local
church choir.
Her talent soon led her to New
York’s Julliard School of Music, where
she developed her classical precision.
In an attempt to further her classical
training, Nina applied to the esteemed
Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, but was
rejected because of her Black skin.
One of the true Black
Revolutionaiy Artists, compatriots with
Baldwin, Hansberry, Davis and Dee,
Coltrane, and Baraka, Nina Simone
shared the Amiri Baraka’s belief that
“Black art is change. It must force
change, it must be change.”
Who are Black people? What is
their plight? The answers to such
questions can be found in the song, ‘To
Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” which
both praises -and inspires the young
participants of the Movement. And
everyone should take note of her first
protest song, “Mississippi Goddam,”
which inspired by the murder of
Medgar Evers and the four little girls.
Nina described “Mississippi
Goddam” as a show tune for a show
that hasn’t been written yet. “The name
of this tune is Mississippi Goddam,”
the song begins, “and I mean every
word of it.”
The end is even more powerful:
“Oh but this whole country is full of
lies/ you’re all gonna die and die like
flies/1 don’t trust you any more/ You
keep on saying'Go Slow! 7'Go Slow!’/
But that’s just the trouble/ too slow/
Desegregation/ too slow/ Mass
participation/ too slow/ Unification/ too
slow/ Do things gradually/ too slow/
Brings more tragedy/ too slow.”
Nina also supported the nationalist
Black Power Agenda. “The Black
Panthers made these kids realize that
there are Black heroes who will fight
and die if necessary to get what they
want,” she was quoted as saying.
“That’s what I find wonderful; they
scare the hell out of white folks, too,
and we certainly need that”
When Martin Luther King Jr. was
assassinated, Nina paid her tribute to
him in “Why? (The King of Love is
Dead),” declaring in the middle of her
performance, “I ain’t about to be
nonviolent, honey!” She believed that
it was impossible for America to reform
injustice.
“I wish I knew how it would feel
to be free.” She almost whispers,
singing so delicately that it sounds like
freedom is only a breath away. The
embodiment of the nationalist spirit and
black culture is evident in all of the
songs she wrote, starting with the 1965
release of “Four Women,” which plays
out like a Morrisonian novel to her
soulful petition in “Marry Me.”
Nina Simone left the United States
in 1974, upset by the American racism
that marked the assassinations of Martin
Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She
fled to Barbados and then settled for
two years in Liberia. Her years after that
were spent between Switzerland and
the United Kingdom.
In 2000, she received Honorary
Citizenship in the city of Atlanta. Nina
passed away due to natural causes at
her home in Carry-le-Rouet, France, on
April 21,2003. Pursuant to her desires,
her ashes were spread throughout the
continent of Africa.
When an interviewer once asked
Nina how she wanted to be
remembered, she replied, “I want to be
remembered as a diva from beginning
to end who never compromised in what
she felt about racism and how the world
should be, and who to the end of her
days consistently stayed the same.”