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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNina Simone: the growing legacy of a dazzling, defiant talent
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/19/nina-simone-home-national-treasure-north-carolina-recognition-legacy<snip>
Nina Simone always felt underappreciated during her lifetime. She had a right to. After 1960, her albums never put more than a dent in the lower end of the pop charts. And her singles made no greater impression. More, the press, the industry and even some audiences found her uncompromising performances and adamant character either off-putting or baffling.
Thankfully, time has a way of correcting such perceptions. Over the last three years, theres been an escalating appreciation not only of Nina Simones depth of talent, but of her defiant character. Attention for her work has been greatly amplified by Liz Garbuss unflinching 2015 documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone?, as well as her richly deserved induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.
Today, another step in her reassessment takes place. Simones childhood home has been named a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Fewer than 100 homes in the US have earned that designation. The organization, joined by the World Monuments Fund and other groups, plans to turn the now vacant and dilapidated property, located in Tryon, North Carolina, into a salute to the artists legacy. Today a series of events will occur around the house where Nina Simone taught herself to play piano, and where she grew up experiencing the severe restrictions of the Jim Crow south. To honor those events, theres a deep catalogue of Simones work available to savor on every streaming service.
Some of the pieces Simone composed herself became classics, including her blunt response to the violence of the civil rights era south in Mississippi Goddam, and the pride anthem To Be Young, Gifted and Black.
Over the years, Simones politics became increasingly radical. By the late 60s, she had no trouble asking black audiences if they were ready to kill for the cause a quote captured in Garbuss movie. Small wonder, Simone later became a kind of godmother to gangsta raps hardest artists.
Rorey
(8,445 posts)One of my favorite movies, for whatever reason.
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malaise
(269,144 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)hear this again. And yes, her militancy grew as did her abhorrence to white ameriKKKan racism. Of course, she was marginalized because she didn't smile enough, because she was too angry an AA. Well, anger was/is still appropriate with all the broken promises, racism, violence from ameriKKKan racists perpetrated against all POC, AA especially. Now again all minorities have to live with OPEN racism and hate as personified by the orange racist POS calling himself potus.
Good thing now is young, gifted and black is truly real. President Barack Obama's daughters and millions of AA are just that, no doubt.
malaise
(269,144 posts)It's been true for millions of us
Thank you for this
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)She had a fascinating but difficult and somewhat sad life. She spent some time at Julliard and auditioned at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, but her application was denied, which was a huge blow and most likely due to the racism of the time.
She was just an endlessly interesting woman. There are a number of books about her life: As well as her 1992 autobiography I Put a Spell on You (1992), written with Stephen Cleary, Simone has been the subject of several books. They include Nina Simone: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (2002) by Richard Williams; Nina Simone: Break Down and Let It All Out (2004) by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan; Princess Noire (2010) by Nadine Cohodas; Nina Simone (2004) by Kerry Acker; Nina Simone, Black is the Color (2005) by Andy Stroud; and What Happened, Miss Simone? (2016) by Alan Light.
One of her most powerful pieces, and most controversial, was "Mississippi Goddam":