Nina Simone in Concert

of a full realization of Black freedom a century after the Thirteenth Amendment. [1. Sound of the Break: Jazz and the Failures of Emancipation Bridget R. Cooks American Quarterly (June 2016) no. 2 330http://muse.jhu.edu/article/622084] It took Nina Simone an hour to write “Mississippi Goddam”, which is a song based on the place names of oppression. It was written immediately in the wake of the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, where four African American girls, none older than fourteen

this notion, she decided to take a stage name. She chose Nina – an affectionate term that an ex-boyfriend used to call her meaning girl in Spanish – and Simone – after Simone Signoret a French actor, because she though it sounded sophisticated. With her new stage name, she got a job in a small bar and grill off the boardwalk. At first she just played the piano, but her boss told her that she had to sing or she could not keep the job. Nina began to put her own style – a mixture from her background

1933, Mary Kate Waymon and John Divine Waymon begot a child named Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. She learned to play piano at the age of 3 and sang in her church's choir. Growing up, she wanted to be the first African American concert pianist. Eunice taught piano and worked as an accompanist for other performers when she attended Juilliard; however, she had to leave school after she ran out of funds. She moved to Philadelphia and lived with her family there in order to save money

Nina Simone was born on February 21,1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. Her birth name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon, but later in her life Nina decided to change it to make a living. This was done to disguise herself from her family members as she had chosen to sing the style of jazz which was known as “the devil’s music”. Nina began her musical carrier at the age of 3 by learning to play the piano. Early on in her life Nina’s musical training emphasized classical songs like Beethoven and Brahmas. After

performance. Nina Simone is perhaps the most politically significant figure of the latter group, as she not only actively participated as a proponent of civil rights efforts, but became a pioneer in black power and feminist ideology. Nina Simone transcended the typical ideas of blackness through her music, and used this position of respectability to further more radical, advanced ideas of black liberation that would make up much of the rhetoric for the 1970s and beyond. Before Nina Simone was an activist

captivating people with her raspy voice and beautiful music training. As a devoted Civil Rights activists, Ms. Simone used her platform as a singer to fight the cause. She was known for songs such as “Mississippi Goddam," "Young, Gifted and Black" and "Feeling Good”. She didn’t feed on fame, she used it to expand the work that others were doing. Before she would be known as Nina Simone, on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, Eunice Kathleen Waymon was born. As a young girl, playing piano

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, February 21, 1933 in North Carolina. The sixth of eight children, she began playing the piano at the age of three and showed extreme talent for classical music. Due to the poverty of her family, her mother worked as a maid. Nina showed her talent to her mother’s employer, who recognized her great ability and started a fund to pay for Nina’s piano lessons and early education. When she was twelve she performed a classical piano recital. Her parents had

actions is Nina Simone. She made an impact on the Civil Right Movement that not many other artist or celebrity would have done. When you think of the Civil Rights Movement the first three that come to mind of course are, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and Rosa Parks. So, when someone hears the name Nina Simone the two most common responses might be “Who’s that?” or “Oh the singer?”. But what is forgotten is how she, at such a high level, put her reputation at a risk. Nina Simone was a very

The extraordinary artist Nina Simone, is nowadays known as one of the greatest voices of the 20th century and icon of American Music. Her real name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon, she was born on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. She studied classical piano at the Juilliard School in New York City and was considered a precocious child prodigy because of her amazingly way playing the piano. Nina was the sixth of a family of eight brothers, descended mainly from African slaves, although among

Nina Simone used music to challenge, provoke, incite, and inform the masses during the period that we know as the Civil Rights Era. In the songs” Four Women”, “Young Gifted and Black”, and Mississippi God Damn”, Nina Simone musically maps a personal "intersectionality" as it relates to being a black American female artist. Kimberly Crenshaw defines "intersectionality" as an inability for black women to separate race, class and gender. Nina Simone’s music directly addresses this paradigm. While