The Women That Shaped Music Series: Nina Simone

"The High Priestess of Soul"

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. She picked up playing the piano at 4 years old, with the encouragement of her mother who was a preacher at the church she played in. She was classically trained by a member who took great interest in her abilities, Murial Mazzanovich, who also started a fund for her as she taught Nina the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and the like. As she performed for the local community, more money was donated towards her future as a classical pianist. This led her to attending Juilliard for a one-year program, and her ultimate dream was to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. After being denied, she had little money left and had to work to continue to pay for her education. This landed her at the Midtown Bar & Grill, where she began singing and playing piano from midnight till 7 am. Not wanting her mother to find out where she was working or what she was doing, she gave herself a new name, Nina Simone.

“If you have to strain to sing, you sing. So sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream."

Early on she felt she had to work and work with no rest, due to her financial situation and then eventually because of her abusive husband turned manager. She found great success after playing in Carnegie Hall, a lifelong dream of hers, but still felt something was missing in her career, and ultimately her life. After a targeted church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 which killed 4 black girls, she began to use her platform as a mouthpiece for the civil rights movement. She soon after released "Mississippi Goddam", an iconic protest song that rattled the nation and spoke to the need for immediate and radical change.

“I could let myself be heard, about what I was feeling all the time”. -Nina Simone, pictured with James Baldwin

Nina used her voice to advocate for herself and her community as well as reflect on the political climate she lived through. “I choose to reflect the times and situations in which I find myself. That to me is my duty, and at this crucial time in our lives when everything is so desperate– I don't think you can help but be involved. How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?” Her words ring true to this very day.

She collaborated with other artists involved in the civil rights movement, such as Langston Hughes who wrote the lyrics for “Backlash Blues” and Lorraine Lansbury who's play “Young, Gifted, and Black”, inspired one of her most well-known songs. She also had close connections with other giants of the time such as James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr. 

She found herself through reconnecting with her culture, with her blackness, and wearing it like the crown it is. Not without scrutiny of course, but she was surrounded by like-minded people. Once she found her purpose, advancing the rights and perception of her people, she could not be stopped. Her music helped fuel the civil rights movement with its poignant and cutting commentary; she did not shy away from saying what needed to be heard. Through music she was able to finally convey to the world who she truly was, and what she believed. In a similarly freeing fashion, her music touched those around her and continued to fuel their fight for civil rights, for dignity, and for autonomy. She quite literally shaped history through her music, and inspired artists such as Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, John Legend, and so many more. 

As we celebrate women and music, I think Nina Simone is a prime example of a woman whose music truly embodied her essence, her dreams, and her struggles. She stepped into her power and like dominos, empowered everyone else.

When asked what being free meant to her, she said "I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear!" Now those are words to live by.

Miss K