Kayla Leland
Professor Santos
EN 003
February 12, 2016
Nina Simone
This week in class we
have discussed the meaning behind Nina Simone’s lyrics and the messages she was
trying to evoke about Black History. One particular thing that stood out to me
was the reading ‘“Don’t let me be misunderstood”: Nina Simone’s African
womanism’ written by Jasmine Mena and P. Khalil Saucier. Nina Simone had a
commanding presence and had such a passion for her singing that she wasn’t
afraid to speak out. Nina Simone was the only one to speak out as many others
wanted to but were too afraid to say anything. In this reading the author chose
to break down and analyze 44 songs of Nina Simones in order to reveal the
messages she had at the time. As a
result, this revealed the impact the messages in her lyrics had on African Americans
and the politics. It is quite an experience to be able to hear the music come
to life as by reading the lyrics to the song you do not get the full effect or
message of the song. When just looking at lyrics you do not get to feel emotion
or hear the tone change in the artist’s voice. Similar to what we have
discussed in class a few weeks ago is that it is very important and powerful to
have meaning in the lyrics as this allows one to relate to the audience. That
is just what Nina Simone did as she used her lyrics to try to unite people on
the issues and contribute to the progressive politics.
Nina Simone saw the world
as cancer as “freedom can only be realized when all systems of oppression are
destroyed.” Many people argued that the
experience of African woman were being mislabeled and Nina Simone tried to get
rid of these stereotypes through her lyrics. Just as many feminists began to
create communities based of their own race as people were not dealing with the
issues that black women had to through so, they created their own feminist
ideas. Black women united together based of how they were related on their
racial identity and used this against oppression. Similarly, Nina Simone used
her lyrics to bring African Americans together on these issues in order to
overcome them together as a whole. As a result, her messages became more and
more political which may have led to her downfall as her performances led to
less and less uniting. Nina Simone focused so heavily on the political aspect
that she lost her followers which in the end consumed her and made her crazy.
I really like the part where you discuss how when you actually take the time to listen to the songs, verses just reading the lyrics, the story comes to life. I believe Nina Simone has such a strong voice as well as a huge impact on her audience. I actually listened to Nina Simone's version of Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday and felt the emotion a lot stronger in Simone's version. I think her heart for justice and people is what drove her to be so successful. Yet, her obsession with those things is ironically the same thing that drove her insane. I find Nina Simone's story extremely sad.
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