What a Story

While watching “What happened, Miss Simone?” a Netflix documentary, I was blown away with the amount of footage they had of Eunice Waymon throughout her life.  I enjoyed the interviews with her and others in her life.  Eunice Waymon started a powerful career under the name Nina Simone.

As I watched the story unfold the messages and passion throughout her music tend to develop into more of a life style then just a performance.  From the start of the movie I could see how powerful Nina must have felt to be singing as an African American woman.  This was not appreciated at the time but with the amount of talent she had, she moved people whether they were black or white.  Her music was “within the political and cultural terrain of Black suffering, disavowal, and rage” which ended up being part of her personal life as well (Mena, Saucier 248).

As much footage as we got to see I could tell that Nina was going crazy. In the beginning of the film her daughter said she was “Nina 24/7” whether preforming or not.  This was a foreshadow to the career we were about to be exposed too.  Nina sung about a lot of things but by the end of her career she was more politically inclined than anything. 

I really appreciated this video and learning about her career.  I think it impacted me the most because she stuck up for what she believed.  At this time period it was hard enough for women.  For an African American women to be singing and speaking out for the civil rights movement so passionately and not worrying about a thing, that’s remarkable.  Even to this day listening to her songs can impact anyone who understands the time period and the messages she tries to send.