Black Lives Teach Us To Hope
February 11, 2022 – Nina Simone
Christian Robinson, Nina: A Story of Nina Simone
For this week, in honor of Black History Month, I’m sharing portraits of iconic and famous Black women whose lives have given me every reason to hope.
Peace & Blessings,
Marcie Alvis-Walker
INVOCATION
God of the Birds Flying High and the Sun Up in the Sky, you know how we feel…
NINA SIMONE: IN HER OWN WORDS – A LESSON ON VULNERABILITY
I wore the same gown for a year everywhere I went. I wanted people to remember me looking a certain way. It made it easier for me. It was a black, crocheted, fishnet jumpsuit with a flesh-colored lining. So when I came on stage, the illusion was that I was absolutely naked. I loved that! It always kinda shocked people enough that they became mine immediately.
People don’t think about the fact that I’m a woman and I sing as much love songs as I do—that bothers me.
When I first got into show business, I wasn’t a blues singer and I wasn’t even a love song singer. I was classical pianist. I only sang about love because I didn’t have it at the time. And as I grow older, I am extraordinarily tender and I’m very, very, affectionate. And, my first idea in the world has to do with me and my lover, and romance. It’s normal. I’m tender.
It is a fact that I don’t get enough love. I never did get enough love, and the only times I really got it were in Africa and at the beginning of my career. So it sense for me to think of tender love songs and then, politically speaking, since I’m Black, I had to do something about that too.
I stopped singing love songs and started singing protest songs because protest songs were needed… How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
I’m not a blues singer. I don’t like blues. Blues make me blue… I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.
I applied for a scholarship to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. I knew I was good enough, but they turned me down. And it took me about six months to realize it was because I was black. I never really got over that jolt of racism at the time.
I wish God had told me that I had to be sacrificed as a woman for this music. I would have told him to take it back… My personal life is in shambles. I’ve had a few love affairs and I would love to be married but everything has had to be sacrificed for the music… I feel very old.
My thing, what I hope to do all the time, is to be so completely myself. That’s what I hope I am. To be so much myself that my audiences and even the people who meet me are confronted with what I am inside and out – as honest as I can be. In this way, they have to see things about themselves, immediately.
Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It’s like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can’t be found on any instrument. That’s like me.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The moment I read the manuscript for Nina: A Story of Nina Simone, I was in love and it resonated it. I just loved how straight forward and direct it was, and how it told [Nina Simone’s] story with integrity and honesty. Like everyone else, I was a huge Nina Simone fan. So, it was an honor to be able to honor Ms. Simone…
There’s so many layers to her story. There’s the historic part and then there’s the personal part. I was trying to weave those together. And I also put a lot of focus on the piano. I wanted [readers] to see those brushstrokes – to give that raw texture. It felt in tune with Nina’s spirit…
[The book] deals with some heavy subject matter. I was working on this book during the pandemic and during all the racial unrest… It was the summer of 2020. So it was difficult to take in all of that and also work on a project that was showing those threads between what was happening today and what happened then. Nina’s legacy was inspiring, just seeing how she overcame and dealt with so many traumatic things…
Even though the story focuses so much on her childhood, which I think is important, I tried to squeeze in as much of her style and fashion that I could. And I was really excited to make this very pink cover. It just felt right. The color pink I think is special color. It’s soft but it’s also bold and that’s what I wanted to show. I wanted to show her as a full human with her vulnerabilities.
BREATH PRAYER FOR SELF-LOVE
INHALE
I am loved…
EXHALE
By Love Itself.
BENEDICTION
Say Her Name: Eunice Kathleen Waymon, Nina Simone, Miss Simone, Dr. Simone– for she is worthy.
And you are worthy.
Selah
To be so open and honest with one’s self…