Nina Simone and Anger

Something that compelled me while watching the documentary was Nina Simone’s anger – her ceaseless, unapologetic, rightful anger. She is extremely angry; breaking and smashing things, openly cursing, unleashing fury at her audience and what not. Even the word ‘anger’ is not enough to explain how she feels and reacts. This unwavering anger becomes a liberating and energizing force, creatively manifested through her songs, with ‘Mississippi Goddamn’ as the epitome. These songs are infused with the trauma and pain of Simone’s history and experiences, and voice her deep-seated anguish. They harness the capacity of bearing witness- bearing witness to her suffering. Anger, then seeks to redeem. It seeks to heel her cognitive damage by attempting to survive, confront and overcome her pain.

The documentary delves into painting a despondent image of her childhood. As a child, she would learn piano from a white woman and recalls traversing a railway line to reach her residence. The line was not just a track for trains, but indeed a boundary separating the Black and White inhabitants of Tryon, North Carolina. Since childhood, she envisions a “Manicheaen” or “compartmentalized” world, in the words of Fanon. Her first memory of racial discrimination occurs when her parents are asked to sit at the back seats during her recital at the church. She realizes that her "compartment" is the inferior one. Her childhood is tarnished by other dismal memories including the incessant reminder that she is not beautiful. Her nose is too big, lips too swollen, and color too dark. Although, she consciously evades this mockery, it unconsciously imprints her mind, forming a piercingly inalienable part of her reality. The “biggest jolt” occurs with her rejection from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she aspires to become a classical pianist. From the very get-go, she devoted every second of her life towards the fulfillment of this dream, only to have it shattered by her skin color. Simone is coldly reminded that she is indeed a Negro – an exception among the norm, an ugly among the beautiful, a savage among the civilized. The railway line does not just separate residences, but it also separates the opportunities, chances and dreams that life entails for you – all contingent upon your skin color. The scar of the railway line that Simone suffers from as a child now becomes an only more solidified, deepened, excruciating wound.

Even though Simone emerges as the leading popular Jazz singer of the time with her debut album topping the charts and extraordinary performance at the Carneiege Hall, she still feels increasingly dissatisfied and broken. The final trigger is the cold-blooded murder of children in Birmingham, September 1953. She can no longer contain her anger and it blasts through her truly ground-breaking song, ‘Mississippi Goddamn.’ This song is extremely revolutionary for its time. Cursing was not allowed on mainstream media, yet she was there cursing loud and clear- lamenting stories of her community’s survival,

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last,

 Confronting the White man with their stories of injustice,

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady

And kindling the spirit of her Black community by seeking stories of overcoming,

You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality.

She is so vehement that her voice breaks after performing this song. Yet, it is her anger that sustains her. It translates into her music as a carrier of her undying energy, creativity and passion. She derives meaning out of singing and is rendered with “a sense of doing something.” Simone argues that everyday felt like a matter of survival. How could she be an artist and not reflect?  Being political was not a choice, it was a responsibility. She strongly believes that her foremost duty as a musician is to “shake people up,” and to instill in them the desire of regaining their lost identity. She becomes fiercely committed to the Civil Rights Movements, and her music fuelled by her anger serves as the channel to her political activism. 

Al Schackman, her guitarist and accompanist says that something was “eating her.” However, this is not devouring her completely but gradually metamorphosing her, allowing her to “morph experience into music.” This something is indeed her anger. The same anger which ruins her career, personal life and mental health. The same anger which gives a face to her suffering and the trauma of her people. The same anger which motivates her to seek a kinder, more accommodating, and homelier world. The same anger which breaks her, but also makes her – the iconic Nina Simone.