Nina Simone: Anger and Revolutionary Art

In a similar fashion to other champions of black dignity and expression, Nina Simone did not consciously think about issues of race growing up in 1930s Southern America. While she did not actively put her mind to the disparity between her Negro neighbourhood, and the white one separated by railway tracks, she was made aware of her blackness by virtue of feeling like an outsider. She wrote of how she felt as if her nose or lips were too big, her skin too dark. She trained in classical piano and studied at Julliard, but was rejected from continuing her music education at the Curtis Institute of Music by virtue of her blackness. While she began her career as a pianist and transitioned to a pop singer, ultimately her artistry veered towards the radical until she was completely subsumed in it.

Rage is something that characterizes the experiences of all those who have been wronged, been victims of injustice, told of their inferiority and been made to feel as if they do not belong. Simone said, of the condition that steered her towards revolutionary songs: “first you get depressed, and then you get mad.” Next door neighbours with Malcolm X, Simone too was seized by a revolutionary fervor propelled entirely by her anger at the situation that her people were in. She advocated for the necessity of political art, claiming that it must be a reflection of the times, and the times were such that American society was a cancer that must first be exposed, and then cured. Like Malcolm, Simone was an advocate for a separate state for black Americans, and a firm believer in exercising any means necessary, including violence and bloodshed. She follows in the footsteps of those such as Fanon, when it comes to the necessity of feeling righteous anger in the face of injustice and channeling it towards emancipation. Simone even reportedly remarked to Martin Luther King: “I’m not non-violent” as she believed that true freedom could not be attained without violent struggle and an overthrow of the system.

Simone’s story is most impactful to me personally when I consider her not just as a black revolutionary artist and civil rights activist, but also as one of the first prominent women to take up the charge. She began with dreams of becoming the first black female classical pianist, but went on fan and even ignite the flames of revolution. There is something powerful to be said for the rage of women against oppression. Audre Lord, in her infamous speech on the uses of anger said: “anger expressed and translated into action in the service of our vision and our future is a liberating and strengthening act…” Simone embodied using anger in the way of service, going so far as to take upon herself the responsibility of exposing the cancer of American society. Her subsequent alienation from major broadcasting shows and exclusion from concerts was an inevitable result of her activism, and perhaps truly showed that she was making waves, with the record copies of her first truly political song, Mississippi Goddam being returned from radio stations who refused to play it.

Her song, “Young, Gifted and Black,” is an anthem of sorts, to an idea encountered earlier in this course – negritude. It became the champion of “black is beautiful” and allowed black youth to “stand up and engage in their African-ness without apology,” as remarked by Malcolm X’s eldest daughter.

Simone’s legacy has been twisted by forays into her personal life, her abusive marriage, and her descent into a profound depression, but her significance as a black female radical activist, and the power of her message on the revolutionary and political spirit of art stands tall even today, and as long as there is injustice and oppression in the world.