COLD OPEN

As a little girl in North Carolina in the 1930s, Nina Simone dreamed of becoming a famous classical piano player. She’d close her eyes as her hands danced across the ivory keys, picturing herself on stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Then, one evening in 1964, she opened her eyes, and she WAS on stage at Carnegie Hall. For real this time! After playing her last piece of the evening, everyone in the audience jumped to their feet applauding and cheering for her outstanding performance. The mostly white faces looked at her with approval and admiration. Since the days of her first piano lessons, she’d released records and had hit songs. She was a star. This wasn’t even her first time playing Carnegie Hall!
But, Nina’s dreams had shifted. Rather than focusing just on herself, she dreamed of making a difference in the world, and for the Black community. On stage that night, Nina’s mind was on equality and the fight for Civil Rights. She wasn’t out in the streets marching, not right then, but…she was in front of a microphone.

Nina had a brand-new song, one she’d never played in public before. The song was a call-to-action, a Civil Rights anthem. Was the audience ready for it?

Whether they were or not, Nina began to play. The catchy chords would not prepare her audience for the words they were about to hear. Then, she leaned into the microphone and started to sing.

SFX:

Maybe begin with a kid playing amateur piano that then transitions into professional, incredible piano playing accompanied by cheers and claps as she performs in Carnegie Hall

I’m DJ Switch Ghana. And this is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls.

A fairy tale podcast about the real-life rebel women who inspire us.

On this episode: Nina Simone. The singer who changed music forever with her unique, bold voice and even bolder stance against injustice.

At six years old, everyone called Nina Simone by her birth name, Eunice Kathleen Waymon. Sitting before the piano at her family’s church, little Eunice swung her legs back and forth as she played. She’d been playing piano for three years already but was still too short to reach the pedals! She felt full of excitement and spirit as she began to play. Glorious, rousing notes rang out, filling the church to its rafters. The congregation rose to their feet and let the music move them as Eunice played. Her mother, Mary Kate, a Methodist minister, beamed with pride.

At home, Eunice’s father, John, pulled her onto his lap and let her rest her hands on his as he played jazz on the piano. She loved learning these new rhythms, songs that broke the mold of the religious music she was used to hearing. When they heard her mother coming, though, they switched songs, knowing she wouldn’t approve of music that wasn’t fit for church.

Eunice’s musical talent soon caught the attention of her community. They raised money for Eunice to take piano lessons from an Englishwoman named Murial Mazzanovich or “Miss Mazzy” as Eunice would call her.

The first day Eunice headed to Miss Mazzy’s house, she found herself crossing the train tracks that split her town in two, segregating the Black neighbors from the white ones. Eyes darting left and right, she was careful not to draw attention to herself as she crossed that line. Any fear she felt quickly faded when she sat in front of the piano next to her teacher. Eunice fell in love with classical music, especially the composer Bach. After her lessons, she’d look longingly at the other kids playing outside as she headed home to practice. Eunice would practice for 7 to 8 hours a day without any breaks for playing with friends. Sometimes, she felt lonely, but her love of piano playing was far greater than any loneliness she felt.

One night, 11-year-old Eunice was about to play a concert to a full house at the Lanier Library. Her parents supported her from the front row, giving her the confidence to perform. But when a white couple arrived late and asked to be seated, an usher told Eunice’s parents to move. They had no choice but to let the white couple take their place. Eunice felt herself burning—it was so unfair! Why would they force her parents to miss her big moment? She sat still, her hands folded in her lap. It might have looked like she was doing nothing, but Eunice was deciding to take a stand! Eunice refused to start playing until her parents were back in their seats where Eunice could see them. When they were in their rightful place again, Eunice began to play.

Later she said, “It was my first feeling of being discriminated against, and I recoiled in horror at such a thing.”

Eunice studied for a year at Juilliard, the famous music school in New York. From there, Eunice planned to apply to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. With her talent, her family was certain she’d be accepted, so they moved to the city to be near her. They were just as devastated as Eunice was when the Curtis Institute rejected her application. She was sure she had aced her audition and equally sure that she was rejected because of racism.

Without a place at a music school, Eunice had to go to work to support her family. She took a job playing piano at a bar in Atlantic City in New Jersey and slipped on an elegant evening gown for her first shift. She ordered a glass of milk and started to play a Bach concerto.

Maybe the music wasn’t the right choice, and no one could hear a thing over all the noise of glasses clinking and people talking and laughing. But the bar owner took her aside to tell her that what worked in a classical music hall didn’t fly down the Jersey shore. If she wanted to keep her job, Eunice needed to play jazz…and she needed to sing.

Sing? That had never been part of Eunice’s plan. But, she needed the job. If she had to sing, she’d sing, but she wasn’t quite sure what was going to come out when she opened her mouth. The loud crowd at the bar had no idea they were about to hear one of the most incredible singers of all time! Eunice had a full, slow burn of a voice that could growl low notes AND raise as high as the sky, with every note in between. As she put it, “Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.”

Her one-of-a-kind voice quickly caught people’s attention. Before long, a record label came calling. Eunice knew her mother wouldn’t approve of her playing and recording what she called “the Devil’s music” for everyone to hear. Anything but church music, her mother would never allow.

So before Eunice recorded her songs for the record label, she changed her name. By the time she recorded an album, everyone knew Nina Simone. Her music was an absolute SENSATION. She had a sound like no other, and people couldn’t get enough. Over the course of her career, Nina went on to record 40 albums. People tried to define her style as jazz, but Nina called it “Black classical music” because she was influenced by many types of music including classical, folk, gospel, and Blues. To the rest of the world, though, she became known as the “High Priestess of Soul.”

Nina appeared on television programs and performed internationally. With hits like “I Put a Spell on You,” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” and “Feeling Good,” she built a trailblazing career around these spectacular songs. She married Andrew Stroud who became Nina’s manager.

After they had their daughter, Lisa, Nina hired nanny after nanny to help take care of their daughter while she tried to balance her career. And her career had challenges of its own. Nina wished that the audiences she played for would act like typical classical music audiences, listening quietly and respectfully as she performed. Sometimes, if they insisted on talking while she tried to play, Nina would stop the concert and leave.

Fame put a lot of pressure on Nina and she struggled with her mental health. She wanted to rest, but her commitments, and her manager husband, wouldn’t allow it. During these stressful times, Nina acted out, sometimes shouting at her promoters and people in the audience. But, she did her best to push through her pain and continued to play and perform.

As Nina looked at the world around her, she knew her job wasn’t just to entertain people; it was to make change. She was deeply affected by the assassination of Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers, who was fighting for Black rights. When she heard a racist group called the Ku Klux Klan bombed a Black church, killing four little girls, Nina felt a rush of sadness and fury. She needed to do something. Grabbing a pen, she quickly scrawled out lyrics to a powerful civil rights song, the words pouring out of her in less than an hour. Nina would sing that song at Carnegie Hall that night.
While some people wanted to work slowly towards racial equality, Nina’s song demanded change now, right now. The song had a curse word in the title, which was truly shocking for the time. The song was banned in many places, supposedly because of that curse word, but actually it scared people with its powerful message.

Many Black people thought she was using her voice to amplify theirs, but many white people thought a Black woman didn’t have the right to express herself in this way. They broke her records in half and radio stations boycotted her, refusing to play her music. But Nina was a rebel. She didn’t back down. “How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?” she asked. She played protest songs after the march on Selma, lending her support and voice to the Stars for Freedom concert, one of the Civil Rights Era’s biggest moments. Nina said that after singing that song, her voice broke and never sounded the same again.

Nina continued to call out injustice with her music, determined to uplift Black people and fight for their rights. Nina said, “To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world, Black people.” Inspired by a play written by her friend Lorraine Hansberry, Nina wrote a song called “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black.” The song celebrated all of the beauty, strength, and joy of being Black, and became one of the most important songs in the Civil Rights Era. It brought hope and joy, in times of darkness.

But there was lots of pain too. Nina was affected deeply by the continued unequal treatment of Black people, the assassination of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, and her own personal struggles. Eventually, Nina decided to leave the United States. She spent time in many countries including Liberia and France. She wrote a memoir and performed on and off for the rest of her life.

Two days before her death at age 70, the Curtis Institute of Music, the school that had rejected her as a young person, gave Nina an honorary degree. Named by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nina is remembered for her staggering talent and for giving her voice to the Civil Rights movement. Her songs live on to this day. You’ve probably even heard a few.

Little Eunice dreamed of becoming a classical pianist. She got her wish, but she also did something even bigger. Nina said, “It was very exhilarating to be part of the movement at the time because I was needed. I could sing to help my people.” And Rebels, she really did.

This podcast is a production of Rebel Girls. It’s based on the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

This episode was narrated by DJ Switch Ghana. It was produced and directed by Haley Dapkus, with sound design and mixing by Mumble Media.

The story was written by Nicole Haroutunian and edited by Abby Sher and Deborah Goldstein. Fact checking by Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal.Production coordination by Natalie Hara. Our executive producers were Anjelika Temple and Jes Wolfe.

Original theme music was composed and performed by Elettra Bargiacchi.

A special thanks to the whole Rebel Girls team, who make this podcast possible! Until next time, stay rebel!