On February 21, 1933 Eunice Kathleen Waymon better known by her stage name Nina Simone was born in “North Carolina to John Divine and Mary Kate Waymon”. (Freyermuth, pg.1) A musical and deeply religious family; the Waymon household would prove to be the perfect incubus for Simone’s musical and moral origins. Father John Divine and mother Mary Waymon were both evangelical preachers in the town of Tryon, North Carolina and deeply involved in the service music of their Methodist church. “African-American spiritual and gospel music surrounded Eunice [Simone] from birth” and from a very early age Simone “displayed a natural ability for music.” (Freyermuth, pg.1)
At just “two and a half [years old] her parents found Eunice sitting at their family…show more content… 10) But, “with encouragement from her brother, Eunice decided to study with Vladimir Sokoloff, a teacher on the faculty at Curtis and the man with whom she had hoped to study had she been accepted there.” (Freyermuth, pg.4) To make money, Simone began performing at the Midtown Bar & Grill in Atlantic City. In order to get the job, the owner told Simone she would have to sing as well as play the piano. In 1954, Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone an amalgam of the nickname given to her by her then current boyfriend: “Nina” and Simone after the French actress Simone Signoret. She changed her name because she didn’t want her mother to know that she was playing the “devils music”. (Lords) She played any and all popular music that was played on the radio, which was the beginning of her vocal development in long nightly shifts from “nine to four in the morning”. (Freyermuth pg.4) Her intention was always set to be the “first black woman to be a concert pianist” (Lords) provided, with the current state of sexism and racism in the world of classical…show more content… Still, Simone was a ing for her black audience members to stand and directing her songs only to them. Other times she was known for admonishing her fans when to applaud, give standing ovations, and be silent (as she did when I saw her on one of her last US concert tours in 2001). Certainly these and other anecdotes lend themselves to a portrait of an artist who cultivated a cultural persona as a virtuosic performer, a challenging and demanding entertainer, and a bold social activist who was unafraid to manipulate the sometimes charged power dynamics and politics of desire that coursed through her relationship with her
