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Nina Simone: An Extra/Ordinary Way to Listen

Thursday, May 25, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Nina Simone was an iconic American singer and songwriter who was passionately dedicated to civil rights activism.  She was also a wife and mother who felt the pull of traditional female domestic roles.  Her songs, like those of many blueswomen, allowed her a way to explore and express these often conflicting sentiments. 

Please join us for a talk by Professor Janee Moses, who will present a revealing exploration of Simone’s performance of “Be My Husband” (a song written by her own husband, Andy Straud).

By listening to Simone, and highlighting the blues tradition of black women, the talk will demonstrate a way to see beyond the myths of Simone’s life and work, and reveal the complexities and contradictions found in these women’s extra/ordinary lives.

The talk will draw on Simone’s own voice in her songs, as well as on interviews with those close to her, and contemporary visual artwork exploring the concept of “Extraordinary”.

Please register to receive the Zoom link.

…If you promise me you’ll be my man
If you promise me you’ll be my man
If you promise me you’ll be my man
I will love you the best I can yeah

If you want me to cook and sew
If you want me to cook and sew
If you want me to cook and sew yeah
Outside of you there is no place to go

Please don’t treat me so doggone mean
Please don’t treat me so doggone mean
Please don’t treat me so now doggone mean yeah
You’re the meanest man I ever see


Janée Moses is an oral historian and Assistant Professor of English at The City College of New York, CUNY. Her oral history work has been published in BOMB Magazine. Presently, she is working on her book, A House to Sing In: Extra/Ordinary Black Women’s Narratives on black women’s cultural expressive practices in their life-writing about radical black traditions, girlhood, womanhood, and kinship.

Her voice is the voice of the black woman; it’s the voice of the black woman’s struggle. It’s the voice of the black woman standing up for the black man. It’s the female civil rights voice. She was one of the most pioneering women with regard to the feminist movement, and she didn’t even try. She just was honest and truthful.
MAXWELL, award-winning soul singer

Details

Date:
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Time:
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Event Category: