--- title: Nina Simone Movie: Why She's Having a Moment description: The culture may finally be catching up to the singular star canonical: https://time.com/4294264/nina-simone-activism-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-21T14:30:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:45:44.278Z article:section: History og:title: Nina Simone Movie: Why She's Having a Moment og:description: The culture may finally be catching up to the singular star og:url: https://time.com/4294264/nina-simone-activism-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15a664693664baa6/69888f2a0a4a220baa9c93f6/simone.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Nina Simone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nina Simone Movie: Why She's Having a Moment twitter:description: The culture may finally be catching up to the singular star twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15a664693664baa6/69888f2a0a4a220baa9c93f6/simone.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Nina Simone Is Having A Moment > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 'Nina' Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): 'Nina' Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jhi6Rx89.m3u8) (2:30)  _Published 2016-03-04. Zoe Saldana stars as the legendary singer Nina Simone._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 21, 2016 2:30 PM UTC  Portrait of the singer Nina Simone, October 1969. Portrait of the singer Nina Simone, October 1969. Jack Robinson—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 21, 2016 2:30 PM UTC When TIME profiled Nina Simone in 1969, the headline was “More Than an Entertainer.” Simone, the story explained, said so herself. That didn’t mean she couldn’t bring the house down—”Nina’s singing and piano playing rank her with Aretha Franklin at the top of the female jazz, blues and soul camp,” the story noted. The point was that her reason for being on stage ran deeper–she had a message to get across to audiences, too. That part of Simone’s story has sometimes been overshadowed in the recent “Nina Simone renaissance,” says historian Ruth Feldstein, the author of _How It Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement_. In addition to the [controversial film _Nina,_ ](http://time.com/4246449/nina-simone-zoe-saldana/)which will be released on Friday, Simone (who died in 2003) was the subject of two documentaries in the last year and, more to the point, Feldstein notes that her music is now considered mainstream enough for it to be “playing in Walgreens.” It’s also been used in [a car ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up%5FxoznML4U) and [sampled by artists like Kanye West.](http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/20/6048381/kanye-west-samples-listenable-history) As Salamishah Tillet, a University of Pennsylvania professor who is writing a book about the musician[ has put it](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/movies/nina-simones-time-is-now-again.html?%5Fr=0), “Nina Simone’s time is now.” “When you make someone an icon it’s really great in terms of ways their work and their contributions can be celebrated but certain aspects of their lives can also be lost,” Feldstein says. “And I think one thing that has been lost is the ways that again Simone was part of this community, especially a community of women.” (She was also ambitious, something Feldstein believes “people tend to forget or tend not to want to see when they’re talking about women performers in general.”) [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Simone had her heyday at a time when many activist-entertainers worked together to advance the cause of equality. As Simone [put it](https://books.google.com/books?id=YAU1r9N8vooC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=politics+was+mixed+in+with+so+much+of+what+was+going+on+that+I+remember+it+now+as+two+sides+of+the+same+coin&source=bl&ots=SWvSwYMVQ6&sig=G6PZ3klkN96-CUu8v6JUF2bU9Q4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0hdeimI%5FMAhXMbz4KHVqhCD8Q6AEIHzAA#v=onepage&q=politics%20was%20mixed%20in%20with%20so%20much%20of%20what%20was%20going%20on%20that%20I%20remember%20it%20now%20as%20two%20sides%20of%20the%20same%20coin&f=false) in her autobiography, “politics was mixed in with so much of what went on…that I remember it now as two sides of the same coin, politics and jazz.” “\[The song\] ’Mississippi Goddam’ to me is as important as King’s [Letter from a Birmingham Jail](http://time.com/3773914/mlk-birmingham-jail/) or James Baldwin’s _The Fire Next Time_ as a literary document as well as a musical document,” Tillet tells TIME. The Simone scholars think that one reason why her story had been so hard to get right is that she never fit neatly in any of the boxes that we use to talk about history or issues in society. For a long time, mainstream histories of the women’s liberation movement often focused on white women and mainstream histories of the civil-rights movement focused on male leaders. Simone was the odd person out in both stories. Musically, too, her signature blend of classical training with jazz and blues defied categorization. But the intersectional story was one reason she was so important—and is perhaps why she appeals so much to modern historians and artists, who are attuned to the need to tell such stories. “It’s a vision of America that I think was always there,” Tillet says, “but is now coming to the center.” Whether she’s being referenced as a political radical or sampled on a new song, the fact that she can be an icon for multiple groups makes her particularly appealing today to a generation attuned to life’s intersections. And Simone would likely have approved of putting that popular interest to good use: she herself said that there was no point in dredging up a painful past if it couldn’t accomplish anything outside the expression of that pain. “It’s a bore just to be talking about pain per se unless something can come out of it that’s constructive,” Simone told TIME in 1969\. “I want an easier life, and I want an easier life for my people and for all people that are oppressed. But before you can have that, the pain and the injustice have to be exposed, and that’s very painful in itself, because nobody wants to look at it.” **_Read TIME’s 1969 story about Nina Simone, here in the TIME Vault:_** [More Than an Entertainer](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-02-21/page/65/) ## Transcript [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] Do you know who I am? Yeah. My mother used to listen to you. Nina Simone. [ APPLAUSE ] I want you to come with me. I will pay you $ 2, 000 a month. In return you take care of all my affairs. Plane leaves at 9AM ask your momma. When you get sunshine pain and bring it upstairs. I brought you some food and your medication. I didn't ask for any of [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] She's a complicated lady. [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] Tell him to give me my money! Drinks, smokes? She is out of shape. [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] Want to go to the gym? [ LAUGHTER ] No! What happened Nina? Why are you playing in front of 100 people and not 20, 000? I'm dying. No one wants to see to see her play the way she is now. I won't make it. Yes you will. [ UNKNOWN ] help, you make this happen. I'll try. [ MUSIC ] I don't wanna hear about Nina's comebacks. [ MUSIC ] She needs this. I wanna feel free. [ MUSIC ] You're astonishing. This song kept us marching. Made me believe that we had a chance. [ MUSIC ] What is freedom to you? I'll tell you what freedom means to me. No fear. If I can have that for half of my life, no fear, that's the only way. Way that I can describe it. Everyone thinks that you are- Crazy. 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