Nina Simone (1933-2003)
Filed under the name Nina · May 20, 2026
Nina Simone was a singer, pianist, and civil rights activist whose music still stands as some of the most influential of the whole twentieth century, and I'll say plain, I didn't grow up listening to much of it in the mill towns I came up in, but I've come to respect what it took to do that kind of work while the country wasn't exactly rolling out the welcome mat for it. She trained classically, had real skill on that piano, and then used her whole platform for something bigger than her own career, which cost her plenty along the way from what I understand. I spent thirty-four years on a mill floor and a good chunk of that as a union grievance rep, causing trouble for management because somebody had to, and I recognize that kind of stubbornness even from a completely different line of work. Simone didn't back off just because it would've been easier or safer to. That's the same thing I always respected about the guys on the floor who wouldn't shut up when something wasn't right, whatever trouble it brought them.