In song and poetry, 'Nina' and 'Just Us' offer ways to start a conversation on race

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

After the protests last year, we heard the phrase "racial reckoning" a lot, as some groups of people struggled to catch up with what's just been reality for many others. This week we've got two books that might help you reckon with that reckoning, in two different ways: Traci Todd and illustrator Christian Robinson's bright and powerful picture book biography Nina: A Story of Nina Simone and poet Claudia Rankine's Just Us: An American Conversation, in which she puts together poetry, essays and images to bring readers into an uncomfortable but necessary conversation about race.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, welcome to NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaung. Remember, after the protests last year,
0:08.4	people kept using the term racial reckoning. It felt like a weirdly pretentious way of over-explaining
0:15.5	how one portion of the population was just playing catch-up to the reality that always existed for another
0:22.1	portion of the population. Anyway, it's a phrase that does not show up in these next two
0:27.2	conversations. I'd guess because the authors aren't concerned with playing ketchup, they're too
0:32.8	busy dealing with the now. In a bit, we'll hear a conversation with the poet Claudia Rankin,
0:37.7	but first, NPR's Audie Cornish talks with the author and illustrator of a new children's book,
0:43.3	Nina, a story of Nina Simone. As you'll hear the writer, Tracy Todd, actually changed the ending
0:48.8	a bit after feeling despair at what she calls the adult world, Something Nina Simone knew a thing or two about.
0:57.2	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:02.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:06.4	On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people
1:11.9	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:21.5	We're going to tell you the story of a dream almost deferred. It begins with a little girl raised in the segregated south of the 30s and 40s.
1:30.3	It was Eunice Kathleen Weyman. She was born in Tri-on, North Carolina, and she really wanted to become a classical musician.
1:37.5	This is author Tracy Todd, and the way she tells it. That dream didn't come true, but Nina found a way.
1:43.0	Nina found a way. Nina found a way.
1:51.7	Eunice became Nina Simone, the prolific composer and singer behind to be young, gifted, and black, among many other songs.
2:06.4	Tracy Todd tells the story of Simone's early life in vibrant, emotional hues, and a new children's book called Nina, a story of Nina Simone.
2:10.2	It's illustrated by the critically acclaimed artist Christian Robinson.
2:19.6	So what inspired them to take on a version of Simone's story, a story marked by racism and mental health struggles, and make it into a story for kids.
2:28.2	The weight of it all did not occur to me when I started writing.
	...

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