Summary
Producer Tracie Hunte stumbled into a duet between Nina Simone and the sounds of protest outside her apartment. Then she discovered a performance by Nina on April 7, 1968 - three days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tracie talks about what Nina’s music, born during another time when our country was facing questions that seemed to have no answer, meant then and why it still resonates today.
Listen to Nina's brother, Samuel Waymon, talk about that April 7th concert here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh wait, you're listening. |
| 0:07.0 | Okay. |
| 0:08.0 | All right. |
| 0:09.0 | Door listening to radio lab radio from W and Y. |
| 0:16.0 | This week at a staff meeting our producer Tracy Hunt told a story. |
| 0:28.0 | It was a story of a moment from the weekend as the protests in response to the killing of George Floyd were really escalating. |
| 0:38.0 | I just asked her to tell me that story again on tape. |
| 0:43.0 | Okay, so you were listening to a certain song. |
| 0:46.0 | What happened exactly? |
| 0:48.0 | Can you set the scene? |
| 0:50.0 | Yeah, it was Saturday and I had been feeling pretty sad all day. |
| 0:57.0 | Just feeling kind of grumpy and I was like, okay, you know what? |
| 1:01.0 | Self-care Saturday. |
| 1:03.0 | Let's just take a really long hot shower, wash your hair, smell good, feel good. |
| 1:09.0 | And so I did all of that, you know, and I was just feeling very good physically for the first time in a while actually. |
| 1:17.0 | And I decided I was going to play Nina Simone. |
| 1:24.0 | Baby, you understand me now. |
| 1:27.0 | I just typed in Nina Simone and Spotify and just let them put a smell on you to start, you know, picking songs for me basically. |
| 1:35.0 | I wasn't really being really specific. |
| 1:42.0 | And I opened, so I have a balcony in my apartment and I opened the door to let some Erin. |
| 1:55.0 | And I'm just instantly barrage with all this sound. |
| 2:03.0 | This co-op in the old police sirens, people chanting. |
... |
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