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The book’s epigraph, quoting a remark Simone made at Morehouse College in 1969, sets the tone early: “When I die … I’m gonna know that I left something for to build on. Todd, however, positions “Nina” as a story about the legacy of a musician who realized at the height of her career that “an artist’s duty … is to reflect the times,” a line that’s been cited by activist pop stars ever since. To read either book is to slip into the immersive universe of a Black musical prodigy turned grown performer who, from a young age, pursued sonic curiosities and passions and ended up producing art that changed the course of popular culture. Rodriguez works with a dazzling palette of intense colors to convey a mood symphony of the Seattle guitarist’s evolving experimentations with instrumentality, music genres and sounds. His elegantly simple figures recall the work of Ezra Jack Keats and occasionally Charles M.
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Robinson imbues “Nina” with sumptuous colors - earthy tones for Simone’s Tryon, N.C., roots oceanic blue for an Atlantic City nightclub. Smith Jr.’s psychedelic love letter “Song for Jimi” (with pictures by the Cuban American illustrator Edel Rodriguez), which follows the pioneering rock ’n’ roll guitar hero Jimi Hendrix, achieve this difficult balance. Todd’s luminous “Nina” (with pictures by the award-winning Christian Robinson), which explores the life and career of the civil-rights-era musician Nina Simone, and Charles R. The best in this genre strike a tone that highlights the genuine aspirations and distinctive craft of the budding artist while offering a primer on the specific historical challenges faced by a people fighting for freedom.Īlthough drastically different books, both Traci N. The stories of their origins and rise to stardom are so deeply entangled with the forces of systemic racism - Jim Crow segregation, socioeconomic inequality and the insult of everyday discrimination - that any honest biographical profile for young readers has to walk a fine line between conveying the hardships of Black childhood and celebrating the beauty and wonder of youthful musical genius taking root (sometimes as a response to said hardships). Writing children’s literature about our most celebrated 20th-century Black musicians is a tough needle to thread. SONG FOR JIMI The Story of Guitar Legend Jimi Hendrix Written by Charles R. NINA A Story of Nina Simone Written by Traci N.