CBJC Festival Magazine 2016

fires lit by Nina Simone not only burned
brightly in her generation but gave form
to their work as well. And then Simone,
Nina’s daughter animated the mosaic by
pledging that the world has not heard the
last of Nina Simone. “She will be in all that
I do”.
There, was Dr. Nina Simone’s final comment
to America: a wide and continuous
flow of brilliant, beautiful, talented and
fearless Black warrior women [The Amazon
Goddess] deeply inspiredby Nina’s life
and rededicating their commitment to
devour her enemies. Puts lead in Ogun’s
pencil to hear the praises of the unbroken.
I’m writing to tell you that Dr. Nina
Simone’s army is unbroken and way larger
than America wants anyone to know.
Nina Simone transitioned by releasing
forth an army as fierce and multi-faceted
as she was. Everyone present drank deeply
in the blessing of the collected power on
display, while marveling at the size of the
personality that could umbrella it all. Dr.
Nina’s presence was made manifest by the
reflections and memories emanating from
the whole church, in what I will always
remember as a holy event; the melding of
sound to Spirit.
I left before the benediction. Having
searched among the faces to find her, I
handed the tapes I brought to Jo Ann
Cheatham and made my exit ducking
the encounter with “Young, Gifted and
Black”. I needed to walk off some of my
feelings before going to work. My head
was clouded with the mists of ritual, the
touch of the Creator and all that fine womanhood.
Spiritual for sure, but something
very earthy and sentient as well. As in
the words of her song, I had gotten quite
a bit of ‘steam on my clothes’. Vibrating is
the only way that I can describe the feeling.
In a church full of alpha women, the
male energy gets to explore how many
different ways there are to fall absolutely
in love. Among an army of goddesses,
mere man strains to keep his focus and his
feet turned to purpose. Nina’s army sets a
mere man’s world in tension that feels like
vibrating because each of them is Iyalode
material, each of them a queen and each
a compelling vortex of leadership, intelligence
and love. High-grade womanhood
of such intensity addles as it enriches. I
needed to walk and meditate on bearing
witness to the birth of a super nova. Galaxy
Simone ritually rendered, if you can
dig it.
I vibrate still, but deeper. It’s more in the
bones, pitched at the frequency of ululation,
ripples of sound meld to my Spirit
and I surrender, conjured and captured
in the web of the Amazon. The pull is
tidal and cleansing. With my head to the
ground, I salute Iyalode Dr. Nina Simone
and all those who keep her legacy a factor
in this world because so much of living
now is ugly and absurd. Nina Simone
willed beauty and purpose upon us in the
lavish manner of the royalty that she was.
Like the people who celebrated her, she
kept us in mind of what the best moments
of struggle is all about. She raised sacrifice
to its exalted position and used her
life as an Ebo by which the nation could
survive. I vibrate with the joy that comes
from knowing generations of Black women
who, though constructed from Iyalode
elements, are yet content to make life
among mere men and give what meaning
there is to our world. They give us children
and love and faith and labor and wisdom
and day to day understanding that breeds
the assurance of survival. They also give
us heartaches and worries and the weary
blues, just like Dr. Nina when telling her
truths. I vibrate because love at the level
of Iyalode is nothing a man can be cool
about nor should he be. Dr. Nina Simone
is rightfully the distillate of all Iyalode
women and she is enshrined in the pantheon.
The ones who circulate among us
are enshrined in the bones of the living.
Ed Dessisso is a Free Lance writer and is
the author of Vinyl Man, which is regular
column in this publication.
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