Nina Simone was honored in 2016 with the Zoe Saldana-starring biopic Nina, and last year, when she was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Simone has had a broad and unquestionable impact on music, and now Noname is putting in an effort to make sure that an important piece of her history is preserved.
Over the past couple days, Noname has been using her platform on Twitter to bring awareness to a project that aims to preserve Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina. The National Trust For Historic Preservation has an active fundraising campaign to try to preserve the site, and the organization writes on the Indiegogo campaign page, “Tucked away in Tryon, North Carolina, is the humble home where Nina Simone developed her love for the piano. Despite its history, the home sat vacant until 2017 when four artists purchased it and saved it from demolition. Today, with the artists’ guidance, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is working to create a vibrant future for the site, but we need your help! Join our campaign to ensure that Nina Simone’s childhood home is preserved for future generations.”
Noname has been spreading the word about the project a lot lately, writing on Twitter, “#NinaSimone is literally one of the most important Black American artist we had. Join me and [National Trust For Historic Preservation] to preserve Nina Simone’s legacy by restoring her childhood home.” She added in another tweet, “Less than two percent of our national parks, monuments, and historic sites are dedicated to women’s history, while less than six percent focus on African American history.”
https://twitter.com/noname/status/1145686586551668736
https://twitter.com/noname/status/1145686792399663106
After a day, the campaign made strong progress toward its funding goal, which pleased Noname, who wrote, “Crazy that we even have to crowdfund to #SaveNinaCrib. Erasure is real but n****s not goin, in a day we raised 20% of the funds!!! May seem small but money is tight for most people so that’s huge to me. Old heads always sayin we don’t care but look what we did.”
https://twitter.com/noname/status/1146045819294035968
Learn more about the project here.
