“Using everything you’ve got inside you sometimes to barely make a note.” - Nina Simone

This is not my first portrait of Nina Simone and it won’t be the last. Simone’s emotional intensity both visually and audibly never ceases to move me.

Nina Simone was a classically trained musician, singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her musical range included classical, jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, and pop. Of her ability to sing a full rainbow of emotions in the span of one song she said, “What I was interested in was conveying an emotional message, which means using everything you’ve got inside you sometimes to barely make a note, or if you strain to sing, you sing. So sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.”

View the complete Affirm Black Women portrait series here