Innholdsfortegnelse for Sep-08-14 i The New Yorker

SONGS OF SIMONE Claudia Roth Pierpont’s review of Nina Simone’s legacy and her relationship to the civil-rights movement details the evolving politics of one of our national musical treasures (“A Raised Voice,” August 11th & 18th). Pierpont rightly points out the fact that Simone’s music did not fit neatly into established genres. Her work lives on in contemporary hip-hop in more fitting ways than Kanye West’s, Jay Z’s, or even Lauryn Hill’s uneasy adoptions. Talib Kweli, before he became a popular artist on a major label (and before Simone died), recorded a reimagined version of her song “Four Women.” His rendition is a lyrically dense and politically charged retelling of Simone’s story about four very different women, each marked by different forms of racism and misogyny. Kweli updates the…

After we shave balloons,but before the test on decubitus ulcers,a shamelessly belliedVenus of Willendorf talks trashand recounts every detail of her long-past pregnancy,her meltdown in a family photograph at age ten,and the recent transgressions of a drunken live-in. In the chapter on mobility,two h’s are silent: eschar,as in necrotic tissue, a black wound,and trochanter, as in trochanter prominence,as in there are many ways to be broken.…

I saw some people starvingThere was murder, there was rapeTheir villages were burningThey were trying to escapeI couldn’t meet their glancesI was staring at my shoesIt was acid, it was tragicIt was almost like the blues I have to die a littleBetween each murderous thoughtAnd when I’m finished thinkingI have to die a lotThere’s torture and there’s killingThere’s all my bad reviewsThe war, the children missingLord, it’s almost like the blues I let my heart get frozenTo keep away the rotMy father said I’m chosenMy mother said I’m notI listened to their storyOf the Gypsies and the JewsIt was good, it wasn’t boringIt was almost like the blues There is no G-d in heavenAnd there is no Hell belowSo says the great professorOf all there is to knowBut I’ve had…