To Miss Simone, the Awakener

Dear Miss Simone,

I can remember the first time I heard your voice. It was during the fall of my freshman at Bellhaven when one of my sisters placed an old vinyl on her record player. I had of course heard of Nina Simone, but I had never heard Nina Simone. The duality of your sound, both the beauty and the pain transcended time and place. It was angelic. It was eerie. I remember tears running down my cheeks. Your voice reverberated through my body and spoke to my soul. I was transported out of that room and back to the decades of  my ancestors. The song was "Blood On the Leaves," and the pain I felt during those few moments was both deeply unsettling yet familiar. Your voice worked inside me in ways that will never be undone. I remember going to the record store the next day and buying every CD of yours that I could get my hands own. Then immediately listening to all of the songs on repeat, always for some reason always coming back to "Young, Gifted, and Black." Looking back, it was your music that gave voice to my true self and affirmed the most central part of my identity. The pain I felt on that first day I now know was the pain of my ancestors. I cannot thank you enough Miss Simone, for your music watered my roots and grounded me in reality.

Yours truly,
Rachel Dolezal

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