Singer, songwriter, pianist and civil rights activist Nina Simone (1933-2003), who lived in Mount Vernon in the 1960s, was honored on Wednesday with a street in the city. A tour of her former home grounds at 406 Nuber Ave. was followed by the ceremonial street naming at the corner of Nuber Avenue and East Fifth Street.
Simone”™s successful cabaret career ”“ which began in the 1950s as a way to fund private music lessons after the Curtis Institute of Music refused her admission despite a well-received audition ”“ embraced classical, jazz, folk, pop, blues and R & B as well as both sides of the Atlantic. Though she supported the Black nationalism of Mount Vernon neighbor Malcolm X and rejected the nonviolent approach to civil rights of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she found an outlet for protest in her music. Suffering from breast cancer, she died at her home in France on April 21, 2003 ”“ days after receiving an honorary degree from Curtis.
