Nina Simone used music to challenge, provoke, incite, and inform the masses during the period we know as the civil rights era. In the songs “Four Women,” “Young Gifted and Black,” and Mississippi God Damn,” Nina Simone musically maps a personal “intersectionality” in relation to being a Black American artist. Kimberly Crenshaw defines intersectionality as the inability of Black women to separate race, class and gender. Nina Simone's music directly addresses this paradigm. Although she is celebrated as a prolific artist, her political and social activism is under-reported despite her presence at the forefront of the movement “Nina Simone reframed black activism in the 1960s.” Feldstein goes on to say that “Simone was known for supporting the black freedom struggle in the United States much earlier, and more explicitly around the world, than many other African American performing artists." Her unique talent, ability to travel and make money are similar to the Blues women's movement that preceded her. It can be said that Nina Simone goes a step further by directly attacking the inequalities related to race and gender in his music. However, what sets her apart is her unique musicality and this is what ultimately grants her massive exposure and experiences compared to those of her contemporaries of the past. Like blues women, Simone expands ideas regarding self-expression, identity, and beauty as they relate to black women. It does so by embracing what is definitively African American and connecting it to a historical context. In this way it is the embodiment of a political statement. His journey began like so many entertainers...... middle of paper ......utobiography By Nina Simone, Da Capo Press; 2003. Additional sources consulted: Brooks, Daphne A. . "Nina Simone's Triple Game." Callaloo. 35.4 (2011): 176-194. Network. February 11, 2013. Lewis, Andrea. “Nina Simone remains a powerful inspiration for black women.” Progressive. (2003): n. page. Network. 11 February 2013. .Simone, Nina, perf. Mississippi, dammit. 1964. Song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVQjGGJVSXcSimone, Nina, perf. Being young, gifted and black. 1970. Song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3OIfuVpocUSimone, Nina, perf. Four Women, 1966. Song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf9Bj1CXPH8Tsuruta, Dorothy Randall. “'I'm not going to be nonviolent, honey.'” Black Scholar 29.2/3 (1999): 54. MasterFILE Premier. Network. February 11. 2013.