Writing with Nina

A communal chapbook
inspired by the music of Nina Simone

Published by Creo Books

Los Angeles, California
2011
Writing with Nina

Creo Books
Los Angeles, California
2011

Compiled and designed by Amy Shimshon-Santo

Creative Commons Copyright 3.0
 Dedication

This chapbook is dedicated to

the vision and vitality
of Nina Simone.

Gratitude

Special thanks to the energy and perseverance of

Amitis Motavelli, Shag, and all of the staff at the
William Grant Still Art Center, for their
support, dedication, and enthusiasm.
 Writing with Nina

THE WRITING SPA

Spring 2011

Fanisha Muepo

Camey Wiseman

Scherrie Tate

Sonjia Robles

Leslie Rolison

Cynthia Peterson

with
Amy Shimshon-Santo

5
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface Amy Shimshon-Santo

Introduction Fanisha Muepo

Call and Response Writing

I. Freedom

Nina Say “How it Feels to be Free”

We Say Reflections on Freedom

II. Self

Nina Say “Images” & “For Myself”

We Say Reflections on Self

III. Motherhood

Nina Say
“Brown Baby”

We Say Reflections on Motherhood
 PREFACE
This chapbook is an offering to the memory of Nina Simone. The
work emerged in a creative writing class tied to an exhibition of
Nina Simone’s life and memorabilia at the William Grant Still
Art Center in South Los Angeles. The center allowed me try out
a dream that had been simmering inside me for years - a writing
group for mothers.
It is easy for people who are caring for others to lose track
of themselves. This is true for the service professions, but it is also
true of parents. There were times when I was raising my own chil-
dren that I forgot the sound of my own voice. I barely recognized
myself in the mirror. Anything I wanted to accomplish had to fit
within the needs and lives of my children. They came first. They
still do. What I didn’t know at the time was that sometimes the best
way for me to take care of my flock was to take a moment for myself
to rejuvenate. No one ever told me that, and I didn’t know to ask.
Parents in high-risk communities like Los Angeles have to
do far more than love and educate our kids. We need to be attentive
guides, educational advocates, and fearless warriors providing safe
spaces for them to grow and reach.
Strangely, society tends to denigrate the role of mothers.
The term “single mother” is commonly used as a catch-all phrase
that blames the present parent for larger social ills. What I have
experienced in my own life, and what I have seen in the world, is
quite the opposite. Attentive parents, whether single or married,
are doing important work! They are raising the next generation
of human beings in complex and challenging times. They deserve
some dignity and respect. Maybe even a big “thank you!”
I hoped that a writers’ group for parents would provide the
healing that comes from creative expression and community build-
ing. Amitis Motavelli, the Center’s Director, invited me to teach a
Big Read class at WGSAC. Later, she suggested that I talk to parents
enrolling their kids in the center’s wonderful music program. Sure
enough, a group of mothers pulled me to the side and we quickly
 Writing with Nina

decided on a time and day to write.

The wisdom in the group was phenomenal. We were con-
tinuously moved and inspired by the knowledge, beauty, vision,
and resiliency that each one of us possessed. We read, wrote, and
talked about profound and valuable issues related to parenthood
and personal growth.
After the first session, Camey asked me to pinch her. She
couldn’t believe that we had created such a healing circle. Leslie
quickly suggested the group’s name, Spa. “This feels so good, like
we are in a spa.” This is how the Writer’s Spa was born.
I am grateful for the women in the group, their beautiful
children, and the William Grant Still Art Center. It has been a
healing experience that would have made Nina Simone smile.

- Amy Shimshon-Santo

9
 Writing with Nina

INTRODUCTION

Mothers, that’s who we are, joined together ten weeks ago

by our creative writing intellects. All of us expressed a desire to join
this creative writing workshop a.k.a. “Writing Spa” at the William
Grant Still Arts Center. Every week we sipped on green tea brought
to us by our amazing instructor Amy Shimshon-Santo.

Wives, mothers, divorcees, single parents, educated women who

needed an outlet to express ourselves apart from our daily routines
and responsibilities. Inspired by the lyrics of Nina Simone’s phe-
nomenal music, she enabled us to view every aspect of our lives
uncut, uncensored, creatively from our individual life experiences.

We’ve shared, laughed, and even cried together to heal what was
inside of us so that we can pay it forward. We challenge and encour-
age you mothers and fathers alike in the community, to find and
tap into that creative imaginative spirit that you possess and open
yourselves up to an outlet with like-minded people and explore the
creative possibilities within you.

So many possibilities for the “Writing Spa” that the sky is not even
the limit. International women writing together joined by a com-
mon thread, motherhood.

It’s Tea Time!

- Fanisha Muepo

11
 Writing with Nina

Nina sang
about freedom
>

12
 Writing with Nina

How It Feels to Be Free

(The lyrics below are a transcript from a live performance in Montreal, Canada. 1976.)

I wish I knew how it would feel to be free

I wish I could break all the chains still binding me
I wish I could say all the things that I can say when I relaxed
I’d be starting anew

I wish I could be like a bird in the sky

How sweet it would be to find that I could fly
I’d soar to the sun and look down at the sea
Then I’d sing, ‘cause I know
How it feels to be free

I wish I could share all the love that’s in my heart

I wish I could break all the things that bind us apart

I wish you could know what it means to be me

Then you’d see! You’d agree!
Everybody should be free!
Because if we ain’t, we’re murderous.

I wish I could be like a bird in the sky

How sweet it would be and I’d fly
Soar to the sun look down at the sea
Oh yeah…Spirits moving now

I know
I got news for you
Jonathan Livingston Seagull ain’t got nothing on me

Free!
Free!
Free!
Free! I’m free!

13
 Writing with Nina

I know it
I show it
Believe in me
It’s alright
And I
Sing!
Sing!
Sing!

Because I know,
I already know.
I found out
how it feels
not to be chained
To anything
To any race
To any faith
To anybody
To any creed
To any hopes
To anything!

I know how it feels to be free!

14
 Writing with Nina

We wrote
about freedom
>

16
 Writing with Nina

Paid For

Our African American ancestors paid the price

Forced from their homeland to a new land
Dispersed
Dispersed
Dispersed
It was all for a reason
Because of this dispersion to North America
South America, the Islands and beyond
We have made a global impact
by contributing so much
to the world in inventions, arts, music, and religion.

Everything they went through was not in vain.

Today we have a responsibility to
make an impact on others as well

What you go through is not for you!

You are able to share with someone else
Who is going through a similar situation.

Encourage them and give them the hope that they can make it
They’re just going “through”and don’t have to be stuck there.

Question: What’s in you that can help somebody else?

- Fanisha Muepo

17
 Writing with Nina

Grandmother

My grandmother is working in the fields

and taking care of other people’s families
while she had her own at home

She studied on her time off

showing her children how important education was
From that, she has taught her children’s children
the importance of education

Knowing what she overcame

makes me know that
I can!

- Scherrie Tate

18
 Writing with Nina

Relaxed

I am most relaxed when I’m standing on the beach

and I’m looking at God’s creation.
I can hear the waves rushing in and receding back.
I wait anxiously each time.
It’s like a cleansing feeling to me.

I love the smell and the ocean breeze.

If I could share this moment with anyone,
it would be with my children.

The ocean is mysterious to me

In my own way,
I am mysterious to myself

The ocean allows me to imagine

I can be anywhere I wanna be.
like on an island, or another country
But there are times when I feel sad to know
that the ocean claimed so many lives.

- Leslie Rolison

19
 Writing with Nina

If

If she could dance naked…

Naked means freedom

freedom from clothes
freedom from restraints that keep us enslaved
freedom from garments that control us
and that should not define us

Dance!
To dance naked
To be free
To have fun
To express who we are

An African dance
Some ballet
Some stompin’
Some tappin’

Dancing is living
A time to express YOU
and all your thoughts

The focus is not the body

but the mind of a woman who is free
Free to do anything she wants.
To move in ways
that satisfy her inner soul

- Camey Wiseman

20
 Writing with Nina

Listen to our soul

craving for flight
into a time of freedom
to think
taste
feel
meditate and dream

Even when I sleep

I normally never feel like I’m dreaming
But I am dreaming

Loving
me.

Controlling
me.

- Camey Wiseman

21
 Writing with Nina

Lost and Found

Lost my faith
Please help me find

Last seen in desperation

Wearing hope and fear

Needy

Unable to grab it
in the crowded world of truth
Science and lies
False beliefs
Unanswered questions
Disregarded inquiries

Nothing

Lost faith
No faith

Return if found.

- S.R.

22
 Writing with Nina

Bird Song

My grandmother had 18 kids.

She always told me
that she washed clothes on the board.
She had a rough time to have all the kids.
She’d go to the river to have peace of mind.
My Grand used to feel so much freedom then.
She was a nurse in Jackson, Mississippi.

- Cynthia Peterson

The Beach

When I’m on the beach

I feel
I see
an angel
around me
looking around

I see people, and

a big angel around people.

I wish I could save the world

and the water,
so much wave water,
but they have to save their self.

- Cynthia Peterson

23
 Writing with Nina

Nina sang
about self
>

Images

She does not know

24
 Writing with Nina

her beauty,
She thinks her brown body
has no glory.
If she could dance
naked,
under palm trees
and see her image in the river
she would know.
But there are no palm trees
on the street,
and dishwater gives back no images.

For Myself

For myself
I must learn for myself
Not from what someone else
Has said or done

And so I live my life from day to day

And try to smile
While feeling my way
Just like a child

For myself
I must learn for myself
The future that someone else
May say will come

May never be
Oh, whatever destiny holds for me
Let me see for myself

25
 Writing with Nina

We wrote
about self
>

26
 Writing with Nina

Pretty vs. Smart

I have pretty to the “T”

Can’t you see?
That’s all I heard growing up.
“Scherrie’s going to be pretty.”
I barely remember anyone asking
what I was going to be.
Not fully thought out,
I would have just claimed
what most children did,
to be a teacher.

I heard Pretty Pretty Pretty

as if that would get me somewhere.
Well, it’s gotten me somewhere alright!
So far in a hole
that only Smart
can get me out.

My dream at age 33
is to be Smart First
then Pretty.

It was their responsibility

but now it’s mine.

- Scherrie Tate

27
 Writing with Nina

Fathers

I was raised in a home with three women

My grandmother
My mother
and Aunt Kathy

All I saw was women who had children

But no fathers

No one spoke of marriage

or what was to come in the future
for us children

Now I have children of my own

and fathers,
but not in my home

I’m trying to overcome this image

But accept it at the same time.

- Scherrie Tate

28
 Writing with Nina

My Reflection

What images are portrayed by Fanisha Michelle Muepo?

Woman of God
Wife
Mother
Educator
Ministry leader
Loyal friend
Entrepreneur

Does all of this matter? Yes, to an extent,

but not so much if Fanisha Michelle Muepo
isn’t true to herself, if she doesn’t realize her potential,
to be what God has destined her to be

Do I see the image I want to see

when I see my reflection in the river?
The river connects me to people and places.
- Fanisha Muepo

29
 Writing with Nina

For the Writing Spa

Beauty surrounds me
Paralyzed, not by what I see, but what I feel
Overwhelmed with unseen beauty
By words so real that I think they are my own

Paralyzed by beauty that cannot be seen

Immeasurable to any tangible thing

Words spoken
Soft and fierce
Words shared
Bold and true
Words written
and heard in silence
Beauty surrounds me
with all of you

- S. R.

30
 Writing with Nina

My Fears

Cancer is one of my biggest fears.

Why?
Because my mother, grandmother and favorite uncle
passed away from it.

My second biggest fear is becoming homeless.

I’ve never been homeless
but I’ve come across many
friends and family members
who have been.

Just hearing the word homeless

gives me anxiety.

The word itself takes me there.

- Scherrie Tate

31
 Writing with Nina

Age

At the age of 40 I want to be carefree.

I want to be satisfied with my life thus far.
In my teenage years I was like a caterpillar
moving slowly no real direction in life.
I was just living
Each day was whatever to me.
Sometimes I felt loved, other times I felt alone.
Who really pays attention to a caterpillar?

Now, I’m more mature

I feel like I’m in a cocoon just waiting for my turn.
I know what I want, and who I want to be,
but it’s a process to get there
so I can’t rush life.

One day I will break free and

be that woman people look at and say,
Yea, she got it going on. This is her time.
Watch! You’ll see
When I turn 40
I’ll be like a butterfly. Carefree.
- Leslie Rolison

32
 Writing with Nina

Lifestyle

I am 39 years beautiful. I think I play more at this age than I have

my entire life. I’m just saying. I ride my bike, I skate. I run. I chase
my three year old son, and he chases me. We play soccer.

I am my own child. My son and I play video games. We visit the

arcade. We play air hockey, and go to the movies. We play karate
and battle each other. We sing, we dance, and we rap!

All of these things we do weekly. We read and learn together. We

fly kites. We take swim lessons twice a week together. We travel
on a vacation once a month. When I was a child we took a huge
family vacation once every summer.

I joke and say that we are living the vacation lifestyle, but it’s
actually the truth! It is part of the goal for my life, which is to be
a business owner and also enjoy this life to its fullest capacity.
I know my heart is healthy because it has so much fun playing
every day!

- Camey Wiseman

33
 Writing with Nina

Nina wrote
about motherhood
>

34
 Writing with Nina

Brown Baby
(Lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr.)

Brown Baby Brown Baby

As you grow up
I want you to drink from the plenty cup
I want you to stand up tall and proud
And I want you to speak up clear and loud
Brown Baby
Brown Baby
Brown Baby

As years go by
I want you to go with your head up high
I want you to live by the justice code
And I want you to walk down freedom’s road
You, little Brown Baby

Lie away sleeping

lie away safe in my arms
Your daddy and your mama protect you
and keep you safe from harm
Brown Baby

It makes me glad
You gonna have things that I never had
When out of men’s heart all hate is hurled
Sweetie, you gonna live in a better world.
Brown Baby
Brown Baby
Brown Baby

35
 Writing with Nina

We wrote
about motherhood

>

36
 Writing with Nina

The Plenty Cup

“As you grow up I want you to drink from the plenty cup.”

On July 26, 2007, James Michael Bishop Jr. was born.

My life is not only about me anymore. A child is a
true blessing from God. He was given to me to love,
protect, teach, and to coach into an awesome brown
man.

My hope for my brown baby is to create a legacy that

can be passed to him to help assist him into who he
aspires to be - greatness.

I go out of my way to teach him diversity and how to

conduct himself and be around all shades of the hu-
man rainbow. Appreciate every type
of person.

Today’s society and economic system is showing us

daily that nothing is for certain when it comes to our
future.

I beg to differ…

Brown baby, Mommy is here to help mold and sup-

port you. Enjoy all the things that life has
to offer.

- Camey Wiseman

37
Common Sense

When I was younger, my mom said I possessed the academic

intelligence - always getting certificates and medals. But all of that
would be in vain because, she said, I didn’t have any common
sense.

My mom wanted to make sure I didn’t grow up naïve but used

wisdom to guide me through life. I appreciate that gift from her.

Now, fast forward. We’re raising four black young men who I want
to “live by the justice code.” Yes, they are intelligent boys
academically, love sports, and learning music. But they need to be
street smart as well. As young Black men, the world has targeted
them just because.

I want to instill in them wisdom and responsibility. We’ve sheltered

them from many things and didn’t want them exposed. But, reality
is, those negative things and people are there anyways. We have to
teach them to recognize it.

As a parent, I want to know that my sons can live by the justice

code and possess integrity. Integrity is basically doing good even if
nobody else is looking. I dedicate these lyrics to my sons Dontrel,
Xavier, Savion, and Joel. They are my brown babies.

- Fanisha Muepo
Justice Code

My brown baby boy

How I love you
and fear for you
at the same time

I want you to live by the justice code

But I don’t know what it is

What is right for some, maybe be wrong for you

What is honestly yours, can be stolen again

Integrity is a road that is often

crooked before it is straight
Your journey through the justice code
will be a challenge.

Perseverance
Self Control
Indomitable Spirit
Walk Strong
Stay focused

I promise to support you with all of me

Remember your name
Sanjay: invincible, unconquerable.
Create your own justice code.

- S.R.
Sonora

Dear Daughter, my first born

My introduction to motherhood
To love as I have never known
To life as I will always remember

Dear Daughter, my first born

My exposure to fear unknown
Unexplainable, and unable to escape
You help me!

Dear Daughter, my first born

My induction to pain penetrating all remedies
You cure me!

Dear Daughter, my first born

Smiles that overtake my heart
Uncontrollable laughter, until I begin to cry
Hugs that swallow me whole
Kisses covering my soul
You bring me Joy!

Dear Daughter, my first born

My launch to life as a MOTHER
Life as I dream it
Life as I live it
Life as I know it
Life as it is.

Dear Daughter, my first born

I love you
I adore you
I thank you

- S.R.
Brown Skin

Be proud of your dark skin, light skin

whatever shade of brown skin

Don’t let no one tell you, you cant

because of your beautiful brown skin

You deserve everything the world has to offer

with no limit at all - wealth, education, fame, and happiness
Never should you feel
shameful, useless, or undeserving

Your brown skin represents beauty,

struggle, grace, pride, and determination.
Let those things illuminate through
your dark skin, light skin
Whatever shade of brown skin

I love my skin
It’s one of a kind
It tells a story of a brown skinned woman
Who lives a beautiful life
regardless of what you see on the outside
Look past my tattoos, stretch marks, and scars.

My brown skin tells you

that I am a queen
whose life journey
brought me this far.

- Leslie Rolison
 Message for the Children
Leslie: Your brown skin represents beauty, struggle,
grace, pride, determination. So let those things
illuminate through your dark skin, light skin,
whatever shade of brown skin.

Scherrie: We have to be gentle with our brown babies.

They are little flowers to us. It’s what we put into
them that will grow.

Camey: A child is a true gift from God. They were given

to us to love, protect, to teach, to coach them into
an awesome brown man or woman.

Fanisha: As your community of parents, we want to know

that you live by the justice code and possess
integrity. Integrity is basically doing good even if
nobody else is looking. We dedicate this to all of
the children in our communities. They are out
brown babies.

Sonjia: Perseverance. Self Control. Indomitable spirit.

Walk strong. Stay focused. Remember we love
you. Remember your name: Invincible!