New digital archive examines Nina Simone’s relationship with Langston Hughes

From Mountain Xpress

by Thomas Calder

POET AND SINGER: In 1949, poet Langston Hughes, right, spoke at Allen High School in Asheville. One of the students in attendance was Eunice Waymon, later known professionally as Nina Simone. In time, the poet and the singer developed a unique friendship, which author and N.C. State University professor W. Jason Miller is currently documenting in an online archive, Backlash Blues: Nina Simone and Langston Hughes. Photo of Simone courtesy of Dr. Crys Armbrust, Nina Simone Project Archive; photo of Hughes courtesy of the Library of Congress

When a Raleigh-based audience gasped inside Quail Ridge Books, author W. Jason Miller realized he’d unintentionally discovered his next research topic, ultimately leading him to Western North Carolina.

At the time, Miller, a professor of literature at N.C. State University, was celebrating the February 2020 release of his latest work, Langston Hughes, a biography written for the University of Chicago Press’ Critical Lives series.

Speaking to the audience, “I kind of mentioned off the cuff that Langston Hughes had written a review of this very famous North Carolina musician whose name they might know: Nina Simone.”

Cue the collective gasp. Read more ...