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“In Pieces”

Nina Simone’s Critical Geographies and Listening as Incommensurable Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2025

Jenny Henderson
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Abstract

Nina Simone’s songs are maps that critique racial-sexual violence in the US, while opening up space for “redress” by seizing back sonic excess. Simone’s critical geographic performance practice is part of the tradition of enslaved Africans’ songs as fugitive maps. Throughout her performances Simone insists that geographies of domination, and especially sexual violation, be read in relation to one another, encouraging a new method of spectatorship: “listening as incommensurable practice.”

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Type
Student Essay
Information
TDR , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , June 2025 , pp. 25 - 46
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of New York University Tisch School of the Arts

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References

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