Fantasies of Nina Simone

"With thoughtful analysis and experimental form, Jordan Alexander Stein's Fantasies of Nina Simone is a daring exploration of how and why Nina Simone had to invent herself and what has motivated us---her fans, fellow artists, and audience---to embrace her iconicity over time and invoke her as the ultimate signifier of our own political demands and desires today." - Salamishah Tillet, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author of (In Search of "The Color Purple": The Story of an American Masterpiece) "Jordan Alexander Stein uses meticulous research and a vast archive of Nina Simone's recordings and performances to provide a novel approach to engaging with the life and work of an iconic figure. Offering unique insights, Stein advances conversations about how critics take Simone up as a figure and as an artist and how she fashioned herself through her music, writing, performance, and self-presentation. This groundbreaking book makes an important contribution to cultural studies, sound studies, and conversations about life writing." - Soyica Diggs Colbert, author of (Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry) "For me the most interesting passages by far are those where the author engages with specific Simone recordings and makes them more interesting. Although I admire Simone and enjoy her music and its oblique relationship with jazz, I know only a handful of her recordings and was pleased to read astute comments on a great many unfamiliar ones." - Graham Colombé (Jazz Journal)