Four Artists Save Nina Simone's Childhood Home from Demolition

Four African American artists—Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Ellen Gallagher, and Julie Mehretu—have jointly purchased Nina Simone's childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina, for $95,000. The three-room house at 30 East Livingston Street, where the jazz and civil rights icon was born and lived, was at risk of being lost to neglect or demolition. The artists acted to preserve the site as a potential archive, museum, or space for reflection and activism, continuing Simone's legacy of political engagement. The property, currently empty and overgrown, may become a processual artwork or a community-oriented project. The acquisition highlights the broader issue of forgotten homes of African American activists, such as those of W.E.B. Du Bois in Massachusetts and Malcolm X in Nebraska, which have been dismantled.