Harlepolis said:

Don't forget Nina Simone.

In 1995, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughter disturbed her concentration. She also fired a gun at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties.

Krytonite said:

Nina was manic depressive, her tantrums were legendary.

She called Atlantic Records and threatened to bomb them if they won't stop "parading her copycat"(Roberta Flack)

Harlepolis said:

Ms. Simone was diagnosed with a mental condition. I don't know what the hell Holiday, Washington, or Smith could claim.... if anything.

TD3 said:

Nina was mentally ill, Billie, Dinah and Bessie were just like that. Same with Etta James.

But I thought for sure Billie had mental issues.

scriptgirl said:

It might've been bipolar, who knows?

ALL of those ladies mentioned suffered depression.

It just happen that back then they used to call it "the blues".

Harlepolis said:

None of these ladies had very easy lives (as we now defined as having a childhood) but that wasn't uncommon for those times or the experience of Blacks. You kinda picked yourself up and soldiered on and sung about.

Harlepolis said:

True. I often forget that lol

TD3 said:

Jenifer Lewis(who's also a bi-polar) said something intersting in the Wendy Williams Show.

She said that we're only 3 generations away from slavery, and to this day black people are born into depression, but instead of sitting down and dealing with our demons, we could only afford to keep a straight face, "not show our business on the street"(that HIT me btw) and when Sunday morning comes, we let everything out, Church was our mental hospital.

That really made me pause. Because everything was so dead on, I'm not Christian and my family were immigrants from Africa, not that I'm saying we're different, but it made me fill up one the gaps that confused me in the past.

Black Americans dealt with a lot of shit so I'm not surprised that a lot of us suffer from some kind of mental handicap due to the regressions of slavery and what not.

TD3 said:

Now, you write a book about it, get a Oprah's book club stamp and get your book turned into a film that gets produced by Oprah and Tyler Perry, despite them having nothing to do with the film. Throw in b-grade (at best) actors and whala:


[Edited 3/7/10 14:07pm]

Would you say Ma Rainey was another scandalous one?

Ya know what, scriptgirl?



Pick up this book, you won't be sorry.

Isn't that book out of print?

Nope, thats an updated print.

sosgemini said:

Lol! Ikr!!

Best adapted screenplay?