Humanizing the High Priestess of Soul

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Nina Simone, known as the “High Priestess of Soul,” came to represent the music of the civil rights era.

Her life is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, “What Happened, Miss Simone?” The film is up for an Academy Award for best documentary this Sunday.

Jayson Jackson, a longtime music manager who’s worked with Simone’s modern-day contemporaries, like Lauryn Hill, is a producer on the documentary. He says that his quest started with an attempt to humanize an artist who to this day remains larger than life.