Seeing Places to Saving Stories: A Conversation about Nina Simone’s Childhood Home and Community Engagement in Historic Preservation
[W]hen you are talking about Nina Simone’s home, it is a very local, personal resource that is directly visible to the neighborhood. There are a lot of personal feelings because people knew the family. They know Nina Simone, but they also know her as part of the community. Her family is a part of the community. We have to figure out how to cater our approach to that. Also, being aware of the voice that is leading that engagement. — Tiffany Tolbert, The National Trust for Historic Preservation
I worked at Indow as one of the Community Engagement interns, focusing on historic preservation outreach and curating submissions for the Window Zine 2020 –– shout out to Emerging Leaders PDX for connecting me. Part of my position was learning about historic preservation rather than coming into the role of an expert. Historic preservation is an important aspect of the zine because it expands the value of all stories and saving places. Moreover, most of the customers who buy from Indow (a high-quality small window insert business) own old and historic homes, but they do not have exposure to why historic preservation matters. The zine’s overarching goal is to uplift the importance of historic preservation and show customers of Indow the value of low-impact restoration on their windows.
At the beginning of my research, at first glance, I learned that historic preservation was about advocating for places, infrastructures, and landmarks. As someone who skipped history during high school and replaced it with journalism, I wasn’t too interested in historic preservation. It wasn’t until I spoke with a place saver and storyteller, Sarah Marsom, that a light sparked in me. In this meeting, Sarah explained to me the dominant (e.g. architectural value > stories and meetings at government building) and nondominant frameworks (e.g. architectural value < stories and meetings in a neighborhood coffee shop) within historic preservation. I also learned about the use of art activism, the empowerment of marginalized stories, and the organizing strategies to stay accountable to the communities.
At the end of the meeting, I was inspired to begin a media campaign called #BlackHistorySite to centralize marginalized narratives as I promoted the zine and called for submissions. It was an experiment to mix marketing and community action. As a result, this campaign was partially a personal project too. Here, I self-taught myself how to search for local places rooted in Black history in Portland. I also illustrated the places as a means to creatively elevate the story of the place. While not all places were valued due to their architectural significance, I wanted to use digital illustration to show that there is always more than what meets the eye.
At the end of the campaign, my appreciation for historic preservation grew along with the need to uplift those who have already been doing the work to highlight nondominant, reflexive and community-driven historic preservation. Hence, I interviewed two staff members of the National Trust of Historic Preservation: Tiffany Tolbert, Senior Field Officer at the Chicago Field Office, and Jason Clement, Senior Director of Marketing Campaigns and Partnerships at The Watergate Office Building. In this interview, they introduce their on-going project to restore and revitalize Nina Simone’s Childhood Home. They dive deep into the meaning of community engagement and the nonstatic manifestations of “community.” In this, they put forth their efforts in working for and with local leaders and members of the community from a large national organizational standpoint. They conclude with key guiding principles for others to address as they collaborate as an outsider.
All in all, Tiffany and Jason have shown me the creative possibilities within historic preservation: from making a van with materials from the actual place, to live concerts inside the home of a famous musician. The best part was learning about how their creative efforts were community-driven. While Tiffany had one-on-one conversations, Jason took the van to community events. They centralized the stories of the community to inform their relationship to and planning of restoring Nina Simone’s home and the Astrodome. Tiffany especially brought up the problem of having multiple stories of one place and navigating them. While Nina Simone and her family mean something different to everyone, her core advice was to take the time and care to follow the lead of the (P)lace’s community and its chosen leaders.
Read the full interview below to learn more about this strategic community campaign.
LP: So, Tiffany, at our last meeting, we discussed the Nina Simone project and it brought up important topics in regard to community engagement in historic preservation. I would love for you to introduce the project’s role within the National Trust’s initiatives along with the processes to create and continue the project.
TT: The Nina Simone’s Childhood Home is one of our National Treasure campaigns which is one of our advocacy programs at the Trust. It is where we take direct action to save historic significant places. So, the Trust was approached by the owners of the home — four African American artists out of New York who purchased the home in 2016 to save it from demolition.
It started to be rehabbed by a former owner who ran into financial issues and the work stopped. The current owners were concerned about the future of the property. Hence, they came together and purchased the property. They contacted the Trust and wanted assistance in preserving the property. They recognized that the home was significant but were not familiar with preservation. We started working with them about how the Trust can help envision a future for Nina Simone’s Childhood Home. We developed a National Treasure campaign which has preservation, marketing, and community engagement components. Overall it was built around that broader goal of preserving Nina Simone’s Childhood Home. But, our specific work is under four areas.
One, the actual rehabilitation of the home, so addressing how to physically preserve it. The protection of the home, so it would not be threatened by demolition or inappropriate changes in perpetuity. Next, a use for the home. What could this property be, something that honors the legacy of Nina Simone but is also sustainable? And, the ownership of the home. The artists said that they do not necessarily have to own it until the end of time. But, they want to make sure that whatever ownership there is — it is something that preserves it, sustains it, and activates the site. So, we developed strategies underneath those four areas to essentially answer those questions. We will ultimately make recommendations to the owners under those four areas about the future of a home.
Since launching as a National Treasure in 2018, we have worked — one — on rehabilitation. We conducted a condition of assessment of the home to get a handle on its issues structurally and architecturally. From there, we contracted with an architectural firm in Asheville and they developed an exterior rehabilitation plan for the home. Due to the excitement and interest nationally and internationally, we launched a crowdfunding campaign, which Jason can talk about to actually implement the recommendations in the exterior rehabilitation plan. So, we will intend to complete the exterior work on the home and then focus on the interior.
Around the protection of the home, we looked at a couple of options on what protection could look like from a preservation standpoint including local designation and the National Register of Historic Places. But we developed a recommendation to the owners to put a preservation easement on the property which will be held by Preservation North Carolina, our statewide partner. They will be able to ensure that the home is protected in perpetuity. So, we are in the process of finalizing that agreement.
And, then we started to look at use and ownership. This is where we felt that the community engagement part needed to come in. The home is located in the eastside neighborhood of Tryon, NC. It is a dense neighborhood in terms of the relationship to buildings. And you need to take into consideration what the neighborhood and community are before introducing a new use of this site. It is a small house, three rooms, about 650 square feet. Probably not meant to be anything other than a residence.
But, when you start looking at other ideas, such as a place for artists, creating art, music, an inspirational place, and just even an interpretive space around Nina Simone, you need to take into account the neighborhood and potential impacts. So, we started community engagement, but then decided we needed to double down on that and really get one-on-one with the community, specifically the African American community. We started this at the beginning of this year. Doing on-the-ground community engagement. It was interrupted by COVID-19. Now, we switched to looking at virtual engagement, which we are doing with a number of our projects at the Trust. So, we can still engage with the public via other virtual tools and over the phone.
With this input, it will solidify some of the options that have been developed for the home and reveal other preferences and options for the use of the home. The idea is that once we are able to narrow it down to maybe one to three potential uses, we will put this into a business planning model and have a consultant develop the business plans around those options including what is actually sustainable. Also, what ownership structures are needed to actually implement this. That is where we are in the process. We hope to be in the business planning phase of the project later this year. I also hope to be able to start the exterior stabilization on the home depending on what is happening with COVID-19.
JC: In regard to the crowdfunding campaign, we launched it last July on the heels of Black Music Month, which is celebrated annually in June. Frequently, in preservation projects, people do not really have the opportunity to donate in a meaningful way to help save a building. Normally, it is subject to dealing with private owners and complicated federal, state, and local funding sources. But, with Nina, given the unique situation we are in with the owners, we had an opportunity to allow people to put their money where their love for Nina was and to donate to our campaign to restore her home. It was a month-long campaign that we ran on Indiegogo. We did a series of creative events to raise awareness for the campaign, including a concert that we released virtually with Vanessa Ferguson from “The Voice.” She did an intimate concert inside the home featuring her favorite Nina songs. We also did a larger concert at the conclusion of the campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina — organized with the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission and the North Carolina Arts Council — with Lisa Simone, Nina’s daughter, who is also a professional musician, to raise awareness. It was really great and the campaign overshot its initial fundraising goal by 120 percent. We raised close to $35,000, which has gone directly to funding a lot of the things that Tiffany mentioned earlier, including community outreach, hiring architects and consultants, and stabilizing the structure.
LP: Attached to the discussion of how community engagement manifests within the Trust. Do you all have advice on how smaller, local, and grassroots organizations can practice community engagement? What resources within the entire historic preservation community in the U.S.? And what are central guiding questions?
JC: I can speak about community engagement from a marketing point of view. I think Tiffany can speak to it from an actual preservation and city-input point of view. At the National Trust, I’ve been working in the field of marketing and community outreach for about 11 years now. Even though we typically have more resources than your smaller local non-profit, we’ve done some creative things to engage people in the act of saving a building that I think can be replicated in many ways. One of the campaigns that is near and dear to my heart — and not that Nina Simone isn’t near and dear to my heart — is our Astrodome campaign in Houston, which is where I grew up. A few years ago, the Astrodome was on the ballot for a county property tax increase to raise the money needed to save the building. Unfortunately, at that point, the Dome had been shuttered for almost a decade without access to the exciting events it was once known for. People had zero connection to it for years.
So, ahead of the campaign, we rented a 30-foot box truck that we designed as the Astrodome inside and out. We even used original seats and turf from the field to decorate the inside of the truck. We drove it around Harris County for almost a month, allowing people to step into the Astrodome in their own neighborhoods. While I know that a lot of nonprofits who are trying to save buildings can’t necessarily pull a campaign like that off in terms of the staffing and creative resources that went to it, I do think it is important to talk to people about saving places where they are. And that can often be done regardless of your budget. For instance, we called it the “Dome Mobile,” and it went to breweries, block parties, churches, coffee shops, farmer’s markets, local concerts, and high school football games. It was all about creating an experience, meeting people where they were in their natural habitats, and talking with them about the importance of saving an iconic place in their community. This is what we have done on a smaller scale in Tryon, North Carolina. We don’t have a “Nina Mobile” there, but Tiffany can talk about the ways we have reached out to the community and asked them what they would like to see happen with Nina’s home.
TT: To Jason’s point, the same way we are approaching it on the preservation side, there is an importance to meeting people where they are. A lot of that is awareness of the community, the demographics, the capabilities, and the access of the community. And tailoring your outreach and engagement strategy to that community versus, as Jason talked about with the Astrodome with a Houston mindset, this wouldn’t necessarily work in Tryon. They would not go for a “Nina Mobile” riding around Tryon. But, being able to sit down and have one-on-one conversations with the neighborhood and also talking directly about what they want, not what we have developed from a professional standpoint. But, really talking about what they want and essentially just listening. This is what we have done. Then taking what they have given us and looking at it from a preservation standpoint: What is practical? What is actually possible? But, not coming in with any preconceived notion.
A lot of times I think that the simplest way is the best way. There are bigger and larger issues like the Astrodome or federal/state legislation where you might need a more robust strategy. But, when you are talking about Nina Simone’s home, it is a very local, personal resource that is directly visible to the neighborhood. There are a lot of personal feelings because people knew the family. They know Nina Simone, but they also know her as part of the community. Her family is a part of the community. We have to figure out how to cater our approach to that. Also, being aware of the voice that is leading that engagement.
With Nina Simone, there is interest from those from the music appreciation which goes internationally, those who look at her as an activist icon, a Civil Rights leader, there are some who know her as Eunice, and those who are indifferent. We have to balance who is actually leading the charge for the preservation of her home.
If it is someone from the outside the community and they are the only voice that they see, it makes it harder to really do anything with that property. Because they are not the ones who the community feels should be leading the charge on this. In a way, we can help elevate the voices that have not taken center and be that facilitator. It is just knowing the community and not going in with preconceived notions. And it is always good to be invited in and looking for a partner that is already in the community. If you are a national organization like us, we are always an outsider unless it is a property we own. But, if you are going to a state, going in with a recognized partner there or local organizations and letting them lead is critical and key.
Also, utilizing different tools is important which is something we are learning with COVID. Having to adjust how we capture information, how we talk to people, how we communicate with people who can’t talk face-to-face, which is what we intended to be. So, really looking at technology and what we can do, but realizing that in some areas technology is not as easily accessible so that changes what we are able to do. So, giving yourself some planning time before diving into those issues is critical.
