All The Rage: The Myth, Meaning, and Many Afterlives of Nina Simone
SALAMISHAH TILLET, PH.D.
Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 4:30pm
Harold Prince Theatre
Penn Live Arts / Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut Street
The Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow Lecture brings Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Salamishah Tillet to the University of Pennsylvania for a special lecture in anticipation of her new book, Nina Simone and the World She Made. This book – a blend of criticism, memoir, and biography – examines how Simone has come to embody the struggles of contemporary America more than any other artist of the civil rights era.
Salamishah Tillet, C’96, taught at Penn for more than a decade and is currently the Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies and Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Newark.
Following her reading will be a lively conversation with Penn Provost John L. Jackson, Jr., about Simone’s life and enduring legacy, as well as Tillet’s journey as a critic, scholar, and curator, inviting the audience to consider the role of artists, past and present, who use their voices to reflect the times in which they live.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Annenberg School for Communication, and the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. It will be held in the Harold Prince Theatre of the Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut Street.
Please register here.
Past Provost’s Lectures
