Asides

New Writer Welcome: Nia Simone

Composed by

Please join the COA family in welcoming our newest writer, Nia Simone! Nia’s bio will be available shortly on our About page. Subscribe to COA so you don’t miss her upcoming debut piece ‘Here Comes the Sun.’

Q: Your name seems either to be an homage, or a real giant coincidence. Nina Simone was a talented, outspoken, incomparable figure in her time. And a legend in ours. What sort of influence has she had on you?

I like to call her my kinda-sorta-maybe namesake. If Kwanzaa didn’t have a principle named “Nia”, I probably would have been named after her. She’s dope; she’s the ultimate innovator. One thing that I’ve learned from her is how to have the courage to be yourself in a world that would rather you fit into a mold of what an “acceptable” woman should be. Even though she dealt with a lot of self-hate and racial discrimination, she eventually grew to who she was destined to be and was dedicated to living her truth. I’m dedicated to that as well; living my truth. I hope that one day I’ll influence a girl that had the same insecurities I had to have that epiphany; that it’s okay to accept themselves. I just hope that one day they’ll do her biopic right because she deserves to have her story told the right way.
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War

Composed by

Monique Hassan is a Signal Corp veteran of the United States Army out of North Carolina. She is also a writer who specializes in Islamic/spiritual psychology and a patient advocate in behavioral health. Cult of Americana invited Monique to give her unique perspective on service, in honor of Veteran’s Day.

Some soldiers want to go to war, it is what they live for and they train hard. I remember an overly eager soldier telling me “don’t kill one before I do” as if he wanted to take a life. I could never understand that mentality. Others are terrified, but they must do their duty.

Soldiers are deployed for a year, an entire year away from their children and their families. The soldiers often live in stressful and chaotic situations, while the family wakes up everyday hoping they don’t get a bad phone call or knock on the door. They just never know if their soldier will make it back home or not. They have to show strength and support when they get the chance to do a phone call, but inside their hearts are breaking and they are lonely. Divorce rates are high in the military and they all know it. Not every family can handle the constant loneliness from field time, deployments, and late hours.

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