How Nina Simone helped Zena Edwards tell the tragic story of Sarah Reed

11 November 2016

Through her powerful poem Four (and then some) Women, Zena Edwards builds on a song from the legendary Nina Simone to put the tragic death of a young black woman with mental health issues front and centre. Edwards performs the poem as part of MOBO's 'Rise With Us' season.

Poet Zena Edwards at home in London. Photographed while performing her poem Four (and then some) Women for MOBO 'Rise With Us'.

London-based poet Zena Edwards’s latest work makes a powerful connection between two very different women who shared some common experiences.

Both women were black. Both encountered prejudice. Both had issues with mental health. How they died, however, differs greatly.

One, Nina Simone, died in France aged 70 and was rightly lauded as a major figure in 20th Century music. The other, a young British woman called Sarah Reed, died in prison aged 32 while on remand charged with assault.

In her poem Four (and then some) Women, Edwards draws on Simone’s Four Women - the musician's impassioned, unforgettable song about the brutal experiences of African American women - to draw attention to death of Sarah Reed in Holloway Prison in January 2016.

In the videos below, filmed as part of the MOBO‘s ‘Rise With Us’ season, Edwards performs her poem and explains what inspired her to write about Sarah Reed and why it is important to keep saying her name.