The Nina Simone Birthplace - Tryon, North Carolina

RESPECT FOR COMMUNITY
Even the youngest of workers can find satisfaction in a job well done. During a recent neighborhood clean-up, young Llyod here helps rake debris pulled from under bushes along the road.
Bottles, cans, and plastic will all catch water in the spring and play host to hoards of mosquitoes who hatch in the stagnate water. Eliminating the standing water prevents the mosquitoes from breeding making the neighborhood safer from diseases carried by the little pests.
The winter is an excellent time to seek out the potential water reservoirs and remove them for recycling.
The Nina Simone Birthplace and BnESCO encourage every community to "clean-up" on a regular bases and prevent mosquitoes from breeding.
WHY DON'T YOU ORGANIZE A NEIGHBORHOOD CLEAN-UP WHERE YOU LIVE? -- You will be glad you did.
House + Character = Community

Simple things make the Nina Simone Birthplace the perfect living memorial to the legacy of the Waymon Family. Here Nick Miller spends time painting a pole in the Waymon Garden.
House + Character = Community

Join us in making a personal commitment to do whatever you can to help INVERT POVERTY where you live by the year 2019.
TURN IT ON IT'S HEAD...Why don't you?
House + Character = Community

This is Where the Rubber Hits the Road.

One of the finest living memorials to Nina Simone in her hometown of Tryon, North Carolina is the commitment by a younger generation to respect the neighborhood where she was born in 1933. In doing so, these youth honor the legacy of the Waymon Family and so many others who worked tirelessly to build the neighborhood that a young Eunice Waymon called "Home."

Pictured here is the result of a recent High Road Neighborhood clean-up around the Birthplace sponsored by BnESCO Youths. For more information www.bnesco.org

House + Character = Community

Here is the result of a recent litter pick-up in the High Road neighborhood surrounding the Birthplace.

Dolls returning from Accra, Ghana as part of the Tryon Doll Exchange are exhibited in 2009 at the Polk County Public Library, Columbus, NC.

Over 300 dolls made by Tryon Doll Makers seen here on exhibit at the Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, NC. The Tryon Doll Makers are just one of several project that were created as a result of the Nina Simone Birthplace restoration. In 2009, Dolls made in Tryon were sent to Accra, Ghana to be worked on by Doll Makers there. The combined effort became the Tryon Doll Exchange that matched Doll Makers across two continents.

The Mount King Community Garden is a project funded in part by BnESCO and is an extension of the Birthplace Restoration Project. The Mount King Community Garden (named for Mr. Mount King) is located one block from the Birthplace on Markham Road at "King's Corner." The Waymons lived at King's Corner briefly after moving from 30 East Livingston Street.

This is the route Nina Simone (Eunice Waymon) took home from her music teacher's house each week. Recorded Jan. 2006 during the first months of the Birthplace restoration.

Not many people today care to "walk the walk" that young Eunice Waymon walked.

Many prefer to image what it must have been like verses putting one foot in front of the other and actually walking her walk.

This is her route shot in one take -- confirmed by two of her childhood classmates, Fred Counts and her sweetheart, the late Edney Whiteside.

House + Character = Community

A visit from Ireland Spring 2008. Showing the Nina Simone Birthplace under Restoration.

This is where it all began - there is only one House - one Birthplace - and this is it. "We're Alive!"

House + Character = Community

The Nina Simone Birthplace BUILDS community

This is how it all began -- a run down tenant rental that restored dreams to a younger generation. "We're Alive!"

No Grants, few donations - entirely grassroots. And from the effort emerged the Tryon Doll Makers, The Bountiful Neighborhood Education Scientific and Cultural Organization BnESCO, the Hannon Barbershop Project, the Ghana Doll Exchange, the Mount King Community Garden, and the Tryon Arts Cooperative.

House + Character = Community