pirate jennies (mixed media. 2004)
Created for Nina Simone’s birthday in 2004. The series was part of the exhibition A Blues for Nina: Black Women Artists on Race Gender and the Legacy of Nina Simone, paying to homage to the recently deceased singer and civil rights activist. Inspired by Nina Simone’s rendition of Pirate Jenny (listen to the song here), Cousins’ Pirate Jennies are a series of 4 mixed media drawings and news articles which explore the question: “What would Nina Simone’s Pirate Jenny do if she were alive now?” Cousins’ 4 black female pirates turn the tables on contemporary public figures whose behavior towards black American women mirrors that of the townspeople in Nina Simone’s song: Pharrell Williams and Busta Rhymes, famous at the time for their hit song “Light Your A** on Fire,” are set aflame by a would-be black female groupie. Lil Jon is forced to crawl across a nightclub “from the window to the wall” by an unassuming elderly black woman. Nelly is robbed of his “pimp juice.” While R Kelly gets roasted onstage at his own concert for his unscrupulous dealings with underage girls (see footage of the statutory rape trial and his marriage to 15 year old Aaliyah here).
