{"id":1040,"date":"2023-10-26T13:11:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2023-10-26T13:11:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:11:09","slug":"revolutionary-communal-love-black-feminism-in-beyonces-lemonade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/issue-4\/revolutionary-communal-love-black-feminism-in-beyonces-lemonade\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolutionary Communal Love: Black Feminism in Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Lemonade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corin Ford\u2019s essay explores Beyonc\u00e9’s groundbreaking visual album, Lemonade, and its themes of Black unity, empowerment, and resilience. Ford walks us through Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s sources of inspiration, which include both her own personal experiences and the work of other black activists, such as Joan Morgan and Audre Lorde. Ford also emphasizes Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s inclusion of Black men in her activism, a key way in which her priorities differ from those of past movements. Ultimately, Ford\u2019s essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the album\u2019s message: a call for intersectional Black feminism rooted in community values.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/span>–Elizabeth Emmons ’23, editorial assistant<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revolutionary Communal Love: Black Feminism in Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Lemonade<\/i><\/strong><\/h4>\n
Corin Ford \u201826<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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Beyonc\u00e9 and other celebrities featured in Lemonade (from left to right, Chloe Bailey, Lisa-Kaind\u00e9 Diaz, Naomi Diaz, Beyonc\u00e9, Amandla Stenberg, Halle Bailey, and Zendaya).\u00a0 Promotional image by PARKWOOD Entertainment. Used for educational purposes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s maternal grandmother, Agn\u00e9z Dereon, passed her lemonade recipe down to her daughter and granddaughter. With this recipe, she preserved the knowledge of everyday alchemy, teaching Beyonc\u00e9 how to transform pain into healing.\u00a0 At her 90th birthday party, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s paternal grandmother, Hattie White, delivered the speech that would inspire her granddaughter\u2019s 2016 visual album: \u201cI’ve had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade\u201d\u00a0 (Knowles-Carter. Refer to this source for all future references). Named after her grandmothers\u2019 wisdom, <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i> is Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s way of passing on their learned resilience. Centering love for her fellow Black women while including Black men in her activism, Beyonc\u00e9 empowers her community against domestic and national betrayal. In <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i>, Beyonc\u00e9 envisions an internally grounded, intersectional Black feminism.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Woodrich, Chris. “Ntozake Shange, Reid Lecture, Women Issues Luncheon, Women’s Center.” (November 1978) via wikipedia commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond the women in her own life, Beyonc\u00e9 draws from decades of Black feminism, recognizing her fellow Black women as a source of restoration. Reminiscent of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s marital conflict, poet Ntozake Shange\u2019s 1976 Broadway play, <\/span>for colored girls who have considered suicide \/ when the rainbow is enuf<\/span><\/i>, explores the struggle to find satisfaction and self-love outside of the male gaze. <\/span>For colored girls<\/span><\/i> concludes with the realization that validation cannot come from sex or men. In fact, peace cannot even come from a mother holding tight to her daughter, \u201csayin i\u2019m always gonna be her girl.\u201d Instead, it is the physical care of other women of color that restores the protagonists to wholeness. As opposed to maternal touch, this care does not deny the hardships the protagonists have weathered (Shange 62). Just like Shange\u2019s characters cannot experience true release without acknowledgment of their struggle, Beyonc\u00e9 cannot make lemonade without lemons. Furthermore, neither transformation is possible without the closeness of women who share the experience of rejection by men and the larger US society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This companionship is crucial in Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s personal journey toward redemption. As <\/span>Guardian<\/span><\/i> journalist Syreeta McFadden asserts,<\/span><\/p>\n

at the centre of <\/span>Lemonade<\/span>, there\u2019s a shift as Beyonc\u00e9 goes on a bus ride with women . . . whose faces are painted white in the Yoruba tradition of Ori . . . we are reminded [of] the power of sisterhood, a community that uplifts and preserves structure when it all seems like it\u2019s falling apart. (McFadden)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In this transformational bus ride, it is not only the proximity of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s fellow Black women that brings her strength. Rather, each woman is empowered by her internal sanctity as expressed through Ori body paint. A concept originating in West Africa, Ori is an everyday divinity encompassing one\u2019s soul and consciousness (Senbanjo). Finding a Shange-like internalized sense of self in shared African roots, Beyonc\u00e9 gains energy by reconnecting with the women who are as much a part of her as her Black heritage. Their understanding and support help her discover her own capacity for growth, as well as her inherent worth outside of a man\u2019s validation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ori in Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Lemonade. Promotional image from HBO. Used for educational purposes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moving away from her personal experience to national organizing, Beyonc\u00e9 continues to emphasize the role of Black women in communal healing. A pivotal point in <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i>, \u201cForward\u201d marks the transition away from Jay-Z\u2019s adultery to a discussion of racism in the United States. In this song, three mothers whose sons were brutally murdered by the police, Sybrina Fulton (mother of Trayvon Martin), Gwen Carr (mother of Eric Garner), and Lezley McSpadden (mother of Michael Brown) hold up pictures of their sons for the camera. This scene transforms into a gathering of famous Black women from different professional arenas in the United States, featuring cameos from Serena Williams to Zendaya. The dinner and following concert assert Black pride and power, with individual performances and collective celebration. This section of <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i> takes place on a plantation, where enslaved Black women were diminished to birthing mechanisms for an inhuman workforce and routinely raped for profit. Standing defiant, these women reclaim the symbolic center of their community’s dehumanization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Including Black men in this communal empowerment, Beyonc\u00e9 departs from the priorities of radical Black feminists such as Shange. Although they are not the focus of the visual album, both Jay-Z and Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s father, Mathew Knowles, are featured in <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i>. Most notably, Beyonc\u00e9 dedicates a song, \u201cDaddy Lessons,\u201d to her father, fondly remembering their closeness. At the same time, \u201cDaddy Lessons\u201d acknowledges Mathew Knowles\u2019s fraught relationship with Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s mother, Tina Knowles. This conflict between love and mistreatment parallels Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s own marriage and a larger system of racism and sexism. Beyonc\u00e9 sings, \u201cHe held me in his arms \/ and he taught me to be strong \/ He told me when he’s gone \/ \u2018here’s what you do: \/ when trouble comes in town \/ and men like me come around\u2019 \/ Oh, my daddy said shoot.\u201d Knowles is at once aware of and unchanging in his harmful behavior, as well as determined to raise his daughter to withstand men like him. While the women in Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s family are more prominent in <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i>, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s father also helped her find strength.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Joan Morgan, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost<\/em> (Cover Image). (2000) used for educational purposes.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mathew Knowles and Jay-Z are also shown in home videos, playing with their daughters and expressing their love for Beyonc\u00e9. There is a great deal of warmth between Beyonc\u00e9 and the men in her life, a connection that, if more complicated than with her fellow Black women, can also be a source of power. Lik<\/span>e Beyonc\u00e9, Black feminist Joan Morgan advocates for working with Black men to address their misogyny. In her 1999 book, <\/span>When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down<\/span><\/i>, Morgan argues that writing off Black men as sexist perpetuates an isolating \u201cus v. them\u201d narrative. Instead, Morgan <\/span>advocates for the collaborative subversion of patriarchal gender norms; Black women finding worth outside of their appeal to men and Black men outside of their domination <\/span>of women (Morgan, 44). While Beyonc\u00e9 foregrounds Black women in her own and the country\u2019s healing, she does not dismiss Black men as loved ones or as part of the larger movement for justice. Instead, she acknowledges their pain, using her marriage as a metaphor. Just as she hurt Jay-Z by walking away, Black women hurt Black men by giving up on them. Recognizing a complicated history of imperfect solidarity, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>mobilizes love as the basis for change.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a heteronormative superstar, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s perspective differs from queer, radical Black feminists like Shange. Throughout her career, Beyonc\u00e9 has used dance to express her sexuality within the male gaze, building her fame as a sexual icon. She does this in a homophobic, patriarchal world where men govern sexual desire, and any woman expressing their sexuality must pander to a male audience. Perpetuating this system, much of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s work before and after <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>embodies what poet and Black feminist theorist Audre Lorde calls \u201cthe pornographic.\u201d In her 1984 essay, \u201cUses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,\u201d Lorde defines the pornographic as \u201csensation without feeling,\u201d or the externalization of what should be grounded in one\u2019s self. In contrast, the erotic is an embrace of the internal \u2013 a standard of pleasure that informs not only daily life but also activism. Providing a deeper understanding of life\u2019s potential for joy, the erotic reimagines social justice for an equitable, enjoyable future, not just against oppression (42). Partly because of her identity as a lesbian, Lorde\u2019s erotic does not include men as an informant of the female experience. Instead, it creates space for women to reclaim their bodies and sexuality in a country seeking to externalize both, centering women\u2019s internal, unconstrained emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kendall, K. \u201cAudre Lorde.\u201d (1980) via wikimedia commons.\u00a0<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i>, Beyonc\u00e9 reclaims dance as a means of Lorde\u2019s erotic, rejecting her past objectification of herself, her dancers, and by extension, her Black female audience. Most of the visual album\u2019s dance takes place in \u201cFormation.\u201d While this choreography is not desexualized, it is tonally different from Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s other work, in that it utilizes dance as a catalyst for political discourse. A proclamation of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Black Southern pride, this music video protests police brutality and the US\u2019s failure to support victims of Hurricane Katrina. Alluding to the Black Panther Party, the choreography of “Formation” features a cast of Black female dancers proudly displaying combed-out hair, blockade formations, and militant fists. These women unapologetically express their raw anger at anti-Black racism in the United States, transforming it into joy and support through their collective movement. Embracing the previously suppressed internal, both the unmitigated negative of systemic oppression and the unmitigated positive of communal empowerment, dance in \u201cFormation” utilizes Lorde\u2019s erotic to inform activism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Continuing Shange\u2019s, Lorde\u2019s, and Morgan\u2019s feminist legacies, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s <\/span>Lemonade<\/span><\/i> models intersectional activism rooted in one\u2019s immediate community. Modeling interpersonal critique grounded in love, Beyonc\u00e9 advocates for an inclusion of Black men in Black feminist spaces that does not sideline Black women. Celebrating the women who supported her through Jay-Z\u2019s infidelity and the women who sustain each other in the face of national crises, Beyonc\u00e9 discovers love not only for her fellow Black women, but for herself. In a world built on the degradation of Black women, this love itself is a revolutionary act. It is this love that guided Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s grandmothers, and it is this love that Beyonc\u00e9 hopes to impress upon her audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Beyonce\u0301. <\/span>Lemonade,<\/span><\/i> Parkwood Entertainment, 2016. www.beyonce.com\/album\/lemonade-visual-album\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lorde, Audre. <\/span>Sister Outsider.<\/span><\/i> Penguin, 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

McFadden, Syreeta. \u201cBeyonc\u00e9’s Lemonade Is #Blackgirlmagic at Its Most Potent.\u201d The <\/em><\/span>Guardian<\/span><\/i>, https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2016\/apr\/24\/beyonce-lemonade-album-video-black-girl-magic-womanhood-america. Accessed 6 Apr 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morgan, Joan. <\/span>When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down<\/span><\/i>. Touchstone, 2000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Senbanjo, Laolu. \u201cThe Sacred Art of the Ori.\u201d<\/span> Laolu Senbanjo: “The Sacred Art of the Ori” | TED Talk<\/span><\/i>, 2017. https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/laolu_senbanjo_the_sacred_art_of_the_ori. Accessed 6 Apr 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shange, Ntozake. <\/span>For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide \/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf<\/span><\/i>. Macmillan, 1975.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Corin Ford\u2019s essay explores Beyonc\u00e9’s groundbreaking visual album, Lemonade, and its themes of Black unity, empowerment, and resilience. Ford walks us through Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s sources of inspiration, which include both her own personal experiences and the work of other black activists, such as Joan Morgan and Audre Lorde. Ford also emphasizes Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s inclusion of Black men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3782,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[19,18,21,49,20,17],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-4","tag-audre-lorde","tag-beyonce","tag-family","tag-feminism","tag-gender","tag-race-racism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/368\/2023\/10\/image4.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1149,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}