While we’re in the midst of a President trying to turn the military against the American people, this feels like it needs to be said.
We can’t always have our faces in the horror.
What’s resistant is making sure we can find joy in things.
What’s resistant is making sure we have connection with each other.
What’s resistant is demonstrating that the things the powers that be would like to disappear are going NOWHERE.
So I got to see the Beyonce concert in Chicago. I have no regrets. I got to see it the first night when there was a tornado watch and a major rainstorm blew through. The show started at 10:30 p.m. (far past my bedtime, but Beyonce).
After really cooking on what I saw, it occurred to me that Beyonce conveyed a Black radical tradition.
Stay with me here.
The first four songs she sang were:
- Requiem (the song that begins Cowboy Carter)
- Blackbird
- The American Anthem with the Jimmy Hendrix guitar accompanying her
- Freedom (from the album Lemonade).
What does this collection of tunes say? The American project has failed (Black people in particular). Good try, but it’s time to fly away and step away from the anthem. We all love to hear Hendrix play it on his ax; however, that was meant to be rebellious. Yeah, it sounds good, but you sing the anthem . . . you don’t let it rip on your guitar. And through this all, we can have freedom.
Right now, we only hear about the pissed off White guys who want to end the American experiment. Beyonce provided a sharp Black viewpoint into the decay of the USA. And she’s sure this is nothing we want.
But later in the show, she had words flashing up on this massive screen behind her. They were something to the effect of “This is our country. We’re not going anywhere.”
Now THIS is what really got my attention. I actually don’t even remember what was playing when we saw that on the screen. Often, Black people who have generations in the US will say that we built this country. But that phrase doesn’t veer into ownership. Which made me wonder if Beyonce is part indigenous. That is the sort of thing Indian populations would say.
And she said this as a Black woman. And she expected Black people to come with her.
Garvey was a capitalist Black radical . . . he believed that Black people could create a nation where we would buy Black. Beyonce is a capitalist Black radical as well, but instead of taking it all back to Africa, she’s saying we need to say we’re staying here and claiming it.
Beyonce isn’t just entertainment. She has a vision for Black liberation. Renaissance and Cowboy Carter have really laid that out. There is a third album coming out . . . it will be fascinating to hear her cap that vision.
If you get a chance. Go.
And let me know what you think.