Talking #Formation #QueenBey

In case you missed it, or have already watched it 100 times, watch (again):

As I posted to Facebook this weekend:

All hail the queen. I can't say anything more than everyone on the interwebs already has and will, and I feel kind of unqualified to be saying how pro-Black, pro-Black woman, pro-Black queerness this is, and the politics, the 40 lines to quote, the references, how the ancestors must be fist raising/fist bumping, Nola, and Blue Ivy, but OMG!!!!!

As a white woman, this song is not about me, or for me. I couldn't find the words to say that until a friend shared this:

Formation doesn't include me - and that's just fine.

"It’s time for us to stop singing along — to Formation, to Kendrick Lamar’s Alright, to any song that has the N-word or celebrates blackness in a way we will never understand."

So in that spirit, I'm cheering from the bleachers while reading some amazing posts. Here's a few.

We Slay, Part 1 

Beyonce Gets Political, and I Get Snatched Bald: An Overview of Themes and Motifs in the Formation Music Video

Beyoncé’s “Formation” is Two Middle Fingers to the Sky in Celebration of Black America

Beyonce Is The New Black: The 10 Blackest Moments In Beyonce’s “Formation” Video

Beyonce's Formation is Her Best Thing Yet and it's the IDGAF Anthem 

Beyonce’s New Video Formation is a Big Political Ratchet Mess, and That’s What Being Unapologetically Black is All About

Beyoncé as Conjure Woman: Reclaiming the Magic of Black Lives (That) Matter

And then came the Superbowl: 
 
Beyoncé didn’t just steal the Super Bowl halftime show. She made it a political act.

 

And the tweets - please take to Twitter to see the best of the best in 140 characters. Try the hashtags #Formation and #QueenBey for starters.

And the GIFS:

 

 

 

And a World Tour. That supports the Flint water crisis.

Thank you, Queen.

Last night I dreamed of Sonia Sanchez

Last night I dreamed of you

Spitting poetry with razors between your teeth

Harlem

Black

Arts

Movement

Revolution

Jazz

Spoken Word

Form

Hip Hop

Love

Philly

Peace

Octogenarian
re-imagining yourself again and again
fiercely relevant 

Still here

I dreamed you were flowing in a river of revolutionary artists
who came before you
came with you
who were born of you

This poem should be a haiku in your honor

Instead I offer this

Recently visiting Harlem with my child of my child
we shared space with one of your 
revolutionary 
artist 
offspring

Grateful to be invited in

We walked those hallowed streets
my child of my child 
and me

Did she feel the vibrations 
did she know 
as we ate at Popeyes on 125th street
sat high in the balcony of the Apollo
and took the train at 155th
that she is one of the ones we've been waiting for

That she can love the razors forming between her teeth
to create beauty
to change the world
to breathe

Feb, 2016


Inspired by the film BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez

Thank you, Serena

I've been loving Serena Williams for a long time now. Ever since the 90s, when she and her sister Venus came on the pro tennis scene and changed the game forever, with their fierce play, take-no-crap father, and clickity-clack beaded braids announcing to the stuffy, mostly white tennis world, "We are here, we're going to win, we're doing it our way, and nothing is going to stop us."

I watch tennis because of Serena. She is the best tennis player ever, and I doubt we will see another player like her in my lifetime. And she achieved it all while also bearing weight of - and slaying - the racism and sexism that follows her no matter how far her star rises. 

I would love to know what it's like to be her, to occupy a body, mind and soul that has perfectly combined hard work, talent, and the desire to be the best. I can think of no other body as beautiful, as perfect as hers. I can think of no other tennis player as exciting to watch.

But Serena and her sister are so much more than tennis. For over two decades they have been an inspiration to girls and women everywhere, and especially to Black girls and women - tennis fans or otherwise. This article sums it up well.

Why Serena Williams is the definition of #BlackGirlMagic 

Read the whole article, but this: 

Before Beats By Dre and Nike were clamoring for her endorsement, or she was posing for paparazzi photos with Kim Kardashian, millions of black women knew and loved  'Rena, ReRe or "my girl," their terms of endearment for Serena Williams.

Serena, in all her #BlackGirlMagic glory, was first worshipped by the legions of girls and women who saw themselves in the determined, hardworking and charming phenom from Compton, California. It's these women who are among those cheering the loudest for Serena, because for them, she has already won.

They scream for her on and off the court because her magazine covers, Instagram posts and images of her with braids, beads, wearing catsuits or bikinis, are a different kind of victory for the woman many of them consider the epitome of beauty and excellence. For them, looking at Serena Williams is like looking into a mirror that affirms their own bodies and skin color.

As a white woman, I can only imagine the depth of that soul connection, given my own hard-core fandom. I remember sitting my daughter and son down in front of the television in the 90s to watch young Serena and Venus play - wanting them to see themselves in Serena's and Venus's authenticity and fierce talent. To have them drink in, whether they played tennis or not, "This can be you. You can do anything you set your mind to." And, maybe most important, "You don't have to lose yourself to find greatness. Do you. Stay true."

#Blackgirlmagic.

Thank you, Serena. You may have lost the US Open and your four-Grand-Slams-in-a-season dream for this year, but for millions of your fans, you remain our champion and shining star.

Watch this video, Serena Williams - Rise. It may be a commercial, but it says it all.

Wherever You Are - In Rememberence

Posting in remembrance of one of the most beautiful people I have ever known. This song was written for her and her spouse, who together lived and exemplified the best kind of love and commitment - through everything. This is not about me, though I still miss her deeply. This is about their love, inexplicable loss, grief that still flows, and the courage to continue on with so much grace. 

Thank you Ellis for this gift, for writing this song - for them, for their children, for us all.

 Wherever you are.

Babies in boats

Babies in Boats
Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants - current, past and future - on my mind and in my heart. The child who died crossing the Mediterranean Sea and washed ashore triggers a memory of a story told by a work friend long ago - how he did anything his mother asked, no matter how crazy, because she gave birth to him in a crowded boat on the South China Sea. Babies in boats. Bodies in trucks reminding me of bodies in other trucks, tunnels, shallow graves, on long paths to somewhere else. Friends and family now here who once were fleeing, or whose parents fled from homelands across the globe. This, from poet Warsan Shire: "You have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.” And, “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark."


Read her full poem, Home.