Beyoncé in formation : remixing black feminism /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Tinsley, Omise'eke Natasha, 1971- author.
Imprint:Austin : University of Texas, 2018.
©2018
Description:1 online resource (204 pages)
Language:English
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12871328
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781477317716
1477317716
9781477317723
1477317724
9781477317709
1477317708
9781477318393
1477318399
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Print version record.
Summary:Making headlines when it was launched in 2015, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley's undergraduate course "Beyonce Feminism, Rihanna Womanism" has inspired students from all walks of life. In Beyonce in Formation, Tinsley now takes her rich observations beyond the classroom, using the blockbuster album and video Lemonade as a soundtrack for vital next-millennium narratives. Woven with candid observations about her life as a feminist scholar of African studies and a cisgender femme married to a trans spouse, Tinsley's "Femme-onade" mixtape explores myriad facets of black women's sexuality and gender. Turning to Beyonce's "Don't Hurt Yourself," Tinsley assesses black feminist critiques of marriage and then considers the models of motherhood offered in "Daddy Lessons," interspersing these passages with memories from Tinsley's multiracial family history. Her chapters on nontraditional bonds culminate in a discussion of contemporary LGBT politics through the lens of the internet-breaking video "Formation," underscoring why Beyonce's black femme-inism isn't only for ciswomen. From pleasure politics and the struggle for black women's reproductive justice to the subtext of blues and country music traditions, the landscape in this tour is populated by activists and artists (including Loretta Lynn) and infused with vibrant interpretations of Queen Bey's provocative, peerless imagery and lyrics. In the tradition of Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist and Jill Lepore's bestselling cultural histories, Beyonce in Formation is the work of a daring intellectual who is poised to spark a new conversation about freedom and identity in America.
Other form:Print version: Tinsley, Omise'eke Natasha, 1971- Beyoncé in formation. Austin : University of Texas, 2018 9781477317709
Govt.docs classification:Z UA380.8 T497be
Review by Booklist Review

Who better to write about Beyoncé's history-making, internet-breaking 2016 visual album Lemonade than professor Tinsley, who teaches the popular course Beyoncé Feminism, Rihanna Womanism at the University of Texas at Austin, where she's also associate director of the Center for Women's & Gender Studies. Tinsley presents this mash-up of rigorous pop-culture study and conversational memoir, which takes up Beyoncé's invitation to consider the U.S. South as a fertile site for black women to reimagine gender, sexuality, and personhood. Of particular interest to Tinsley, who identifies as a queer femme, are presentations of femininity and historical connections in Beyoncé's art, and how the public, media, and scholars respond to them. Divided into three sections that correspond to the album's songs, videos, and progression, the book seems to translate the visual and audio to another plane entirely, and will undoubtedly inspire much rewatching and relistening. Tinsley's many lenses, both academic and personal, make for a rich and exciting study of the modern masterpiece she calls (arguably) the most widely distributed black feminist text of the current moment. --Annie Bostrom Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Tinsley (Ezili's Mirrors), an African studies professor at the University of Texas at Austin, brings tremendous gusto to her critique of Beyoncé's 2016 album Lemonade. As "the most widely distributed black feminist [work] of the current moment," Tinsley argues, Lemonade "offers a spectacular entry point into black feminist conversations." The album and its accompanying music videos lead to discussions of marriage, motherhood, reproductive justice, and queer and trans politics. In a chapter titled "Queen Bee Blues," Tinsley connects the song "Don't Hurt Yourself" with its sampling of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and depictions of "self-loving fierceness" to the careers of blues vocalists Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith, who "also sang about [marital] betrayal decked in furs, feathers, and pearls," and the long tradition of Southern black women's blues. Later she explicates the song "Sorry" and its "boy bye" chant, revealing an ode to "black femmes." The book's final chapter focuses on how New Orleans bounce artist Big Freedia's role in "Formation" marked a turning point that allowed "trans* sisters to publicize their brilliant choreographies of gender and survival." Not solely a love letter to Beyoncé or a defense of her feminism, this is an incisive, spiraling celebration of Southern black women. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A unique take on Beyonc's 2016 album and video "Lemonade" and its implications for 21st-century black feminism.Part academic study, part personal reflection on being black and queer, and part unabashed homage to Beyonc, this essay collection is what Tinsley (African and African Diaspora Studies, Women's and Gender Studies/Univ. of Texas; Ezili's Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders, 2018, etc.) calls a "Femme-onade mixtape." The opening piece, "Queen Bee Blues," looks at Beyonc's musical relationship to female blues and country musicians such as Memphis Minnie and Loretta Lynn. Like the love-scorned woman Beyonc portrays in her album and video, which critics saw as her response to husband Jay-Z's infidelityMinnie knew how to turn "lemons into lemonadeand sex into power" while Lynn knew how to fight back against her husband's excesses and abuse. In "Love the Grind," Tinsley explores the many incarnations of powerful black womanhood that Beyonc portraysmost notably, the African sorceress Oshun and the divine Afro-Brazilian whore, Pomba Gira. Not only do both represent the sex-positive black feminism "unafraid to say fuck me," but also black Southern "ratchet feminism," which is "unafraid to say fuck you to patriarchy's rules." The author also discusses the increasingly political nature of Beyonc's work. In "Freedom, Too," Tinsley points to Beyonc's inclusion of the "Mothers of the [Black Lives Matter] Movement" in videos and public appearances. Not only does their presence "[denounce] police brutality"; it also suggests the singer's commitment to creating a world where black people can find the peace and security that Tinsley (who is married to a black transgender man) has struggled to find for herself and her family. Sure to appeal to scholars and pop-culture enthusiasts alike, this provocative book works to blur the lines between straight and gay black feminism by arguing that "any ideal of black womanhooddoesn't have to carry the label queer' to berelated to black femme self-expression."Lively and intelligent reading. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review


Review by Publisher's Weekly Review


Review by Kirkus Book Review