Lemonade: Making the best of the sour things life throws your way. Is this what Beyoncé is referencing? With strong visuals and beautiful eerie locations that are married to the black experience she lets loose with the rantings of a scorned woman. Poetry and the Spoken word of Warsan Shire sets us aflame with their words of power, strength, emotion and sweet surrender. Is this a metaphor for America's relationship with its black populace.. I can't help but see the correlations.
She goes through all the emotions from denial, anger, rage, apathy, and accountability. Then at last to forgiveness, rebirth of the love and reformation, reconciliation, hope, redemption and forgiveness. She has sent a tidal wave of emotion but I won't drown in these familiar waters, I will swim as I have before conquering and rising to the crest of each wave in triumph. Intense imagery wedded to depth of sound, entwined and layered with sentiment and a profound message of love and sisterhood has been gifted to us in this project.
So. Many. Questions. Is this about her real relationship with her husband or the relationship of black women with black men in general? This feels personal. This is darker and more raw than anything I have ever seen from her. She did not reign in her artistic or creative expression, every frickin scene is a piece of Art. Literally. From the antique furniture, the thickly mossed willow trees, the timeless wear of the unabashed beauties of every brown persuasion, the bending of the corn stalks in the wind, her dark form falling from a building into the water, a line of women walking most regally and tall to the water in flowing garb, to floating enchantingly, slowly twisting till she set free her anger.
Instead of releasing music videos for the album, she has released a short feature film with the album as the soundtrack. All I can say is amazing, amazing and amazing. She never disappoints. She has dived into the depths of the black experience and relationships to expose our hurts, our pain, our burden and our ugly, but in so doing she has displayed our beauty, our resilience, our strength, our truth and our love. This is also shown in the faces of the loved ones of our slain children, slain and let down by the country that was supposed to protect and love them. The answer she voices, to peace and healing, is in starting anew. Redemption found in the torturer. Those that hurt us the most are the ones that we love the most. Literally and metaphorically she's saying we have to forgive and start anew to be healed in respect to our relationship with ourselves and with this country. Am I reaching? I could be. I could be seeing what I want to see. But I love it!!! The project moves from a very dark visual in the beginning to a light and optimistic conclusion. Beyoncé is more than an artist, I say without hesitation she is a genius, a SAVANT.
