Dear Girlfriend,
Did you see Beyonce’s concert film, Renaissance, last year? My friend and I went to see it in the theater. There were no special popcorn tins to buy where we went, or any Beyonce merch for that matter, the way there had been at the Taylor Swift film. A few women were asking about it to the guy at the counter. The dude didn’t know what to say. It was largely an independent film venue and I think he just didn’t understand what Beyonce meant to some people, or why popcorn tins and merchandise mattered. He looked more like he wanted to go home and sit on the couch and watch Clerks.
Listen, this world—we know it—is a very weird place. Deep down in your heart and soul, you feel the pulse of life. and yet, everywhere around us, we are wrestling with something. Who is in the spotlight and who is not? And people are often raging against each other, and some new person has a bill to limit women’s freedoms in the government, and what are ya gonna do, and then there are kids trying to learn algebra in living rooms. Lots of people are playing video games because they’re bored and don’t know how else to fill their time, and they don’t want to face the truth of their lives. Then there is the sex videos and the drugs and the addictions stealing souls every day, across America and beyond.
So when a woman goes through trial after trial, and she keeps singing and standing strong in her uniqueness, and her body is beautiful and curvaceous despite generations of women being treated like workhorses—well, she wants you to notice! Because watch how she can still dance and sing and create new material, and build entire universes inside stadiums. You better sit back and watch this vision come to life, in Renaissance. Why does Steve Jobs get so much credit for creating a product when some women, like Beyonce, create and cultivate entire worlds? And these worlds don’t have black turtlenecks!
Renaissance shows what happens behind the scenes, and on off-days, of putting on a series of amazing concerts. The film shows the difficulty of being a woman with a vision who wishes to execute her vision without resistance, and with cooperation. So why do tech guys tell you you can’t do something, but all you have to do is google it yourself and see how easy it can be done? Don’t be lazy, boys. This is no joke. And remember who is paying your salary.
What I loved in Renaissance was the way Beyonce wanted to show in her film the amount of work that goes into creating a stage and an experience. Environmental activists may get up in arms about everything the amount of steel being used, or something, but all we have to do is point any naysayers to Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” speech:
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
I want to talk about that a little bit here. Black women and white women have some painful history, and when the politics of the country gets out of hand, and we are fighting for women’s basic freedoms, any loopholes can let the devil inside to mess with our minds. That devil is division, separation, tearing each other down.
So let’s not let the devil in—whether it be masculine or feminine form.
Can we find the love inside us all to honor each other, black and white and every other color, and respect the different experiences of our ancestors that led us to this space and time?
Can we root ourselves—as Beyonce shows—in forgiveness and perseverance, and the natural nurturing and celebration of being woman and mother, who’s still got it going on, no matter what?
Are we able to find the human in all of us—the girl who just wants some extra love, the mom who is worried for her daughter, the icon who stands with appreciation and love, or the wife/partner who is tired from working all day—and celebrate what it takes to become a living goddess in this material world?
That’s what Renaissance asks you to do.
Maybe I get it a little more because I am a Virgo, and Beyonce is a Virgo, too. And I just have this feeling about Beyonce—her rootedness in faith, and in forgiveness, and in her own unique mastery of herself and her life. Love and success is not about looking down at any other, but in standing in your own radiant light, letting it shine and set the tone and the seeds of fruitfulness. This is what Renaissance does, and there will be a lot of people watching auteur white male filmmakers who won’t get the power of Beyonce’s vision. Yet the genius mind of this massive spirit of a woman, is no less than any Quentin Tarantino, do you see? And gosh, she is so pretty, too. Majestic? Your heart vibrates in her presence.
Girlfriend, let’s find the sister in all of us (even if you’re a man), and keep that up so that we take care of each other—black, white, brown and in-between. The way we can do it is to keep dancing in the spaces goddesses create for us, like the Renaissance experience.
Smooches from Mama,
Ms. Wonderful
P.S. I like to dance to a little Beyonce myself:
https://youtube.com/shorts/L-Tj64dEFFQ?si=eMxSwJIZjEj53C0T