posted on wordpress 12/01/14

Funny story, I’m actually listening to Taking Back Sunday as I write this.

Last week (or whenever 11/21 was) Beyoncé released her homemade video for 7/11. Naturally, the internet went crazy. Me included.

What I loved about Beyoncé’s self-titled was pretty much everything. The way she seemed to self-realize and come to a decision about who she wanted to be—her declaring herself a part of feminism. I think she was even my first post on my blog.

I respect her. I think she has done loads for black women and learning about feminism. Although I, and many of my friends, are incredibly radical in terms of our politics, she is a good gateway and I very very very much respect that.

When I saw this video I wanted to cry from how full I felt with fun. The direction of her videos from the album are all pretty much amazing, in my opinion. If I have the time, I might post about my favorites individually. But this seemed to just be about having a simple fun time, living your life, being beautiful. Being a carefree black girl.

(*changed the formatting of pictures. if you want to look at them chronologically read from left to right horizontally…)

Beyoncé is a performer, a mother, a daughter, and a wife. But before all of that, she is a black woman and she is her own person. The simplicity of this compared to the other fully directed videos on her album (this is from her deluxe edition) is a great contrast. No matter what, they send a message.

Every song on her album reflected something about her and her personality or her life. This insinuates the same. The lyrics are pretty much about putting your hands up and letting go. One day I guess she just decided to film herself getting fucked up and having fun and to put it together (of course it was planned so she could make custom SMACK IT' “boyish” in a graffiti-esque style.)

Not all art or representation is meant to tell a story or, rather, be incredibly deep and meaningful. But the reason why this made me so happy was my love of the execution. This was her putting forth her silliness and enjoying herself and wanting to share it with us, to enjoy it too, and to want to have fun, work hard, party hard. I was having a pretty bad day when this came out and I watched it and instantly I was reminded, “hey, this is why you work hard! This is why you want to create art!” It may seem arbitrary but there’s a beauty in carefully constructed pieces and natural ones.

This music video preserves her memories.

Sometimes I feel like I lose sight of that when I’m creating something—it’s for others but it is also for me. A permanent reminder of who you are or who you were at the time you made something. This is Beyoncé’s present life shared with us. Despite the over-the-top extravagance and riches, we can still relate. My black/girl friends and I were talking about how we’d watch this and dance to this getting dressed before going out, getting pretty, getting amped. The video reflected what we were feeling with the song (and I think the video made me like it a billion times more.) With all the hardships going on right now for black people + black women, this shows us more of the fact that we are really living and we’re doing our hardest to have fun and live well.

And of course the love of friends and women. “GIRL I’M TRYNA KICK IT WITH YOU!”