Devon Sinclair

🚨 OMFG! Beyoncé is EXTREMELY acclaimed in an article published by the NY Times and written by @MichaelEDyson ✨ "The truth is plain, but elusive: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is not only the world’s greatest entertainer, a feminist and a principled advocate of Black culture, but also something of a religious prophet. Each night near the beginning of her performance on her Renaissance tour — and in the eponymous documentary film released on Friday — Beyoncé declared that she wanted the people gathered in her name to find a safe space for liberation. [...] I love the Black church and admire its noble commitment to moral ardor and social justice. But too often it has slacked on love and compassion for queer folk. It is a cruel irony that a church that is deeply invested in so many trans — transformation of life under grace, transmission of rituals of piety from one generation to the next, transition from lost to saved — stands so steadfastly against transgender identities, which highlight the fluidity of race and underscore the agency that is central to all forms of religious and Black identity. So, for Black queers, Beyoncé’s stadium has become a sanctuary. Their presence at her concerts is a vivid reminder of what the church should do to welcome everyone who shares a desire to get better — by loving the best way they know how and by loving one another as if God’s reputation were at stake. [...] In a way, Beyoncé is what we call a process theologian: a theologian who believes that becoming takes priority over being and that temporal processes influence our understanding of God. “I feel like you see the show and it’s so beautiful,” Beyoncé announces in her documentary. “But I’m more fascinated in people seeing the process. I think the beauty is in the process.” We can in turn see that Beyoncé’s idea of renaissance — a profound rebirth through imagination — is simply a secular translation of the notion of redemption. [...] Beyoncé is too rarely acknowledged as an intellectual of great sophistication. It is a perception that seems to dog most Black performers; it may explain why Jann Wenner, the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, couldn’t find a single Black artist in his mind that could match wits with the white male figures in his recent book of interviews with rock luminaries. But at the intersection of sound and sex, of groove and gender, of work and womanhood, Beyoncé soars as a thinker. At the three concerts I gleefully inhaled, I could not help raising my left arm and gently waving my hand in a show of approval that is common in evangelical circles. Her concert tour and the film that documents it prove that Beyoncé provides a religious experience for those most in need of community. She is, as she rightfully brags, “One of one / I’m number one / I’m the only one.” The best most of us can do is simply say “Amen.”" 🔗nytimes.com/2023/12/03/opini…