Lemonade Reader

<p>The Lemonade Reader is an interdisciplinary collection that explores the nuances of Beyoncé’s 2016 visual album, <em>Lemonade</em>. The essays and editorials present fresh, cutting-edge scholarship fueled by contemporary thoughts on film, material culture, religion, and black feminism.</p><p>Envisioned as an educational tool to support and guide discussions of the visual album at postgraduate and undergraduate levels, <i>The</i> <i>Lemonade Reader</i> critiques <i>Lemonade</i>’s multiple Afrodiasporic influences, visual aesthetics, narrative arc of grief and healing, and ethnomusicological reach. The essays, written by both scholars and popular bloggers, reflects a broad yet uniquely specific black feminist investigation into constructions of race, gender, spirituality, and southern identity. </p><p>The Lemonade Reader gathers a newer generation of black feminist scholars to engage in intellectual discourse and confront the emotional labor around the <i>Lemonade </i>phenomena. It is the premiere source for examining <i>Lemonade</i>, a text that will continue to have a lasting impact on black women’s studies and popular culture.</p> <p>Foreword by Candice Benbow; Preface by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting; Acknowledgements; Introduction by Kinitra D. Brooks & Kameelah L. Martin; Interlude A: What Do We Want from Beyoncé? by Maiysha Kai;<i> </i>Interlude B: Bittersweet Like Me: When the Lemonade Ain’t Made For Fat Black Femmes and Women by Ashleigh Shackelford;<i> Part I: Some Shit is Just for Us </i><b>Chapter One</b>--Some Shit is Just for Us: Intro by Cheryl Finley and Deborah Willis; <b>Chapter Two</b>--Something Akin to Freedom: Sexual Love, Political Agency, and <i>Lemonade</i> by Lindsey Stewart;<b><i> </i>Chapter Three--</b>Getting to the Roots of "Becky with the Good Hair" in <i>Lemonade</i> by Janell Hobson; <b>Chapter Four</b>--Pull the Sorrow from Between My Legs: <i>Lemonade</i> as Rumination on Reproduction and Loss by LaKisha M. Simmons;<b><i> </i>Chapter Five</b>--The Language of <i>Lemonade</i>: The Sociolinguistic and Rhetorical Strategies Beyoncé's <i>Lemonade</i> by Alexis McGee;<b><i> </i></b>Interlude C: How Not to Listen to <i>Lemonade</i>: Music Criticism and Epistemic Violence by Robin James;<i> </i>Interlude D: Women Like Her Cannot be Contained: Warsan Shire and Poetic Potential in <i>Lemonade </i>by Shauna M. Morgan;<i> Part II: Of Her Spiritual Strivings </i><b>Chapter Six</b>--Looking for Beyonce's Spiritual Longing: The Power of Visual/Sonic Meaning-Making by Valerie Bridgeman;<b><i> </i>Chapter Seven</b>--Beyoncé’s <i>Lemonade</i> Folklore: Feminine Reverberations of <i>Odú</i> and Afro-Cuban <i>Orisha</i> Iconography by Nicholas R. Jones;<b><i> </i>Chapter Eight</b>--The Slay Factor: Beyoncé Unleashing the Black Feminine Divine in a Blaze of Glory by Melanie C. Jones; <b>Chapter Nine</b>--Beyonce's Diaspora Heritage and Ancestry in <i>Lemonade</i> by Patricia Coloma Peñate;<b><i> </i>Chapter Ten</b>--Signifying Waters: The Magnetic and Poetic Magic of Oshún as Reflected in Beyoncé’s <i>Lemonade</i> by Martin A. Tsang; <b>Chapter Eleven</b>--Beyoncé Reborn: <i>Lemonade</i> as Spiritual Enlightenment by Lauren V. Highsmith; Interlude E: From Destiny’s Child to Coachella by L. Michael Gipson; Interlude F: "Formation" and the Black-Ass Truth about Beyoncé and Capitalism by Tamara Winfrey Harris; <i>Part III: The Lady Sings Her Legacy</i> <b>Chapter Twelve</b><i>--</i>The Lady Sings Her Legacy: Introduction by Daphne Brooks; <b>Chapter Thirteen</b>--To Feel Like a "Natural Woman": Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé and the Ecological Spirituality of <i>Lemonade</i> by Michele Prettyman Beverly; <b>Chapter Fourteen</b>--Beyoncé’s Western South Serenade by Tyina Steptoe; <b>Chapter Fifteen</b>--Beysthetics: "Formation" and the Politics of Style by Tanisha C. Ford; <b>Chapter Sixteen</b>--"I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama": Beyoncé at the Crossroads of Blues and Conjure in <i>Lemonade</i> by Kinitra D. Brooks & Kameelah L. Martin; <b>Chapter Seventeen</b>--Beyoncé's <i>Lemonade </i>and the Black Swan Effect by Kyra Gaunt; <b>Chapter Eighteen</b>--She Gave You <i>Lemonade</i>, Stop Trying to Say It’s Tang: Calling Out How Race-Gender Bias Obscures Black Women’s Achievements in Pop Music by Birgitta Johnson; Interlude G: Erasing Shame – Beyonce’s <i>Lemonade</i> and the Black Woman’s Narrative in Cinema by Aramide Tinubu; Afterword by Regina N. Bradley</p>