Renaissance Reader

Kinitra D. Brooks is the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies and the Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University, USA.Nicholas R. Jones is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, USA, and the former King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center’s Scholar-in-Residence at New York University, USA.

"Until recently, writing on Beyoncé’s Renaissance felt akin to anatomizing a phantasmagoria. This collection of essays examines an album that reclaims house, disco and ballroom genres. Rooting their reflections in Black feminist thought, queer theory and Afrofuturism, contributors explore Beyoncé’s revival of neglected musical traditions, her homage to her beloved Uncle Johnny, who inspired the album, and her emergence as a “Mutha” figure for queer and trans communities. Through discussions of joy, spatial resistance and sonic innovation, the volume casts Beyoncé not simply as performer but as curator of Black queer heritage and legacy."- Ellis Cashmore, Professor of Sociology and author of Celebrity Culture"A wonderful resource for readers and educators looking to connect history to Beyoncé’s expansive vision and onward to new queer, Black, and feminist futures. The contributors weave critical academic and personal insights together into a thrilling volume.”- Leah DeVun, Professor of History at Rutgers University, USA

• Introduction Part I: Black Joy 1. Beyoncé’s Renaissance: A Queer Portal for Beylievers 2. I Love Myself When I Am Laughing: Joy and Spatial Resistance in Beyoncé’s Renaissance 3. Everybody on Mute: Beyoncé’s Ability to Silently Slay with Queer Call and Response 4. Welcome to the Renaissance: Defying Distortion, Division, and Difference Part II: Queerness 5. The Irresistible Terrorism of Beyoncé: On the War Between Desire, Representation, and Black Queer Freedom 6. The World Uncle Johnny Made: Queers, Children, and other Political Fantasies 7. “They looped. I looped. The samples to feel free”: Renaissance and Modern Ballroom as the Loophole of Retreat in the Afterlife of Slavery 8. Transcending the cis-tem: Interpolating Black queer temporality Part III: Sound and Technology 9. “Equestrian Monument, 2023”: Horses in Beyoncé’s Antihistoricist Renaissance World 10. Black Feminist Sonic Rhetorics: Vocal Glitch and the Queering of Temporality in Beyoncé Renaissance 11. Look Around, Everybody on Mute!: Renaissance’s Potential Impact on Music Education 12. Media All Up in Your Mind: Accentuating Black Queer Vitality through Cultivated Silence Part IV: Afrofuturism 13. The Renaissance Age of Pleasure: The Afro(feminist)futurism of Beyoncé & Janelle Monáe 14. Mothers of the Renaissance: The Beyoncification of Afrofuturism 15. Church Girls, Blues Women, and the Future of the Black Queer South 16. Breaking to Build: Lessons for a Renaissance A Reflection from a Black Queer Artist