Renaissance,a love letter to Black queer innovators, comes at a precarious moment in history.
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Calling Rodgers and Edwards yieldedUpside Down,her first No.
Divas are loved in queer spaces because they exude and inspire magnificence, radiating a confidence that is infectious.
We live vicariously through their elegance; our enthusiasm drives them all the more.
Its an electrical circuit, but the current is powering a futuristic sonic architecture.
Its a time-tested play.
Black queer art and its distinctive, sometimes reactive sense of self drives reverberations in the culture at large.
BeyoncesRenaissancesucceeds exquisitely at the latter endeavor.
Its also putting on a virtuosic show of rifling through popular sounds.
Plastic Off the Sofa coaxes an exquisite quiet storm tune out of Syd and Patrick of the Internet.
Beyonce also pulls from aspects of her own back catalogue.Renaissanceshares4s almost carnal intimacy.
The vocals here are often stunning and always full of surprises, and the production honors every note.
In Heated, she delivers the octave-skipping audacityHonestly, Nevermindlacked.
The reserved and relaxed flow in Thique gives youValee, and the bridge in Cuff It gives youJ.J.
She knows this stuff.
The confidence drivingRenaissanceis descended from a scrappy, defensive glamour.
When Beyonce mentions stolen Chanel in Heated, she conjuresunhoused queer youth fighting to get by.
Homophobia and transphobia areon the march.
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