Humans have created a culture of memorializing their own through physical markers varying from stacks of stones to elaborate granite tombstones labeled with names, dates, and religious affiliation; however, with the rise of the internet, memorial culture has shifted to include “cyber-gravesites” where people can leave messages on websites dedicated to those who have passed. These sites, both physical and virtual, serve as a place to mourn. Yet for the deaths of those whose passing is controversial and impactful on a national level, such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, a gravesite is not enough. Their deaths were felt and continue to be felt across the United States wherein 2017 alone, nine hundred seventeen people have been shot and killed by police¹ (Police Shootings 2017 Database). Despite gaining national attention, neither these men nor the pattern of systematic targeting black men face from police have a national monument for people to gather in community, yet a new form of community is forming around music videos such as Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade. Making its debut April twenty-third of 2016 when Parkwood Entertainment² and Columbia Records released it via Tidal³. Through the hour and five minutes of the complete album, Beyoncé depicts her journey of coming to terms with her husband’s infidelity. The album is characterized by its use of black women and children in conveying the feelings of the artist in regards to the violence black people face. As a result, this aggregative work manages to act as a memorial through humanizing the experiences of those who are subjected to state violence, acknowledging the survivors of the deceased, and creation of a space of public mourning and collective trauma.
Foremost, Beyoncé manages to construct an experience that is “just so black”, as stated by Johnetta Elzie, curator of the Ferguson Protester Newsletter and organizer, manifesting a story of those impacted by state violence (Hudson). Stylistically, one can begin to see black culture through hairstyles which include natural hair, Bantu knots, box braids, Ghana braids, Havana twists, and cornrows. Additionally, lyrics such as “I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros. I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils.” from “Formation” assert pride in “features that are so different from the European standards of beauty” (Griffiths). Coupled with archival footage from her own childhood, Beyoncé highlights the experiences of black children in what a voiceover claims as the “hood”. Forty-three minutes into the film the section “Resurrection” begins and last for the course of three and half minutes. In this time frame, a series of black women and girls are shown in historically southern belle style clothing in a garden in the background. A female voiceover plays and states, “Something is missing. I’ve never seen this in my life… They take our men, huh?” and the camera pans to a group of black girls and women. The voice-over goes on to say, “So how are we supposed to lead our children to the future? What do we do?” (Beyoncé). Following this, the song “Forward” begins and features the mothers of those who lost their sons to police brutality: Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother; Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown’s mother; and Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother. These images empathize that those lost to police brutality have experiences beyond the footage of their deaths seen on cell phone cameras and body cameras. Humanization in the form of this album occurs in a manner described by Adrian Parr, an Australian philosopher, as “coded and given a fixed use” as the experiences expressed are relatable to those in the black community (17).* Consequently, those lost are socially alive and individualized through their own culture.
Secondly, through this album, the artist acknowledges the survivors of the deceased, a crucial element of memorialization. In studies completed by Roberts and Vidal (2000) and de Vries and Rutherford (2004), they acknowledge that “most memorials mentioned survivors” and that memorials “support continuing bonds between the living and the dead” (Graham 39). Additionally, “‘almost all memorial sites contain a picture of the deceased’” as stated by Tony Walter, one of the only professors of death studies (Graham 48). Explicitly, Beyoncé manages this by the footage at minute marker 44:28 where she introduces black women holding the photographs of men lost to systematic violence. She partners these images with dark backgrounds and wilted flowers at minute marker 44:33 and finishes with the footage of Michael Brown’s mother crying a single tear at minute marker 44:57 (Beyoncé). These images show the grief of those left behind physically and symbolically with the wilt of the flowers and dark imagery. This collective trauma faced by these women inherently positions them together. This video is “supportive of both the process of remembering someone has gone and being with someone as a continuing presence.” as people who are watching online can formulate their own memories (Graham 40, Parr 15).
Furthermore, memorials are used to recall tragedy and offer a place of mourning. In Beyoncé’s song “Formation,” the scene shown at minute marker 1:00:15 features her atop a New Orleans police car that is submerged underwater. By minute marker 1:00:58, a young black boy is pictured in front of a line of white policemen in riot gear were when he lifts his hands up they follow suit. The camera then pans to a wall graffitied with the phrase, “Stop shooting us” (Beyoncé). While this footage does not memorialize any specific people as seen with the images previously mentioned, it highlights that those who are lost to state violence such police brutality and the lack of governmental response to Hurricane Katrina are gone, but their existence was important because the institutions that perpetuated their deaths still exist. (Graham 49). Using platforms such as YouTube and Tidal where Beyoncé has a minimum of 13,236,698 subscribers, she has created space for interactions between complete strangers whether this is through comments on the album, reaction videos, or sharing the video on other social media (BeyoncéVEVO). Beyoncé furthers this space even further by premiering the film on HBO (Home Box Office) drawing 787,000 viewers drawing out 696,000 tweets the night it debuted (Murdoch). These interactions allow for community formation and healing through shared lived experiences.
Overall, Lemonade as a visual album goes beyond a music video. The weight of this album is effective due to the historical context of its release. Black Lives Matter as an organization had already gained traction, embedding the memories of those impacted by violence and associated them with particular places, images, and institutions. Beyoncé takes what some may have forgotten but still hits heavy for the black and brown bodies that face systematic oppression daily and applied it to film. She creates a space for black people to mourn and hold pride in their culture through her album. Arguably, one may question why to memorialize the death of these people, to begin with, yet as Sigmund Freud claims the effect of trauma, once pushed out of consciousness, goes away (Parr 20). It has become an inspiration for activism, a place of mourning, and a symbol of remembrance. Remembering the horrors of the experiences faced by communities of color through film extends our ability to commemorate a person, manifesting a new way to bring a community together.
(December 2017)
¹ This number varies by organization reporting and their methodology with Mapping Police Violence reporting 1,049 deaths by police in 2017.
² Parkwood Entertainment is owned by Beyoncé.
³Tidal is a music and video streaming platform owned by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Beyoncé’s husband.
* Admittedly, I as a white writer can speak on this specifically.
Work Cited
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This Is Why It Needed To Win Album Of The Year.” Bustle, Bustle, 11 Sept. 2017, www.bustle.com/p/this-is-what-
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