“Beyoncé’s ‘Homecoming’ is an illuminating two-way street - The Undefeated” plus 1 more |
| Beyoncé’s ‘Homecoming’ is an illuminating two-way street - The Undefeated Posted: 17 Apr 2019 12:05 AM PDT Beyoncé, yet again, has gifted us all. This time, she's bringing a culture that's so very important to African Americans to a global, mainstream stage. Her latest present is a Netflix documentary, Homecoming (streaming now), and it's a dive into the inspiration for her game-changing 2018 Coachella performance. Beyoncé not only takes us behind the scenes of the making of that particular set of shows, she takes us home with her. We see her at her most vulnerable: dealing with an unexpected pregnancy, figuring out how to be a mother of a 6-year-old and a set of newborn twins, as well as a wife, and an international superstar who is ready to come back home. Home, for Beyoncé, is the stage. Her film's title is a double entendre, as Beyoncé plays to actually coming home to the live stage and to the rich tradition of historically black college and university (HBCU) halftime culture as she brings it to a festival that was stridently white until recently. Beyoncé was the festival's first African American female headliner — "Ain't that about a b—-?" she sneers at one point — and in 2018 she collaborated with her team to craft a show that would show the world something that those of us who grew up in Montgomery, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; and Hampton, Virginia, were quite familiar with. Interwoven with footage of the Coachella concert are homemade, never-before-seen rehearsal videos of the creation of one of the greatest shows to grace a festival stage, with Beyoncé sharing insights about her body, her babies and her home life. The day she delivered babies Rumi and Sir via an emergency cesarean section, she topped out at 218 pounds. And Coachella was months away. It's about the never forgetting. It's about making sure that everyone is connected and educated and inspired by African American culture. From there, she takes us on a journey: hitting SoulCycle hard, yes, but also dance rehearsals and other work that helped her burn up to 2,000 calories a day while cutting carbs, dairy, meat, sugar and alcohol from her life. Her discipline is to be as marveled at as the final product: Beychella. We see the moment she's able to fit back into a revealing costume — she FaceTimes her husband, Jay-Z, and revels in the accomplishment. It's one of the very human moments in the film, reminding us that the woman we've crowned a deity is actually, well, one of us. Beyoncé is a human being?Yep. She shares her breakneck schedule, the breastfeeding, the babies, the meetings with her team, the sheer perfectionist that she is while working on something as important as this show, which will both introduce a culture and give visibility to those who feel unseen by the world at large. Beyoncé, who directs and produces this film, flashes inspirational go-get-'em quotes from dignitaries such as Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman, all of them esteemed HBCU grads. She sees us — sees black folks, and black women specifically. In her show, we see black women with various body types; big girls move in bright leotards, and she says in a voice-over that she wants the world to see our curves. Beyoncé's father, of course, is an HBCU alum, and she talks about growing up with and being inspired by battle-of-the-band performances. Perhaps the most significant moment of this documentary is near the end. The Carters' daughter Blue Ivy is standing next to her mother, swaying side to side and singing the words of James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing." Her mother had sung the song earlier in the show. At times, Blue Ivy couldn't quite remember the words, and her mother would lean over and whisper them in her ear. When Blue Ivy gets to the end of the song, she excitedly tells her mother that she wants to sing it again. Beyoncé is a human being? Yep. And that is what this whole experience is about. It's about never forgetting. It's about making sure that everyone is connected and educated and inspired by African American culture. On a global stage. Across generations. And, of course, it's about getting to see one of the world's most dynamic performers at her most authentic and open and at her very best. In one of her closing voice-overs, she says, "If my country a– can do it …," anyone can. That's motivating. And inspiring. But respectfully, I beg to differ. Because we might never see anything — or anyone — like this again. |
| A Tampa native performed with Beyoncé at Coachella. Here's what it was like. - Tampa Bay Times Posted: 24 May 2019 12:00 AM PDT  The phone call had almost no details. It was someone Lomario Marchman knew from Florida A&M University. "We've got this big gig coming up and I can't tell you the artist," he told Marchman. "But I guarantee you, it'll be life-changing." So Marchman and 11 other musicians packed their bags for Los Angeles. When they learned the dates, they figured out they were performing at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. "We didn't know what artist it would be until we received our credentials and signed our contract," said Marchman, 26. That year, Beyoncé took over Coachella. She was the first African-American woman to headline the festival, and she used the platform to highlight black culture and pay tribute to historically black colleges and universities. Students from North Carolina A&T University, Grambling University, Tennessee State University, FAMU and other schools performed with Beyoncé at the show, which also highlighted black fraternal groups. The turn at Coachella was so influential that fans, social media influencers, blogs — practically the world — renamed the festival "Beychella." In April, she released Homecoming on Netflix, chronicling the eight-month preparation for the set. In the film, Beyoncé said she always wanted to attend an historically black college or university. "My college was Destiny's Child," she said. "My college was traveling around the world and life was my teacher. Instead of me bringing out my flower crown, it was more important that I brought our culture to Coachella." Marchman, who grew up in West Tampa and played in Jefferson High School's band, never expected to be there. "Are you kidding me?" he thought. "Is this really happening? It was like a dream come true, not just for myself but for my family. Growing up, my sister was a singer and she loves Beyoncé. That's all I used to hear." SEE PREVIOUS COVERAGE:Are Beyoncé and Jay Z living in Tampa? That's the buzz on Davis Islands In school, Marchman started in the drumline playing the cymbals, mastered them, then quickly moved up to the bass drums, then the French horn. As he added more instruments, he developed a strong ear for music and began to sing and play in other school ensembles. "He just started excelling and really working hard," said David Triplett-Rosa, his former band director at Jefferson. "I mean, he spent a lot of time really working hard and preparing for auditions so that he could get recognized by college professors." In 2011, Marchman started taking classes at Tallahassee Community College. Though he wasn't a student at FAMU, he played in the school's renowned marching band, the Marching 100. At that time, the band allowed students from other schools to march with the band. That arrangement only lasted one semester for Marchman. The school's band was suspended for a year due to a deadly hazing event that destroyed the elite band's reputation. He stayed in Tallahassee for a while, then transferred to the Art Institute of Atlanta in 2014 to pursue fashion. But he left a lasting impression on FAMU alum Don P. Roberts, the founder of traveling show Drumline Live and band director at Coachella. Beyoncé's team recruited Roberts at the 2018 Honda Battle of the Bands in Atlanta. Roberts and Marchman had been in contact over the years for potential gigs. Roberts helped Marchman land an appearance in the movie Drumline: A New Beat, the 2014 sequel to 2002's Drumline. Then, the Beyoncé call. Marchman played mellophone and choreographed moves for the band. During rehearsals, he was shocked by how personable Beyoncé was. She brought her family around, he said, even her young twins. "She always smiled," he said. "We always prayed before practice and rehearsals and she always told us that we were doing a good job. And she was always so supportive and so uplifting in the process, which really made us feel comfortable, especially because I'm expecting Beyoncé to be a drill sergeant. We all know that she is a perfectionist." During the first performance, Marchman's body went numb. "I didn't even know if I was playing anything. I didn't know if my lips were vibrating through the instrument. All I know is it was so loud, there was so many people, and there was so much energy that I was shaking on stage literally and it took me a while to get into it." He had agreed to be filmed during rehearsals but was shocked to learn later that a documentary was in the works and that he was in it a few times. His friends did the same double takes. "It took me a second to really absorb all of it," said Triplett-Rosa, who now teaches at Barrington Middle School. "It was like wait, is that Lomario? ... It was just a proud moment as a teacher and I use his story as a role model for the students now all the time." Marchman's Instagram count has increased and he's pursuing a career as an artist in Los Angeles while he teaches at a swim school. "Performing for Beyoncé will do nothing for me but take me to higher places because now I can put that on a resume as an artist." And he will always remember one moment with the elusive performer, someone not many people get to see up close. During a rehearsal, they locked eyes. "Good night," she told him. Contact Monique Welch at mwelch@tampabay.com. Follow Mo_UNIQUE_. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "beyonce carmen movie,beyonce children,beyonce coachella" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
0 Yorumlar