Vogue is the top Fashion Magazine in the world, therefore we all know what an honor and privilege it is to grace the cover of such a prestigious magazine. That is not the case when it comes to Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter appearing on the cover. In reality, it is the complete opposite of what is the norm. When Beyoncé accepts the offer to appear on the cover it is, in fact, an honor and privilege for the magazine. This can be seen in the act that the Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour gave Beyoncé full control of the Cover of the 2018 September issue. This allowed Beyoncé to hire the first African American to shoot the cover of Vogue, 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell.
As with anything that Beyoncé does one cover is not enough, therefore, there are two covers for the September 2018 issue. The first cover ( depicted below) Embodies regal high fashion Gucci dress. It gives off vibes of QUEENDOM while embracing the art of fashion. I love that Beyoncé elegantly pulls off a floral headdress by Rebel Rebel. She is wearing the flowers and they are not wearing her which is not always easy to pull off. Daily she lives up to being Queen Bey.
The second cover highlights black woman realness. Here Beyoncé is depicted as a carefree black woman who’s living her best life. She displays her natural hair with minimum makeup. She is wearing an Alexander McQueen dress/corset and Lynn Ban earrings
Additionally, the cover highlights that “Everyone’s Voice Counts” and In Her Own Words. It has been years since Beyoncé has given an interview and she continues that trend by being the author of the write up that is featured in the magazine.
Pregnancy & Body Acceptance
In this section of the article, Beyoncé talks about how after giving Birth to Blue Ivy she felt pressured to achieve what society to deems as having the perfect body. She gave herself a 3-month deadline to achieve such a look and even held herself accountable by scheduling a small tour. She admitted that even she has fallen victim to letting society dictate to you what is right instead of following your own path. After giving birth with the twins Beyoncé took a different route and did not aim to achieve the societal look of perfection but instead gave her body time to rest and heal before returning back to being Beyoncé the entertainer. She also jokes about having a mom pooch which we sometimes joke about by calling it a FUPA (fatty upper public area).
So to everyone who was asking me if Beyoncé was pregnant these past few weeks while she was on tour there’s your answer. I was so bothered at how people were so quick to want to throw another baby into Beyoncé’s womb. People tend to forget that a year ago she gave birth to two beautiful babies and that the skin surrounding her core stretched out in order to grow and develop the twins. People forget that she’s human and just because she ‘s famous does not mean she wants to go under the knife and achieve perfection. Beyoncé has displayed time and time again what a hard worker she is through the perfection of her craft and like she states when she wants to achieve that perfect body she will put in the work to do so therefore in the meantime folks need to stop worrying about Bey and worry about themselves *sorry yall the Beyhive tendencies that lives within me sometimes comes out*
Opening Doors
In this section Beyoncé give thanks to the women in the music industry who paved the way for her and how she hopes to do the same for others some day. She highlights this being the reasoning why she chose 23 year old Atlanta native Tyler Mitchell to photograph her for this issue.
She wants to open doors to those that would usually be closed off to them. One example is the relationship/partnership that she has with Chloe and Halle along with her all-female band that continues to tour with her. Also, I am trying to figure out how in the heck has Vogue never had a photographer of African American decent shoot one its covers. They really are behind the power curve but thankfully they have Beyonce to help point them in the right direction and its great Tyler had such an amazing opportunity. Something else unique about Tyler is that his other is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
Ancestry
As an African American in this country without doing the research, we sometimes have no clue what our Ancestry DNA consists of without paying the money and doing extensive research to find out. Beyoncé did the research and found that within her family lineage a slave owner married a slave.
Many African American families in America have white blood within their DNA and that stemmed from relationships and rapes that occured during slavery and during the time period right after.
My Journey
In this segment, Beyoncé highlights the journey that she has been on throughout life and how her struggles and set backs have made her the woman she is today. She writes about how her younger sex matured and grew into her sexier, curvier, more confident self.
I love that Beyoncé takes the time to discuss this aspect of life. We all have grown and continue to do so through our ups and downs along with our highs and our lows. Those moments from our past contribute to who we are today.
Freedom
Beyoncé talks about how she loves having the ability to create and that she is not really living if she is not creating.
As an artist, the ability to obtain and experience FREEDOM is key to being content and being able to create within the desired element. As one of the greatest artist of her time, Beyoncé relies heavily on having such freedom and it being vital to who she is as an artist.
Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, September 2018
Coachella
In this section, Beyoncé discusses her viewpoint on including the national black anthem “Lift Every Voice” into her Coachella performance and the power behind that song. She writes about what the song means and embodies and points out how the struggle that is talked about in that song allowed for her to be the first African American Woman to headline The Coachella Music Festival
I will admit when I heard Beyoncé start to sing Lift Every Voice within her Coachella performance I was completely caught off guard. I immediately thought about her audience and said to myself oh dear this is wayyyy out of their league I do not think this predominately white crowd would be able to catch or handle all this blackness. I was correct because I checked out twitter and saw people reference Beyoncé was performing a new single at Coachella when it was indeed Lift Every Voice. It is one of my favorite songs and unfortunately I only really singing it during Black History Month. I will try to change that and incorporate that song and its lyrics into my everyday life because it truly is a powerful song.
On The Run II
As you know Beyonce is currently on her second leg of her On The Run II tour which is currently touring through America. The tour initially started in Europe and Beyonce talks about performing in the Olympiastadion located in Berlin. This was the site of the 1936 Olympics where Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals during a time in the World’s History where everyone was not seen as equals.
It is amazing to see how much the World has grown and continues to grow even with the current issues that we are currently facing. Being able to play in a stadium that at one time did not want BLACK People to compete is amazing and it is beautiful to see the growth but a reminder that we must continue to fight for total equality because although there have been improvements we are not there yet.
Legacy
Beyoncé speaks on her legacy which are her 3 children and how it is important that they know they can achieve anything they desire and to know that there is no ceiling halting their endeavors. She also mentions her desire to continue to grow and learn in who she is as a mother and artist.
I love how Beyoncé speaks about her children being able to identify with what is in the world. Along with acknowledging where in the Black Community we slip up at when it comes to raising our boys who evolve into men. She acknowledges the fact we do not allow our young boys to be both strong and brave as well as sensitive and kind. The two go hand in hand.
Overall I absolutely adored this article and I am happy that Beyonce opened up to us somewhat. It is great to know that Queen Bey is content and happy with her life right now because if she’s happy so am I. As the CEO of the Beyhive yall know I have to be extra just a bit lol.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE FROM VOGUE below
BEYONCE IN HER OWN WORDS: HER LIFE, HER BODY, HER HERITAGE
Pregnancy & Body Acceptance
After the birth of my first child, I believed in the things society said about how my body should look. I put pressure on myself to lose all the baby weight in three months and scheduled a small tour to assure I would do it. Looking back, that was crazy. I was still breastfeeding when I performed the Revel shows in Atlantic City in 2012. After the twins, I approached things very differently.
I was 218 pounds the day I gave birth to Rumi and Sir. I was swollen from toxemia and had been on bed rest for over a month. My health and my babies’ health were in danger, so I had an emergency C-section. We spent many weeks in the NICU. My husband was a soldier and such a strong support system for me. I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend, and a father. I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later. Today I have a connection to any parent who has been through such an experience. After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery. Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery. I am not sure everyone understands that. I needed time to heal, to recover. During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. I accepted what my body wanted to be. After six months, I started preparing for Coachella. I became vegan temporarily, gave up coffee, alcohol, and all fruit drinks. But I was patient with myself and enjoyed my fuller curves. My kids and husband did, too.
I think it’s important for women and men to see and appreciate the beauty in their natural bodies. That’s why I stripped away the wigs and hair extensions and used little makeup for this shoot.
To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real. Whenever I’m ready to get a six-pack, I will go into beast zone and work my ass off until I have it. But right now, my little FUPA and I feel like we are meant to be.
Opening Doors
Until there is a mosaic of perspectives coming from different ethnicities behind the lens, we will continue to have a narrow approach and view of what the world actually looks like. That is why I wanted to work with this brilliant 23-year-old photographer Tyler Mitchell.
When I first started, 21 years ago, I was told that it was hard for me to get onto covers of magazines because black people did not sell. Clearly, that has been proven a myth. Not only is an African American on the cover of the most important month for Vogue, this is the first ever Vogue cover shot by an African American photographer.
It’s important to me that I help open doors for younger artists. There are so many cultural and societal barriers to entry that I like to do what I can to level the playing field, to present a different point of view for people who may feel like their voices don’t matter.
Imagine if someone hadn’t given a chance to the brilliant women who came before me: Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, and the list goes on. They opened the doors for me, and I pray that I’m doing all I can to open doors for the next generation of talents.
If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own. They will hire the same models, curate the same art, cast the same actors over and over again, and we will all lose. The beauty of social media is it’s completely democratic. Everyone has a say. Everyone’s voice counts, and everyone has a chance to paint the world from their own perspective.
Ancestry
I come from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust. Only when I saw that clearly was I able to resolve those conflicts in my own relationship. Connecting to the past and knowing our history makes us both bruised and beautiful.
I researched my ancestry recently and learned that I come from a slave owner who fell in love with and married a slave. I had to process that revelation over time. I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective. I now believe it’s why God blessed me with my twins. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time. I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives.
My Journey
There are many shades on every journey. Nothing is black or white. I’ve been through hell and back, and I’m grateful for every scar. I have experienced betrayals and heartbreaks in many forms. I have had disappointments in business partnerships as well as personal ones, and they all left me feeling neglected, lost, and vulnerable. Through it all I have learned to laugh and cry and grow. I look at the woman I was in my 20s and I see a young lady growing into confidence but intent on pleasing everyone around her. I now feel so much more beautiful, so much sexier, so much more interesting. And so much more powerful.
Freedom
I don’t like too much structure. I like to be free. I’m not alive unless I am creating something. I’m not happy if I’m not creating, if I’m not dreaming, if I’m not creating a dream and making it into something real. I’m not happy if I’m not improving, evolving, moving forward, inspiring, teaching, and learning.
Coachella
I had a clear vision for Coachella. I was so specific because I’d seen it, I’d heard it, and it was already written inside of me. One day I was randomly singing the black national anthem to Rumi while putting her to sleep. I started humming it to her every day. In the show at the time I was working on a version of the anthem with these dark minor chords and stomps and belts and screams. After a few days of humming the anthem, I realized I had the melody wrong. I was singing the wrong anthem. One of the most rewarding parts of the show was making that change. I swear I felt pure joy shining down on us. I know that most of the young people on the stage and in the audience did not know the history of the black national anthem before Coachella. But they understood the feeling it gave them.
It was a celebration of all the people who sacrificed more than we could ever imagine, who moved the world forward so that it could welcome a woman of color to headline such a festival.
OTR II
One of the most memorable moments for me on the On the Run II tour was the Berlin show at Olympiastadion, the site of the 1936 Olympics. This is a site that was used to promote the rhetoric of hate, racism, and divisiveness, and it is the place where Jesse Owens won four gold medals, destroying the myth of white supremacy. Less than 90 years later, two black people performed there to a packed, sold-out stadium. When Jay and I sang our final song, we saw everyone smiling, holding hands, kissing, and full of love. To see such human growth and connection—I live for those moments.
Legacy
My mother taught me the importance not just of being seen but of seeing myself. As the mother of two girls, it’s important to me that they see themselves too—in books, films, and on runways. It’s important to me that they see themselves as CEOs, as bosses, and that they know they can write the script for their own lives—that they can speak their minds and they have no ceiling. They don’t have to be a certain type or fit into a specific category. They don’t have to be politically correct, as long as they’re authentic, respectful, compassionate, and empathetic. They can explore any religion, fall in love with any race, and love who they want to love.
I want the same things for my son. I want him to know that he can be strong and brave but that he can also be sensitive and kind. I want my son to have a high emotional IQ where he is free to be caring, truthful, and honest. It’s everything a woman wants in a man, and yet we don’t teach it to our boys.
I hope to teach my son not to fall victim to what the internet says he should be or how he should love. I want to create better representations for him so he is allowed to reach his full potential as a man, and to teach him that the real magic he possesses in the world is the power to affirm his own existence.
I’m in a place of gratitude right now.
I am accepting of who I am. I will continue to explore every inch of my soul and every part of my artistry.
I want to learn more, teach more, and live in full.
I’ve worked long and hard to be able to get to a place where I can choose to surround myself with what fulfills and inspires me.
As told to Clover Hope
Hair: Neal Fairnah
Makeup: Sir John for Marc Jacobs Beauty
Manicure: Samantha Jackson for Pauline Briscoe
Tailor: Delia George
Set Design: David White
Produced by: Sylvia Fargo ltd
Remember To Always Be
Fierce and Fabulous
xoxo Lela Victoria
