3 Reasons To Feel Good About Being Black This Week: Bey, K, and Jay

It’s only Tuesday, but here’s three reasons to feel good about being Black this week, Bey, K, and Jay!

Beyonce made history as the first Black woman to headline Coachella over the weekend. New York Times called her two- hour set, “meaningful, absorbing, forceful and radical performance”. We’re sure you’ve saw all the clips online and are strongly considering BeyUniversity.  Of course Beyonce was supposed to perform last year, but did not due to her pregnancy.

The first Coachella festival took place in 1999.

Melissa Harris-Perry, wrote a great piece on Beychella for ELLE, you can read it here.  One of my favorite pieces of the article was the following quote:

“I was supposed to perform at Coachella before, but I ended up getting pregnant, so I had time to dream and dream with two beautiful souls in my belly, and I dreamed up this performance.”

Kendrick Lamar received the Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album, DAMN. Kendrick is the first hip-hop artist to receive such a prestigious award which usually goes to classical or jazz musicians. Some are upset because they feel that a work like DAMN, which has won Grammy’s and is considered to be commercialized album, threatens the exclusivity of such an award and opens the community to other future award recipients outside of the usual.

Read more about Kendrick’s award here.

Time: The Kalief Browder Story, the six-part documentary executively produced by Jay-Z has been selected to receive a Peabody Award.  For those who are unfamiliar, the Peabody Awards were established to recognize “excellence in broadcasting”. Time tells the story of Kalief Browder, who was imprisoned at Rikers Island for three years, without ever being convicted of a crime. Two of those years, he spent in solitary confinement, and Browder would later go on to commit suicide.

Among the 2016 award recipients were:
ATLANTA (FX NETWORKS),  HIP-HOP EVOLUTION (NETFLIX, HBO CANADA), LEMONADE (HBO), MAVIS! (HBO), O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA (ESPN), and 13TH (NETFLIX).

If you don’t feel inspired to make shit happen your own way, in your own lane, and passionately share your gifts with the world, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

-Fancy