Talk

Politicizing Beyoncé

Performeum

© Kevin Allred

May 20 2017
Laxenburger Straße 2a
Vienna 1100
Phone: 01 5892222
18:30
free
Saturday, May 20, 2017
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Liberté, Egalité, Beyoncé! Politicizing Beyoncé is a practical seminar, which, through talks and workshops, brings participants on an interactive journey into the pop world of Beyoncé. As a bastard of academic, artistic, and activist formats, Prof*X Allred combines the work of Beyoncé with the novels, speeches, and music of black women to elaborate on the activist and political strands in her work. The analysis of Beyoncé's visual and musical art provides a clear picture of what it means to take an intersectional feminist perspective in contemporary pop, and of –whether we are aware of it or not – how race, class, gender, and sexuality influence and direct our daily lives. Politicizing Beyoncé is a new form of teaching, and creates a different approach to the artistic output of Beyoncé. Above all, learning – and unlearning – becomes a real pleasure! Kevin Allred clearly shows that pop and politics are interwoven and pop is still a driving force of social upheaval. In the US, his doctrine is dangerous to the state – Kevin Allred finds himself on the blacklists of the reactionary Trump government.

Professor Kevin Allred is a feminist author, teacher, trainer, and subverter of the status quo. A shameless academic outlaw. He believes that everyone should have access to knowledge and education – not just the guardians of the ivory tower.

Black Feminism & the Music Industries

It starts with an analysis how her eponymous album “Beyoncé” undermined the entire music industry in order to (re-)position black protagonists as key figures for cultural criticism.

Lemonade

In 2016, Beyoncé's album Lemonade was released, polarizing art critics as well as fans. While bell hooks argued that the work was a triumph of capitalism over feminism, for other recipients, it was a long-awaited act of feminist liberation. The contradictions and criticisms are the basis for academic gadfly Kevin Allred’s associative questioning. Dance the classroom!

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