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This is not an album review. This is a love letter to you, Dear Writer.
Beyoncé’s act ii: Cowboy Carter may soon become the soundtrack of your life if you’re a multi-passionate writer. This genre-defying album is like a musical permission slip to pursue any creative passion you want despite what naysayers declare you can and cannot do or can and cannot be.
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It’s time for another edition of Currently!
With this feature, I share with you what I’m currently into hoping that you’ll find something that inspires you too. Since it’s February, I want to do a special Black History Month edition.
So let’s review what I’m currently watching, reading, writing, planning and loving.
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By the time you read this, I probably will have already seen Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé twice. For real. And yes, I went to the actual concert too, but I knew this movie would be much more than recordings of the show.
In short, Renaissance the movie feels magical, yet as the behind-the-scenes looks show us how the magic is made, you suddenly feel as if you’re capable of magic too.
And that right there is exactly why I’m so obsessed with Beyoncé. Honestly, I think that’s what makes her so magnetic to most of us certified members of the Beyhive.
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Editor’s Note: See Jane Write now publishes articles and personal essays by writers who identify as women, non-binary folks, and our allies. Learn more here.
The first time I played Beyoncé’s Renaissance, I was cleaning the kitchen. “Cozy” came on and had me and the broom bopping and twirling under the disco ball. I half expected Donna Summer to bust out in song. Renaissance sounded like my youth and it paid homage to both House and Disco music, which my generation is very familiar.
I expected the Renaissance World Tour to feel like a family reunion, and it didn’t surprise me to see people aged 60 and older in the stadium. Crowds poured into Chicago’s Soldier Field through 20 gates, and while my daughters bought merch, I people watched. Stylish older ladies, with beautiful gray hair and faces beat to perfection, lifted their canes to me in salute. I, sporting a neon purple cane, lifted back. Mature ladies were a novelty in this venue, and tonight we were here to cuff it, cuff it, cuff it for you, baby!
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Since last year’s inaugural Magic City Poetry Festival founder Ashley M. Jones has been busy. She’s been busy publishing her second book, dark / / thing, which she describes as “a book that can’t sit silently.”
Ashley, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award recipient who also won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards for her debut collection Magic City Gospel, has also been busy planning this year’s Magic City Poetry Festival.
The 2019 festival will kick off April 4 and host events throughout the month including a reading by poetry legend and Birmingham native Sonia Sanchez!
Ashley started the Magic City Poetry Festival to help showcase the talent of Birmingham-based poets and to expose more people to the power of poetry. See Jane Write had a chat with Ashley recently to discuss how this year’s festival will do just that.
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