Solange’s “A Seat at the Table”

I fell in love with Solange’s album the moment I heard the title. I am unsure whether the title was a coincidence or not, but the week before Solange’s album release, Keith Scott and Terrence Crutcher were shot and killed by police. That same week, The New York Times dedicated a page in their paper to print Langston Hughes’ poem I, Too which depicts the relationship between a black man who has so much love for a country that refuses to claim him and seems ashamed of him. The print of the poem was intended to stand in solidarity with African American victims of police brutality, allowing a timeless piece to speak volumes on the necessary conversation of current race relations in America. Langston writes,

“I too sing America.

I am the darker brother,

They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes…

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table when company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen…”

Solange took the lyrics “at the table” from the poem and turned them into her album title “A Seat at the Table.” The headline sets the tone for a beautiful compilation of music and lyrics that purposefully create a dialogue and space for African Americans to celebrate their blackness. The album is fluid, each song flowing into the next to shed light on the modern-day black experience.

The first song, “Weary,” echoes the album’s theme of celebrating blackness as she states, “I’m gonna look for my body…I’m gonna look for my glory.” These lyrics relate a lot to our readings and how enslaved and freed blacks alike first sought to validate black humanity through giving written and oral accounts on black life (i.e. David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley).  Subsequently, near the 1820s-1830s, blacks embraced and established their identities in spite of their commodification by simultaneously developing their own autonomous way of life and culture despite their slaveholders’ wishes for them to remain solely as property. She also has beautiful interludes such as “Tina Taught Me” where her mother speaks on the “beauty in Black people” and how sad it is that black pride is sometimes frowned upon and mistaken for being anti-white. The interlude makes the point that in America, all we are ever taught is white history. This hits on the crucial point that regardless of background, living as an American means always being immersed in white culture and acknowledging white and/or European history. Even today we see a relegation and hesitance in school systems and society to recognize and proclaim the cultures and histories of people of non-European descent.

In one of my favorite songs on the album, Solange sums up the main message resonant throughout the work when she says, “made this song to make it all y’alls turn, for us, this is from us.” This line highlights the importance of creating spaces and opportunities to celebrate your identity when there aren’t enough existing spaces available for you to do so. Solange successfully created a body of work that allows musical artists the opportunity to speak critically on social issues and celebrate their culture.  Her album also allows a hypothetical space for African Americans to listen to these songs and take pride in their identities, to take “A Seat at the Table,” because even in 2016 we still see a common trend of African Americans needing and fighting to proclaim and celebrate their identities and humanity within a society and space reluctant to accept blackness as equal and socially acceptable.

Yes, this was a shameless plug/ album review. I think this album is great, and if this post interests you, I’m sure the album will too!