Celebrity mom Solange Knowles took a seat on the panel at CEMEX Auditorium at Stanford University last week to talk about the #BlackGirlsMagic movement that is sweeping across the nation. The recording artist delved into a number of societal issues that inspired her chart-topping album, A Seat at the Table.
“When I think of the black aesthetic, I think of archiving all of these things, all these little fractures of moments of my life,” Knowles said. “It was one of the best things I could have ever done as a mother, as a wife – as a woman,” she said of her latest record. “All these things I had so much anger and resentment towards, I understood so much clearer. It brought my son’s father and me closer together.”
Solange’s album also served as her way of giving her son a keepsake. Various interludes in between songs are filled with conversations between Solange and her parents.
“My parents are no longer married, so it was a very emotional process for all of us,” Knowles said of the experience. “I heard things that I never knew. I heard things that my parents wanted to protect me from. I learned things that made me who I am. It was such a vital part of the process.”
Solange Knowles debuted her third studio album near the end of September after spending more than four years composing songs for the project. The singer relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, during the creation process to become more aligned with her cultural background.
“It wasn’t easy,” Solange said of the experience shortly after debuting her 21-track record. “[I] often wanted to give up and hand the pen elsewhere, but I knew I had to use my voice to tell this story,” she tweeted.
Her hard work has certainly paid off as A Seat at the Table topped the Billboard charts a few weeks ago. Solange Knowles is the proud mother of a son named Daniel Jr. The singer and her husband, Alan Ferguson, celebrated two years of marriage earlier this year.
Photo: EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily
