We have the pleasure of seeing the incredibly talented Solange Knowles grace the March cover of Billboard Magazine, along with an epic interview where she discusses her place in the world today.
As a preteen, Solange was a backup dancer for Destiny’s Child, she released her first album, Solo Star, at 16, and spent much of her coming-of-age being compared to her older sister Beyonce.
Now, at 31 years old...she's come into her full existence as a woman, mother, artist and influencer. A Seat at the Table, Solange’s third album, was her first to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and the first single, “Cranes in the Sky,” won a Grammy for best R&B performance in 2017. Solange is now putting her focus on being a mom to her 13-year old son and owning her space as a performance artist, designing peices for huge galleries and museums such as the notorious Guggenheim Museum.
Photo Source: Getty Images
A lot of her success on her album comes from her role in the black community, her representation of woman, and her conversations surrounding ancestry. She even interviewed her parents for a skit on A Seat at the Table, she describes the experience as groundbreaking for her-
"I understood my father so much more. To sort out my adolescent and young adult years, there was still so much I needed to know because our relationship was not always very good. It’s still very much a work in progress. But I think I have a much clearer idea of the trauma that he experienced and how it felt like it was then generationally passed on to me."
She goes on to discuss her feelings on the pressure from the music industry to be continuously putting out work despite the fact that art is inspiration based, not time based-
"This cycle of you put out an album, now you go and perform it, and then you go back and you work on another one for however long, and then as soon as that’s done, you put one out again... it’s the cycle that the music industry has set in place for us. Artists are really whimsical. And I have a 13-year-old son now, so that is a compass of how I have to set up my life and set up my work. It matters to be present with him. I’m relieved when I hear other mothers say, “Yeah, we’re going through this, too.”
We're excited to see how Solange fills up the spaces that she's present in all throughout 2018. Keep representing for the community Solo! Check out the full interview here.