Overview
The Renaissance Reader: Beyoncé and Black Queer Popular Culture offers a groundbreaking exploration of Beyoncé’s acclaimed album Renaissance, examining its celebration of Black queer aesthetics through disco, house, and bounce music. Building on the success of The Lemonade Reader, this interdisciplinary collection brings together popular culture writers and scholars to analyse the album’s profound impact on contemporary culture and artistic expression. Through the lens of Black feminist and queer theory, contributors examine how Renaissance engages with and reimagines African American musical traditions while centring Black women’s experiences and queer aesthetics. This timely volume tackles crucial questions about Beyoncé’s evolving artistry, celebrity, and cultural impact, while exploring how her work intersects with contemporary Black feminist and queer theoretical methodologies. The Renaissance Reader: Beyoncé and Black Queer Popular Culture is an essential text for scholars and students in Black women’s studies, queer studies, and popular culture, as well as for fans seeking deeper insight into Beyoncé’s artistic vision and cultural significance.
Full Product Details
Author: Kinitra D. Brooks ,
Nicholas R. Jones (Yale University, USA)
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint: Routledge
Weight: 0.450kg
ISBN: 9781032633404
ISBN 10: 1032633409
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 12 December 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
""Until recently, writing on Beyoncé’s Renaissance felt akin to anatomizing a phantasmagoria. This collection of essays examines an album that reclaims house, disco and ballroom genres. Rooting their reflections in Black feminist thought, queer theory and Afrofuturism, contributors explore Beyoncé’s revival of neglected musical traditions, her homage to her beloved Uncle Johnny, who inspired the album, and her emergence as a “Mutha” figure for queer and trans communities. Through discussions of joy, spatial resistance and sonic innovation, the volume casts Beyoncé not simply as performer but as curator of Black queer heritage and legacy. - Ellis Cashmore, Professor of Sociology and author of Celebrity Culture (Routledge, 2024) ""A wonderful resource for readers and educators looking to connect history to Beyoncé’s expansive vision and onward to new queer, Black, and feminist futures. The contributors weave critical academic and personal insights together into a thrilling volume.” - Leah DeVun, Professor of History at Rutgers University, USA.
""Until recently, writing on Beyoncé’s Renaissance felt akin to anatomizing a phantasmagoria. This collection of essays examines an album that reclaims house, disco and ballroom genres. Rooting their reflections in Black feminist thought, queer theory and Afrofuturism, contributors explore Beyoncé’s revival of neglected musical traditions, her homage to her beloved Uncle Johnny, who inspired the album, and her emergence as a “Mutha” figure for queer and trans communities. Through discussions of joy, spatial resistance and sonic innovation, the volume casts Beyoncé not simply as performer but as curator of Black queer heritage and legacy. - Ellis Cashmore, Professor of Sociology and author of Celebrity Culture (Routledge, 2024)
Author Information
Kinitra D. Brooks is the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies and the Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University, USA. Nicholas R. Jones is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, USA, and the former King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center’s Scholar-in-Residence at New York University, USA.
