Janelle MonĂĄe's Womanist and Afrofuturist Trilogy of Songs
One of my favorite observations about Janelle MonĂĄeâs art and messages is by way of three particular songs of hers on three different albums. Listen to âMany Moonsâ then âCold Warâ then âSally Rideâ by Janelle MonĂĄe, in succession. It is genius and an experience. Her albums Metropolis (Suite I - The Chase), The ArchAndroid (Suite II and Suite III), and The Electric Lady (Suite IV and Suite V) are truly anchored and connected by these three songs, though her stories and emotionsâreally like womanist oral histories to me, by way of music; many Black girls and Black women arrive at a place of sociopolitical consciousness and self-love via our musicâare incredible over many songs and throughout these albums.Â
For example, I love the parity and passion, the tenderness, in her song âPrimetime" with Miguel. In fact, though I love the political messages of her art, I love that not only empowerment but also pleasure is a theme in her art. I mean, "she followed me back to the lobby, she was lookinâ at me for some undercover love" in âGivinâ Em What They Loveâ evokes a message about pleasure. I feel both vulnerable and empoweredâaliveâwhen I listen to âQ.U.E.E.N." (which stands for Queer, Untouchables, Emigrants, Excommunicated, Negroid). Iâve mentioned how her songs and the message of complex Black womanhood that she shares on The Electric Lady is something that I also noticed on BeyoncĂ©âs self-titled fifth album BEYONCĂ, and I wrote about this in Janelle MonĂĄe Is Flawless and BeyoncĂ© Is An Electric Lady; these two albums are among my four favorite albums of 2013. Her song âGhetto Womanâ is incredible and is the experience of intersectionality for Black women, coming from the adoring eyes of an adult child to her Black mother, which I wrote about in "Ghetto Woman" by Janelle MonĂĄe Is Everyday Womanism. Her interludes within her albums (like âNeon Gumboâ and âLook Into My Eyesâ) are just her reminding us of her vocal prowess and control, as well as her softness as power; theyâre auditory seductions.
But even with my love for all of the aforementioned and more, I feel something even further, deeper, beyond expression in many ways, when I listen to âMany Moons,â âCold Warâ and âSally Rideâ individually, and most especially in succession. When I previously wrote about âSally Ride,â I mentioned: "The âriver?â That surfaces in so many early slave work songs and spirituals. Yet sheâs talking of a new future at the same time. âI wanna fly?â How many spirituals and even modern gospel songs include the element of transcendence and âflying awayâ from abuse, judgment, oppression?â Iâm not a theist, as I mentioned in that post, but I still honor and connect to the role old spirituals play in Black culture as they operated as oral history/communication, not just as praise and worship. âMany Moonsâ pre-dates both âCold Warâ and âSally Rideâ and in the first, she sings âI keep my feet on solid ground.â Incredible. This is taken directly from several early Black spirituals that allude to âtraveling shoesâ and the journey away from oppression in more than a physical sense. I wrote about the latter when I analyzed a Zora Neal Hurston (yes, she also sang!) song âDat Old Black Galâ that mentions ânew shoesâ in this sense. The ground is again mentioned in âCold Warâ where she sings âif you want to be free, below the ground is the only place to be.â
Once put together, âMany Moonsâ speaks of the solid ground she maintains on this difficult journey, âCold Warâ speaks of being underground (allusion to outside of the mainstream gaze, in many ways, and literal death as well) and "wings to the weak," and âSally Rideâ mentions the river, but also the moon/flying away. The trilogy completes the experienceâthe story. It tells the reality of oppression, the desire for escape, the journey of enduring/resisting it, the transcendence that takes place to be alleviated from it. But the latter remains as open-ended in a way, allowing for a vision of a different future. It centers Black women as subjects, not objects, by default, as it occurs through Janelle MonĂĄeâs eyes, how I experience her womanist oral history and expression, but also one that is creatively antagonistic to reality being static and fixed permanent, where I experience her Afrofuturist thought.
In âMany Moonsâ she sings "Youâre free but in your mind, your freedomâs in a bind."Â In âCold Warâ she sings "If you want to be free, below the ground is the only place to be."Â The entire song of âSally Rideâ asserts the fight for freedom (especially "you got the right to choose"). In âMany Moonsâ she sings "And when the world just treats you wrong, just come with me and Iâll take you home." In âCold Warâ she sings "Bye bye bye bye, donât you cry when I say goodbye." In âSally Rideâ she sings "I know you love me, but Iâm still gone. I got to make my peace. I got to move on."Â Through the three songs it is clear that the state of oppression (and the structural impacts the personal) and its reality is shared, it is challenged, there is defense of those harmed by it, there is the desire for escape, there is the start of a vision for a different future. Itâs remarkable how these three songs are cohesive and fluid, like three parts of a single story.
And itâs not that her other songs donât connect to these three. I mean, âQ.U.E.E.N.â definitely describes the same oppressed peoples that she speaks truth of experience about at the end of âMany Moons.â âCold Warâ is the more emotive and reflective version of âDance Apocalyptic.â And then, if âDance Apocalypticâ has a celebratory tone, âSally Rideâ is its parallel lamentation. Similar expressions. But the way that âMany Moons,â âCold Warâ and âSally Rideâ connect for me is like the experience of reading three great novelsâin a trilogy setâon the human condition, where Black women are centered, but it is not exclusively about Black women (i.e. she chose late astronaut and queer White woman Sally Ride for a song title to allude to the concept of escape). She is speaking about humanity and oppression at times, but not in a way that must exclude Black women to be âvalid,â as so many mainstream responses to oppression seem to require. For her, Black women are a part of humanity and centering Blackness is not antithetical. This is her lens and this comes through quite clear in her art. Black women are a part of the future in Janelleâs art, centered in Janelleâs art. And because of structural oppression and the impact of anti-Blackness itself, let alone misogynoir and other oppressions that Black women experience, this stance is automatically radical. This stance is womanism. This stance is Afrofuturist. This stance is sublime. Itâs the only activism that I am interested in, where Black survival matters and where Black womenâs or any Black peopleâs humanity is not only a tool/trope/metaphor used solely to recenter other people while our realities are ignored. So when I mention ânot exclusive,â this is not a point to then recenter othersâ lives while erasing Black women, yet again. Janelle MonĂĄe offers a way of envisioning the humanity of the oppressed, any oppressed, while recognizing the specificity of Black womenâs experiences. ThisâŠcan be done. (This is in fact what womanism is about, though it doesnât make âanyone" a womanist.) Black women like her show people how. Itâs just that people donât consider Black women as "women" or Black people as "human." This default stance shapes the oppression of Black people. Her music both deconstructs and rejects this stance.
I enjoy all of her art and I am in awe of some it. Awe. I truly love these three songs âMany Moons,â âCold Warâ and âSally Ride.â I like how her songs often connect the past, challenge the present and begin to envision a better future, where time is more fluid than linear at times, via her visuals and words. I like how though she may not self-label as a womanist (though she almost word for word alludes to Alice Walker at times, for example) or an Afrofuturist (though she specifically discusses futurist themes and the themes throughout her album art, wardrobe, emotion pictures and more affirm this), itâs clear how her incredible messages contribute to scholarship on both. Janelle MonĂĄe is so deliberateâŠdeliberate as praxis. I mean, I of course love her statements off stage, so to speak. She has rejected the politics of respectability, and this relates to how people consistently use her image as a way to shame and control other Black women, especially based on appearance and sexualty. She has spoken clearly and openly against sexism. She mentioned how her ode to poor workers is by way of her âuniformâ on stage (which connects to her line "they keep us underground working hard for the greedy, but when itâs time to pay they turn around and call us needy" in the song âQ.U.E.E.N.â). These moments outside of her music and performances definitely tend to capture the public eye, as they should. But what she is doing with the music itself? Do. Not. Sleep. On. This. Incredible. Black. Woman. Ever.
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