Beyoncé's Homecoming: How Pop Culture Is a Transdisciplinary Roadmap to Rhetoric and Writing in the HBCU Classroom
Kimberly Fain, Texas Southern University
Abstract
As both an HBCU alum and HBCU writing professor, I am interested in the rhetorical messages of Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé. I use Black Feminist Rhetoric as a methodology for teaching this documentary. Via the on-stage ensemble performances, recordings of Black icons, behind-the-scenes narrative, and backstage rehearsals, Beyoncé centers and uplifts Black women’s leadership and collaboration skills. Since Black feminism emphasizes multivalent dialogues that highlight women’s emotional labor, exuberant joy, and affirm personal and communal healing practices, I suggest that Beyoncé, using Black Feminist Autoethnography, shares her own HBCU legacy by connecting her family’s history to African American intellectual-cultural tradition. Although Beyoncé didn’t attend college, she’s an advocate for the HBCU experience and notes that both her father and W. E. B. Du Bois attended Fisk University. During the early years of her career, her connectedness to the HBCU legacy continued when she rehearsed at Texas Southern University. As part of my rhetorical analysis of Homecoming as a pop culture artifact, I connect my own personal narratives of my family’s HBCU legacy to show the shared value in how I share my story in the classroom and how Beyoncé shares hers in Homecoming: A Film. When HBCU professors share their own stories, they empower their students to see the value of Black women’s language practices of joy, healing, triumph, and pride. Ultimately, I suggest that Black Feminist Autoethnography is a method for narrating reflections of Black womanhood, studying Black feminist rhetoric in academia, and showing students how to acquire agency and experience empowerment by using persuasive language to recognize problems and evoke social change.
On April 17, 2019, Netflix released Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé. With this documentary, fans experienced an “intimate, in-depth look at Beyoncé’s celebrated 2018 Coachella performance,” which “reveals the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement” (Netflix, 2019, Homecoming). In “Black Feminist Rhetoric in Beyoncé's Homecoming,” I analyzed and interpreted the film from a rhetorical and writing perspective, which revealed that Beyoncé's Homecoming is more than an entertaining vehicle and intersection of the Coachella and the homecoming HBCU experience. Instead, Beyoncé's Homecoming is a masterpiece due to how she constructs this mixed-genre “two-hour and seventeen-minute musical/concert film” (Fain, 2021a). Since Netflix audiences are provided alternate footage from two of Beyoncé’s headlining shows—her first performance on April 14, 2018, and a second performance on April 21, 2018—the documentary features the best of both concerts. Furthermore, “As the writer, director, and executive producer, Beyoncé plays multiple roles "that provide a behind-the-scenes look into her artistic process" (Fain, 2021a). Besides the color concert footage, Homecoming offers “black and white scene footage” featuring “Beyoncé’s narration of her process, as both the headline performer and primary creator, Beyoncé’s high energy singing and dancing foregrounds Homecoming’s band, drumline, choir, and dancers.” By integrating film, music, “behind-the-scenes narration of rehearsal footage, spoken quotes from African American icons, and Beyoncé’s narration,” Beyoncé's Homecoming is a masterpiece because of the myriad of disciplines that can draw lessons from this documentary (Fain, 2021a).
As part of my research, writing and teaching process, I watched Homecoming many times to experience the film as an audience member, educator, and scholar. The following method has proven effective for my cultural and textual analysis. First, I watched Homecoming for enjoyment without the captions on. To make sure that I was hearing every word spoken and sung clearly, I watched Homecoming again, a second time with the captions on. While I took notes, I watched the film a third time with the captions on to document significant narration. This process allowed me to transcribe quotes, moments, and scenes that would be valuable to educators and scholars. While watching Homecoming, I was experiencing multiple levels of emotions: joy, healing, triumph, and pride. Thus, I realized that I needed to go beyond providing an analytical interpretation for educators and scholars. I also had an urgency to engage my students with the Homecoming film.
For this double HBCU alum, I had not seen the HBCU experience featured, elevated and popularized since Different World (1987-1993) and Spike Lee’s School Daze (1988). Unsurprisingly, Different World’s “influence created an explosion in applications, enrollment and graduation rates at black colleges, and continues to be catalyst for the loftiest expectations and aims for HBCU student and institution alike” (Carter, 2011). While starring in a Different World, “Jasmine Guy, Darryl Bell, and Kadeem Hardison” starred in School Daze, which “was a political and aesthetic intervention that brought HBCU life and Black culture to the big screen” (Porter, 2018). Thus, if the comedic Different World and cinematic musical School Daze “still has the power to provoke conversations about HBCUs and their social, political, and intellectual value,” (Porter, 2018) I know that I could inspire my students to write by using the pop culture masterpiece Homecoming. Whether my students had been drawn deeper into the HBCU experience via Different World and/or School Daze, Homecoming was a more recent representation for transdisciplinary writing purposes.
In my article entitled “Black Feminist Rhetoric in Beyoncé's Homecoming,” I looked to Gwendolyn Pough’s (2004) Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere to identify the connection between storytelling, hip-hop and the Black experience. Pough identifies storytelling in W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folks, Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Angela Davis: An Autobiography, and Huey P. Newton’s Revolutionary Suicide (2004, p. 104) as personal narratives published to “evoke change in racial, cultural, and political circumstance. Since hip-hop is rooted in the struggle of the Black experience, inevitably this genre shares similar intentions” (Fain, 2021a). Furthermore, Pough states that truth telling is an illocutionary force that represents an African American “desire to evoke change in society with narrative storytelling” (Fain, 2021a). In other words, “Illocutionary force flips the script and brings wreck using personal narrative and life stories to effect change” personal and communal circumstances (Pough, 2004, p. 104). Thus, as a rhetorical method used in personal narratives, autobiographies, and hip-hop, Homecoming is Beyoncé’s contribution to the genre and history of African American storytelling. Therefore, when I provide a context for watching Homecoming, whether it’s an audio-visual or a classic text, I remind my students that storytelling—oral and written—is lifechanging for both the storyteller and the reader. In essence, since storytelling or truth telling evokes change, the method empowers students, teaches agency, and fosters inclusion within the significance and power of HBCU spaces.
Kimberly Fain and her African American literature class in the Texas Southern University's Martin Luther King building on October 1, 2019.
Beyoncé’s Homecoming: Question and Answer Assignment
For my Beyoncé’ Homecoming writing projects, I’ve created various stages that provide milestones for students and enable educators to scaffold their class assignments. After providing Gwendolyn Pough’s (2004) storytelling or truth-telling theory as a historical context for viewing Homecoming, we watch the documentary in class. Depending on the amount of class time available, I may have students watch a portion during class time and the other portion on their own. Subsequently, I assign my article “Black Feminist Rhetoric in Beyoncé's Homecoming” to provide a deeper context for the documentary. For each question in the assignment, I suggest that my students use their own words and original thinking. To benefit from the cultural critique, students should not simply repeat language used in the article. Instead, they should use the analysis in the article as text evidence, while placing quotations around exact words and explain how the quote answers that question. Additionally, I remind my students that they’re not required to read any of the texts mentioned in my article or questions. Since this assignment is a close reading of my article, they are informing their interpretation of Beyoncé’s Homecoming based on the primary author’s analysis.
Instructions
Once students have viewed Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, they should read and use “Black Feminist Rhetoric in Beyoncé's Homecoming,” to answer the following questions. In this unpublished excerpt from Beyoncé’s Homecoming: Question and Answer Assignment, students are expected to demonstrate their understanding of how Gwendolyn Pough uses the rhetoric of Black womanhood. In other words, how do African American women “use the language of the past and present to construct their identities as Black women and create a rhetoric of wreck that claims agency and encourages self-definition not only for themselves but also for contemporary young Black women” (Pough, 2004, p. 105-106). For more in-depth answers, students should write 3-5 sentences per question using text evidence to express their understanding of the text.
The Rhetoric of Black Womanhood: Questions & Answers
1) Explain how “truth-telling and keeping it real” is a feature of hip-hop. Remember to mention Gwendolyn Pough in your answer.
2) Discuss the purpose and significance of “personal stories” in slave narratives? How is storytelling used to evoke change in the audience?
3) How does Beyoncé narrate her story in Homecoming? In terms of her audience, what is the purpose of story narration?
4) What does it mean when Kimberly Fain says that “Beyoncé engages in the politics of #CiteBlackWomen”? How does Beyoncé express the importance of this in Homecoming?
For the following questions, I derived them from the information under the heading “The Rhetoric of Social Activism” in “Black Feminist Rhetoric in Beyonce’s Homecoming.” In this instance, I ask students to look deeper into the role of activism in the film. For instance, how does Beyoncé use her Queen Nefertiti costume to communicate “a Black feminist rhetorical message of Black women empowerment” that segues into the African and Greek imagery depicted in Homecoming (Fain, 2021a). According to Spencer Kornhaber (2018), Homecoming is “a pep rally for Beyoncé’s imagined black college or university.” How is this message expressed to the audience? Furthermore, I want my students to contemplate how Beyoncé uses Homecoming to teach her audience about the cultural and social impact of the HBCU experience. What rhetorical response is Beyoncé seeking from her audience? See below another unpublished excerpt from the questions that I use with my writing students. As with the other set of questions, I require 3-5 sentences for each answer.
The Rhetoric of Social Activism: Questions & Answers
1) Discuss the African and Greek imagery used by Beyoncé’s Homecoming. Include the costumes, dance routines, and other forms of expression in your explanation.
2) Consider the expression of joy and healing in African American culture. How and why did Beyoncé feel the need “to create the Black experience onstage for her fans” (Fain, 2021a)?
3) How does HBCU pride inform Beyoncé’s “call to action for her audience” (Fain, 2021a)? Why is this call to action significant for Black people and HBCUs?
4) Communicate Beyoncé’s rhetorical agency in Homecoming. How does she use persuasive language to influence her audience to feel triumphant about HBCU culture?
Beyoncé’s Homecoming: Essay Assignment
On September 24, 2021, during the 4th HBCU Rhetoric and Composition Symposium—hosted by Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Bedford/St. Martin’s Macmillan Learning—I had the opportunity to present “Beyoncé’s Homecoming Using Pop Culture to Teach Transdisciplinary Rhetoric and Writing.” As part of Panel #8: Using Multimodal Texts to Teach Rhetorical Analysis, I presented slides that guided educators on how to teach this visual/aural text to their HBCU students. While sitting in my home studio, the video recording of the presentation features me in the upper right corner of the screen. During this presentation, it was important to provide various resources for HBCU educators—such as The Lemonade Reader by Kinitra D. Brooks and Kameelah L. Martin: “To thoroughly address Beyoncé’s rhetorical messages, this Homecoming analysis is a continuum of interpreting similar Black feminist themes explored in Lemonade” (Fain, 2021b). For instance, Black feminism responds to “The urgency of the moment” with diverse voices and “multivalent dialogues about black women’s emotional labor, joy, and healing in love” (Brooks and Martin, 2019, p. 1). With Lemonade, Beyoncé created “a trailblazing visual text that is forcing the academy to reconsider how black feminism engage in the popular world and scholarship simultaneously” (Brooks and Martin, 2019, p. 1). Beyoncé’s Homecoming builds on the Black feminist rhetorical principles of agency, empowerment, and inclusion. For the purposes of centering Black women and the HBCU experience, I build on this textual analysis of Brooks and Martin’s transdisciplinary text.
As stated in my MacMillan Learning article “Multimodal Rhetoric in Beyoncé’s ‘Homecoming’,” I teach multimodal texts because “When interpreting a multimodal text, features such as images, sound, and hyperlinks assist students with their critical thinking skills. Those various textual features engage students intellectually; therefore, they are powerful teaching tools” (Fain, 2022). When watching Homecoming with my students, I periodically pause the video to provide more socio-cultural and historical context for the aural/visual images. To ensure that my students view Homecoming beyond the entertainment realm, as a class, we must critically engage with the film. Taking mental and/or written notes regarding moments, images and scenes that strike them, places them in the mindset of academic engagement. Before students write an insightful essay on Homecoming, it’s important for them to deeply consider Beyoncé’s role as the rhetor. Moreover, answering these questions in partners or groups, after viewing the documentary assists them as they brainstorm during the prewriting stage.
· How persuasive is Beyoncé as a rhetor?
· What are the rhetorical messages she’s sending?
· How does she use the song lyrics, ensemble performances, costumes, production, and behind-the-scenes commentary to communicate her rhetorical intentions?
· Who is her audience? Consider how her rhetorical impact may differ depending on the audience members (Coachella vs. Netflix Audience).
· What type of rhetorical response is Beyoncé expecting from her viewers?
· Does she want her viewers to think differently about Black scholars? Black culture? Black people? Black women?
· Does she want her audience to respond by attending an HBCU? Economically support HBCUs? (Fain, 2021b)
Instructions
Depending on how the semester is progressing and if time permits, I will have my students write an essay based on watching Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé. For this essay, students write a 7–10-page paper including the title page and works cited. To thoroughly explore various rhetorical aspects of the Homecoming film, I have students address 4 sections for this essay prompt. In a thesis driven essay (mentioning the three main points students plan to address) (1) Describe and/or explain what the documentary is about. (2) Discuss what Beyoncé and the other cast members teach the audience about Black joy, Black healing, Black triumph, Black pride, Black Expression, Black Femininity, and/or Black Masculinity (choose 1-3 themes). (3) Address how Beyoncé’s and the other cast members artistically express Black Femininity and/or Black Masculinity at the intersection of HBCU culture and HBCU excellence. (4) Express how Beyoncé’s Homecoming influences you and impacts what you think about your HBCU experience and how it informs the Black community, Americans, and Global audiences.
Homecoming Inspires TSU Trailblazers
Black feminist autoethnography is a central theory that I use to connect Beyoncé’s Homecoming to my HBCU experience. In Rachel Alicia Griffin’s “I Am an Angry Black Woman: Black Feminist Autoethnography, Voice, and Resistance,” she argues for “Black feminist thought (Collins, 2009) and autoethnography to advocate for Black feminist autoethnography (BFA) as a theoretical and methodological means for Black female academics to critically narrate the pride and pain of Black womanhood” (2012, p. 138). As a double alum of Texas Southern University’s graduate programs—Thurgood Marshall School of Law and Masters in English program—I’m also an HBCU professor. Therefore, I emphasize my pride as an HBCU alum and pain as I struggled sometimes during my academic journey. I share stories of studying all night during law school and racing to my eight o’clock class every day. Also, I share stories of juggling a full-time job as a high school teacher, while taking graduate English classes in the evening. Upper-level and working students particularly find inspiration in work-life balance stories.
Once my students see my personal investment in Texas Southern University’s HBCU experience, the walls between professor and student start to break down. My students see my humanity and my empathy for their struggles, which opens them to learning rhetorical and writing skills. Moreover, once they’re willing to orally share their stories with the class, they’re less reluctant to connect their personal experiences to the Homecoming text. Thus, my transdisciplinary style of teaching assists them along their personal and professional journey. That’s why I use Griffin’s article to emphasize how autoethnography or personal narratives teach HBCU students how to acquire agency, empowerment, and inclusion in our diverse society. Once students critically analyze how Beyoncé uses storytelling in her narration, music and performance, they understand the myriad ways of using their voice to experience joy, pride, healing, and triumph amid personal and professional struggles.
A photograph of the Texas Southern University archway, which is located near the Barbara Jordan Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs building and Learning Center at 3401 Cleburne Street in Houston, Texas. Photo By Kimberly Fain.
TSU Family Trailblazers
As a double alumni and Visiting Professor at Texas Southern University, I have multiple points of connection, as researcher and audience member of Homecoming. Like Beyoncé, who interprets her Coachella experience from multiple-perspectives, performer and audience member, I interpret Beyoncé’s discursive practices from multiple-identities and discursive communities. Moreover, like Beyoncé mentions in the documentary that her father attended an HBCU, Fisk University, I, too, have parents that attended an HBCU, Cheyney University in Pennsylvania. In my effort to teach themes of joy, healing, triumph and pride, I share the following story with various classes. To emphasize the importance of detail and elaboration, I offer descriptive imagery in my storytelling and personal narratives.
As a child, I remember my parents’ determination to make that drive from their hometown Philadelphia to their alma mater Cheyney University. Founded in 1837, Cheyney University is the oldest HBCU in the United States. Cheyney’s website proudly boasts former graduates Robert W. Bogle “publisher and CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest newspaper continuously owned and operated by an African-American” and Bayard Rustin who was “a prominent civil rights activist” (2022) that marched with and advised Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For the purposes of emphasizing the type of pedigree that graduates from HBCUs, I mention and discuss notable graduates.
After graduating from Cheyney University, my parents attended graduate school at Texas Southern University. At the age of 21 and 22, my ambitious mom and dad left their family homes and drove on the highway from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Houston, Texas. In their tiny Toyota, they packed up almost everything they owned. Apart from stopping for gas and fast food, they took turns driving non-stop on the highway. Since they lacked money for a cheap motel off the side of the highway, they had few alternatives. Because of rumors, newspapers, and The Negro Motorist GREEN-BOOK, most Blacks had heard of the danger that occurred in Sundown Towns across America. Although my parents grew up as street smart, Northern city kids, they were not baited by the appearance of early 1970s Black liberation. As they ventured toward Texas, despite the tough nature they both possessed, they knew from the Black elders not to venture into these Sundown traps—in the daytime or nighttime.
So, imagine my surprise to learn some of my parents’ humble beginnings from their famous political friends. During the “11th Annual Craig Washington & Rodney Ellis Indigent Defense Webinar” hosted by former Congressman Washington and Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis on February 24, 2022, they publicly shared their memories of my parents. In front of hundreds of people in attendance, Craig Washington—the former Assistant Dean of Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University—bragged to everyone about how he recruited my parents in 1971. Although there were many well-known attorneys in that conference, I was not surprised that Washington and Ellis gave them a shoutout. As two noteworthy African American intellectuals of Texas Southern University—my mom becomes one of their greatest legal scholars, and my dad becomes a well-known public official—who helped control the multi-million-dollar budget of a major city.
When my parents were poor law students, my mom lived in a one room living space at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), and my dad lived nearby at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). They took out small loans for school and worked low paying part-time jobs. Other than that, they had no access to funds. So, they oftentimes wore the same bell bottoms, t-shirts, and leather sandals. With their heavy law books stuffed in their brown leather satchel bags, I’m sure they looked like low-key stars in their blown-out Afros. With my dad’s dark skin and chiseled cheekbones and jawline, he contrasted well with my mom’s light skin, huge Dianne Ross eyes, and beauty mark. They were a stunning duo in extraordinary times. Like I said, sometimes I chat with their old friends. I’ve seen some pictures. Their faces were stern; they were serious about life. Yet, despite their meek circumstances, they were blissfully beautiful and saw HBCU education as their gateway to lifechanging personal and communal change.
Since Beyoncé’s father, Dr. Mathew Knowles was a professor at TSU, I’m sure that he saw HBCUs as an opportunity to teach future leaders in business and music. When Dr. Knowles taught at TSU, he started the Mathew Knowles Institute due to his “passion to educate and motivate in the areas of entrepreneurship and entertainment” (2017). Because Knowles taught in the Communications department and I taught in the English Department, we both taught classes in TSU’s Martin Luther King building. I’ve spoken with him briefly or passed by him on several occasions, while walking in the hallways or lobby. Quite frankly, I’ve run into Knowles more than my own mother who is a law professor at TSU’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law. With that said, the HBCU experience is about creating and passing legacy that benefits generations to come. When I teach students, it's important to make these HBCU legacy and generational connections.
TSU Trailblazers Presentation Assignment
After sharing inspirational stories about my parents’ HBCU experience, I delve deeper into how Beyoncé mentions how her father graduated from Tuskegee like W. E. B. Du Bois (Nextflix, 2019). To emphasize her joy and pride in the HBCU experience, Beyoncé establishes generational connections: “The Houston-born singer grew up near Prairie View A&M University and spent much of her early career rehearsing at Texas Southern University” (Giorgis, 2019). Beyoncé tells her audience also that “she always dreamed of attending an HBCU herself” (Giorgis, 2019). She says instead, “My college was Destiny’s Child. My college was traveling around the world, and life was my teacher” (Netflix, 2019). By mentioning W. E. B. Du Bois and Mathew Knowles’ connection to Tuskegee and her own connection to Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M, she emphasizes the importance of HBCUs and their historical and socio-cultural impact. Therefore, these narrated moments in Homecoming are ideal for introducing my “TSU Trailblazer” assignment. Just as Beyoncé makes her audience feel invested in the HBCU experience, the following assignment stresses the importance of generational HBCU attendance and generational impact on the legacies of HBCUs.
During Homecoming, the pride and triumph that Beyoncé express are transferable to our HBCU students. To make this assignment more enjoyable for students, we first Google the names of notable TSU graduates and/or professors. Then, students will Google the TSU Trailblazer to determine who they’re interested in researching further. So that students see a connection across disciplines, I’ll guide them toward genres such as entertainment—Megan the Stallion, Yolanda Adams, Kirk Whalum, and Michael Strahan. With respect to politicians, I’ve had students complete assignments on Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, Congressman Mickey Leland, Congressman Craig Washington, Sr., Congressman Al Green and Senator Rodney Ellis. Based on the questions I ask, students learn about their hardships, educational, and professional journeys. Lastly, I prompt my students to contemplate the historical and socio-cultural impact of their TSU Trailblazer.
Instructions
For the presentation based on this research assignment, please be prepared to stand at the podium for 10-20 minutes and discuss your discoveries via slides with the class. Please know that this is an online research project. This means that much of your information will come from online reputable sources. At the conclusion of this research, you’ll have enough information to have the following slides: Title, Background of TSU Trailblazer, Achievements, Publications, Performances, Social/Cultural Impact, Conclusion, and References.
1) List the name of your TSU Trailblazer.
2) Find 3-4 online articles providing background information on your TSU Trailblazer. List the name and link to each article. Please know that you can write one- or two-word answers. Complete sentences are not needed for this question.
· City of birth and/or where they grew up (neighborhood) if available
· Parents' Careers and/or socio-economic background
· College Degrees and University Names
· Professional Career/s (past and present)
3) Research whether there is a journal article on your TSU Trailblazer. Search their name in “Google Scholar” and “Ebsco” or “JSTOR”. If so, state the following:
· Database: Google Scholar, etc.
· Journal/Publisher Name:
· Article/Book Name:
· Author:
· Restate 2-3 sentences “quoted” from the abstract or summarize the article in 3-5 sentences.
4) Provide their website (personal/government or organization/business website, etc.). Please Note: Individuals often post their website in their Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook profile. List 3-5 of their significant achievements. Explain in 3-5 sentences why those achievements are significant.
5) Have they published/edited anything? article, book, legislation (bills), song, movie, radio shows, tv shows, podcast, etc. If so, list the names of 3 of their publications.
6) Please conduct a YouTube search to find video of your TSU Trailblazer performing their career duties or giving an interview. If you find a video of them on another cite (Facebook, etc.), you're welcome to use that. Please provide the link. Please Note: Although the video maybe longer, I only show the class 2-5 minutes of this video clip.
7) What type of historical/social/cultural impact does your TSU Trailblazer have? Research whether they are associated with the following: boards, donations (to the community/TSU), foundations they've created/organized, streets named after them, schools named after them, buildings named after them and/or laws passed due their lifechanging efforts.
A photograph of the Texas Southern University walkway on the edge of campus. Various afternoons I walk this path to experience the beauty of my HBCU campus. Photo By Kimberly Fain.
Once my students complete their online research for their TSU Trailblazer, they’re enthused and ready to prepare their slides for their 10–20-minute presentation. Generally, I have students use some class time to complete their slides. To make sure that they’re progressing at a steady place, I also have my students show me drafts of their slides along the way. After all, my TSU Trailblazer assignment is inspired by how Homecoming pays tribute to Black leaders—many of whom are also HBCU Trailblazers. As Hannah Giorgis notes, “Throughout the documentary, Beyoncé weaves in text and audio snippets from multiple black authors, historians, and public thinkers, most often culling from moments when they spoke directly to black audiences” (2019). Beyoncé’s pride in Black intellectualism is evident from how she centers Black thought leaders. Giorgis writes “it’s thrilling to see the world’s foremost musical talent giddily dedicate so much of her massive project’s screen time to citing a diverse array of black scholars” (2019). This act alone elevates Homecoming from a site of entertainment to a site of higher learning. Meaning, “When Beyoncé promotes the rhetorical words of Black intellectuals who were educators, writers, and activists—such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, Marian Wright Edelman, and Audre Lorde—she further transforms Homecoming into a site of intellectual and textual production” (Fain, 2021a). Though all the intellectuals included in that list are distinguished, for my English students Toni Morrison holds a significant place. Many of my English majors dream of becoming a writer and/or professor. For those reasons, I use my TSU Trailblazer project to share with my students Toni Morrison’s connection to my HBCU.
TSU Trailblazer: Toni Morrison
When I was a TSU’s master’s student that specialized in American literature, I was most impacted by the literary works of Toni Morrison. For instance, I was intrigued by writers that influenced Morrison’s thesis entitled Virginia Woolf’s and William Faulkner’s Treatment of the Alienated. Though alienated literary characters also intrigued me, I was most interested in literary works that explored African American identity as part of the American experience. While I researched and wrote my thesis entitled “Dispossession, Estrangement, and Fragmented Identities in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Toni Morrison’s Beloved,” I had no inkling of the literary connection between Morrison and Texas Southern University. Though numerous reputable sources document that Morrison taught at Texas Southern from 1955-1957, there is little to no information on Morrison’s personal and professional experiences while teaching at TSU. As a method of occupying the gaps in published research, I was compelled to engage in on-site research and oral storytelling. Though I implored tenured TSU professors to provide specific details on the greatest American writer to ever live, most of them began teaching in the early 1970s. Therefore, beyond the aggrandized mythology that’s built around famous people’s existence, the professors I spoke to had never personally met Morrison.
When the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author passed away, in 2019, at the age of 88, KPRC 2 News, which is an NBC Affiliated station reported on Morrison’s literary legacy. Live on Texas Southern University’s campus Syan Rhodes spoke to the audience: “TSU family certainly mourning the loss of Toni Morrison as one of their own. Her works, of course, have been taught here for decades, now, in the very classrooms she once taught” (2019). Like my fellow TSU colleagues, I’ve taught Morrison’s works—such as the story “Recitatif” to my freshman-level writing classes and the novel Sula to my African American literature students. During the broadcast, my colleague Michon Benson-Marsh, Assistant Professor of English at Texas Southern, had this to say about Morrison, “Her words are revolutionary” (Rhodes, 2019). In the adjacent suite near my office, seated at her desk, Dr. Benson-Marsh leaned forward in her pinstriped tailored shirt. With each poignant point, Benson-Marsh contemplated Morrison’s influence:
It’s cool to think about that. That she, you know, walked down the Tiger Walk. That she graced the halls here. . . Her books were often horrific graphic tales, but somehow, she made those experiences safe. I guess to talk about from the onset of her literary career. She was creating works that did not shy away from who she was as a woman and as a Black woman . . . She was prophet. She was healer. Historian. Just in honor of her just pick up one of her books. Just continue to have ongoing discussions about her life and the power of the written word. (Rhodes, 2019)
On August 6, 2019, the Houston Chronicle included another TSU professor in their “Houston Remembers Toni Morrison” article. Here was an emeritus professor—outside of the English Department—that had memory of Morrison’s time at TSU. Thomas Freeman, another TSU Trailblazer, at the age of 100, an award-winning debate coach recalled Morrison vividly. Freeman fondly remembered, “Morrison as a kind, gentle person who was concerned about the welfare of students;” he recollected how “‘we had such regret when she was leaving’” (Britto, 2019). Freeman said. “‘She didn’t stay too long with us, but her material developed throughout the years’” (Britto, 2019). Considering Freeman taught “Congress members Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland and Martin Luther King Jr. before he became a civil rights activist,” his scholarly perspective has weight (Britto, 2019). Freeman praised Morrison’s impact on the discipline of debate. He recalled that “his students used Morrison’s literature, namely ‘The Bluest Eye,’ in several debate competitions around the world . . . ‘They have done well using her materials,’ Freeman said” (Britto, 2019).
Both Dr. Michon Benson-Marsh and Dr. Thomas Freeman have made a profound impact on Texas Southern University. In fact, Dr. Benson-Marsh also teaches in the Thomas Freeman Honors College. By connecting Morrison’s profound impact on TSU professors that my students know or know of makes the lived experiences of TSU trailblazers a tangible and attainable reality. Oftentimes, students are trying to determine whether they made the right decision by coming to an HBCU or whether TSU is the right HBCU for them. When I teach of Morrison’s connection to Texas Southern University, the idea of becoming a professor and/or an acclaimed writer becomes an accessible reality for my English students. Furthermore, they feel inspired to complete their education at TSU and prideful of one day joining TSU’s legacy of history making professors and/or alumni.
Luminaries’ ideas and strength have built HBCU spaces that are a testament to Black legacy and intellectualism. Beyoncé’s joy of aural/visual narration in Homecoming reflects the power of storytelling to persuade audiences to change their perception of themselves and others. Therefore, Homecoming reflects the foundation and lessons learned that are rooted in HBCU joy, healing, pride, and triumph. With Homecoming, Beyoncé brings that big game experience to Coachella. For a few hours, she takes the HBCU experience mainstream, yet never forgets to center her core audience—Black women, Black people. With this pop culture artifact, there are many transdisciplinary lessons to inspire our students to write and express themselves rhetorically. TSU Trailblazers is one of my favorites. The project evokes joy and pride from my students, which leads to empowerment and agency in HBCU spaces. Ultimately, as educators we should use Homecoming to inspire students to see the legacies of our own universities. When students realize how their future achievements can evoke change in the world, it will deepen their investment in our HBCUs.
References
Britto, B. (2019, August 6). Houston remembers Toni Morrison. Houston Chronicle. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/Houston-remembers-Toni-Morrison-14285419.php
Brooks, K. D. & Martin, K. L. (2019). Introduction: Beyoncé’s Lemonade lexicon: Black feminism and spirituality in theory and practice. In Brooks, K. D. & Martin, K. L. (Eds.), The Lemonade Reader. Routledge.
Carter, J. L. (2011, August 9). "A Different World" minimizes a different age for HBCUs. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-different-world-minimiz_b_915035
Fain, K. (2021, Summer). Black feminist rhetoric in Beyoncé’s Homecoming. Peitho: Journal of the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition. https://cfshrc.org/article/black-feminist-rhetoric-in-beyonces-homecoming/
Fain, K. (2021, October 1). HBCU 2021: Beyoncé’s Homecoming: Using pop culture to teach transdisciplinary rhetoric and writing. [Video]. Macmillan Learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN2jgahFqI0&t=298s
Fain, K. (2022, June 13). Multimodal rhetoric in Beyoncé’s “Homecoming.” Macmillan Learning. https://community.macmillanlearning.com/t5/bits-blog/multimodal-rhetoric-in-beyonc%C3%A9-s-quot-homecoming-quot/ba-p/17005
Giorgis, H. (2019, April 17). Beyoncé’s black intellectual Homecoming. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/04/beyonces-homecoming-a-scholarly-coachella-documentary/587362/
Griffin, R. A. (2012). I AM an angry black woman: Black feminist autoethnography, voice, and resistance. Women’s Studies in Communication, 35, 138-157. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2012.724524
Kornhaber, S. (2018, April 16). Beyoncé masters the fierceness of crowds. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/04/beyonce-coachella-crowds/558125/
Netflix. (2019). Homecoming: A film by Beyoncé. https://www.netflix.com/title/81013626
Porter, L. (2018, March 23). Representing HBCUs: Spike Lee’s “School Daze” at 30. Black Perspectives. https://www.aaihs.org/representing-hbcus-spike-lees-school-daze-at-30/#:~:text=School%20Daze%20was%20a%20political,Darryl%20Bell%2C%20and%20Kadeem%20Hardison
Pough, G. D. (2004). Check it while I wreck it: Black womanhood, hip-hop culture, and the public sphere. Northeastern University Press.
Rhodes, S. (2019, August 6). TSU professor opens up on Toni Morrison’s legacy. Click2Houston.com. https://www.click2houston.com/news/2019/08/06/tsu-professor-opens-up-on-toni-morrisons-legacy/
Welcome to Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. (2022). Cheyney University. Retrieved from https://cheyney.edu/who-we-are/the-first-hbcu/
Welcome to TSU: Dr. Mathew Knowles. (2017). Texas Southern University. Retrieved from https://tsu.knowlesinstitute.com/about-us/
Kimberly Fain, Ph.D., J.D. is a licensed attorney. She teaches legal research and writing as a Visiting Professor at Thurgood Marshall School of Law. She has authored 60 interdisciplinary publications including essays, articles, reviews, chapters and three books: Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature, Black Hollywood: From Butlers to Superheroes, the Changing Role of African American Men in the Movies, and African American Literature Anthology: Slavery, Liberation and Resistance.