The unveiling of Beyoncé’s Vogue September Issue takeover predictably sent the internet into overdrive on Monday. The Beyhive, her fanbase, is as enthusiastic as it is loyal. Vogue's historic reveal also comes amidst her and husband Jay-Z’s "On The Run II" tour, currently filling stadiums across the U.S. But while Beyoncé is as publicly visible as she’s ever been, her personal life remains, well, personal. In 2018, celebrities, quasi-celebrities and wannabe celebrities alike trade in the currency of real-time confessions and attention. And yet, Beyoncé has found a way to play by her own rules. She and her Parkwood team, the entertainment company she founded in 2010, can keep a professional secret like no one else — remember her surprise 2013 album “BEYONCÉ”? — but this is more than an innovative marketing strategy. Rather, it is all part of the legendary celebrity’s redefinition of privacy and publicity in the modern era. While Beyoncé is as publicly visible as she’s ever been, her personal life remains, well, personal. In 2015, the last time Beyoncé covered the prestigious September Issue, she refused to grant an interview. It was the ultimate power move, although not without controversy. This time around, she opened herself up more, offering her thoughts on body image, representation, her own ancestry and the emergency C-section birth of her twins. The photos spoke volumes too, as Beyoncé handpicked the photographer: 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell. Mitchell is the first black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover in the magazine’s 126-year history. Still, the Vogue piece doesn’t give as much access as pop culture often demands, especially since interviews with the star are so rare; she has only given four print interviews in the last five years. This means that Beyoncé has managed to remain both guarded and completely in control of her own narrative, blurring public and private while somehow never giving us enough of either. She may be trying to keep us wanting more as PR strategy, making herself scarce while still “caus[ing] all this conversation,” as she says in "Formation." Such scarcity is undoubtably a good way to sell albums, tour tickets — and magazines. But it feels more like a subversion of public expectations — what scholar Daphne Brooks called a unique blend of “hyper-visibility and inaccessibility simultaneously.” Beyoncé curates the small pieces of her life she wants us to see — and that’s it. What she does share comes when she’s ready, and never as its happening. The cover of the September issue of Vogue Magazine. Vogue To view Beyoncé's boundaries as a strictly business decision does her a disservice, however. The delineation is political, meticulous and predates the 2013 surprise “digital drop.” Earlier that year, Beyoncé retreated from the press and public life after the release of her documentary “Life Is But A Dream,” a candid visual autobiography of an artist mid-career that itself offered little unknown personal information while still allowing viewers to feel like they’d been given a more extended glimpse behind the curtain. Some called it heavy-handed, but for Beyoncé, it was a clear declaration of a survival strategy. This was a woman balancing her career as a black woman in an industry (and world) run largely by white men with motherhood and a romantic partnership that has not always been perfect. Tabloid speculation notwithstanding, the world’s most powerful entertainment couple do not comment on their private lives publicly — only through their art. Despite the soul-baring personal aspects of Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” in 2016, Jay-Z’s subsequent “4:44” in 2017, the Carters’ “Everything Is Love” in 2018 and some additional vague insinuation, actual details about the reality of their lives remain thin. We still don’t know all that we don’t know — and the couple’s confessions often feel like they are as much about politics and universal themes as actual life events. Beyoncé’s current tour is another example of this perennial balancing act. While the concerts feature husband and wife singing a selection of emotional anthems, it is also a masterclass in translating the personal into politics. Though the musical themes involve marriage, broken promises and healing, the core metaphors can be superimposed onto any of the numerous fractures exposed in Trump’s America today. Indeed, the show opens with an LED screen proclaiming: “This Is Real Life.” But it’s not, really. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are as much themselves as they are actors, inhabiting the Bonnie and Clyde-esque outlaw characters they’ve been developing since “’03 Bonnie and Clyde,” featured on Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 2.” The Carters do share personal video of Blue Ivy, Sir and Rumi as part of OTR II but the majority of the tour’s visuals exist as part of a larger cinematic story played out on the streets and beaches of Jamaica. Social commentary on racial inequality and feminism also take center stage at various points in the show. The personal aspects of OTR II mirror the journey detailed on “Lemonade,” from intuition to redemption. But those steps are also political instructions that don’t rely solely on Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s personal story, or what we think we know of it. So while OTR II might portray Beyoncé at her most publicly vulnerable, she’s still personally in control every step of the way. Even Jay defers to her direction at various points on stage, just as the editors at Vogue did. This distinct ability — and perhaps intentional sleight of hand — allows Beyoncé the best of both worlds as a powerful public artist and storyteller and private person simultaneously. Maintaining strict boundaries may sometimes be frustrating for fans who grew up alongside the rise of reality TV and 24-7 celebrity access. But it’s also a powerful reminder that Beyoncé doesn’t owe us anything. We should be thankful instead for the art she creates — art that we can use to guide our own lives, instead of trying to consume all the private details of hers. Kevin Allred is a writer, speaker and educator. He created the "Politicizing Beyoncé" course in 2010. His book "Ain't I A Diva? : Beyoncé and the Power of Pop Culture Pedagogy" is forthcoming from the Feminist Press at CUNY in June 2019. . Read more at www.kevin-allred.com.<doc-sep>The image recalls the aesthetic in the performer’s groundbreaking video opus “Lemonade,” with its lyrical visual references to plantations, slavery and Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust.” For all the styling effort that went into the picture, from the intricacies of the dress to the grandeur of the headpiece, the photograph itself has an enticingly slapdash, fuzzy imperfection. In this era of high-definition everything, Beyoncé herself is almost blurry. It’s as if the viewer is looking at an image of her on an rabbit-eared antenna TV from the 1960s. The shadows are harsh; the fabric backdrop is rumpled. In many ways, it looks like a test shot snapped before the final, glossy, impeccable one is taken. The message in photographer Tyler Mitchell’s work is that the viewer is on-set and in-the-moment.<doc-sep>Beyonce’s history-making cover spread for Vogue is here! And acolytes in the Beyhive have begun to dissect every image and word for insight into her genius as an artist, fashion icon, wife, mother of three and transformative cultural figure. For Vogue’s big September issue, editor in chief Anna Wintour gave Beyonce unprecedented control over the cover shoot, and the 36-year-old superstar chose to be photographed by 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell, the first African-American to shoot a cover in the magazine’s 125-year history. It’s here! @Beyonce stars on the cover of our September issue. Read the full story, in her own words: https://t.co/T7E2FbGDPn pic.twitter.com/GcX0ziiJD7 — Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) August 6, 2018 The accompanying as-told-to essay offers as intimate-as-Beyonce-will-allow portrait of her last pregnancy in 2017, her heritage and her place in music and cultural history. But there are a couple things Beyonce only addresses in Vogue somewhat obliquely, if at all. One is the supposedly new and improved state of her relationship with husband Jay-Z, after the couple spent the past year or so revealing in their music and in interviews that he had been unfaithful at some point in their 10-year marriage. I cried 3 times already this morning. Here’s Beyonce by me for the September 2018 cover of American Vogue.https://t.co/S7JiYGDAG5 pic.twitter.com/l1ZsfvaK6G — Tyler Mitchell (@Tyler_Mitchell_) August 6, 2018 And then there are the pregnancy rumors that have followed her and Jay-Z throughout their On the Run II world tour. No, Beyonce doesn’t say one way or another if she’s ready to have another baby, but she offers up an explanation for why some fans have jumped to certain conclusions after noticing she’s sporting a fuller figure than she has in the past. As Beyonce said in Vogue, she’s embraced her “mommy pouch” and “FUPA,” which will be explained in a bit. Meanwhile, here are five — or more — other things Beyonce also reveals in Vogue: The pregnancy and birth of her twins Rumi and Sir was harrowing: Toxemia, emergency C-section and NICU Beyonce said she weighed 218 pounds on June 13, 2017, the day she gave birth to Rumi and Sir. She explained she was swollen from toxemia and had been on bed rest for a month. The risks to the health of her twin daughter and son and to herself necessitated an emergency caesarean, and the babies spent many weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. She called husband Jay-Z “a soldier and such a strong support system for me.” In her only reference to the state of their relationship, she said in Vogue, “I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend, and a father.” Beyonce has learned to accept her curvier form Beyonce explained how it’s important for women and men to see and appreciate “the beauty in their natural bodies.” That’s why she said she and Mitchell kept the use of wigs, hair extensions and makeup to a minimum for the cover and inside photos. “To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller,” she explained. “I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real. Whenever I’m ready to get a six-pack, I will go into beast zone and work my ass off until I have it. But right now, my little FUPA and I feel like we are meant to be.” OK, so what’s a FUPA? The term isn’t spelled out in the interview, but the outlet Quartzy.com said FUPA is slang for “fat upper pubic area” and refers to fat tissue that hangs in the lower abdominal area and that may come with obesity, following pregnancy or after significant weight loss. Beyonce had to come to terms with her slave heritage Beyonce said she’s descended from a slave owner who fell in love with a woman who was his property and married her. “I had to process that revelation over time,” she told Vogue. “I now believe it’s why God blessed me with my twins. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time. I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives.” She believes in nurturing the next generation of artists who come from different backgrounds “It’s important to me that I help open doors for younger artists,” she told Vogue. “There are so many cultural and societal barriers to entry that I like to do what I can to level the playing field, to present a different point of view for people who may feel like their voices don’t matter.” She wants to raise emotionally healthy children When it comes to her three children, Blue Ivy, 6, and Rumi and Sir, 1, Beyonce told Vogue she wants her daughters to know “they can write the script for their own lives” while she hopes her son Sir will grow up to understand “he can be strong and brave but that he can also be sensitive and kind.”<doc-sep>
Photo: Tyler Mitchell/Vogue Vogue's revered September issue has arrived, and with it, a glorious cover starring the one and only Beyoncé. The singer, who's on the final leg of her "On the Run II" tour with Jay-Z, has fronted the glossy three times before, but there's something extra special about her fourth go-round: Anna Wintour gave her editorial rule of the issue. According to a report in The Huffington Post, the legendary editor-in-chief let the performer orchestrate the photos inside the magazine, as well as write her own "long-form captions." Beyoncé never fails to paint visually grand, history-making pictures, and when she's given the opportunity to put her art on display, she does it in a remarkably visceral way. So when it came down to who would capture her for Vogue, Beyoncé chose a 23-year-old Black photographer named Tyler Mitchell. The up-and-coming lensman hails from Atlanta and is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He is also the first Black photographer to shoot the magazine's cover in its 126-year history. "I think it's important for women and men to see and appreciate the beauty in their natural bodies," Beyoncé said in the cover story accompanying the shoot. "That's why I stripped away the wigs and hair extensions and used little makeup for this shoot. To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller." This year's fall book of fashion is billed as Vogue's largest to date. While some had predicted that it would be noteworthy for one other reason — that it would be the last issue of Vogue to come out under the watch of Wintour — both Wintour and Condé Nast have continued to deny those rumors at length. See the rest of the imagery from Beyoncé's Vogue shoot below, then read the full story on Vogue.com. 5 Gallery 5 Images UPDATE, August 6, 3:05 p.m.: According to report by Business of Fashion regarding Vogue's September issue, Condé Nast creative director Raul Martinez presented Beyoncé with a selection of photographers to shoot the cover. Among the group was 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell, who Martinez first became aware of after he photographed gun control activists for a Teen Vogue digital cover in March. Beyoncé "immediately approved of Mitchell," having recognized the "historic implications of the choice." In addition, Wintour didn't give Beyoncé complete control over the editorial content, as some reports had alleged leading up to the issue's release. Rather, Beyoncé — who's historically opted out of interviews — worked with Jezebel's culture editor, Clover Hope, to write a feature in her own words to accompany the cover story. "Who is better to write about Beyoncé than Beyoncé?" Wintour said in a statement to Business of Fashion. Stay current on the latest trends, news and people shaping the fashion industry. Sign up for our daily newsletter.