Solange Knowles dropped her third full-length studio album, A Seat at the Table, early on Friday morning and the singer’s latest offering might be the most personal project she’s put out yet.
Knowles described the project as “a project on identity, empowerment, independence, grief, and healing” and A Seat at the Table tackles topics like race and identity politics, and her relationship with her family.
In conversation with her mother, Tina Knowles Lawson and writer Judnick Mayard, shared on her website, Saint Heron, she gives much of the credit for becoming who she is to the foundation and the support that her parents gave her.
We grew up in a household with two parents who constantly celebrated Blackness and created forums and spaces to empower Black communities,” Knowles said. “This might feel new for other people, but it is surely not new for me…I also feel like I had a lot of encouragement when I was to stand up to inequalities. You and dad both nurtured my voice to stand up, which gave me the confidence to now continue that and to write this record. It is one thing to experience these situations, but then it’s another to go home and tell your family and have them not support you. Having that support definitely had a positive impact on me.
Knowles later closed the conversation by telling her mother that she created the project with the values that they instilled her as parents.
We are creating the opportunities and communities that we want to see…a huge part of the record is just honoring and giving a tribute to my parents.
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com