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Beyonce Knowles: An Icon In American Culture

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Beyoncé Knowles is an icon in American society and one of the most powerful and influential female celebrities. “More than a person; she is a public figure, entertainer, and brand” (Wallace, 2017). She has shifted herself away from a singular figure in society towards a brand which symbolizes broad concepts such as gender, class, and race as well as addresses social movements such as Black Lives Matter (Durham, 2017). On February 6, 2016, Beyoncé surprised her fans by releasing the music video for her new song “Formation” which encapsulates everything she stands for. Through landscape, representation, and performance, Beyoncé comments on the social injustices placed on African Americans and women while embracing black culture. Landscape is a non-neutral, dynamic, animated entity that can reflect gender, race, and power relations. It can be a representation of a location and can also influence feelings towards a location. Thus, “landscape is not only a ‘thing’, but is also an ideological or symbolic process that has the power to …show more content…

A lot of these clips are taken from a documentary called That B.E.A.T which was intended to inform outsiders about the unique music that comes out of New Orleans and showcase their brand. Beyoncé is targeting all types of groups found in New Orleans and creating a sense of identity for the city. Through the landscape and the charged imagery shown in this music video, an emotional response if evoked (Bertens, 2017). Instead of having people remember New Orleans as just a town which experienced a devastating hurricane, she is showing everyone the abundance of culture which is still very much alive. Beyoncé is celebrating how strong black culture is by representing them in the most positive light while still alluding to the hardships that they have had to

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He admits, “…I don’t truly understand the landscape, I don’t know how to handle myself in the face of ugliness or danger” (3). In this passage, Cantu establishes the relationship between the physical landscape and his own emotional landscape. This becomes an important foundation for the way he later connects the physical landscape around him to his emotions. At the end of the same entry, Cantu describes his morning view: “I watched as the landscape shifted under the winter light. Behind me, my mother placed her hand on my shoulder and pointed to a cloud of gypsum sand in the distance, impossibly small, swirling across the basin desert.”

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In the essay, “A Literature of Place”, by Barry Lopez focuses on the topic of human relationships with nature. He believes human imagination is shaped by the architectures it encounters within life. Lopez first starts his essay with the statement that geography is a shaping force for humans. This shaping force is what creates our imagination; the shaping force is found within nature. Everything humans see within nature is remembered, thus creating new ideas and thoughts for our imagination.

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