Sam and Sofia

Sue and I are in West Oakland with Devorah, Sam, and Sofia. After eating luscious and shockingly inexpensive California fresh fruit all day, we went out for Vietnamese food and then saw Lemonade at a wild and eclectic place called The New Parkway Theatre: Sue (who is California born and reared) says it's quintessential California. Used couches, political posters, good food, people with blue and orange hair and plugs and piercings. I was gawking like a country girl, delighted. Lemonade is a complicated piece. It centers Beyoncé's artistry, voice, choreography, costuming, images, cinematography--all to serve a particular history of Black women and their relationships with each other and with Black men, much of it filmed in New Orleans. No wonder, we thought, people are talking about it all over the world. It's an art film, it's a genre of its own, and whatever someone feels about the messages of the film, it is a stunning work.