A Conversation with Salamishah Tillet

Beyoncé, as this Close-Up suggests, figures prominently in the global imaginary. Her status as a celebrity and icon, and her influence on changing notions of feminism and black womanhood, are located at the convergence of art and politics. In this conversation, Tiffany E. Barber and Salamishah Tillet discuss the performer's popularity, her performances of blackness and black womanhood, how she imagines the post-civil rights South in her work, and her relationship with the Obamas.