On Sunday, Beyoncé’s visual masterpiece Lemonade turned one year old. The album-slash-conceptual film, which garnered heaps of critical praise — not to mention a Peabody award — was essentially an hour-long love letter to black women in America. Thus, what better way to commemorate the occasion — and further the album’s message — than by giving back to the women Lemonade celebrates?
Today, Queen Bey announced the establishment of the Formation Scholars. For the 2017-2018 academic year, four “bold, creative, conscious and confident” young women from four universities — Parsons School of Design, Berklee College of Music, Howard University and Spelman College — will receive educational scholarships, courtesy of Bey. As explained on Beyoncé’s website, there are some parameters: You have to enroll/be enrolled in a program for the creative arts, music, literature or African-American studies and you have to be “unafraid to think outside the box.” At the moment it’s unclear how large the grants will be, what the application process will look like or when the deadline is to apply.
But we do know this: As far as album anniversary parties go, the announcement of a female-empowering scholarship beats the hell out of an A-list shindig where guests chow down on cover-art-decorated cake. Not that we expected anything less from our Queen.
Image: beyonce.com
[ via Fashionista ]
