Warsan Shire’s role in Beyonce’s Lemonade

By now, I am sure majority of the world has seen Beyonce’s visual album, Lemonade when it premiered on HBO in April of 2016. If you haven’t seen it, I’m sure you have at least, heard of the masterpiece. The album encompasses 11 chapters that address themes of infidelity, family relationships, death, and forgiveness. However one of the most powerful additions to Beyonce’s album is the poetry recited by Queen Bey herself in between songs. When hearing the poems,  I was immediately intrigued, but who was the author?  Upon further research I discovered then 27 year old Warsan Shire was the poetic genius behind the poetry included in Lemonade.

Warsan Shire a Somali-British poet and activist writes beautifully raw intersectional poetry. Many of her poems deal with black womanhood, being an immigrant (because Shire grew up in London), relationships, and infidelity. Although Shire has recently received notice from pop culture, she was already making her mark on the poetry world when she became the city of London’s first poet laureate. Ms. Shire has published several poetry books which have began to sell extremely well since her work was featured on Lemonade. Ms. Shire’s poetry added a beautiful element to Lemonade while the exposure of being featured by the best female artist was a certain boost to Ms. Shire’s career. Another example of the magic that can happen when Black women support each other. I’m definitely anticipating Warsan Shire’s future work and secretly hoping her and Beyonce collab again!