Trey

writing about race, history, democracy. conspiring to build stronger social movements. dancing.

[Trey @walktrey]

Beloveds - I’m gradually shutting down this account.

Follow me on
IG: @ trey.walk

Bluesky: @ https://t.co/3o4A3HWT0f

I’ll be posting pop culture content on Substack soon if that’s your thing.

xx

https://t.co/RmJmNNrX8O

[Rihanna @rihanna]

72, summer 2026 issue, #EE72

[IChooseViolence @ourhermitage]

Inside the class of the new Beyoncé - inspired Harvard University Course - AMERIICAN REQUIEM: Beyoncé, Benefits, and the Gap Between Promise and Delivery

https://t.co/4ahIKP61v8

[IChooseViolence @ourhermitage]

How We Taught Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter at Harvard University - Harvard University Professor, Ayushi Roy

“Using the album as a teaching tool to talk about the US social safety net… It uses Cowboy Carter, and Beyoncé’s three-act reclamation project, as a lens for thinking about who the U.S. safety net extracts from, and who it serves. The argument isn’t necessarily that Bey set out to make this exact analysis. Rather, that her art and her political evolution sit at the center of American life, making them useful pedagogical tools to think about exclusion, erasure, deserving-ness, and reformation.”

https://t.co/wZ9fHvKD9W

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Weeksville was one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. Today, it remains a cornerstone of this city, but its history has too often been overlooked.

This short film is the story of Weeksville's rich, living history — and its vibrant future.

[Kevín @KevOnStage]

Durand accepted his Grammy as only he could!! 😂😂😂

CONGRATULATIONS!!

[Left of Black @LeftOfBlack]

Jesmyn Ward: "We must, craft Black legacies!" | @BaldwinBooks

[Nalá ☆▷ @BoricuaHive]

WELL YES

[ayan. @artan_ayan]

how many black critics have lost their jobs in the past two years? we've watched them dismantle almost every single significant media institution made for us. i need black artists to start speaking up about the way black culture journalism is being systematically killed off.

[michelle. @michkeenah]

this is such a lovely observation. it feels like ancestral veneration

[Janai Nelson @JNelsonLDF]

Congratulations to the Gullah-Geechee community on this historic win for land preservation. Georgia’s highest court sides with slave descendants fighting to protect threatened island community https://t.co/WWkZIXs3fD

[solé @layxsnv]

This VASELINE ad is EVERYTHING 🥹…. IYKYK

[donald @Boringstein]

Going to keep hammering this home: the field operation on our campaign was the greatest since Obama 08 and if adjusted for scale, far and away the most impressive field operation in 21st century american politics

[Josh P. Jackson @JoshJay990]

Cowboy Carter Tour Review (Spoilers, sorta kinda 😭)

Where do I even begin?! NoBODY right now is doing what Beyoncé is doing, I’m sorry! I’ve been to many of the bigger-name shows y’all would mention off rip and while they were good, they weren’t GRAND. A lot of artists put on shows and simply perform. Beyoncé runs a finely tuned machine that’s powered by her raw talent. It’s magical. Every little detail is intentional. From the lighting that hits your skin and reacts to a hi-hat, a lyric, or a moment, it’s designed to make your senses feel seen. Your spiritual spotlight.

Then there’s the visuals (and yes, the visuals are going to EAT). She’s not just entertaining you, she’s teaching you, alarming you and most importantly, sharing with you. From the aesthetics and diverse representation of her dancers, singers, and bands, it’s much deeper than you think. It felt like she took us through time: nods to MJ, James Brown, Tina, Prince, to modernized elements like Renaissance. I’ve never seen a stage that massive used so perfectly, in every detailed and intimate way. You feel like you’re inside her jukebox.

The interludes? Not too long at all and stunning. The moment you go to sit (if you even try), she’s back up. A 3-hour show that somehow feels like an hour and a half. We stood the entire time, didn’t even leave for the bathroom, barely recorded anything. We were locked in, absorbing everything. She cares so deeply about her audience that even when she rides the car out to wave, it feels personal.

Watching the smiles on the faces of all ages and backgrounds, just getting lost in gratitude as she waved over our heads? Whew. I was next to an older Southeast Asian couple in their 50s (they were HAVING a time last night, I tell you, cig in hand 🚬, I was like okk). She had grown married men screaming, fanning, glowing in joy beside their wives. All love. No judgment. We were just living.

WITH THE CLIPS floating online, it might seem like this show is for her babies, Rumi and especially Blue. And yes, it may be for her personally, but let’s be clear: this is a Beyoncé show, PERIOD. She masterfully includes Blue in a way that feels complimentary and loving, not centered. If that makes sense. By the end, you forget Blue was even on stage that long because it feels like just 15 minutes. But Blue, wow! The talent that's emerging.. whew! 😩😤Both parents’ otherworldly talent and her own special gifts. Speechless. 🎁

Beyoncé is PERFORMING. Cut all that noise. She IS. And anyone who went to the show will tell you, age ain’t nothing but a number. Beyoncé is a beast at her craft and said, “Let me show y’all how this is done.” Knee surgery or not, this superhuman is unstoppable.

💡Like MJ, Prince, Tina, Whitney, her talent makes her one of the greatest musical superhumans of our time. You can’t buy or replicate this kind of gift. It’s in you, in her.

Highlight: Now let’s talk VOCALS. BEYONCÉ… your VOICE? I have no words. Can we get a billion-dollar insurance policy on her throat?! 😭😩 We need scientists to study this woman’s voice! I’m not doing too much. When I say… her voice? I’m almost afraid to even speak on it because I cherish it so much.

But what I will say is, thank you, God, for giving her that gift. Not just to heal herself but to help heal the world. And yes, she’s doing that.

As someone who lost my sense of self nearly two years ago when my entire world shattered, when my Mom transitioned, Cowboy Carter healed a part of me I’d been searching for. It reminded me who the f**k I am.

Thank you, Beyoncé. Ty. 🫡 Salud.

This show MUST be seen in person. No livestream, no video is going to match this otherworldly experience. Maybe a concert film could come close because she’s a visionary genius but this is the kind of concert we’ll hear about in future documentaries. I’m not exaggerating. I promise you.

Go see that damn concert!

Beyoncé, you owe me nothing. Act III is about to devour. 😉 Y’all, Beyoncé is the GOAT.

[Trey @walktrey]

Sinners is so rich. I pulled together some resources for those of us wanting to dive deeper. Check it out!

https://t.co/5VUW1n4WhQ

[IS THERE A BUDGET? @goldenpolaroid]

The scope of this project is beyond anything anyone has done in music

[San Francisco Chronicle @sfchronicle]

OPINION: “Currently, no hospitals in California have publicly committed to stopping medically unnecessary nonconsensual surgeries on intersex children. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Kyle Knight writes about intersex rights. https://t.co/ui8f5tlVYM

[ESSENCE @Essence]

The Composer of Our Lifetime

Opening score. As the keys of life started on their first note, we met Quincy Delight Jones Jr., the boy from the southside of Chicago who, at 11 years old, stroked the chord of a piano and became the 20th century’s greatest conductor of music.

Quincy Jones is quite literally the Sound of Music. He is the baseline of our experiences, and like a chord on a harp, he strummed the beauty of Black artistry with his fingers. From the soulful foundational notes of the jazz era, where legends like Duke Ellington first painted the soundscape of our culture, to the world-changing and record-breaking anthems of Michael Jackson, you orchestrated a symphony that captured the essence of our existence.

The name Quincy Jones is a genre of music by itself. His work celebrated our identity, creating a sound that echoed the fullness of what it meant to be limitless. Through every arrangement, television series, and movie, you created spaces where our stories could be told, where our struggles and triumphs could harmonize into a melody of excellence and hope.

Grand Closing — Even through this moment of silence, your legacy reverberates through generations. As we remember you, Quincy, let us hold tight to the belief that music is eternal. You are, and will always be, the soundtrack of our lives.

May the crescendo of our praises reach the gates of Heaven, where a full-on band welcomes you home. Take your rightful place as Maestro through the song and dance of the angels that await your arrival. Ascend. Ase.

📸: Getty Images

[Film Updates @FilmUpdates]

Halle Bailey and Smokey Robinson will host two-hour holiday special ‘A MOTOWN CHRISTMAS.’

Ashanti, Andra Day, BeBe Winans, Jamie Foxx, JoJo, Jordin Sparks, mgk, October London and Pentatonix will also appear.

[🐝 @beyzhive]

beyoncé³—connecting the dots—‘this is it!’

beyoncé teased ‘the betty black tour’ on ‘the echo’ newspaper, during the renaissance world tour in the ‘mind control’ interlude and ‘del resto (echoes)’ cover art in 2023.

‘black betty’ was originally a work song attributed to lead belly. the cadence and lyricism of beyoncé’s ‘16 carriages’ draw inspiration from the work songs of that era, which were part of the oral tradition sung by enslaved people during labor.

the ‘mind control’ interlude featured a hockey game in one of the news clips, alluding to the 2006 ban on ram jam’s version of ‘black betty’ by the university of new hampshire as the rally song during hockey games after receiving complaints from the naacp for its lyrical content and racial undertones.

the early use of the term ‘black betty’ referred to a bottle of whiskey, a transport carriage for prisoners, and the whip used in southern prisons. in modern times, it has come to refer to motorcycles or fast cars.

betty davis is famously described as “a wildly flamboyant funk-rock diva.” she faced public denouncement from the naacp and religious groups for her sexually liberating music, resulting in her songs being boycotted from radio play and her being barred from television performances.

in the making video for her gq cover story promoting sirdavis (her moonshiner great-grandfather) whisky (black betty), beyoncé featured ‘they say i’m different’ by betty davis from her second studio album—“my great-grandpa was a blues lover. he be rockin’ his moonshine (whiskey) to b. b. king and jimmy reed. rock on pappy.”

beyoncé pays homage to the icon this halloween by appearing on a motorcycle (black betty) and recreating the cover art of ‘this is it!’ from her third studio album ‘nasty girl’ and her self-titled debut where she is seen in multiplicity of three. this visual nod includes a reference to “betty davis in my bones 🎸” in connection with her song ‘bodyguard.’