BEYONCÉ MASS

EUA | special event | National premiere

What if “Flaws and All” was a song about a complicated relationship with God? And “Survivor” spoke to how Black women thrive even as they’re undervalued and underestimated?

Beyoncé Mass is a womanist worship service that uses the music and personal life of Beyoncé as a tool to foster an empowering conversation about the maginalized and forgotten, in particular Black women – their lives, their bodies, and their voices.

Yolanda Norton, Rev. and Assistant Professor of the Old Testament on the San Francisco Theological Seminary, came up with the class on “Beyoncé and the Hebrew Bible”, one she has been preaching and is based on Beyoncé’s music, with none other than the purpose of raising awareness on the spiritual experience of Black women and the problems they face in contemporary society. Norton reminds us that “God is in everyone and Beyoncé was created in the image of God. The church hasn’t treated women of color fairly and it is time to face that truth”.

With Yolanda Norton’s direction and the participation of the Lisbon Gospel Choir and local musicians, this is a worship service representative of all those who feel or have felt discriminated against throughout their lives (Black women, LGBT community and others). The first celebration of this “Beyoncé Mass” as happened in the Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, in 2018. BoCA proposes its first presentation in Europe.