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Solange “When I Get Home” late nights at the V&A

It’s the last Friday night of the summer, after what felt like a long week of social and professional interactions with other humans. I was mentally and physically tired, it was a free event, it would have been so easy not to go. But I had been waiting, almost month marked in my iPhone calendar in anticipation. So I put on my favourite bias cut maxi skirt, white lace-ups and graphic t-shirt combo ready to head to the Victoria & Albert museum, London to see a special extended cut of Solange’s film “When I Get Home”

Solange for me speaks to my inner slightly weird alternative black girl. The girl who appreciates still life photography but also likes to shake her arse and get low like Megan. The two don’t need to be mutually exclusive but respectability politics will have us thinking otherwise 

If I’m honest I didn’t give the album at first glance. “I admit, guilty your honour”, I wanted A Seat at The Table part 2. But watching the film I better understand this was a project, a piece, a feeling. Not to to be listened to as single tracks but to be consumed in its entirety as a self-contained body of work. I had made the mistake of trying to find singles, songs I liked, instead of understanding this was a score to accompany what could only be described as a tornado of Solange’s inner thoughts. 

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I can’t tell you I got all the concepts, the hidden meanings and messages. But I felt something, the visuals talked to me I just had to project my own understanding into the narrative. Stand out moments include; the set-piece choreographed moments that showed the beauty of black women. I loved the nostalgic feel of what I imagined mid 90s Houston Texas to look like. There was an interesting moment of slightly dated computer animation that had me confused and humoured, but overall this was a visual piece of art, we will be referencing for years to come. 

Solange When I Get Home