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Ain't I a Diva?: Beyoncé and the Power of Pop Culture Pedagogy
“[Allred] interrogates Beyoncé’s music and videos to explore the complicated spaces where racism, sexism, and capitalism collide.” —Kirkus Reviews In 2010, Professor Kevin Allred created the university course “Politicizing Beyoncé” to both wide acclaim and controversy. He outlines his pedagogical philosophy in Ain’t I a Diva?, exploring what it means to build a syllabus around a celebrity. Topics range from a capitalist critique of “Run the World (Girls)” to the politics of self-care found in “Flawless”; Beyoncé’s art is read alongside black feminist thinkers including Kimberlé Crenshaw, Octavia Butler, and Sojourner Truth. Combining analysis with classroom anecdotes, Allred attests that pop culture is so much more than a guilty pleasure, it’s an access point—for education, entertainment, critical inquiry, and politics.“Proving himself a worthy member of the BeyHive, Kevin Allred takes us on a journey through Beyoncé’s greatest hits and expansive career—peeling back their multiple layers to explore gender, race, sexuality, and power in today’s modern world. A fun, engaging, and important read for long-time Beyoncé fans and newcomers alike.” —Franchesca Ramsey, author of Well, That Escalated Quickly“Ain’t I a Diva? explores the phenomenon of Beyoncé while explicitly championing not only her immense talent and grace but what we can learn from it. In this celebration of Beyoncé, and through her, other Black women, Allred is giving us room to be exactly who we are so that maybe we, too, can stop the world then carry on!” —Keah Brown, author of The Pretty One“A must-read for any fan of Beyoncé and of fascinating feminist discourse.” —Zeba Blay, senior culture writer, HuffPost
388 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2021
7 people are currently reading
211 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Allred
3 books3 followersMeet Kevin Allred: a writer, speaker, educator, and (sometimes) musician with a passion for the politics of pop culture (and particular love of Beyoncé). An unapologetic outlaw of academia, he believes knowledge should be accessible to everyone—not just gatekeepers of the Ivory Tower—and that education should always also be fun.
Kevin's mission is to facilitate conversations that highlight the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class through pop culture analysis and storytelling; conversations that expose, question, and disrupt America's racist and heterosexist status quo and confront participants' various complicities in those systems. He aims especially to create conversations across difference while demanding white people, like himself, do better and work harder to create a better world. And he draws on his own experiences growing up queer in small-town, conservative Utah to do so.
In 2010, he created the popular "Politicizing Beyoncé" curriculum, and has taught the course as a full semester offering at universities and traveled the world for speaking engagements/workshops based on the curriculum. Kevin's writing has also been featured at NBC News, INTO, Salon, Quartz, Huffington Post, The Feminist Wire, Washington Post, The Establishment, among other outlets. He has appeared on CNN, HuffPost Live, and was a regular featured contributor on MSNBC's "So POPular with Janet Mock." His first book, Ain't I A Diva?: Beyoncé and the Power of Pop Culture Pedagogy, was published by the Feminist Press at CUNY in 2019.
Kevin currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with his boyfriend and a (possibly demonic) senior chihuahua.
Kevin's mission is to facilitate conversations that highlight the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class through pop culture analysis and storytelling; conversations that expose, question, and disrupt America's racist and heterosexist status quo and confront participants' various complicities in those systems. He aims especially to create conversations across difference while demanding white people, like himself, do better and work harder to create a better world. And he draws on his own experiences growing up queer in small-town, conservative Utah to do so.
In 2010, he created the popular "Politicizing Beyoncé" curriculum, and has taught the course as a full semester offering at universities and traveled the world for speaking engagements/workshops based on the curriculum. Kevin's writing has also been featured at NBC News, INTO, Salon, Quartz, Huffington Post, The Feminist Wire, Washington Post, The Establishment, among other outlets. He has appeared on CNN, HuffPost Live, and was a regular featured contributor on MSNBC's "So POPular with Janet Mock." His first book, Ain't I A Diva?: Beyoncé and the Power of Pop Culture Pedagogy, was published by the Feminist Press at CUNY in 2019.
Kevin currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with his boyfriend and a (possibly demonic) senior chihuahua.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 24, 2019
“Ain’t I a Diva?” is the natural culmination of Kevin Allred’s work teaching his class “Politicizing Beyoncé”, which originated in 2010 and gained national attention from media outlets and even Beyoncé’s own Parkwood team. The class aimed to explore Beyoncé’s body of work through various lenses including race, gender, and sexuality. While popular, it also proved to be controversial, as things with Beyoncé often are nowadays.
I’ve been following this class-to-book evolution since I first heard of it in 2015 when, even in a post-“Self-Titled” world, it was hard to find much legitimate academic discourse surrounding Beyoncé. With the release of “Lemonade” and a few other recent academic Beyoncé titles (by POC), I became excited and nervous to see how Allred (a white man) would approach this material.
Allred acknowledges his privileges right from the beginning and, in class and book, centers the work of black women by only placing Beyoncé’s work alongside black scholars and artists such as bell hooks and Octavia Butler. This leads to what I find to be the most exciting and invigorating aspect of the book: the syllabus. Allred essentially takes the readers on a crash course in critical thinking through the lense of Beyoncé. He explores ideas that even the most skeptical laymen could see as a natural extension of her work: The subjugation of the black female body, the emotional baggage that black women carry for men and America as a whole, and the generational impact of slavery. He also makes arguments that even Beyoncé stans might see as radical: Sasha Fierce as a queer figure and viewing Beyoncé’s embrace of capitalism as a simultaneous critique. Do I think Sasha Fierce is a queer figure? Not necessarily, but that is so not the point. Like any professor worth their salt, Allred is not interested in having the final say. He is encouraging his students, and now readers, to use Beyoncé’s extensive audio/visual catalog to explore those topics and to support any ideas with textual evidence that can be linked back to the black feminist canon.
Perhaps the best thing about “Aint’ I a Diva?” is that it demands that Beyoncé be taken seriously and that her body of work is worth legitimate academic thought, but believes that one does not need a PhD to be apart of that conversation. This book seeks to break down those racist, sexist, and classist barriers because Allred, like Beyoncé, writes for everyone and recognizes that pop culture can be a powerful tool for a revolution.
I’ve been following this class-to-book evolution since I first heard of it in 2015 when, even in a post-“Self-Titled” world, it was hard to find much legitimate academic discourse surrounding Beyoncé. With the release of “Lemonade” and a few other recent academic Beyoncé titles (by POC), I became excited and nervous to see how Allred (a white man) would approach this material.
Allred acknowledges his privileges right from the beginning and, in class and book, centers the work of black women by only placing Beyoncé’s work alongside black scholars and artists such as bell hooks and Octavia Butler. This leads to what I find to be the most exciting and invigorating aspect of the book: the syllabus. Allred essentially takes the readers on a crash course in critical thinking through the lense of Beyoncé. He explores ideas that even the most skeptical laymen could see as a natural extension of her work: The subjugation of the black female body, the emotional baggage that black women carry for men and America as a whole, and the generational impact of slavery. He also makes arguments that even Beyoncé stans might see as radical: Sasha Fierce as a queer figure and viewing Beyoncé’s embrace of capitalism as a simultaneous critique. Do I think Sasha Fierce is a queer figure? Not necessarily, but that is so not the point. Like any professor worth their salt, Allred is not interested in having the final say. He is encouraging his students, and now readers, to use Beyoncé’s extensive audio/visual catalog to explore those topics and to support any ideas with textual evidence that can be linked back to the black feminist canon.
Perhaps the best thing about “Aint’ I a Diva?” is that it demands that Beyoncé be taken seriously and that her body of work is worth legitimate academic thought, but believes that one does not need a PhD to be apart of that conversation. This book seeks to break down those racist, sexist, and classist barriers because Allred, like Beyoncé, writes for everyone and recognizes that pop culture can be a powerful tool for a revolution.
September 19, 2019
When the book went deep and did close reading it was brilliant. When the book tried to read Beyoncé as an exhibition of theory, I think it flattened out her work. That said, this might be partly a genre thing because of the goal of the class the book is based on. Overall, I’m glad I read it, and I wish there was more like it in a number of different ways.
April 30, 2023
This was delightful
March 11, 2019
If you like Beyoncé, you'll love this book. Kevin Allred started the popular college course "Politicizing Beyoncé" back in 2010 -- this book turns that class into an accessible, exciting read. Even inspirational at times. It covers a lot of ground and also introduces readers to a longer history of Black feminist literature (if they're not already familiar with it), showing how the experiences and struggles of marginalized groups are intertwined. Kevin shows how Beyoncé's word draws on Black feminism and makes layered statements that casual listeners and viewers might easily overlook. Informative and a good time!!
September 16, 2019
worth checking out for the bibliography/syllabus at the end for reading suggestions (entirely composed of the work of black women) but allred's analyses of beyoncé's music & art are rather simplistic throughout. also, he does acknowledge his privilege as a white cis man, but continues to profit from this? i'm confused
October 16, 2019
This book is exceptionally well written with wit and deliberate deference to the wisdom of a multitude of black women. Using Beyoncé lyrics as a conduit to the heaviest of issues allows readers to engage across mediums and see connections to our ghosts and our futures. This is a must read for all of us seeking to be greater allies and humans.
July 27, 2021
Having a college course on "Politicizing Beyonce" has come to be seen as the definitive symbol of the SCAM which college has become, selling you the most ridiculous SJW posturing in exchange for a lifetime of six figure student loan debt. No sane person could look at this book without laughing out loud.
December 6, 2025
The best teachers help students question their assumptions while strengthening their analytical skills — that is exactly what Professor Allred’s thought-provoking book offers its readers . . . and it’s a fun read! I only wish I’d had the opportunity to take his class!
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August 1, 2019782.42164 B5735a 2019
January 27, 2021
Well, I wrote this book so I think it's pretty decent. You might like it too? 🤷🏻♂️
March 11, 2019
An amazing educator with though provoking content. Really excited for this release.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews