Actress and musician Janelle Monáe has graced the cover of Allure magazine's 'Freedom Issue', opening up on subjects including queerness and the ongoing challenges of the current political climate in the United States.
The Grammy-nominated star, who came out as queer in a cover interview for Rolling Stone earlier this year, spoke to writer Ashley C. Ford, another queer woman of colour, for the revealing feature.
“It’s about all of us, all the people that at least I feel a responsibility to," Monáe said of her latest album, Dirty Computer, which was released in April of this year.
"I had to pick who I was comfortable pissing off and who I wanted to celebrate.”
She continued, expressing the anger and frustration she experienced following the 2016 election of US President Donald Trump. “I felt it was a direct attack on us, on black women, on women, on women’s rights, on the LGBTQIA community, on poor folks," she said.
"I felt like it was a direct attack saying, ‘You’re not important. You’re not valuable and we’re going to make laws and regulations that make it official and make it legal for us to devalue you and treat you like second-class citizens or worse.’ I got to the point where I stopped recording because I was just like, ‘I’m going to make an angry album.’ ”
"I was challenged," she added. "It's easy for me to just stay angry, but it's harder for me to choose love."
On choosing to express herself so unreservedly on such a public platform, Monáe says that she's evaluated the potential risk.
"You never know what could happen when you are outspoken," she said. "It's a risk. It's a risk that I've prayed on and I'm willing to take."
Monáe went on to address the very real struggles of being a queer woman of colour.
“This is real-life shit that I’m having to deal with," she said. "You strip away the makeup, the costumes, and everything you know about Janelle Monáe the artist, and I’m still the African-American, queer woman who grew up with poor, working-class parents."
She added: "When I walk off a stage, I have to deal with these confrontations. I have to deal with being afraid for my family.”
Monáe called the cover story, which you can read in full here, a "great bday present for my mum" - thanking Ford for "the love" in a tweet.
