With ‘Matriarch,' Tina Knowles finally takes center stage
Among pop culture aficionados, few surnames have the cachet of Knowles. The family exploded into popular awareness when Beyoncé found fame as lead singer of the futuristic R&B girl group Destiny's Child then reached superstar status as a solo artist, becoming one of our era's most important cultural figures. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Solange, gained critical acclaim as a singer-songwriter with the release of her 2016 album, 'A Seat at the Table.' Their talents were honed by their forward-thinking manager and father, Mathew, who taught them the ins and outs of the music business, and their mother, Tina, who nurtured her daughters but also their fanbases.
Despite being household names, one of the defining qualities of the family is their tight-lipped control of their story. Beyoncé and Solange rarely speak to the press and, much like the royal family, avoid commenting on negative stories. In 2011, when media reports began questioning whether Beyoncé was really pregnant with her first child with husband Jay-Z, the response from Knowles HQ was a firm 'no comment.' At the time, Beyoncé told her mother, 'Mama, you cannot address these ignorant people.' And yet, Ms Tina, as she's affectionately known by fans, is ready to address everyone. Her new memoir, 'Matriarch,' gives readers a peek behind the curtain at the successes and tragedies that shaped the famous family.
Tina Knowles was born Celestine Ann Beyoncé in the tight-knit, coastal community of Galveston, Texas, in 1954, to a seamstress mother and longshoreman father. Affectionately known as Badass Tenie B in her youth for her propensity to find trouble wherever she went, Knowles paints a detailed portrayal of her early childhood as the youngest of seven children. Readers can envision the sturdy pecan tree that stood tall in the family's backyard, the dizzying rush of the crowds at the beach amusement park and the pounding patter of her padded feet as she ran across the floor in all-in-one pajamas. Knowles's descriptions of her youth, even her youngest years, are told in rich color with flourishes so detailed they may have come from stories shared by her older siblings and elders, possibly even from sessions spent rifling through local archives. Whatever the case, they conjure a fully realized world the reader can inhabit.
As a fan of the Knowles family music empire, I was not expecting to uncover information I did not already know, but Knowles proved wrong. She delves deeper into her own backstory than ever before, and she gives an honest (although probably one-sided if we asked her ex-husband) account of the problems in her marriage, including Mathew's many affairs. As forthcoming as she can be, there are also portions of history that have been conspicuously excised, namely the exit of the early Destiny's Child members; perhaps this is too contentious a topic to bring up, even now.
It is clear from the title of her memoir that Knowles is keen to examine the female lineage, what it means to be a mother and how to find your identity as a woman both within and beyond those definitions. Across her life, we see Tina form a girl group (the Veltones), move to Los Angeles, marry and start a family, launch several thriving businesses (including her famous Houston hair salon Headliners), and divorce twice. While her business acumen and drive are clear themes throughout the book, so is her propensity to be a surrogate maternal figure to friends, family and young mentees.
There is a way to see this as purely positive, an example of her open-minded philosophy on motherhood. 'Family isn't just about blood,' she writes. 'It's who you show up for.' But there was another side to her need to boost others up and live vicariously through them while she played down her own achievements. She recounts that, later in life and with the help of a therapist, she finally came to terms with her rocky relationship with her own mother, who taught her to 'dumb yourself down a little bit, hide your light so people won't be offended.' It is only later that Knowles learns that shame is not the same thing as humility.
She continues to rediscover herself, even in the face of a breast cancer diagnosis that she reveals late in the book. As her daughters accompanied her to a surgical appointment, she recalls, Solange lightened the mood by sharing the 'very demure, very mindful' viral meme of TikTok influencer Jools Lebron. 'I entered the surgical room laughing, thanks to them,' Knowles writes. It's a poignant moment of a lifelong caretaker being lovingly tended to, and an example that no identity is fixed. Although it took her until she was 71 years old, with 'Matriarch,' Knowles finally becomes the star of her own story.
Stephanie Phillips is a music journalist and the author of 'Why Solange Matters.'
A Memoir
By Tina Knowles
One World. 432 pp. $35
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