Like his wife Beyonce’s “Lemonade” album, Jay Z’s “4:44” album is both a personal album of self-discovery as well as a commentary of the times.
And just like “Lemonade” spewed its own syllabus, a group of black men have come together to create a reading list to help fans better understand “4:44.”
Anthony Boynton, Anthony J. Williams, Daniel Johnson, and Henry Washington Jr. collaborated with 16 other people to create the document, which works as a deep dive into the album’s key themes like masculinity, gender roles, and black wealth. They launched the syllabus this week with an announcement on Twitter.
“The 4:44 Syllabus is a living document created by Black men and masculine nonbinary people who were inspired by the labor of Black women, the emotional vulnerability of Jay-Z’s 4:44, focusing on Black men’s relationship to masculinity, emotional availability, maturity, sexuality, and Black capitalism,” the description of the syllabus says.
The syllabus includes chapters on subjects like black fatherhood and gender fluidity.
The “Lemonade” syllabus, created by Rutgers University educator, was a curated reading list of books, poems and other inspirational literature penned by Black female authors that celebrates all forms of black womanhood.
You can download the 4:44 handbook here.
