Solange may not have the beyond-A-list-superstardom status that the elder Knowles sister currently enjoys — yet — but the R&B queen and Instagram artiste arguably has something better. An honest, slow-burning journey, her highly anticipated 2016 album A Seat at the Table is her first to hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart. It’s a crucial statement about womanhood, black pride, and the intersection of the two; and it’s a record landing on just about every music critic’s best-of-the-year list.
But while she’s undoubtedly hot right now, her career is still at the point where she’s clearly in the driver’s seat, meaning she really can do whatever she wants — like perform at a 400-capacity club in Oakland before she’s announced one U.S. date for her 2017 world tour.
That’s right: Solange will do three songs at the Starline Social Club this Friday, Dec. 16 as part of GOODFest, a series of five shows around the U.S., each with a different theme and a unique musical lineup, in which the proceeds go to nonprofit organizations.
The Oakland show’s theme is “equality,” and joining Solange onstage will be hometown favorite Fantastic Negrito, as well other local artists TBA. Ticket sales will go to two organizations: The New Orleans-based Son of a Saint, which aims to enhance the lives of boys who become fatherless due to their fathers’ incarceration, death or abandonment; and Oakland’s own Ella Baker Center, which supports “the power of black, brown, and poor people to break the cycles of incarceration and poverty.”
