Aww: Beyoncé Breaks Media Silence For Interview About Ms. Tina

An interview with Beyoncé is rare.

But now we know that if you want a comment from the uber-private star, ask her about her mama!

The New York Times did just that in an extensive article about Tina Knowles-Lawson, the matriarch that has produced two (depending on who you talk to) iconic and very different sisters in music today.

“I think it was important to my mother to surround us with positive, powerful, strong images of African and African-American art so that we could reflect and see ourselves in them,” Beyonce said– via email, of course!–of her mom’s love of art.

“My mother has always been invested in making women feel beautiful,” she added, “whether it was through someone sitting in her hair chair or making a prom dress for one of the girls at church. And her art collection always told the stories of women wanting to do the same.”

Of course, Ms. Tina is not new to the pages of Essence. And any Beyonce, Solange or Ms. Tina fan worth their salt knows much of what was published in the piece. So here are the five new things we learned about “Auntie” Tina (including awesome nuggets from Solange!). 

She is writing her autobiography: Calling it a “how-to-get-your-life-back book,” we are sure that Ms. Tina’s story — which she has shared numerous times to empower women— will definitely inspire. Can we go ahead and pre-order?

Her house is cornucopia of black art: According to the article’s writer, Lawson’s living room alone is filled with African and African American art, ranging from post-impressionost to abstract works from the likes of Henry Ossawa Tanner and Elizabeth Catlett. 

She is giving back with her hubby: Her husband, Richard Lawson, is an actor and teacher. So it makes sense that the duo would team up to open an acting workshop for underserved youth in Los Angeles. They plan to call it the WACO Theater Center (which stands for “Where Art Can Occur”).

She has returned to designing after years away: Ms. Tina stopped designing clothing after her divorce from Matthew Knowles in 2011, and it was only recently she started back up again.

Her first client? Her daughter, of course!  She designed the gold fringe outfit that Solange wore in her “Cranes in the Sky” video as well as the white dress she wore for her performance at Obama’s White House farewell party earlier this month

Beyonce’s and Solange’s ‘woke’ albums shouldn’t be a surprise : “If my sister and my project feels like an ‘awakening’ to some,” Solange said.  “I am constantly saying that we both grew up in a home with two words: Tina Knowles.”

Ms. Tina is always teaching us something new!