{"id":373,"date":"2025-06-02T00:31:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T00:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/?p=373"},"modified":"2025-06-02T00:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T00:31:24","slug":"gesture-in-solanges-cranes-in-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":"Gesture in Solange’s “Cranes in the Sky”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Solange\u2019s \u201cCranes in the Sky\u201d music video opens with a shot of Solange wearing a pale pink dress made of a trash bag and holding a bag filled with boxes over her shoulder. She stares into the camera, lips slightly parted, and her hand making soft caressing motions in the space in front of her pelvis. The scene then shifts between shots of Solange in various minimalistic outdoor landscapes. In each, she shifts her body positioning, and makes slow, deliberate, and subtle motions with her body. Later, we see shots of Solange in groups of other black women. In each shot, they lean on each other, creating a connected and intertwined mass of bodies. The rest of the video is interspersed with solo shots of Solange and group shots of her and the other women, painting an interesting contrast between solitude and community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The \u201cCranes in the Sky\u201d music video is absolutely packed with gestures in the way Rodriguez conceptualizes them in \u201cSexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings.\u201d For one, the video features multitudes of \u201cspecific corporeal articulations of fingers, thighs, and tongues, the movement of the living body and her parts.\u201d Several of the shots in the video depict these bodily gestures: a flick of the wrist, a flutter of fingers, a slow blink. As Rodiguez highlights, \u201cgestures are \u201calways relational; they form connections between different parts of our bodies; they cite other gestures; they extend the reach of the self into the space between us; they bring into being the possibility of a \u2018we.\u2019\u201d The scenes in this video both demonstrate a corporeal relationality, one that exists between parts of the body, but also an interpersonal relationality, one that forms a collective. In the group shots emerges a physical relationality in the intertwinement of bodies that also conveys a greater sense of communal relationality stemming from a shared female and black identity. In the gesture of a head resting on another shoulder, a hand enveloping another\u2019s elbow, a chin resting atop another\u2019s head, we can see the way they \u201cextend the reach of the self into the space between\u201d to form a collective.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Similarly to the physical act of diminishing space between bodies, Rodriguez notes how \u201cthe political gestures we undertake\u2014shouting back in defiance, marching in protest, even the passing of a digital petition from one person to another\u2014enact the process of forging collectives.\u201d In this way, we can read their physical relationality as indicative of greater political community building. Moreover, the interplay between solitude and collectivity in the video gestures toward the possibilities of communal healing. The solo shots reflect moments of introspection and alienation, while the group formations invoke a sense of mutual care and support. In these group formations, we see what Rodriguez might call a \u201cqueer gesture,\u201d one that is \u201cnon-hierarchical, and centered in healing.\u201d Altogether, this video paints a picture of the potentiality of gesture, both on an individual level and in the process of building collectives. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solange\u2019s \u201cCranes in the Sky\u201d music video opens with a shot of Solange wearing a pale pink dress made of a trash bag and holding a bag filled with boxes over her shoulder. She stares into the camera, lips slightly parted, and her hand making soft caressing motions in the space in front of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}